Author:
Du Heng
Defended Year:
2018
School:
Harvard University
Abstract:
This dissertation addresses the contentious issue of early authorship by proposing a new set of methodologies developed out of an engagement with both unearthed and transmitted sources. It brings into a dialogue methodological discussions from fields such as Early China, Book History, Classics, and Biblical Studies. To tackle the questions of what constitutes a text and what constitutes an author in pre-imperial China (before 211 BCE), I adapt and expand the concept of “paratext,” namely the materials enveloping the main text such as titles, book covers, author names, and prefaces. In addition to demonstrating the role of paratext in demarcating textual boundaries, this dissertation develops a system of criteria for identifying hitherto unrecognized forms of paratexts in early sources, such as the reiterations of zi yue 子曰 (the Master said), branching catalogues, and author anecdotes. Reading these features as paratextual language helps uncover new evidence concerning how early textual producers sought to circumscribe words as textual units. While many scholars dismiss early author attributions as apocryphal, I argue that the representations of author figures, real or putative, perform an instrumental role in defining and delimiting both a text and a corpus. The body chapters of this dissertation closely examine case studies straddling the transition into the imperial period, from aphorism and anecdotes preserved in bamboo manuscripts (c. 300 BCE) to excavated and received compilations such as the Yinqueshan Sunzi bingfa 銀雀山孫子兵法, Zhuangzi 莊子, Hanfeizi 韓非子, and the Chuci zhangju 楚辭章句. Its final chapter, in summing up the interactive dynamics between text-making and author-making, retraces an intriguing motif revolving around a zero-sum game between the author’s physical body and literary corpus.
Friday, August 9, 2019
Monday, August 5, 2019
Dao Companion to the Excavated Guodian Bamboo Manuscripts
Editor:
Shirley Chan
Publisher:
Springer
Publication date:
May 2019
Abstract:
This volume covers the philosophical, historical, religious, and interpretative aspects of the ancient Guodian bamboo manuscripts (郭店楚簡) which were disentombed in the Guodian Village in Hubei Province, China, in 1993. Considered to be the Chinese equivalent of the Dead Sea Scrolls, these manuscripts are archaeological finds whose importance cannot be underestimated. Many of the texts are without counterparts in the transmitted tradition, and they provide unique insights into the developments of Chinese philosophy in the period between the death of Confucius (551-479 BCE) and the writings of Mencius (c.372-289 BCE), and beyond.
Divided into two parts, the book first provides inter-textual contexts and backgrounds of the Guodian manuscripts. The second part covers the main concepts and arguments in the Guodian texts, including cosmology and metaphysics, political philosophy, moral psychology, and theory of human nature. The thematic essays serve as an introduction to the philosophical significance and the key philosophical concepts/thought of each text contained in the Guodian corpus. Each chapter has a section on the implications of the texts for the received tradition, or for the purpose of comparing some of the text(s) with the received tradition in terms of the key philosophical concepts as well as the reading and interpretation of the texts. The volume covers most of the texts inscribed on the 800-odd slips of the Guodian corpus dated to the fourth century BCE.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1. Introduction: The Excavated Guodian Bamboo Manuscripts (Shirley Chan)
Part 1. A Philological Reading of the Guodian Manuscripts: The Texts and Textual Formation
Chapter 2. The Guodian Laozi Materials (Franklin Perkins)
Chapter 3. On Citation Practices in the Guodian Manuscripts (HE Ruyue and Michael Nylan)
Chapter 4. Shu 書 (Documents) Repertoire in Argument-Based Texts from Guodian: The Case of Cheng zhi 成之 (Things Brought to Completion) (Dirk Meyer)
Chapter 5. How to Achieve Good Governance-Arguments in the Tang Yu zhi dao 唐虞之道 (The Ways of Yao and Shun) and the Zhong xin zhi dao 忠信之道 (The Ways of Uprightness and Reliability) (Michael Schimmelpfennig)
Chapter 6. Which Comes First? Dao or De: Evidence from Guodian Manuscripts (Constance A. Cook)
Chapter 7. Reading heng cheng 恆稱 in the Guodian Bamboo Text Lu Mu Gong wen Zisi 魯穆公問子思 (Duke Mu of Lu Asked Zisi) (LIAO Mingchun 廖名春)
Part 2. Philosophical Concepts and Arguments in the Guodian Manuscripts
Chapter 8. The Taiyi shengshui 太一生水 Cosmogony and Its Role in Early Chinese Thought (Erica Brindley)
Chapter 9. Daoist Philosophy as Viewed from the Guodian Manuscripts (Barbara Hendrischke)
Chapter 10. "Sagacity" and the Heaven-Human Relationship in the Wuxing 五行(Erica Brindley)
Chapter 11. The Qiong da yi shi 窮達以時 (Poverty or Success Is a Matter of Timing) and the Concept of Heaven and Humans in Early Confucianism (LIANG Tao)
Chapter 12. Xing and Qing : Human Nature and Moral Cultivation in the Guodian Text Xing zi ming chu 性自命出 (Nature Derives from Endowment) (Shirley Chan)
Chapter 13. Body and Mind in the Guodian Manuscripts (Lisa Raphals).-
Chapter 14. Daoist Nature or Confucian Nurture: Moral Development in the Yucong 語叢 (Thicket of Sayings) (Shirley Chan)
Chapter 15. The Debate over Coercive Rulership and the "Human Way" in Light of Recently Excavated Warring States Texts (Updated) (Scott Cook)
Chapter 16. The Guodian Confucian Texts and the Xunzi (TANG Siufu)
Chapter 17. From the Liu wei (Six Positions) Discussed in the Liu de (Six Virtues) to the San gang (Three Principles of Social Order) (LI Rui)
Chapter 18. Guodian: A New Window for Understanding the Introduction of Buddhism into China (Kenneth W. Holloway).
