Bibliography of Chinese Dynastic History Translations (3rd to 7th centuries CE)

Last updated: 2021.02.05

Note:
Here is a working bibliography of translations of Chinese dynastic history (3rd to 7th centuries CE). If you have any questions or recommendations, please let me know.

Recommended Readings:

Frankel, Hans H.C. Catalogue of translations from the Chinese dynastic histories for the period 220-960. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1957.

Bielenstein, Hans. "The Six Dynasties," Vol. I,  BMFEA 68 (1996):5-324; Vol. II, BMFEA 69 (1997):5-246. 

Chennault, Cynthia Louise, Keith Nathaniel Knapp, Alan J. Berkowitz, and Albert E. Dien, eds. 2015. Early Medieval Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide. Berkeley, CA: Institute of East Asian Studies.

Swartz, Wendy, Campany Robert Ford, Lu Yang, and Choo Jessey Jiun-Chyi, eds. Early Medieval China: A Sourcebook. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014.

Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A New Manual. 2017. (check the chapter "Wei Jin Nanbeichao")

Dien, Albert E., and Keith N. Knapp, eds. 2020. The Cambridge History of China: Volume 2, The Six Dynasties, 220-589. Cambridge Eng. ; New York: Cambridge University Press.

Translations:

三國志

魏書

v.1 武帝紀 (曹操)
*cf de Crespigny, Rafe, trans. Imperial Warlord: A Biography of Cao Cao 155-220 AD.  Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2010.

v.5 后妃傳
Cutter, Robert Joe and William Crowell, trans. Empresses and consorts: selections from Chen Shou's Records of the Three States with Pei Songzhi's commentary. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1999.

v.29 方伎傳
管輅、朱建平、周宣、華佗
DeWoskin, Kenneth J., trans. Doctors, Diviners, and Magicians of Ancient China: Biographies of Fang-shih. New York: Columbia University Press, 1983.

蜀書 

v.2 先主傳

by William Crowell

https://www.academia.edu/5318625/Sanguo_zhi_32_Shu_2_Biography_of_Liu_Bei?email_work_card=thumbnail

v.9 董和、劉巴、馬良、陳震、董允、呂乂
by William Crowell
https://www.academia.edu/5318635/Sanguo_zhi_39_Shu_9_Biographies_of_Dong_He_Liu_Ba_Ma_Liang_Chen_Zhen_Dong_Yun_and_L%C3%BC_Yi

v.34 二主妃子傳 
Cutter, Robert Joe and William Crowell, trans. Empresses and consorts: selections from Chen Shou's Records of the Three States with Pei Songzhi's commentary. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1999.

v.42 譙周
Farmer, J. Michael. "Sanguo Zhi Fascicle 42: The Biography of Qiao Zhou." Early Medieval China, no. 23 (2017): 22-41.

吳書
v.46 孫堅
de Crespigny, Rafe, trans. The Biography of Sun Chien.  Canberra: Centre of Oriental Studies, Australian National University, 1966.

v.50 妃嬪傳

Cutter, Robert Joe and William Crowell, trans. Empresses and consorts: selections from Chen Shou's Records of the Three States with Pei Songzhi's commentary. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1999.

* also cf Fang, Achilles, trans. The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms  (220–265): Chapters 69–78 from the Tzu chih t’ung chien of Ssu-ma Kuang  (1019–1086). 2 vols. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1952–1965.

晉書

晉書 v.1 司馬懿
Fairbank, Anthony Bruce. "Ssu-Ma I (179-251): Wei Statesman and Chin Founder: An Historiographical Inquiry." PhD diss., University of Washington, 1994. (Chapter 6)

晉書 v.11-13 天文志
Ho, Peng Yoke. The Astronomical Chapters of the Chin Shu, with Amendments, Full Translation, and Annotations.  Paris: Mouton, 1966.

晉書 v.26 食貨志
Yang, Liansheng. "Notes on the Economic History of the Chin Dynasty." Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 9, no. 2 (1946): 107-85.

晉書 v.36 張華
Straughair, Anna. Chang Hua: A Statesman-Poet of the Western Chin Dynasty.  Canberra: Australian National University, Faculty of Asian Studies, 1973.

晉書 v.47 傅玄
Paper, Jordan D. The Fu-Tzu: A Post-Han Confucian Text.  Leiden; New York: E.J. Brill, 1987.

晉書 v.54 陸雲
Wu, Sujane. "The Biography of Lu Yun (262-303) in Jin Shu 54." Early Medieval China, no. 1 (2001): 1-38.

