The Readability Of The Past In Early Chinese Historiography

Author : Wai-yee Li
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 474 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2020-03-17
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781684174195

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The Readability of the Past in Early Chinese Historiography by Wai-yee Li Pdf

"The past becomes readable when we can tell stories and make arguments about it. When we can tell more than one story or make divergent arguments, the readability of the past then becomes an issue. Therein lies the beginning of history, the sense of inquiry that heightens our awareness of interpretation. How do interpretive structures develop and disintegrate? What are the possibilities and limits of historical knowledge? This book explores these issues through a study of the Zuozhuan, a foundational text in the Chinese tradition, whose rhetorical and analytical self-consciousness reveals much about the contending ways of thought unfolding during the period of the text’s formation (ca. 4th c. B.C.E.). But in what sense is this vast collection of narratives and speeches covering the period from 722 to 468 B.C.E. “historical”? If one can speak of an emergent sense of history in this text, Wai-yee Li argues, it lies precisely at the intersection of varying conceptions of interpretation and rhetoric brought to bear on the past, within a larger context of competing solutions to the instability and disintegration represented through the events of the 255 years covered by the Zuozhuan. Even as its accounts of proliferating disorder and disintegration challenge the boundaries of readability, the deliberations on the rules of reading in the Zuozhuan probe the dimensions of historical self-consciousness."

Author : David Schaberg
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 530 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2020-03-23
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781684173617

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A Patterned Past by David Schaberg Pdf

In this comprehensive study of the rhetoric, narrative patterns, and intellectual content of the Zuozhuan and Guoyu, David Schaberg reads these two collections of historical anecdotes as traces of a historiographical practice that flourished around the fourth century BCE among the followers of Confucius. He contends that the coherent view of early China found in these texts is an effect of their origins and the habits of reading they impose. Rather than being totally accurate accounts, they represent the efforts of a group of officials and ministers to argue for a moralizing interpretation of the events of early Chinese history and for their own value as skilled interpreters of events and advisers to the rulers of the day.

Author : On-cho Ng,Q. Edward Wang
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
Page : 332 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2005-08-31
Category : History
ISBN : 9780824843205

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Mirroring the Past by On-cho Ng,Q. Edward Wang Pdf

China is known for its deep veneration of history. Far more than a record of the past, history to the Chinese is the magister vitae (teacher of life): the storehouse of moral lessons and bureaucratic precedents. Mirroring the Past presents a comprehensive history of traditional Chinese historiography from antiquity to the mid-Qing period. Organized chronologically, the book traces the development of historical thinking and writing in Imperial China, beginning with the earliest forms of historical consciousness and ending with adumbrations of the fundamentally different views engendered by mid-nineteenth-century encounters with the West. The historiography of each era is explored on two levels: first, the gathering of material and the writing and production of narratives to describe past events; second, the thinking and reflecting on meanings and patterns of the past. Significantly, the book embeds within this chronological structure integrated views of Chinese historiography, bringing to light the purposive, didactic, and normative uses of the past. Examining both the worlds of official and unofficial historiography, the authors lay bare the ingenious ways in which Chinese scholars extracted truth from events and reveal how schemas and philosophies of history were constructed and espoused. They highlight the dynamic nature of Chinese historiography, revealing that historical works mapped the contours of Chinese civilization not for the sake of understanding history as disembodied and theoretical learning, but for the pragmatic purpose of guiding the world by mirroring the past in all its splendor and squalor.

Author : Garret P. S. Olberding
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 290 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2012-12-04
Category : History
ISBN : 9781438443911

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Dubious Facts by Garret P. S. Olberding Pdf

What were the intentions of early China's historians? Modern readers must contend with the tension between the narrators' moralizing commentary and their description of events. Although these historians had notions of evidence, it is not clear to what extent they valued what contemporary scholars would deem "hard" facts. Offering an innovative approach to premodern historical documents, Garret P. S. Olberding argues that the speeches of court advisors reveal subtle strategies of information management in the early monarchic context. Olberding focuses on those addresses concerning military campaigns where evidence would be important in guiding immediate social and political policy. His analysis reveals the sophisticated conventions that governed the imperial advisor's logic and suasion in critical state discussions, which were specifically intended to counter anticipated doubts. Dubious Facts illuminates both the decision-making processes that informed early Chinese military campaigns and the historical records that represent them.

Author : Huaiqi Wu
Publisher : Springer
Page : 503 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2018-01-09
Category : History
ISBN : 9783662562536

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An Historical Sketch of Chinese Historiography by Huaiqi Wu Pdf

This book systematically traces the development of Chinese historiography from the 2nd century B.C. to the 19th century A.D. Refusing to fit the Chinese historical narration into the modern Western discourse, the author highlights the significant questions that concern traditional historians, their philosophical foundations, their development over three thousand years and their influence on the intelligentsia. China is a country defined in terms of its history and its historians have worked hard to record the past. However, this book approaches Chinese history from the very beginning not only as a way of recording, but also as a way of dealing with the past in order to orient the people of the present in the temporal dimension of their lives. This book was listed as the key textbook of the “Eleventh Five-year Plan” for college students in China.