Shirley Chan
Publisher:
Springer
Publication date:
May 2019
Abstract:
This volume covers the philosophical, historical, religious, and interpretative aspects of the ancient Guodian bamboo manuscripts (郭店楚簡) which were disentombed in the Guodian Village in Hubei Province, China, in 1993. Considered to be the Chinese equivalent of the Dead Sea Scrolls, these manuscripts are archaeological finds whose importance cannot be underestimated. Many of the texts are without counterparts in the transmitted tradition, and they provide unique insights into the developments of Chinese philosophy in the period between the death of Confucius (551-479 BCE) and the writings of Mencius (c.372-289 BCE), and beyond.
Divided into two parts, the book first provides inter-textual contexts and backgrounds of the Guodian manuscripts. The second part covers the main concepts and arguments in the Guodian texts, including cosmology and metaphysics, political philosophy, moral psychology, and theory of human nature. The thematic essays serve as an introduction to the philosophical significance and the key philosophical concepts/thought of each text contained in the Guodian corpus. Each chapter has a section on the implications of the texts for the received tradition, or for the purpose of comparing some of the text(s) with the received tradition in terms of the key philosophical concepts as well as the reading and interpretation of the texts. The volume covers most of the texts inscribed on the 800-odd slips of the Guodian corpus dated to the fourth century BCE.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1. Introduction: The Excavated Guodian Bamboo Manuscripts (Shirley Chan)
Part 1. A Philological Reading of the Guodian Manuscripts: The Texts and Textual Formation
Chapter 2. The Guodian Laozi Materials (Franklin Perkins)
Chapter 3. On Citation Practices in the Guodian Manuscripts (HE Ruyue and Michael Nylan)
Chapter 4. Shu 書 (Documents) Repertoire in Argument-Based Texts from Guodian: The Case of Cheng zhi 成之 (Things Brought to Completion) (Dirk Meyer)
Chapter 5. How to Achieve Good Governance-Arguments in the Tang Yu zhi dao 唐虞之道 (The Ways of Yao and Shun) and the Zhong xin zhi dao 忠信之道 (The Ways of Uprightness and Reliability) (Michael Schimmelpfennig)
Chapter 6. Which Comes First? Dao or De: Evidence from Guodian Manuscripts (Constance A. Cook)
Chapter 7. Reading heng cheng 恆稱 in the Guodian Bamboo Text Lu Mu Gong wen Zisi 魯穆公問子思 (Duke Mu of Lu Asked Zisi) (LIAO Mingchun 廖名春)
Part 2. Philosophical Concepts and Arguments in the Guodian Manuscripts
Chapter 8. The Taiyi shengshui 太一生水 Cosmogony and Its Role in Early Chinese Thought (Erica Brindley)
Chapter 9. Daoist Philosophy as Viewed from the Guodian Manuscripts (Barbara Hendrischke)
Chapter 10. "Sagacity" and the Heaven-Human Relationship in the Wuxing 五行(Erica Brindley)
Chapter 11. The Qiong da yi shi 窮達以時 (Poverty or Success Is a Matter of Timing) and the Concept of Heaven and Humans in Early Confucianism (LIANG Tao)
Chapter 12. Xing and Qing : Human Nature and Moral Cultivation in the Guodian Text Xing zi ming chu 性自命出 (Nature Derives from Endowment) (Shirley Chan)
Chapter 13. Body and Mind in the Guodian Manuscripts (Lisa Raphals).-
Chapter 14. Daoist Nature or Confucian Nurture: Moral Development in the Yucong 語叢 (Thicket of Sayings) (Shirley Chan)
Chapter 15. The Debate over Coercive Rulership and the "Human Way" in Light of Recently Excavated Warring States Texts (Updated) (Scott Cook)
Chapter 16. The Guodian Confucian Texts and the Xunzi (TANG Siufu)
Chapter 17. From the Liu wei (Six Positions) Discussed in the Liu de (Six Virtues) to the San gang (Three Principles of Social Order) (LI Rui)
Chapter 18. Guodian: A New Window for Understanding the Introduction of Buddhism into China (Kenneth W. Holloway).
