Early ChinaPub Date : 2022-09-01DOI: 10.1017/eac.2022.2
Yuri 銳 Pines 尤
{"title":"DIDACTIC NARRATIVE AND THE ART OF SELF-STRENGTHENING: READING THE BAMBOO MANUSCRIPT YUE GONG QI SHI 越公其事","authors":"Yuri 銳 Pines 尤","doi":"10.1017/eac.2022.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/eac.2022.2","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Yue gong qi shi 越公其事 is a recently published manuscript from the Tsinghua University collection. The manuscript provides a new version of the well-known story of King Goujian of Yue 越王句踐 (r. 496–464 b.c.e.), who turned defeat into victory and overcame Yue's formidable rival, the state of Wu 吳. My exploration of this text focuses on its two most notable aspects. First, the story about the policy of self-strengthening allegedly adopted by Goujian offers new insights into the evolution of political thought in the Warring States period. Second, the text allows deeper insight into the genre of didactic historical narratives that became prominent at a certain point of time between the Springs-and-Autumns (Chunqiu 春秋, 770–453 b.c.e.) and the Warring States (Zhanguo 戰國, 453–221 b.c.e.) periods.","PeriodicalId":11463,"journal":{"name":"Early China","volume":"45 1","pages":"375 - 412"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46022800","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Early ChinaPub Date : 2022-09-01DOI: 10.1017/eac.2022.17
D. Schaab-Hanke
{"title":"CAI YONG'S 蔡邕 READING OF THE ODES, AS SEEN FROM HIS QINCAO 琴操 AND HIS “QINGYI FU” 青衣賦","authors":"D. Schaab-Hanke","doi":"10.1017/eac.2022.17","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/eac.2022.17","url":null,"abstract":"Cai Yong 蔡邕 (132–192) was one of the most erudite scholars of the Eastern Han. A major project of his was the so-called “Stone Classics of the Xiping era” (Xiping Shijing 熹平石經) project first commissioned by Emperor Ling in 175 c.e., for which Cai Yong wrote the texts of the court-sanctioned Classics in his own calligraphy. For the text of one of these Classics, the Odes (Shi 詩), he is known to have used the so-called Lu 魯 version, which was the dominant interpretative line for the Odes classic in his time. However, the question of whether Cai Yong's literary writings also evince a preference for the Lu reading of the Odes has not yet received much scholarly consideration. In my study, the Qincao 琴操, a collection of anecdotes and song texts relating to pieces played to the accompaniment of the zither qin, a work that may also be assigned to Cai Yong but has also mostly been neglected so far, will be analyzed in relation to the Lu interpretive line, as will the “Qingyi fu” 青衣賦 (Rhapsody on a Grisette), one of Cai Yong's rhapsodies.","PeriodicalId":11463,"journal":{"name":"Early China","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"56563912","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Early ChinaPub Date : 2022-09-01DOI: 10.1017/eac.2022.18
Mark 思敏 Csikszentmihalyi 齊
{"title":"THE HAIHUNHOU CAPSULE BIOGRAPHIES OF KONGZI AND HIS DISCIPLES","authors":"Mark 思敏 Csikszentmihalyi 齊","doi":"10.1017/eac.2022.18","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/eac.2022.18","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article introduces the biographical texts accompanying illustrations of Kongzi and several disciples on the wooden frame and cover of a mirror stand excavated in 2015 from the Haihunhou tomb near Nanchang. These texts are analyzed with reference to evolving portrayals of these figures in the Western Han, paying particular attention to parallels with two generically similar chapters in the Shi ji (Records of the Archivist). Of particular interest is the way the excavated disciple biographies share biographical elements with transmitted counterparts, but select different dialogues for each disciple, most of which are also found in the Lun yu (Analects). This suggests that the artists who created the mirror stand relied on a different source text from the compilers of the Shi ji chapter, perhaps on a pairing of visual and biographical information about the disciples called Kongzi dizi (Kongzi's disciples). The biographies also evince a heightened emphasis on the disciples and Kongzi's judgments about them, consistent with the Han view that the proper selection of ministers was a key aspect of the master's “Kingly Way.”","PeriodicalId":11463,"journal":{"name":"Early China","volume":"45 1","pages":"341 - 373"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"56564016","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Early ChinaPub Date : 2022-08-23DOI: 10.1017/eac.2022.10
He Ruyue, Song Yuanru, Michael Nylan
