A closer look
Talk about missing a deadline. Sima Qian, the granddaddy of Chinese history, managed to piss off Emperor Wu of Han by defending a disgraced general. Given the generous choice between execution or castration, he chose to lose his genitals purely so he could finish writing his monumental 'Records of the Grand Historian.' While modern writers complain about writer's block, Sima Qian endured literal mutilation and humiliation to ensure 2,000 years of Chinese dynastic history survived. His sheer spite and dedication basically invented the entire genre of historical biography.
