Bamboo Annals" Revisited: Problems of Method in Using the Chronicle As a Source for the Chronology of Early Zhou
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Bamboo Annals and Its Relation to Three Dynasties Chronology
CONTROVERSY OVER THE “MODERN TEXT” BAMBOO ANNALS AND ITS RELATION TO THREE DYNASTIES CHRONOLOGY BY SHAO DONGFANG ⴳቺᅞ (Fo Guang University and Stanford University) Abstract In the ongoing effort to defi ne the exact nature of the Bamboo Annals and its relation to ancient Chinese chronology, scholars both Chinese and Western have debated the authenticity of this chronicle. The purpose of this paper is to present some of the ideas generated in an ongoing study of the Bamboo Annals by David Nivison and myself in the context of its textual history and dating information. The paper will begin with an ac- count of recent scholarship on the “Modern Text” and an introduction to new directions of research, and recent discoveries and controversies relative to this work. While many Chinese scholars have basically treated the “Modern Text” as a forgery, new studies by American scholars suggest that these Chinese scholars may have neglected intriguing aspects of the “Modern Text.” The thorough studies of the “Modern Text” by Chinese scholars have been supplemented by Nivison and Shaughnessy, whose fi ndings require the reconsideration of the importance of the “Modern Text.” Such studies allow claims for a close relationship between the two-chapter “Modern Text”—often held to be inauthentic—and the various collections of fragments known as the “ancient text” and that the “Modern Text” can actually give us important information for reconstructing chronologies of ancient China. This suggests a need to reconsider prevailing views of the “Modern Text.” The paper concludes with an assessment of the need for future work on the analysis of the Bamboo Annals. -
Origins of Chinese Political Philosophy: Studies in the Composition and Thought of the Shangshu (Classic of Documents)
饒宗頤國學院院刊 第五期 417 2018 年 5 月 頁 417– 445 Origins of Chinese Political Philosophy: Studies in the Composition and Thought of the Shangshu (Classic of Documents). Edited by Martin KERN and Dirk MEYER. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2017. Pp. vi+508. Edward L. SHAUGHNESSY East Asian Languages and Civilizations, The University of Chicago The publication of a major English-language book on the Shang shu 尚書 (Elevated documents) or Shu jing 書經 (Classic of documents), the second of the Chinese classics, should surely count as a major milestone in the Western study of early China. As the editors note in their Introduction, the Shang shu has inspired all aspects of Chinese political philosophy for over two thousand years now. Yet, as they also say, “In some kind of reverse—and bizarre— Book Reviews correlation, the Shangshu is as important to the Chinese political tradition as it is neglected in Western scholarship” (p. 2). Their claim just above this that “major Western works on the Shangshu can be counted on two hands, with fingers to spare” is only a bit exaggerated.1 In this volume we now have fourteen studies in just over 500 pages, that directly address at least fourteen different chapters of the Shang shu, not to mention two chapters of the 1 True, I count only eight or nine such studies listed in the various bibliographies attached at the end of each chapter, but they do not even include mention of such classic studies as Paul Pelliot, “Le Chou King en caractères anciens et le Chang Chou che wen,” Mémoires concernant l’Asie Orientale 2 (1916): 123–77, or Benjamin Elman, “Philosophy (I-Li) versus Philology (K’ao-cheng): The Jen-hsin tao-hsin Debate,” T’oung Pao 2nd ser. -
The Rise of Agricultural Civilization in China: the Disparity Between Archeological Discovery and the Documentary Record and Its Explanation
SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS Number 175 December, 2006 The Rise of Agricultural Civilization in China: The Disparity between Archeological Discovery and the Documentary Record and Its Explanation by Zhou Jixu Center for East Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Chinese Department, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, Sichuan Victor H. Mair, Editor Sino-Platonic Papers Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305 USA [email protected] www.sino-platonic.org SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS is an occasional series edited by Victor H. Mair. The purpose of the series is to make available to specialists and the interested public the results of research that, because of its unconventional or controversial nature, might otherwise go unpublished. The editor actively encourages younger, not yet well established, scholars and independent authors to submit manuscripts for consideration. Contributions in any of the major scholarly languages of the world, including Romanized Modern Standard Mandarin (MSM) and Japanese, are acceptable. In special circumstances, papers written in one of the Sinitic topolects (fangyan) may be considered for publication. Although the chief focus of Sino-Platonic Papers is on the intercultural relations of China with other peoples, challenging and creative studies on a wide variety of philological subjects will be entertained. This series is not the place for safe, sober, and stodgy presentations. Sino-Platonic Papers prefers lively work that, while taking reasonable risks to advance the field, capitalizes on brilliant new insights into the development of civilization. The only style-sheet we honor is that of consistency. Where possible, we prefer the usages of the Journal of Asian Studies. -
