The Grand Scribe's Records, Volume VII: The Memoirs of Pre-Han China

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.

Table of Contents:
Dedication Acknowledgements Introduction On Using This Book A Note on Chronology Weights and Measures List of Abbreviations Po Yi, Memoir Kuan Yi-wu and Yen Ying, Memoir Lao Tzu and Han Fei, Memoir Marshal Jang-chu, Memoir Sun Tzu and Wu Ch'i, Memoir Wu Tzu Hsu, Memoir Confiucius's Disciples, Memoir The Lord of Shang, Memoir Su Ch'in, Memoir Chang Yi, Memoir Shu-li Tzu and Kan Mao, Memoir The Marquis of Jang, Memoir Pai Ch'i and Wang Chien, Memoir Meng Tzu and Excellency Hsun, Memoir The Lord of Meng-ch'ang, Memoir The Lord of P'ing-yuan and Excellency Yu, Memoir The Noble Scion of Wei, Memoir The Lord of Ch'un-shen, Memoir Fan Sui and Ts'ai Tse, Memoir Yueh Yi, Memoir Lien P'o and Lin Hsiang-ju, Memoir T'ien Tan, Memoir Lu Chung Lien and Tsou Yang, Memoir Ch'u Yuan and Scholar Chia, Memoir Lu Pu-wei, Memoir The Assassin-Retainers, Memoir Li Ssu, Memoir Meng T'ien, Memoir Bibliography Index Maps

About the Author :
Ssu-ma Ch'ien (145–ca. 86 BC) served for several decades as a high official at the court of the Han Emperor Wu around the year 100 BC. As China's greatest historian, he overcame political and personal conflicts to complete this huge narrative account of ancient China, from its beginnings through the end of the second century BC. William H. Nienhauser, Jr., is Halls-Bascom Professor Emeritus of Classical Chinese Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His books include The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature (two volumes, Indiana University Press, 1985, 1998), (as translator) Chinese Literature, Ancient and Classical by André Lévy (Indiana University Press, 2000), and (as editor and translator) the previous volumes of The Grand Scribe's Records. He is a founding editor of the journal Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR).

Review :
"[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 "These volumes are most welcome. . . . The English translation has been done meticulously, with full scholarly apparatus. . . . These volumes are essential library additions."—Choice