I'm currently doing a project on the formation of the early Han dynasty, and I'm looking to find a copy of Sima Qian's histories with relation to this topic. The school library doesn't have a copy of the book, so I was curious if there was a source that had it available (like a pdf or a scanned copy). Are there any other important works of historical literature that I should be consulting? I'm looking specifically at the conflict prior to the formation of the Han, including the fall of Qin, as well as Liu Bang and Xiang Yu.
The Chinese Text Project is an excellent resource for early Chinese texts. Sima Qian's Shiji is available on the site, but it's only partially translated.
I can't find any translations of Sima Qian early enough to be in the public domain and online, except in French! Chinese is widely available though. If your library subscribes to ACLS Humanities it is in there. If you are in a decent-sized city this is something a public library is likely to have actually, check their catalog too.