Where Was the Western Zhou Capital? a Capital City Has a Special Status in Every Country
Maria Khayutina [email protected] Where Was the Western Zhou Capital? A capital city has a special status in every country. Normally, this is a political, economical, social center. Often it is a cultural and religious center as well. This is the place of governmental headquarters and of the residence of power-holding elite and professional administrative cadres. In the societies, where transportation means are not much developed, this is at the same time the place, where producers of the top quality goods for elite consumption live and work. A country is often identified with its capital city both by its inhabitants and the foreigners. Wherefore, it is hardly possible to talk about the history of a certain state without making clear, where was located its capital. The Chinese history contains many examples, when a ruling dynasty moved its capital due to defensive or other political reasons. Often this shift caused not only geographical reorganization of the territory, but also significant changes in power relations within the state, as well as between it and its neighbors. One of the first such shifts happened in 771 BC, when the heir apparent of the murdered King You 幽 could not push back invading 犬戎 Quanrong hordes from the nowadays western 陜西 Shaanxi province, but fled to the city of 成周 Chengzhou near modern 洛陽 Luoyang, where the royal court stayed until the fall of the 周 Zhou in the late III century BC. This event is usually perceived as a benchmark between the two epochs – the “Western” and “Eastern” Zhou respectively, distinctly distinguished one from another. -
David S. Nivison, the Bamboo Annals, and the Chronology of Xia: Personal Reflections on Historical Method
Journal of chinese humanities 5 (2019) 6-17 brill.com/joch David S. Nivison, the Bamboo Annals, and the Chronology of Xia: Personal Reflections on Historical Method Edward L. Shaughnessy Professor of Chinese History, Nankai University, China and University of Chicago, USA [email protected] Abstract David Shepherd Nivison (1923-2014) devoted the last three and a half decades of his life to an attempt to reconstruct the original text of the Bamboo Annals and to use that text to reconstruct the absolute chronology of ancient China. Nivison’s attempt to reconstruct that chronology involved astronomy; textual criticism, especially—though not exclusively—of the Bamboo Annals; and a considerable amount of historiographi- cal conjecture concerning both the period of the Xia dynasty and of the Warring States period, during which, Nivison argues, the Bamboo Annals was undergoing multiple revisions. This attempt was also based on three major theses: (1) the Xia kings were named for the tiangan 天干 of the first day of the first year of their reign; (2) irregular gaps of zero, one, two, three, four, and even forty years recorded in the Bamboo Annals between the reigns of Xia kings should invariably have been two years; and (3) the final Xia king, Jie 桀, is completely mythical. In this article, I first present Nivison’s arguments and then present a critique of those arguments, based on my own study of the Bamboo Annals. My own study of the Bamboo Annals in turn has shown three points that are important for understanding its annals of Xia: that at least some of the manuscript was damaged or lost when it was taken from the tomb, that the Western Jin editors made some mistakes in their edit- ing of the text, and that they added commentary to the text. -
No. 4.2011 European Association for the Study of Chinese Manuscripts
No. 4.2011 European Association for the Study of Chinese Manuscripts Contents ● Research Essay: What is a shu 書? by Sarah Allan (p. 1) ● Conference Announcements: Workshop on Qinghua Manuscripts at Dartmouth (March 26, 2011) (p. 6) // Society for the Study of Early China at AAS/ICAS, Honolulu (April 2, 2011) (p. 7) // EASCM workshop 4 in Paris (July 6-8, 2012) (p. 7) ● Conference Reports: ―Manuscript Culture ...,‖ Harvard, May 14-15, 2010 (p. 8) // ―A Bamboo Event ...,‖ Penn State, May 17-18, 2010 (p. 9) // Li Xueqin presents Creel Lecture on Qinghua manuscripts (p. 11) ● New Publications: China’s Early Empire // Yang Xiong and the Pleasures of Reading ... // Studia Orientalia Slovaca (p. 12) ● Self-Introductions of EASCM members: M. Khayutina (p. 13) // E. Shaughnessy (p. 14). ● Research Essay What is a shu 書? by Sarah Allan (17/01/2011)* The recent discoveries of bamboo slip manuscripts from Warring States period tombs are among the most important discoveries since that of oracle bone inscriptions in 1898 because they include philosophical and historical material that is closely related to some of the most important transmitted texts and they are revolutionizing our understanding of the history of Chinese thought. The Shang shu is one of the five classics and closely associated with Confucius, so the manuscripts now in the collection of Tsinghua University are of particular importance because many of them are apparently shu or ―similar to shu.‖1 But what were shu? How do we know a shu when we see (read) it? What distinguishes a shu from other ancient texts? ∗ A Chinese version of this article was published as Ai Lan 艾蘭, ―He wei ‗shu‘ 何為《書》?‖ in Guangming ribao 光明日報 2010/12/10, 12. -
Where Is King Ping?