Saturday, July 27, 2019
Fruit from the Sands: The Silk Road Origins of the Foods We Eat
Author:
Robert N. Spengler III
Publisher:
University of California Press
Publication date:
July 2019
Abstract:
The foods we eat have a deep and often surprising past. From almonds and apples to tea and rice, many foods that we consume today have histories that can be traced out of prehistoric Central Asia along the tracks of the Silk Road to kitchens in Europe, America, China, and elsewhere in East Asia. The exchange of goods, ideas, cultural practices, and genes along these ancient routes extends back five thousand years, and organized trade along the Silk Road dates to at least Han Dynasty China in the second century BC. Balancing a broad array of archaeological, botanical, and historical evidence, Fruit from the Sands presents the fascinating story of the origins and spread of agriculture across Inner Asia and into Europe and East Asia. Through the preserved remains of plants found in archaeological sites, Robert N. Spengler III identifies the regions where our most familiar crops were domesticated and follows their routes as people carried them around the world. With vivid examples, Fruit from the Sands explores how the foods we eat have shaped the course of human history and transformed cuisines all over the globe.
Table of Contents:
A Word on Semantics
A Note on Dates
Map of Central Asia
Part i. How the Silk Road influenced the food you eat
1. Introduction
2. Plants on the Silk Road
3. The Silk and Spice Routes
Part i i. Artifacts of the Silk Road in your kitchen
4. The Millets
5. Rice and Other Ancient Grains
6. Barley
7. The Wheats
8. Legumes
9. Grapes and Apples
10. Other Fruits and Nuts
11. Leafy Vegetables, Roots, and Stems
12. Spices, Oils, and Tea
13. Conclusion
Appendix: European Travelers along the Silk Road
Robert N. Spengler III
Publisher:
University of California Press
Publication date:
July 2019
Abstract:
The foods we eat have a deep and often surprising past. From almonds and apples to tea and rice, many foods that we consume today have histories that can be traced out of prehistoric Central Asia along the tracks of the Silk Road to kitchens in Europe, America, China, and elsewhere in East Asia. The exchange of goods, ideas, cultural practices, and genes along these ancient routes extends back five thousand years, and organized trade along the Silk Road dates to at least Han Dynasty China in the second century BC. Balancing a broad array of archaeological, botanical, and historical evidence, Fruit from the Sands presents the fascinating story of the origins and spread of agriculture across Inner Asia and into Europe and East Asia. Through the preserved remains of plants found in archaeological sites, Robert N. Spengler III identifies the regions where our most familiar crops were domesticated and follows their routes as people carried them around the world. With vivid examples, Fruit from the Sands explores how the foods we eat have shaped the course of human history and transformed cuisines all over the globe.