晉書 v.65 王導
cf Wells, Matthew V. "From Spirited Youth to Loyal Official: Life Writing and Didacticism in the Jin Shu Biography of Wang Dao." Early Medieval China 21 (2015): 3-20.

晉書 v.82
習鑿齒
Chittick, Andrew. "Pride of Place: The Advent of Local History in Early Medieval China.” PhD diss., University of Michigan, 1997. (pp.220-230)

晉書 v.92 
顧愷之
Chen, Shih-hsiang. Biography of Ku K'ai-Chih. (Chin Shu 92.21a-22a).  Berkeley: University of California Press, 1961.

王沉
Declercq, Dominik. Writing against the State: Political Rhetorics in Third and Fourth Century China.  Leiden; Boston: Brill, 1998. (pp.152-158)

晉書 v.95 藝術
戴洋
DeWoskin, Kenneth J. Doctors, Diviners, and Magicians of Ancient China: Biographies of Fang-Shih.  New York: Columbia University Press, 1983.

晉書 v.97 吐谷渾
Carroll, Thomas D. Account of the T'ù-Yü-Hún in the History of the Chïn Dynasty.  Berkeley-Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1953.

晉書 v.101 劉淵
Honey, David B. The Rise of the Medieval Hsiung-Nu: The Biography of Liu Yüan. Bloomington, Ind.: Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies, 1990.

晉書 v.113-114 苻堅
Rogers, Michael C. The rise of the Former Ch'in state and its spread under Fu Chien, through 370 A.D. based on Chin shu 113. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1953.

Rogers, Michael C. The chronicle of Fu Chien: a case of exemplar history. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968.

晉書 v.116 載記第十六　姚弋仲 姚襄 姚萇

Rachel Meakin, "The Founding of the Qiang state of Later Qin: an annotated translation of Jin Shu Chapter 116"

https://www.academia.edu/37725365/The_Founding_of_the_Qiang_state_of_Later_Qin_an_annotated_translation_of_Jin_Shu_Chapter_116

晉書 v.120-121 李特 李流 李雄 李班 李期 李壽 李勢
Kleeman, Terry F. Great Perfection: Religion and Ethnicity in a Chinese Millennial Kingdom.  Honolulu: University of Hawai`i Press, 1998.

晉書 v.122 呂光
Mather, Richard B. Biography of Lü Kuang.  Berkeley: University of California Press, 1959.

宋書

宋書 v.51 宗室
劉義慶
Zhang, Zhenjun. "Observations on the Life and Works of Liu Yiqing". Early Medieval China. 2014 (20): 83-104.

宋書 v.59 張暢
Dien, Albert. "The Disputation at Pengcheng: Accounts from the Wei Shu and the Song Shu." In Early Medieval China: A Sourcebook, edited by Wendy Swartz, Campany Robert Ford, Lu Yang and Choo Jessey Jiun-Chyi, 32-59. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014.

宋書 v.69 范曄
cf Eicher, Sebastian. "Fan Ye's Biography in the Song Shu: Form, Content, and Impact." Early Medieval China 22 (2016): 45-64.

宋書 v.91 孝義
郭世道; 郭原平
Knapp, Keith N. "Exemplary Everymen: Guo Shidao and Guo Yuanping as Confucian Commoners." Asia Major 23, no. 1 (2010): 87-125.

魏書

魏書 v.1 序記
Holmgren, Jennifer. Annals of Tai: Early T'o-pa History; an Annotated Translation of Chapter 1 of Wei Shu. Canberra: The Australian National University, 1982.

魏書 v.13 皇后列傳
 序 Preface
 Balkwill, Stephanie Lynn. "Empresses, Bhikṣuṇīs, and Women of Pure Faith: Buddhism and the Politics of Patronage in the Northern Wei." PhD diss., McMaster University, 2015. (pp.347-350)

 神元皇后竇氏-高宗乳母常氏
 Holmgren, Jennifer. 1979. "Women's biographies in the Wei-shu." Ph. D., Australian National Univeristy.

