In the "Letter to Ren Shaoqing", Sima Qian explains why he swallowed his disgrace and stayed alive.
Tips
history
This is its title in the anthology 文选 'Selections of Refined Literature'. Schoolbooks usually call it 报任安书, using Ren An's given name instead of his courtesy name 少卿. In both titles 报 means 'to reply to' and 书 means 'letter'.
culture
In it 司马迁 tells his condemned friend why he accepted castration rather than death: to finish the 史记. It holds the famous line 人固有一死，或重于泰山，或轻于鸿毛 'every man must die, but some deaths weigh more than Mount Tai and some less than a goose feather'.