Table of Contents:
A Word on Semantics
A Note on Dates
Map of Central Asia
Part i. How the Silk Road influenced the food you eat
1. Introduction
2. Plants on the Silk Road
3. The Silk and Spice Routes
Part i i. Artifacts of the Silk Road in your kitchen
4. The Millets
5. Rice and Other Ancient Grains
6. Barley
7. The Wheats
8. Legumes
9. Grapes and Apples
10. Other Fruits and Nuts
11. Leafy Vegetables, Roots, and Stems
12. Spices, Oils, and Tea
13. Conclusion
Appendix: European Travelers along the Silk Road
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
The Politics of the Past in Early China
Author:
Vincent S. Leung
Publication date:
August 2019
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Abstract:
Why did the past matter so greatly in ancient China? How did it matter and to whom? This is an innovative study of how the past was implicated in the long transition of power in early China, as embodied by the decline of the late Bronze Age aristocracy and the rise of empires over the first millenium BCE. Engaging with a wide array of historical materials, including inscriptional records, excavated manuscripts, and transmitted texts, Vincent S. Leung moves beyond the historiographical canon and explores how the past was mobilized as powerful ideological capital in diverse political debate and ethical dialogue. Appeals to the past in early China were more than a matter of cultural attitude, Leung argues, but were rather deliberate ways of articulating political thought and challenging ethical debates during periods of crisis. Significant power lies in the retelling of the past.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
1. Time out of joint: uses of the past from the Western Zhou to the early warring states
2. A parenthetical past: deep history and anti-history in the late warring states
3. Specter of the past: bureaucratic amnesia under the Rise of the Qin Empire
4. The rehabilitation of antiquity in the early Han Empire
5. Sima Qian's critical past
Epilogue
Vincent S. Leung
Publication date:
August 2019
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Abstract:
Why did the past matter so greatly in ancient China? How did it matter and to whom? This is an innovative study of how the past was implicated in the long transition of power in early China, as embodied by the decline of the late Bronze Age aristocracy and the rise of empires over the first millenium BCE. Engaging with a wide array of historical materials, including inscriptional records, excavated manuscripts, and transmitted texts, Vincent S. Leung moves beyond the historiographical canon and explores how the past was mobilized as powerful ideological capital in diverse political debate and ethical dialogue. Appeals to the past in early China were more than a matter of cultural attitude, Leung argues, but were rather deliberate ways of articulating political thought and challenging ethical debates during periods of crisis. Significant power lies in the retelling of the past.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
1. Time out of joint: uses of the past from the Western Zhou to the early warring states
2. A parenthetical past: deep history and anti-history in the late warring states
3. Specter of the past: bureaucratic amnesia under the Rise of the Qin Empire
4. The rehabilitation of antiquity in the early Han Empire
5. Sima Qian's critical past
Epilogue
Friday, July 12, 2019
水経注疏訳注（穀水篇）
Editor:
東洋文庫中国古代地域史研究グループ
Publisher:
東洋文庫
Publication year:
2019
Table of Contents:
序言
東洋文庫 中国古代地域史研究グループ,窪添 慶文
[図版] 穀水(澗河) 流域の『水経注』関連都城・集落遺跡
穀水（澗河）流域の標点移籍と穀水河道の遺構
塩沢 裕仁
漢・魏晋・北魏の洛陽城
窪添 慶文
『水経注疏』訳注凡例
『水経注疏』巻十六 穀水
『水経注疏』巻十六 甘水
『水経注疏』巻十六 漆水
『水経注疏』巻十六 滻水
『水経注疏』巻十六 沮水
『水経注疏』巻十六 影印
索引
公益財団法人東洋文庫所蔵明版水経注三種
會谷 佳光
Link:
https://toyo-bunko.repo.nii.ac.jp/index.php?action=pages_view_main&active_action=repository_view_main_item_snippet&index_id=1302&pn=1&count=20&order=17&lang=japanese&page_id=25&block_id=47
Photo credit:
東洋学報
東洋文庫中国古代地域史研究グループ
Publisher:
東洋文庫
Publication year:
2019
Table of Contents:
序言
東洋文庫 中国古代地域史研究グループ,窪添 慶文
[図版] 穀水(澗河) 流域の『水経注』関連都城・集落遺跡
穀水（澗河）流域の標点移籍と穀水河道の遺構
塩沢 裕仁
漢・魏晋・北魏の洛陽城
窪添 慶文
『水経注疏』訳注凡例
『水経注疏』巻十六 穀水
『水経注疏』巻十六 甘水
『水経注疏』巻十六 漆水
『水経注疏』巻十六 滻水
『水経注疏』巻十六 沮水
『水経注疏』巻十六 影印
索引
公益財団法人東洋文庫所蔵明版水経注三種
會谷 佳光
Link:
https://toyo-bunko.repo.nii.ac.jp/index.php?action=pages_view_main&active_action=repository_view_main_item_snippet&index_id=1302&pn=1&count=20&order=17&lang=japanese&page_id=25&block_id=47
Photo credit:
東洋学報
Wednesday, July 10, 2019
Monographs in Tang Official Historiography: Perspectives from the Technical Treatises of the History of Sui (Sui Shu)
Editors:
Daniel Patrick Morgan, Damien Chaussende
Publication date:
09/09/2019
Publisher:
Springer International Publishing
Abstract:
This book examines the role of medieval authors in writing the history of ancient science. It features essays that explore the content, structure, and ideas behind technical writings on medieval Chinese state history. In particular, it looks at the Ten Treatises of the current History of Sui 隋書, which provide insights into the writing on the history of such fields as astronomy, astrology, omenology, economics, law, geography, metrology, and library science. Three treatises are known to have been written by Li Chunfeng 李淳風, one of the most important mathematicians, astronomers, and astrologers in Chinese history.
