Which to Read First: Shiji or Tongjian?

If you are new to Chinese classical history and trying to decide which of the two great works to begin with, the honest answer is that it depends on what you want. The Shiji is easier to enjoy as literature, has more memorable characters, and can be read in self-contained excerpts. The Tongjian is more systematic, more detailed in its political coverage, and more directly pedagogical. Both are foundational, but they serve different purposes, and the right starting point depends on your goals as a reader.

This is the practical companion to our comparison series. See the Tongjian pillar and the Shiji pillar. For deeper analysis, see the authors compared and their structural differences.

Start with the Shiji If You Want Literature and Character

The Shiji is the better starting point for readers who want to understand Chinese history as a human drama. Its biographical sections are self-contained stories that can be read in isolation. If you read the biography of Xiang Yu, the tragic warrior who nearly conquered China and then lost everything, you do not need to have read any other section of the Shiji first. The biography works as a complete narrative with a beginning, middle, and end.

Selected Shiji biographies are also available in English translation in accessible editions. The most readable biographies for beginners include the assassin Jing Ke, the general Han Xin, the wandering knight Hou Ying, and the cruel but effective minister Shang Yang. Each biography can be read in one sitting, and each gives you a portrait of a person in a historical moment that is vivid and memorable.

The Shiji also gives you a wider view of ancient Chinese life than the Tongjian does. Sima Qian’s biographies include merchants, musicians, diviners, and knights alongside the usual kings and ministers. If you are interested in how ordinary people lived in ancient China, or in the social world beyond the court, the Shiji has material that the Tongjian omits entirely.

Start with the Tongjian If You Want Political Patterns

The Tongjian is the better starting point for readers who want to understand how political events connect across time. Its chronological structure means you see how one decision leads to another, how a policy failure in one decade creates a crisis in the next, and how patterns repeat across centuries. If your interest is in governance, institutions, political psychology, or strategic decision making, the Tongjian delivers these things more directly.

The Tongjian is also better for understanding the later periods of Chinese imperial history that the Shiji does not cover at all. The Shiji ends in the early Western Han. The Tongjian begins with the Warring States and runs through the Five Dynasties, covering over 1,300 years. If you are interested in the Tang dynasty, the Three Kingdoms, the Northern and Southern Dynasties, or the Five Dynasties period, the Tongjian is your primary source.

The trade off is density. The Tongjian cannot be read in self-contained excerpts in the same way the Shiji can. You have to commit to consecutive years, and the early sections will refer to people and places that are introduced only gradually. For a modern reader, an abridgment or a translated selections volume is often the most practical way to begin.

Read Both: The Best of All Possible Approaches

The best approach for a serious reader is to read both, but in a specific order. Start with selected Shiji biographies to build your familiarity with the people and the historical periods. Then move to the Tongjian for the same periods to see how those people fit into the broader political narrative. The biographical reading gives you the characters. The chronological reading gives you the plot.

For the overlapping period (roughly 403 BCE to 86 BCE), this dual approach works beautifully. Read Sima Qian’s biography of the First Emperor of Qin. Then read the Tongjian‘s account of the same years. The biography gives you the man. The chronology gives you the context. You come away with a fuller understanding than either text could provide alone.

Reading both also helps you notice what each author omits. Sima Qian’s biography of the First Emperor focuses on the man and his court. The Tongjian‘s account of the same period covers the broader administrative and political context. It is only when you see what each leaves out that you fully appreciate what each one includes.

The Shiji gives you the people you need to care about. The Tongjian gives you the sequence that explains why those people’s choices mattered. Read the Shiji for the hearts. Read the Tongjian for the consequences.

Practical Reading Recommendations

For English language readers, accessible translations of the Shiji include selections by Burton Watson and Yang Hsienyi. The full translation by William H. Nienhauser et al. is scholarly and multi-volume. For the Tongjian, comprehensive English translations are less available. Rafe de Crespigny’s translations of specific Tongjian sections are excellent. A good strategy is to read a Shiji selection volume first, then find Tongjian translations for the periods that captured your attention.

