Tao Te Ching

“If my work may be handed down to men who will appreciate it, then though I should suffer a thousand mutilations, what regret should I have?”

— Sima Qian 司馬遷 145 – 86 BCE via Burton Watson
(Ssu-ma Ch'ien)
Father of Chinese historians
from Shiji, Records of the Grand Historian, 太史公書