九牛一毛 — “A drop in the ocean”

Emperor Wu of Han (Liu Che) was delighted to hear that Li Ling had led his troops deep into Xiongnu territory with high morale. Many officials seized the opportunity to congratulate the emperor on his wisdom in appointing people. However, when Li Ling was later defeated and surrendered, Emperor Wu became furious. The very officials who had offered congratulations now turned to denounce Li Ling as useless and disloyal. Sima Qian stood silently by, and Emperor Wu asked for his opinion on the matter.

Sima Qian candidly stated that Li Ling, with only five thousand infantrymen, had been surrounded by eighty thousand Xiongnu cavalry, yet he fought for more than ten days, inflicting casualties of over ten thousand enemies. He was truly an extraordinary general. He only ceased fighting when his supplies and arrows ran out, and his retreat route was cut off. Sima Qian believed that Li Ling had not truly surrendered but was awaiting an opportunity to serve his country, and his merits could offset the crime of his defeat.

Emperor Wu was enraged by Sima Qian's defense of Li Ling, and by his implicit criticism of the emperor's relative Li Guangli's ineffective frontal assault on the Xiongnu. Sima Qian was subsequently imprisoned. The following year, a false rumor circulated that Li Ling was training troops for the Xiongnu. Without properly verifying the facts, Emperor Wu had Li Ling's mother and wife executed. Du Zhou, the Grand Judge, eager to appease the emperor, falsely accused Sima Qian of slandering the emperor, and Sima Qian was subjected to the most cruel and humiliating “palace punishment” (castration).

Devastated by such destruction, Sima Qian contemplated suicide. However, he reconsidered, thinking that his death, as a person of low status, would be regarded by the wealthy and powerful as nothing more than “a hair lost from nine oxen” (九毛亡一毛). He would not only receive no sympathy but would also be ridiculed. Therefore, he resolved to endure the humiliation and dedicate his life and time to laboriously and tenaciously completing his magnificent work, the “Records of the Grand Historian” (史记).

The ancients believed that great courage accompanies great wisdom, and Sima Qian was such a person. He knew that in his era, the death of a person without status or fame like him was considered less significant than the death of a dog. Thus, he bravely chose to live and ultimately completed that unprecedented historical masterpiece, the “Records of the Grand Historian.” Sima Qian conveyed this change in his mindset to his friend Ren Shaoqing.

Later generations, based on the phrase “九牛亡一毛” (a hair lost from nine oxen) found in his letter, developed it into the idiom “九牛一毛,” which is used to describe something or someone as merely a tiny, insignificant part of a vast whole, much like a single hair from nine oxen.