where is king ping? Asia Major (2018) 3d ser. Vol. 31.1: 1-27 chen minzhen and yuri pines Where is King Ping? The History and Historiography of the Zhou Dynasty’s Eastward Relocation abstract: This article introduces new evidence about an important, dramatic event in early Chinese history, namely the fall of the Western Zhou in 771 bc and the subsequent eastward relocation of the dynasty. The recently discovered bamboo manuscript, Xinian 繫年, now in the Tsinghua (Qinghua) University collection, presents a new account of the events, most notably the claim that for nine years (749–741 bc) there was no single king on the Zhou throne. This departs considerably from the tradi- tional story preserved in Records of the Historian (Shiji 史記). Facing this contradic- tion, scholars have opted to reinterpret Xinian so as to make it conform to Shiji. The present authors analyze the Xinian version of events and its reliability; further, we explore the reasons for the disappearance of this version from the subsequent histo- riographic tradition. It is a point of departure that addresses a broad methodological problem: how to deal with ostensible contradictions between unearthed and trans- mitted texts. keywords: Zhou, historiography, manuscripts, Shiji, Sima Qian, Western Zhou, Xinian he fall of the Western Zhou capital in 771 bc and the subsequent T relocation of the Zhou 周 dynastic center eastward, to the vicinity of Luoyang 洛陽, was one of the most dramatic events in early Chi- nese history. It was a point of no return from the period of relative stability under the dominance of the Zhou ruling house to the age of prolonged warfare and aggravating interstate conflicts that lasted for more than five centuries thereafter. -
International Law Rules and Historical Evidences Supporting China's Title to the South China Sea Islands Jianming Shen
Hastings International and Comparative Law Review Volume 21 Article 1 Number 1 Fall 1997 1-1-1997 International Law Rules and Historical Evidences Supporting China's Title to the South China Sea Islands Jianming Shen Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/ hastings_international_comparative_law_review Part of the Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, and the International Law Commons Recommended Citation Jianming Shen, International Law Rules and Historical Evidences Supporting China's Title to the South China Sea Islands, 21 Hastings Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 1 (1997). Available at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_international_comparative_law_review/vol21/iss1/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hastings International and Comparative Law Review by an authorized editor of UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. International Law Rules and Historical Evidences Supporting China's Title to the South China Sea Islands By JIANMING SHEN, S.J.D. * Table of Contents I. Introduction .........................................................................................2 Il. Rules of Title Applicable to Barely Inhabitable Territories ................. 7 A. General Modes of Territorial Acquisition .................................... 7 B. Criteria for Sovereignty over Uninhabitable Islands ......................... 10 III. China's Historic Title to the Xisha and Nansha Islands ...................... 15 A. Discovery and Expeditions Prior to the Han Dynasty .................. 15 B. Chinese Activities between the Han and Song Dynasties ............ 17 C. The Qian Li Changsha and Wanli Shitang of the Song Dynasty ...... 21 D. Chinese Activities in the Yuan Dynasty .................................... 27 E. Chinese Activities During the Ming and Qing Dynasties ........... -
Xia Dynasty Xià Cháo 夏 朝 2100?–1766? Bce
