As his position in the imperial court was "Grand Historian" ("tàishǐ" , variously translated as court historian, scribe, or astronomer/astrologer), later generations would accord him with the honorific title of "Lord Grand Historian" ("Tàishǐ Gōng" ) for his monumental work, though his "magnum opus" was completed many years after his tenure as Grand Historian ended in disgrace and after his acceptance of punitive actions against him, including imprisonment, castration, and subjection to servility. He was acutely aware of the importance of his work to posterity and its relationship to his own personal suffering. In the postface of the "Records", he implicitly compared his universal history of China to the classics of his day, the "Guoyu" by Zuoqiu Ming", Lisao" by Qu Yuan, and the "Art of War" by Sun Bin, pointing out that their authors all suffered great personal misfortunes before their lasting monumental works could come to fruition.