Author : Yuri Pines,Martin Kern,Nino Luraghi
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 405 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2023-10-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9789004685369

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Zuozhuan and Early Chinese Historiography by Yuri Pines,Martin Kern,Nino Luraghi Pdf

Zuozhuan (Zuo Tradition) is the foundational text of Chinese historiography and the largest text from preimperial China. For two millennia, its immense complexity has given rise to countless controversies, with scholars debating its nature, time of composition, and historical reliability. In the present volume—the first of its kind in any Western language—leading scholars of ancient China, Greece, and Rome approach Zuozhuan from multi-faceted perspectives to examine in detail Zuozhuan’s sources, narrative patterns, and meta-narrative devices; analyze the text in dialogue with other ancient Chinese works; and open it to the comparative study with ancient Greek and Roman historiography. Contributors are: Chen Minzhen, Stephen Durrant, Joachim Gentz, Martin Kern, Wai-yee Li, Nino Luraghi, Ellen O’Gorman, Yuri Pines, David Schaberg, and Kai Vogelsang.

Author : Yiqun Zhou
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 385 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2010-08-16
Category : History
ISBN : 9781139490405

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Festivals, Feasts, and Gender Relations in Ancient China and Greece by Yiqun Zhou Pdf

Ancient China and Greece are two classical civilisations that have exerted far-reaching influence in numerous areas of human experience and are often invoked as the paradigms in East-West comparison. This book examines gender relations in the two ancient societies as reflected in convivial contexts such as family banquets, public festivals, and religious feasts. Two distinct patterns of interpersonal affinity and conflict emerge from the Chinese and Greek sources that show men and women organising themselves and interacting with each other in social occasions intended for collective pursuit of pleasure. Through an analysis of the two different patterns, Yiqun Zhou illuminates the different socio-political mechanisms, value systems, and fabrics of human bonds in the two classical traditions. Her book will be important for readers who are interested in the comparative study of societies, gender studies, women's history, and the legacy of civilisations.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : University of Washington Press
Page : 2243 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2016-11-14
Category : China
ISBN : 9780295999159

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Zuo Tradition / Zuozhuan by Anonim Pdf

Zuo Tradition (Zuozhuan; sometimes called The Zuo Commentary) is China�s first great work of history. It consists of two interwoven texts - the Spring and Autumn Annals (Chunqiu, a terse annalistic record) and a vast web of narratives and speeches that add context and interpretation to the Annals. Completed by about 300 BCE, it is the longest and one of the most difficult texts surviving from pre-imperial times. It has been as important to the foundation and preservation of Chinese culture as the historical books of the Hebrew Bible have been to the Jewish and Christian traditions. It has shaped notions of history, justice, and the significance of human action in the Chinese tradition perhaps more so than any comparable work of Latin or Greek historiography has done to Western civilization. This translation, accompanied by the original text, an introduction, and annotations, will finally make Zuozhuan accessible to all.

Author : Q. Edward Wang
Publisher : SUNY Press
Page : 324 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2001-01-01
Category : History
ISBN : 0791447324

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Inventing China through History by Q. Edward Wang Pdf

A critical examination of the rise of national history in early-twentieth-century China.

Author : Paul R. Goldin
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 726 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2018-05-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9781317681915

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Routledge Handbook of Early Chinese History by Paul R. Goldin Pdf

The study of early China has been radically transformed over the past fifty years by archaeological discoveries, including both textual and non-textual artefacts. Excavations of settlements and tombs have demonstrated that most people did not lead their lives in accordance with ritual canons, while previously unknown documents have shown that most received histories were written retrospectively by victors and present a correspondingly anachronistic perspective. This handbook provides an authoritative survey of the major periods of Chinese history from the Neolithic era to the fall of the Latter Han Empire and the end of antiquity (AD 220). It is the first volume to include not only a comprehensive review of political history but also detailed treatments of topics that transcend particular historical periods, such as: Warfare and political thought Cities and agriculture Language and art Medicine and mathematics Providing a detailed analysis of the most up-to-date research by leading scholars in the field of early Chinese history, this book will be useful to students and scholars of Chinese history, Asian archaeology, and Chinese studies in general.

Author : Yuri Pines
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 230 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2020-11-10
Category : History
ISBN : 9780231551755

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Zhou History Unearthed by Yuri Pines Pdf

There is a stark contrast between the overarching importance of history writing in imperial China and the meagerness of historical texts from the centuries preceding the imperial unification of 221 BCE. However, recently discovered bamboo manuscripts from the Warring States period (453–221 BCE) have changed this picture, leading to reappraisals of early Chinese historiography. These manuscripts shed new light on questions related to the production, circulation, and audience of historical texts in early China; their different political, ritual, and ideological usages; and their roles in the cultural and intellectual dynamics of China’s vibrant pre-imperial age. Zhou History Unearthed offers both a novel understanding of early Chinese historiography and a fully annotated translation of Xinian (String of Years), the most notable historical manuscript from the state of Chu. Yuri Pines elucidates the importance of Xinian and other recently discovered texts for our understanding of history writing in Zhou China (1046–255 BCE), as well as major historical events and topics such as Chu’s cultural identity. Pines explores how Xinian challenges existing interpretations of the nature and reliability of canonical historical texts on the Zhou era, such as Zuo zhuan (Zuo Tradition/Commentary) and Records of the Historian (Shiji). A major work of scholarship and translation, Zhou History Unearthed sheds new light on early Chinese history and historiography, demonstrating how new archaeological findings are changing our knowledge of China’s pre-imperial days.

