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Ssu-ma Kuang[sOO-mA kwAng] Pronunciation Key, 1018–86, Chinese statesman and historian of the Northern Sung dynasty; sometimes called the Father of Chinese History. He succeeded his father, Ssu-ma T'an, as grand historian (an office then dealing with astronomy and the calendar) at the court of the Early Han emperor Wu. There he took up a project planned by his father and extended it into a history of China and of all regions and peoples then known. The monumental Tzu-chih t'ung-chien [the comprehensive mirror for aid in government] was a chronicle of Chinese history from 403 B.C. to A.D. 959. The title indicates the author's belief that history can serve the present as a mirror of the past so that rulers can avoid the same mistakes. The work includes basic annals of dynasties or rulers, chronological tables, treatises, hereditary houses, and accounts of famous men and foreign lands and peoples. It has served as a model for subsequent Chinese dynastic histories. Its wide range, many-faceted characterizations, and vivid dialogue have won the admiration of readers for more than 2,000 years. The 12th cent. philosopher Chu Hsi abridged and reworked the materials. Ssu-ma Kuang was a member (with Ou-yang Hsiu and Su Tung-p'o) of the conservative bureaucratic party that successfully opposed the reforms of Wang An-shih.
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