"Records of the Grand Historian" was written by Sima Qian, a famous historian, writer, and thinker of the Western Han Dynasty (202 BC-AD 25). As China's first general history book, it covers the 3,000-year period from the Yellow Emperor to Emperor Wu of Han, and has had a far-reaching influence on the historiography and literature of later generations. It has been hailed as the greatest masterpiece of Chinese history.