Zhou History Unearthed: The Bamboo Manuscript Xinian and Early Chinese Historiography

Author:
Yuri Pines

Publication date:
October 2020

Publisher:
Columbia University Press

Abstract:
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 繫年 (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 左傳 (Zuo Tradition/Commentary) and Records of the Historian (Shiji 史記). 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.

Table of Contents:

Introduction: The Riddle of Zhou Historiography
Part I. Rethinking Early Chinese History Writing
1. Zhou Historiography as Seen from the Transmitted Texts
2. Xinian and Zhou Historiography
3. Zhou Historiography in Other Newly Discovered Sources
4. Beyond Sima Qian: Zhou History Revisited
5. Chu Historiography and Chu Cultural Identity
Part II. Xinian Translation and Commentary
Xinian 1
Xinian 2
Xinian 3
Xinian 4
Xinian 5
Xinian 6
Xinian 7
Xinian 8
Xinian 9
Xinian 10
Xinian 11
Xinian 12
Xinian 13
Xinian 14
Xinian 15
Xinian 16
Xinian 17
Xinian 18
Xinian 19
Xinian 20
Xinian 21
Xinian 22
Xinian 23
Notes
Bibliography
Index