Masha Kobzeva Editor

Ssu-ma Ch'ien (145–ca. 86 BC) was an official at the court of the Han Emperor Wu (r. 141–87 BC), who was involved in the compilation of a mammoth historical project that resulted in this history, which came to be known as the Shih chi (The Grand Scribe's Records).

William H. Nienhauser, Jr., is the Halls-Bascom Professor of Classical Chinese Literature at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and editor of six previous volumes of The Grand Scribe's Records.

Masha Kobzeva is Lecturer at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She has contributed to several of the volumes of The Grand Scribe's Records, and is managing editor of Chinese Literature: Essays Articles and Reviews (CLEAR).