The book not only opens a new window on the figure of Li Chunfeng by exploring what his writings as a historian of science tell us about him as a scientist and vice versa, it also discusses how and on what basis the individual treatises were written.
The essays address such themes as (1) the recycling of sources and the question of reliability and objectivity in premodern history-writing; (2) the tug of war between conservatism and innovation; (3) the imposition of the author’s voice, worldview, and personal and professional history in writing a history of a field of technical expertise in a state history; (4) the degree to which modern historians are compelled to speak to their own milieu and ideological beliefs.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: Prologue (Daniel P. Morgan and Damien Chaussende)
PART I: THE WORK OF LI CHUNFENG
Chapter 2: The Life and Intellectual Work of Li Chunfeng (602–670) (Howard L. Goodman)
Chapter 3: Numbers with Histories: Li Chunfeng on Harmonics and Astronomy (Daniel P. Morgan and Howard L. Goodman)
Chapter 4: Scholarship and Politics in Seventh Century China from the Viewpoint of Li Chunfeng’s Writing on Histories (Zhu Yiwen)
Chapter 5: The Compilation of the Astronomical Portion of the ‘Treatise on Harmono-Metrology and Mathematical Astronomy’ and its Impact (Li Liang)
Chapter 6: Heavenly Patterns (Daniel P. Morgan)
Chapter 7: The ‘Treatise on the Wuxing’ (Wuxing zhi) (Michael Nylan)
PART II: THE ANONYMOUS TREATISES
Chapter 8: The Treatise on Economics and Its Influences (Béatrice L'Haridon)
Chapter 9: The Treatise on Law (Frédéric Constant)
Chapter 10: Intertextuality, Customs and Regionalism in the ‘Geographical Treatise’ (Alexis Lycas)
Chapter 11: The Art of Producing a Catalogue: the Meaning of ‘Compilations’ for the Organisation of Ancient Knowledge in Tang Times (Pablo Ariel Blitstein)
Chapter 12: Epilogue: Treatises According to Tang Historian Liu Zhiji (Damien Chaussende)
Daniel Patrick Morgan, Damien Chaussende
Publication date:
09/09/2019
Publisher:
Springer International Publishing
Abstract:
This book examines the role of medieval authors in writing the history of ancient science. It features essays that explore the content, structure, and ideas behind technical writings on medieval Chinese state history. In particular, it looks at the Ten Treatises of the current History of Sui 隋書, which provide insights into the writing on the history of such fields as astronomy, astrology, omenology, economics, law, geography, metrology, and library science. Three treatises are known to have been written by Li Chunfeng 李淳風, one of the most important mathematicians, astronomers, and astrologers in Chinese history.
The book not only opens a new window on the figure of Li Chunfeng by exploring what his writings as a historian of science tell us about him as a scientist and vice versa, it also discusses how and on what basis the individual treatises were written.
The essays address such themes as (1) the recycling of sources and the question of reliability and objectivity in premodern history-writing; (2) the tug of war between conservatism and innovation; (3) the imposition of the author’s voice, worldview, and personal and professional history in writing a history of a field of technical expertise in a state history; (4) the degree to which modern historians are compelled to speak to their own milieu and ideological beliefs.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: Prologue (Daniel P. Morgan and Damien Chaussende)
PART I: THE WORK OF LI CHUNFENG
Chapter 2: The Life and Intellectual Work of Li Chunfeng (602–670) (Howard L. Goodman)
Chapter 3: Numbers with Histories: Li Chunfeng on Harmonics and Astronomy (Daniel P. Morgan and Howard L. Goodman)
Chapter 4: Scholarship and Politics in Seventh Century China from the Viewpoint of Li Chunfeng’s Writing on Histories (Zhu Yiwen)
Chapter 5: The Compilation of the Astronomical Portion of the ‘Treatise on Harmono-Metrology and Mathematical Astronomy’ and its Impact (Li Liang)
Chapter 6: Heavenly Patterns (Daniel P. Morgan)
Chapter 7: The ‘Treatise on the Wuxing’ (Wuxing zhi) (Michael Nylan)
PART II: THE ANONYMOUS TREATISES
Chapter 8: The Treatise on Economics and Its Influences (Béatrice L'Haridon)
Chapter 9: The Treatise on Law (Frédéric Constant)
Chapter 10: Intertextuality, Customs and Regionalism in the ‘Geographical Treatise’ (Alexis Lycas)
Chapter 11: The Art of Producing a Catalogue: the Meaning of ‘Compilations’ for the Organisation of Ancient Knowledge in Tang Times (Pablo Ariel Blitstein)
Chapter 12: Epilogue: Treatises According to Tang Historian Liu Zhiji (Damien Chaussende)
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