1. Sima Qian – Grand Historian of the Han Dynasty

“To lie or to be castrated.” Some question, huh? This was the unfortunate dilemma faced around 100BC by Sīmǎ Qiān (司马迁), a man not well-practiced in the art of diplomacy.

A brilliant historian often compared with Herodotus, the Greek “Father of History,” Sima Qian started as a second-generation court astrologer whose father dreamt of creating a complete chronicle of Chinese history. Sima Qian committed to carry out the final wish of his father, without realizing the many perils of being the official state historian.

Han Wudi, the emperor of the time, hated how Sima Qian portrayed him and ordered the destruction of his unflattering writing, captured on strips of bamboo. Sima Qian again infuriated the emperor by defending a military officer, likely in the right. Rather than assign the death penalty, Wudi sentenced Sima Qian to prison and castration, which most considered a harsher penalty due to its physical and spiritual damages.

Three years later, Sima Qian emerged to finish his Records of the Grand Historian, his 520,000-character masterpiece covering three millenniums of history from the Yellow Emperor to his own Han era, breaking official protocol by exploring the lives of influential commoners.