西漢史學家司馬遷，
祖上世代為史官。
武帝時，他的父親去世後，
司馬遷繼承父誌把史籍纂。
有一位大將叫李陵，
投降了匈奴在北邊。
他深知李陵降敵是不得已，
替他辯護陳己見。
哪知觸惱了漢武帝，
受了宮刑關牢監。
司馬遷後來出了獄，
忍辱發憤把史書編。
寫成了著名史書叫《史記》，
美名流芳萬載傳。
他給好友任安寫過信，
把蒙冤入獄的心情談。
他說道，人生自古皆有死，
可比鴻毛或泰山。
人死的意義有不同，
我不做鴻毛遭輕賤。
我受了宮刑心憂鬱，
好比那老虎籠內關。
老虎搖尾乞憐為果腹，
是人畫地為牢應自勉。
受恥辱隱忍苟活糞土中，
隻因為先父遺願未實現。
我要把史書寫成傳後世，
藏於名山死無憾。
司馬遷提到“畫地為牢”這成語，
本意是在地上畫個大圓圈，
古時把圓圈當牢獄，
監禁囚犯在裏邊。
到後來“畫地為牢”這成語，
常形容活動範圍受局限。
To Make a Jail by Drawing
a Circle on the Ground
In the Western Han Dynasty（206B。C。—24A。D。），there was an historian named Sima Qian whose forefathers were all historians。During the reign of Emperor Wu，his father died。Sima Qian resolved to take up his father's will to write history books。
At that time，there lived a general called Li Ling，who surrendered himself to the Hun in the north。Sima Qian knew it quite well that Li Ling was unwilling to have had done that。So he aired his view to defend the general。This，however，threw the emperor into a furious rage，and he gave Sima Qian the castration punishment and put him in jail。
Later，when Sima Qian was released，he mentally bore the heaviest insult and made up his mind to fi-nish posing the history book。The book he wrote was titled“Records of the Historian”which has lasted for thousands of years。