Sima Qian and His Historical Book (named Shiji)

BC 98, because Sima Qian was too straight out, he angered the emperor and was imprisoned with heavy sentence. In an attempt to realize his father's dying wish, he spent 7 hard years, and finally in BC 91, he completed a 520 000-word documentary recording 3000 years of history (it was named Shiji). This was China's first historical record.