Ssu-ma Ch'ien

This second volume of the ongoing annotated translation of Ssu-ma Ch'ien's Shih chi (The Grand Scribe's Records), widely acknowledged as the most important early Chinese history, contains the "basic annals" of five early Han-dynasty emperors. The annals trace the first century of Han rule (206 b.c. to ca. 100 b.c.) in a year-by-year account that focuses on imperial activities. In these later annals, Ssu-ma Ch'ien revitalized the style he had employed in accounts of previous rulers in the opening chapters of The Grand Scribe's Records. When this translation is completed, it will make available in English all 130 chapters of the Shih chi. Volumes 1 and 7 were published by Indiana University Press in 1994.

The Basic Annals of the Han Dynasty

The Grand Scribe's Records, Volume II

With Part I of the two-part fifth volume of Ssu-ma Ch'ien's Shi chi (The Grand Scribe's Records), we enter the world of the shih chia or "hereditary houses." These ten chapters trace the history of China's first states, from their establishment in the 11th century B.C. until their incorporation in the first empire under the Ch'in in 221 B.C. Combining myth, anecdote, chronicle, and biography based on early written and oral sources, many no longer extant, the narratives make for compelling reading, as dramatic and readable as any in this grand history.

The Hereditary Houses of Pre-Han China, Part I

The Grand Scribe's Records, Volume V. 1

This volume of The Grand Scribe's Records includes the second segment of Han-dynasty memoirs and deals primarily with men who lived and served under Emperor Wu (r. 141–87 B.C.). The lead chapter presents a parallel biography of two ancient physicians, Pien Ch'üeh and Ts'ang Kung, providing a transition between the founding of the Han dynasty and its heyday under Wu. The account of Liu P'i is framed by the great rebellion he led in 154 B.C. and the remaining chapters trace the careers of court favorites, depict the tribulations of an ill-fated general, discuss the Han's greatest enemy, the Hsiung-nu, and provide accounts of two great generals who fought them. The final memoir is structured around memorials by two strategists who attempted to lead Emperor Wu into negotiations with the Hsiung-nu, a policy that Ssu-ma Ch'ien himself supported.

The Memoirs of Han China, Part II

The Grand Scribe's Records, Volume IX

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 Memoirs of Pre-Han China

The Grand Scribe's Records, Volume VII

William H. Nienhauser

司馬遷

This second volume of the ongoing annotated translation of Ssu-ma Ch'ien's Shi chi(The Grand Scribe's Records), widely acknowledged as the most important early Chinese history, contains the "basic annals" of five early Han-dynasty emperors. The annals trace the first century of Han rule (206 BC to ca. 100 BC) in a year-by-year account that focuses on imperial activities. In The Grand Scribe's Records, Ssu-ma Ch'ien revitalised the style of the annals he had written for previous rulers. Here are accounts of the peasant who founded the dynasty, Liu Pang, a man noted as much for his licentiousness as he was his ruthless political instinct, and of his cruel wife, Empress Lÿ, who murdered her chief rival for Liu Pang's affections in the most gruesome manner. The annals of two relatively undistinguished emperors follow. The volume concludes with Ssu-ma's depiction of perhaps the greatest ruler of the Han, Emperor Wu, told within the context of his delusive attempts to find a means to achieve immortality. When completed this translation will bring all 130 chapters of the Shih chi into English. Volumes 1 and 7 were published by Indiana University Press in 1994.

The Grand Scribe's Records

A remarkable document of ancient Chinese history: “[An] indispensable addition to modern sinology.” —China Review International This volume of The Grand Scribe’s Records includes the second segment of Han-dynasty memoirs and deals primarily with men who lived and served under Emperor Wu (r. 141–87 B.C.). The lead chapter presents a parallel biography of two ancient physicians, Pien Ch’üeh and Ts’ang Kung, providing a transition between the founding of the Han dynasty and its heyday under Wu. The account of Liu P’i is framed by the great rebellion he led in 154 B.C. and the remaining chapters trace the careers of court favorites, depict the tribulations of an ill-fated general, discuss the Han’s greatest enemy, the Hsiung-nu, and provide accounts of two great generals who fought them. The final memoir is structured around memorials by two strategists who attempted to lead Emperor Wu into negotiations with the Hsiung-nu, a policy that Ssu-ma Ch’ien himself supported.

The Grand Scribe’s Records, Volume XI presents the final nine memoirs of Ssu-ma Ch’ien’s history, continuing the series of collective biographies with seven more prosopographies on the ruthless officials, the wandering gallants, the artful favorites, those who discern auspicious days, turtle and stalk diviners, and those whose goods increase, punctuated by the final account of Emperor Wu’s wars against neighboring peoples and concluded with Ssu-ma Ch’ien’s postface containing a history of his family and himself.

Ssu-ma Ch'ien

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