Sima Qian (?賊收?? simplified ?賊帕餈? Wade-Giles: Ssu-ma Ch'ien) was a Prefect of the Grand Scribes (憭芸?? of the Han Dynasty.

He is regarded as the father of Chinese historiography for his highly praised work, Records of the Grand Historian (?脰? or ?脰扇), a 'Jizhuanti'-style general history of China, covering more than two thousand years from the Yellow Emperor to Emperor Wu of Han. His definitive work laid the foundation for later Chinese historiography.