Author : Haipeng Zhang
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2023-08-31
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1844647773

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Chinese Historiography of the Last Forty Years (1978-2018) I by Haipeng Zhang Pdf

Chinese Historiography of the Last Forty Years (1978-2018) is an edited volume, in which the Chinese historians review the research achievements of the study of history in China in the past 40 years since the reform and opening up in 1978, and create an overview of the academic prospects and trends. In its entirety, this volume encompasses Chinese archaeology, ancient Chinese history, and modern Chinese history, as well as some thematic studies, such as local history, ethnic history, frontier history, historical geography, economic history, social history, ideological and cultural history, historiography, historical theory, urban history, religious history, world history and the history of World War II. The authors of the volume are leading scholars in each branch of history studies. It provides the readers with an accessible and valuable reference in studying history, particularly the history of China and East Asia. This book gives a comprehensive review on the study of history. It covers a general description of the study of history as well as other philosophical and social sciences in China which have benefited from rapid progress in every cause under the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the development of the national economy. It is an Innovation in the Study of World History. In accordance with principles of historical materialism and seeking truth from facts, researchers engaging in world history studies should take on the responsibilities of grasping the significant events that impacted world history and comprehending the comprehensive development of world history from the relations between these events and the world. China's peaceful rise and its growing, widening connections with the world require to focus on world history in historical studies to construct a more inclusive discipline of world history.

Author : Yu-shan Han
Publisher : Hollywood, Calif. : W. M. Hawley
Page : 268 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 1955
Category : Bibliography
ISBN : UCAL:B3852955

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Elements of Chinese Historiography by Yu-shan Han Pdf

Author : Paul van Els,Sarah A. Queen
Publisher : SUNY Press
Page : 388 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2017-08-21
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781438466118

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Between History and Philosophy by Paul van Els,Sarah A. Queen Pdf

Analyzes the use of anecdotes as an essential rhetorical tool and form of persuasion in various literary genres in early China. Between History and Philosophy is the first book-length study in English to focus on the rhetorical functions and forms of anecdotal narratives in early China. Edited by Paul van Els and Sarah A. Queen, this volume advances the thesis that anecdotes—brief, freestanding accounts of single events involving historical figures, and occasionally also unnamed persons, animals, objects, or abstractions—served as an essential tool of persuasion and meaning-making within larger texts. Contributors to the volume analyze the use of anecdotes from the Warring States Period to the Han Dynasty, including their relations to other types of narrative, their circulation and reception, and their central position as a mode of argumentation in a variety of historical and philosophical literary genres.

Author : Wiebke Denecke,Wai-Yee Li,Xiaofei Tian
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 672 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2017-03-21
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9780199356607

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The Oxford Handbook of Classical Chinese Literature (1000 BCE-900CE) by Wiebke Denecke,Wai-Yee Li,Xiaofei Tian Pdf

This volume introduces readers to classical Chinese literature from its beginnings (ca. 10th century BCE) to the tenth century CE. It asks basic questions such as: How did reading and writing practices change over these two millennia? How did concepts of literature evolve? What were the factors that shaped literary production and textual transmission? How do traditional bibliographic categories, modern conceptions of genre, and literary theories shape our understanding of classical Chinese literature? What are the recurrent and evolving concerns of writings within the period under purview? What are the dimensions of human experience they address? Why is classical Chinese literature important for our understanding of pre-modern East Asia? How does the transmission of this literature in Japan, Korea, and Vietnam define cultural boundaries? And what, in turn, can we learn from the Chinese-style literatures of Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, about Chinese literature? In addressing these questions, the Oxford Handbook of Classical Chinese Literature departs from standard literary histories and sourcebooks. It does not simply categorize literary works according to periods, authors, or texts. Its goal is to offer a new conceptual framework for thinking about classical Chinese literature by defining a four-part structure. The first section discusses the basics of literacy and includes topics such as writing systems, manuscript culture, education, and loss and preservation in textual transmission. It is followed by a second section devoted to conceptions of genre, textual organization, and literary signification throughout Chinese history. A third section surveys literary tropes and themes. The final section takes us beyond China to the surrounding cultures that adopted Chinese culture and produced Chinese style writing adapted to their own historical circumstances. The volume is sustained by a dual foci: the recuperation of historical perspectives for the period it surveys and the attempt to draw connections between past and present, demonstrating how the viewpoints and information in this volume yield insights into modern China and east Asia.