Chapter 28 A drop in the bucket

When Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (Liu Che) heard that Li Ling had led his troops deep into the territory of the Huns, his morale was high and he felt very happy.At this time, many ministers jokingly congratulated the emperor for being wise and good at employing people.Later, Li Ling was defeated and surrendered, and Emperor Wu was very angry. The congratulatory ministers in turn scolded Li Ling for being useless and disloyal.At this time Sima Qian stood beside him silently, and the Emperor Wu asked him his opinion on the matter. Sima Qian said straightforwardly that Li Ling had only 5,000 infantry, but was surrounded by 80,000 Huns cavalry. With more than 10,000 enemies, he is really a great general.In the end, the battle was stopped because the food was exhausted and the return route was cut off. Li Ling did not really surrender, but was waiting for an opportunity to serve the country.His credit can still make up for his failure.Emperor Wu listened to his defense of Li Ling, and satirized the close relative of the emperor Li Guangli for attacking the vulgar Huns from the front, and moved Sima to prison angrily.The following year, it was misrepresented that Li Ling was training soldiers for the Huns, and Emperor Wu killed Li Ling's mother and wife without clarifying the matter.In order to cater to the emperor, Tingwei Du Zhou accused Sima Qian of framing the emperor and gave Sima Qian the cruelest and most shameful "corruption".Sima Qian was tortured in this way, and he wanted to commit suicide when he was in pain; There is no sympathy, and even more ridicule.So I decided to endure the shame, and spent my life and time to work hard and tenaciously to complete the writing of the great "Historical Records".The ancients said that those who have great courage have great wisdom, and Sima Qian is such a person.He knew that in his age, the death of a person with no status and no reputation like him was worse than the death of a dog, so he lived bravely and finally completed that unprecedentedly great historical work—” "Historical Records".

Sima Qian told his good friend Ren Shaoqing about this turning point in his thoughts. Later people based on the phrase "nine oxen and one hair" in his letter, and extended it into the idiom "nine oxen and one hair", which is used as a metaphor A certain thing or a certain talent is only a part of a very large number, like a hair on nine cows.