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The Castration of Sima Qian (2022)

The Grand Historian's brutal fate made way for his greatest gift to posterity.

The story of how a well-respected court official met his gruesome death is of interest because contextualizing his demise within the time period tells us a great deal about Chinese imperial customs, legality and divinity. Surely, it could only be a sign that the blessing was no longer valid, and in the cut-throat court where murder lurked behind treachery, an emperor’s main defense was to eliminate any doubt of his infallibility and go on the offensive which very often meant mass execution of entire extended families. Where Li Guangli had severely underestimated the complexity of the windswept northern terrains and led his forces to a military failure so significant that he was at first refused entry back into Han territory after his retreat.

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