 文明太后
 Balkwill, Stephanie Lynn. "Empresses, Bhikṣuṇīs, and Women of Pure Faith: Buddhism and the Politics of Patronage in the Northern Wei." PhD diss., McMaster University, 2015. (pp.351-360)

 Holmgren, Jennifer. 1979. "Women's biographies in the Wei-shu." Ph. D., Australian National Univeristy. (304-311)

 文成元皇后李氏-宣武皇后高氏
 Holmgren, Jennifer. 1979. "Women's biographies in the Wei-shu." Ph. D., Australian National Univeristy. (311-329)

 靈太后
 Holmgren, Jennifer. "Empress Dowager Ling of the Northern Wei and the T'o-Pa Sinicization Question." Papers in Far Eastern History 18 (1978): 160–70.
 Holmgren, Jennifer. 1979. "Women's biographies in the Wei-shu." Ph. D., Australian National Univeristy. (329-339)

魏書 v.37 司馬楚之
Lim, Lucy. "The Northern Wei Tomb of Ssu-Ma Chin-Lung and Early Chinese Figure Painting." PhD diss., New York University, 1990. (pp.178-188)

魏書 v.53 李孝伯
Dien, Albert. "The Disputation at Pengcheng: Accounts from the Wei Shu and the Song Shu." In Early Medieval China: A Sourcebook, edited by Wendy Swartz, Campany Robert Ford, Lu Yang and Choo Jessey Jiun-Chyi, 32-59. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014.

魏書 v.92 列女傳
cf Holmgren, Jennifer. 1979. "Women's Biographies in the Wei-shu: A Study of the Moral Attitudes and Social Background Found in Women's Biographies in the Dynastic History of the Northern Wei." Ph.D., DePaul University.

cf Holmgren, Jennifer. 1981. "Widow Chastity in the Northern Dynasties: The Lieh-nü Biographies in the Wei-shu." Papers on Far Eastern History 23:165–186.

魏書 v.105 天象志
cf Xu, Zhentao, David W. Pankenier, Yaotiao Jiang, and Institute Earth Space. East Asian Archaeoastronomy: Historical Records of Astronomical Observations of China, Japan and Korea.

魏書 v.111 食貨志
Blue, Rhea C. "The Argumentation of the Shih-Huo Chih: Chapters of the Han, Wei, and Sui Dynastic Histories." Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 11, no. 1-2 (1948): 70-75.

魏書 v.114 釋老志
Hurvitz, Leon, trans. Treatise on Buddhism and Taoism, an English Translation of the Original Chinese Text of Wei-Shu Cxiv and the Japanese Annotation of Tsukamoto Zenryu. Kyoto: Jimbunkagaku kenkyujo, Kyoto University.

Ware, James R. "The Wei Shu and the Sui Shu on Taoism." Journal of the American Oriental Society 53, no. 3 (1933): 215-50.

北齊書

北齊書 v.37 魏收
Jamieson, John Charles. "The Biography of Wei Shou.” Mater’s thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 1964.

北齊書 v.45 顏之推
Dien, Albert E. Pei Ch'ishu 45: Biography of Yen Chih-T'ui.  Bern: Herbert Lang, 1976.

周書

周書 v.11 宇文護
Dien, Albert E. Biography of Yu-wen Hu. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1962.

周書 v.23 蘇綽
Goodrich, Chauncey Shafter. Biography of Su Ch'o.  Berkeley: University of California Press, 1961.

周書 v. 50 異域下
Miller, Roy Andrew. Accounts of Western Nations in the History of the Northern Chou Dynasty [Zhou Shu 50. 10b-17b] Berkeley: University of California Press, 1959.

突厥
Parker E.H. "The Early Turks (From the CHOU SHU)." The China Review. 1899. Vol. 24. No.3.

北史

北史 v.13 文明太后
Gibson, Wenley Archibald. "The Grand Empress Dowager Wen Ming and the Northern Wei Necropolis at Fang Shan." Freer Gallery of Art Occasional Papers 1, no. 1 (1947).

北史 v.99 
突厥
Parker E.H. "The Early Turks (From the PEI SHI and the SUI SHU).” The China Review. 1900. Vol. 24. No. 4.

Parker E.H. "The Early Turks - Part II (From the PEI SHI).” The China Review. 1900. Vol. 25. No. 1.

隋書

隋書 v.24 食貨志
Blue, Rhea C. "The Argumentation of the Shih-Huo Chih: Chapters of the Han, Wei, and Sui Dynastic Histories." Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 11, no. 1-2 (1948): 76-89.

隋書 v.35 經籍志
道經
Ware, James R. "The Wei Shu and the Sui Shu on Taoism." Journal of the American Oriental Society 53, no. 3 (1933): 243-50.

隋書 v.58 魏澹
Dien, Albert E. "Wei Tan and the Historiography of the Wei Shu." In Studies in Early Medieval Chinese Literature and Cultural History: In Honor of Richard B. Mather and Donald Holzman. Provo, Utah: Tʻang Studies Society, 2003.

隋書 v.84 北狄
突厥
Parker E.H. "The Early Turks (From the PEI SHI and the SUI SHU).” The China Review. 1900. Vol. 24. No. 4.