The Grand Scribe's Records, Volume 7: The Memoirs of Pre-Han China - Tapa dura

These volumes are most welcome. . . . The English translation has been done meticulously, with full scholarly apparatus. . . . These volumes are essential library additions. * Choice * [T]he Grand Scribe's Records volume 8 is a remarkable achievement and an interesting experiment in combining something resembling a traditional Chinese commentarial style with a Western scholarly context. . . . And, as with previous volumes, the intrepid beginner or the careful specialist will find volume 8 to be ahelpful aid to research on the Shiji. * China Review International *

This volume is part of the first complete translation (in nine volumes) of the "Shih chi" ("The Grand Scribe's Records"), one of the most important narratives in traditional China. Compiled by Ssu-ma Ch'ien (145-c. 86 B.C.), it draws upon most major early historical works and was the foremost model for style and genre in Chinese history and literature through the eleventh century A. D., and through the early twentieth century for some genres. Volume 7, "The Memoirs of Pre_Han China", translates twenty-eight Lieh-chuan or 'memoirs' which depict more than a hundred men and women: sages and scholars, recluses and rhetoricians, persuaders and politicians, commandants and cutthroats of the Ch'in and earlier dynasties. Although the memoirs also begin with what is now often considered myth - an account of the renowned recluses Po Yi and Shu Ch'i - the emphasis in these texts is on the fate of various states and power centers as seen through the biographies of key individuals from the seventh to the third centuries B.C. The contents include: Po Yi, Memoir 1; Kuan Yi-wu and Yen Ying, Memoir 2; Lao Tzu and Han Fei, Memoir 3; Marshal Jang-chu, Memoir 4; Sun Tzu and Wu Ch'i, Memoir 5; Wu Tzu Hsu, Memoir 6; Confucius's Disciples, Memoir 7; The Lord of Shang, Memoir 8; Su Ch'in, Memoir 9; Chang Yi, Memoir 10; Shu-li Tzu and Kan Mao, Memoir 11; The Marquis of Jang, Memoir 12; Pai Ch'i and Wang Chien, Memoir 13; Meng Tzu and Excellency Hsun, Memoir 14; The Lord of Meng-ch'ang, Memoir 15; The lord of P'ing-yuan and Excellency Yu, Memoir 16; The Noble Scion of Wei, Memoir 17; The Lord of Ch'un-shen, Memoir 18; Fan Sui and Ts'ai Tse, Memoir 19; Yueh Yi, Memoir 20; Lien P'o and Lin Hsiang-ju, Memoir 21; T'ien Tan, Memoir 22; Lu Chung Lien and Tsou Yang, Memoir 23; Ch'u Yuan and Scholar Chia, Memoir 24; Lu Pu-wei, Memoir 25; The Assassin-Retainers, Memoir 26; Li Ssu, Memoir 27; Meng T'ien, Memoir 28; Bibliography; Index; and Maps.