Adam C. Schwartz
Publisher:
De Gruyter
Publication date:
July 2018
Abstract:
In his last essay just weeks before his death at the age of 91, David S. Nivison says, "Breaking into a formal system - such as a chronology - must be like breaking into a code. If you are successful, success will show right off." Since the late 1970's Nivison has focused his scholarship on breaking the code of Three Dynasties (Xia, Shang, Zhou) chronology by establishing an innovative methodology based on mourning periods, astronomical phenomenon, and numerical manipulations derived from them. Nivison is most readily known in the field for revising (and then revising again) the date of the Zhou conquest of Shang, and for his theory that Western Zhou kings employed two calendars (His so-called "Two yuan" theory), the second being set in effect upon the death of the new king's predecessor and counted from the completion of post-mourning rites for him (i.e., a "second 'first' year").
Nivison's enabling discovery that the Bamboo Annals (BA) had a historical basis was initially designed to make Wang Guowei's analysis of lunar phase terms (the so-called "Four quarter" theory that separated each month into four quarters) work for Western Zhou bronze inscriptions. In order to do so he had to assume that some inscriptions used a second yuan counted from completion of mourning. The king's death was the most important event late in a reign, so this implied that a king's reign-of-record was normally counted from the second yuan, omitting initial mourning years. It follows that when the unexpressed mourning years are forgotten (or edited out) but the dates of the beginning and end of the dynasty are still known, the remaining reigns-of-record cluster toward the beginning and end, and a reign in the middle is enlarged.
Problems, ideas, and solutions like the one described above are found throughout this new collection of important works on chronology, astronomy, and historiography.
Table of Contents:
Preface
1.The He zun Inscription and the Beginning of Zhou
Pages 1-16
2.Supplement to the “The ‘Question’ Question”— British Museum Scapula and British Museum Library Deer Horn
Pages 17-21
3. The King and the Bird: a Possible Genuine Shang Literary Text and Its Echoes in Later Philosophy and Religion
Pages 22-28
4. The Hampers of Zeng: Some Problems in Archaeoastronomy
Pages 29-41
5.New Study of Xiaotun Yinxu Wenzi Jiabian (小屯殷墟文字簡編) 2416
Pages 42-54
6. Research Notes On Yin Li Chronology per Zheng Xuan
Pages 55-61
7. A Tell-tale Mistake in the Lü shi Chunqiu 呂氏春秋: The Earthquake Supposedly in the Eighth Year of Wen Wang of Zhou
Pages 62-68
8. The Origin of the Chaochen Rule
Pages 69-83
9. A New Analysis of the Guoyu 國語 Astrological Text
Pages 84-101
10. Qingming Day, 1040 BC
Pages 102-115
11. Kong Jia of Xia, 1577–1569 BC
Pages 116-127
12. Shaughnessy’s Slip
Pages 128-134
13. Review of Sun, Xiaochun, and Jacob Kistemaker, The Chinese Sky during the Han: Constellating Stars and Society
Pages 135-141
14. Zhang Peiyu on the Dayuan Li yi and the “Jinben” Zhushu jinian 竹書紀年
Pages 142-162
15. The 1046 Hypothesis
Pages 163-194
16. Huang Di 黃帝 to Zhi Bo 岐伯: A Problem in Historical Epistemology
Pages 195-201
17. Was Warring States China Ahead of Greece in Science?
Pages 202-207
18. Notes on Royal Ontario Museum, White Collection, #1908
Pages 208-210
19. 90th Birthday Address
Pages 211-219
20.Two yuan and Four quarters
Pages 220-238
21. The “31 Years” Problem
Pages 239-255
22. The Nivison-Shaughnessy Debate on the Bamboo Annals (Zhushu jinian)
Pages 256-285
23.Important Discoveries and Bad Mistakes
Pages 286-297
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