From the famous saying of Sima Qian, the historian and writer of the Han Dynasty: "Everyone is born with a certain mortality. It may be heavier than Mount Tai, or lighter than a feather, depending on how it is used." It means that people are inherently mortal, but Some people die heavier than Mount Tai, while others die lighter than a feather. This is because they pursue different goals with their deaths!

Sima Qian, courtesy name Zichang, was a historian and essayist of the Western Han Dynasty. Sima Tan's son was appointed Taishi Ling. He was castrated for defending Li Ling's defeat and surrender, and was later appointed Zhongshu Ling. He worked hard to complete the historical books he wrote, and was honored as Shi Qian, Tai Shi Gong and the Father of History by later generations. With his historical knowledge of "studying the relationship between heaven and man, understanding the changes of ancient and modern times, and becoming a family", he created China's first biographical general history "Shiji" (originally known as "Tai Shi Gong Shu").

This sentence comes from a letter written by Sima Qian to his friend Ren An, "A Letter to Ren Shaoqing/A Letter to Ren An". The original text of the excerpt is as follows:

Everyone is destined to die, which may be more important than Mount Tai. , or lighter than a feather, and they are used in different ways. The Supreme Being will not be humiliated first, the body will be humiliated next, the reason and color will be humiliated next, the rhetoric will be humiliated next, the body will be humiliated, the clothes will be humiliated, the rope will be locked, the Chu will be humiliated, the hair will be picked, the gold and iron will be humiliated. , secondly the skin is destroyed, limbs are cut off and humiliated, and the last is the most extreme torture!

Vernacular interpretation: Everyone is destined to die, but some people die heavier than Mount Tai, while others die lighter than a feather. This is because they pursue different goals with death!

The most important thing for a person is not to humiliate the ancestors, the second is not to humiliate the body, the second is not to be humiliated because one's face is not in line with etiquette, the third is not to be humiliated because one's words are inappropriate, and the third is not to be humiliated because of inappropriate words. The next step is to be humiliated by having the limbs twisted (kneeling for a long time, being tied up), followed by being put on prison clothes and humiliated, followed by being humiliated by wearing wooden shackles and being tortured with a cane, followed by being humiliated by having the head shaved and wearing shackles around the neck. They were humiliated by having their skin destroyed and limbs amputated. The lowest level was castration, which was extremely humiliating.

Extended information

Creative background: When Sima Qian was thirty-eight years old, his stepfather was appointed Taishi Ling. At the age of forty-seven, he was imprisoned for the Li Ling incident and was sentenced to castration. After being released from prison, he was ordered by Zhongshu Ye. "Bao Ren An Shu" was written when he was the Secretary of the Central Committee. This article is a reply letter written by Sima Qian to his friend Ren An.

The ideological content of this letter is mainly expressed in four aspects:

First, it reflects Sima Qian’s glorious character and some bad behaviors of the feudal rulers;

Third, it is the earliest theory of "writing books with passion" in the history of Chinese literature;

Fourth , revealing the attitude of feudal emperors towards historians and their own writing of "Historical Records".

In the letter, the author stated his misfortune with passion and expressed his painful feeling of having to live in humiliation and live in humiliation in order to write "Historical Records". The article is poignant and painful, and the writing is full of emotion. It is a rare and wonderful article with extremely important historical value. The full text has a rigorous structure, well-organized levels, and echoes before and after; reasoning and narrative are integrated, clear and penetrating; the language is rich and vivid, and the sentences may be long or short, interspersed with parallelism and couplets, making the article more emotional.