Which Work Is Better for Different Purpose

If You Only Have Time for One

If you only have time for one of the two works and must choose, my recommendation is to start with the Shiji. It is more readable, more varied, and gives you a foundation of people and events that will make the Tongjian (which you can return to later) more meaningful. The Shiji is not shorter, but it is easier to approach because each biography is a self-contained piece. You can dip in and out without losing the thread, which is much harder with the continuous chronological narrative of the Tongjian.

The Shiji also gives you a broader view of ancient Chinese culture, including economics, ritual, astronomy, and the lives of people outside the court. This variety will help you understand why Chinese civilization looked the way it did, not only how it was governed. The Tongjian excels at the governance question but is thinner on culture.

Once you have read enough of the Shiji to feel comfortable with the people and the periods, you will be ready for the Tongjian. And you will get much more out of it because you will recognize the names, understand the context, and know what Sima Guang was responding to as he constructed his chronological narrative. See also how both texts shaped Chinese historiography for the long-term impact of each work.

What Reading Order Taught Me About Historical Thinking

I have spent considerable time reading both works, and I want to share a practical observation that goes beyond the academic comparison. Reading the Shiji first gave me something the Tongjian could not have given on its own: a sense of the people as people, not just names. When I later encountered the same figures in the Tongjian, I already knew them. I understood their backgrounds, their motivations, and their flaws. The chronological narrative felt richer because I was not meeting these people cold. I was catching up with old acquaintances in new situations.

But reading the Tongjian also gave me something the Shiji could not have given on its own: an appreciation for how slowly consequences unfold. The Shiji compresses time into a single life, and you see a person’s choices and their results within one chapter. The Tongjian shows that the real consequences of some decisions are not visible for thirty or forty years. A tax policy that seems wise in year one undermines the treasury in year twenty. A military victory that looks decisive creates an enemy that returns three generations later. This longer perspective on causation is something that only chronological reading can provide.

That is why I encourage readers not to see these texts as competitors but as partners. The question is not which is better, but which to read first and which to read second. Start where your interest lies. Use the Shiji to build your cast list. Use the Tongjian to see how that cast interacts across the full stage of time. Both texts will reward your patience, but the order in which you encounter them shapes what you notice and what stays with you.

For more on the specific strengths of each work, see our companion pieces on literary style and source use.

Another practical consideration is your access to translations and study guides. The Shiji has a richer ecosystem of English-language resources: translations, study guides, online summaries, and academic commentary. If you are reading in English, you will find more support for a Shiji-first approach. The Tongjian ecosystem is growing but still thinner, particularly for the periods that overlap with the Shiji. For the later periods unique to the Tongjian, translations exist but are scattered across individual scholarly works rather than collected in a single comprehensive edition.

My final recommendation for most readers is this. Spend your first few weeks with selected Shiji biographies. Pick five or six that grab your attention and read them closely. Then find a Tongjian translation for the same era and read the corresponding years. You will find that the two texts illuminate each other in ways that neither can alone, and by the time you have done this for one era, you will have a foundation you can build on in whichever direction interests you next.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is one text easier to translate than the other?

The Shiji is generally considered more accessible in translation because its biographical sections are shorter and more self-contained. The Tongjian is extremely long and its prose is repetitive, making a complete translation a daunting project.

Are there good abridgments?

Yes. For the Shiji, Watson’s selections are widely available. For the Tongjian, Zhu Xi’s Gangmu was the traditional abridgment, and modern selections exist, especially for specific dynasties like the Three Kingdoms or the Tang.

Should I read them in classical Chinese or in translation?

For most readers, a good translation is the best starting point. The classical Chinese of both texts requires years of training to read comfortably. Once you are deeply invested, you can begin reading the original, and the depth of meaning that opens up will be worth the effort.

Which one has better modern scholarly resources?

The Shiji has a longer and richer tradition of Western scholarship, with multiple translations and commentaries available in English, French, and German. The Tongjian has received more focused scholarly attention in recent decades, but there is less full-length translated material available in Western languages.