◀ W Comprehensive index starts in volume 5, page 2667. Xia Dynasty Xià Cháo 夏 朝 2100?–1766? bce The Xia was the earliest Chinese dynasty (go- assisted prehistorians in developing more finite chronolo- ing back some two thousand years, although gies. During the Xia dynasty the major crafts included jade scholars debate the dates). Knowledge of the carving and casting bronze vessels, some of which were em- Xia comes from from oral tradition, ancient bellished with jade. The Xia also devised a calendar system that incorporated lunar and solar movements. historical records, and archaeological re- The Xia period—dating, as explained below, from search. Scholars also debate the veracity of the the twenty-first to the sixteenth century bce— d e fi n e d legends of the founding of the dynasty. a cultural stage between late neolithic cultures and the urban civilization of the Shang dynasty. Excavations in the city of Yanshi, Henan Province, uncovered what ap- he quasi-legendary Xia, or Hsia, dynasty of China pears to have been a capital of the Xia dynasty. Although is the oldest dynasty described in ancient histori- archaeological evidence (including radiocarbon dating) cal records including the Records of the Grand His- demonstrated that the inhabitants were the direct ances- torian (covering the period c. 2600– 91 bce and written tors of the Longshan and were predecessors of the Shang, 1 0 9 – 9 1 bce) and Bamboo Annals (documenting the period some Western scholars contend that the Xia were not a from legendary times, 2497– 221 bce). -
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INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced fromm icrofilm the master. UMI films the text directly firom the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be ft’om any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI University Microfilms International A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor. Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Order Number 9218985 Spatialization in the ‘‘Shiji” Jian, Xiaobin, Ph.D. The Ohio State University, 1992 Copyright ©1992 by Jian, Xiaobin. All rights reserved. -
Tales of the Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period from C
History and Fiction: Tales of the Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period from c. 300 BC to AD 220 This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Olivia Milburn School of Oriental and African Studies University of London ProQuest Number: 10731298 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10731298 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 p Abstract This thesis focusses on historical and fictional accounts of the hegemons of the Spring and Autumn period: Lord Huan of Qi, Lord Wen of Jin, Lord Mu of Qin, King Zhuang of Chu, King Helu of Wu and King Goujian of Yue. Chapter One describes the methodological basis. Many ancient Chinese texts underwent periods of oral transmission, but the effect on their form and content has been little researched. Theme and formula are important for understanding the development of these texts. The hegemons are also investigated for the degree to which they conform to greater patterns: the Indo-European models of the hero and good ruler. -
250 NOTES 251 Chapter
250 NOTES Notes 251 ledge & Kegan Paul, 1958), pp. 19-22, 118, 207; Kathleen Gough, "Nuer 12. On the relation of Hobbes's social philosophy to his vision of nature, Kinship: A Re-examination," in The Translation of Culture, ed. T. L. Beidel see T. A. Spragens, Jr., The Politics of Motion: the World of Thomas Hobbes man (London: Tavistock, 1972), pp. 85-88,98, 116. (London: Croom Helm, 1973), esp. ch. 6; M. M. Goldsmith, Hobbes's Science of 4. Sigmund Freud, Civilization and its Discontents, trans. James Strachey Politics (New York: Columbia University, 1966). On the relation of Newtonian (New York: W. W. Norton, 1961), pp. 59-62. science to the social philosophy of the latitudinarians, see Margaret C. Jacob, The Newtonians and the English Revolution, 1689-1720 (Ithaca, New York: 5. Rene Girard, La violence et Ie sacre (Paris: Grasset, 1972); Des choses Cornell University, 1976). cachees depuis la fondation du monde (Paris: Grasset, 1978); Le bouc emissaire (Paris: Grasset, 1982); La route antique des hommes pervers (Paris: Grasset, 13. Yang Kuan, Zhanguo shi, 2nd ed. rev. (Shanghai: Renmin, 1980). 1985). For criticisms see Paul Dumouchel, ed., Violence et verite (Paris: Grasset, 14. Cho-yun Hsu, Ancient China in Transition: An Analysis of Social 1985); Michel Deguy and Jean-Pierre Dupuy, eds., Rene Girard et Ie probleme Mobility, 722-222 B.C. (Stanford: Stanford University, 1965), esp. pp. 1-2, du mal (Paris: Grasset, 1982); Berkshire Review 14 (1979); Diacritics 8 (March, 175-80. 1978); Marcel Detienne, "Pratiquesculinaires et esprit de sacrifice," in La Cuisine du sacrifice en pays gree, ed.