{"title":"WESTERN HAN NOBLE BURIALS: A VIEW FROM ZHANG ANSHI'S 張安世 TOMB","authors":"He Ruyue, Song Yuanru, Michael Nylan","doi":"10.1017/eac.2022.10","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/eac.2022.10","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The family cemetery of Zhang Anshi was the first cemetery for nobles to be discovered in which the tomb occupants, dating, and gravesite orientation was so clear to investigators. As such, the site is of enormous historical significance. This essay introduces the entire site to readers and extrapolates aspects of the Western Han mourning regulations from the evidence presented by the jade suits, carriage and horse sets, tomb figurines, shrine, and layout. The essay also assesses scholarly debates concerning the degree to which Zhang Anshi's burial conforms to standards of late Western Han, and the relationship between Emperor Xuan's burial site and Duling with the site of Zhang Anshi's own tomb, questioning the traditional beliefs about “accompanying burials.”</p>","PeriodicalId":11463,"journal":{"name":"Early China","volume":"44 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-08-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138518004","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Early ChinaPub Date : 2022-07-14DOI: 10.1017/eac.2022.6
Peter Tsung Kei 棕琦 Wong 王
{"title":"THE SOUNDSCAPE OF THE HUAINANZI 淮南子: POETRY, PERFORMANCE, PHILOSOPHY, AND PRAXIS IN EARLY CHINA","authors":"Peter Tsung Kei 棕琦 Wong 王","doi":"10.1017/eac.2022.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/eac.2022.6","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article proposes that oral performance could be a philosophical activity in early China. The focus is on the Huainanzi, a densely rhymed philosophical treatise compiled by Liu An in the second century b.c.e. I show that the tome contains various sound-correlated poetic forms that are intended not only to enable textual performance but also, by means of aural mimesis, to encourage the intuitive understanding of its philosophical messages. Thus scholars of ancient poetry, philosophy, or intellectual history, despite being habituated to reading silently and observing disciplinary boundaries, should be attentive to these sonic patterns in order to do justice to the poetic-cum-philosophical richness and originality of this text. More importantly, I argue that these poetic forms enable readers and audiences to experience, embody, and, above all, enact the Way through textual performance. Thanks to the sound patterns of the Huainanzi, the somatic processes of aural reading and philosophical praxis can occur simultaneously. Vocalization becomes an actionable and repeatable spiritual exercise, which facilitates the intuitive understanding and internalization of philosophical values. In other words, the perennial knowing–doing gap is heroically closed by the Huainanzi.","PeriodicalId":11463,"journal":{"name":"Early China","volume":"45 1","pages":"515 - 539"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"56564244","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Early ChinaPub Date : 2021-11-23DOI: 10.1017/s0362502800002868
J. Scheraga
{"title":"Foreword","authors":"J. Scheraga","doi":"10.1017/s0362502800002868","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0362502800002868","url":null,"abstract":"Climate change is real. The climate has changed, is changing, and will continue to change, regardless of any human influence. But since the Industrial Revolution, human activities have begun to significantly affect the Earth’s atmosphere and climate, and the changes are expected to continue for the foreseeable future. Although the timing and magnitude of future climate change is uncertain, it will have consequences for human health, ecosystems, economic activity and social well-being. Some of the effects will be harmful, and some beneficial. The significance of the climate change issue was captured in the Joint G8 Statement, issued on 8 July 2005:","PeriodicalId":11463,"journal":{"name":"Early China","volume":"9 1","pages":"i - iii"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-11-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/s0362502800002868","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44943184","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Early ChinaPub Date : 2021-09-30DOI: 10.1017/eac.2021.1
Tsang Wing Ma
{"title":"CATEGORIZING LABORERS: GLIMPSES OF QIN MANAGEMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES FROM AN ADMINISTRATIVE DOCUMENT FROM LIYE, HUNAN PROVINCE","authors":"Tsang Wing Ma","doi":"10.1017/eac.2021.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/eac.2021.1","url":null,"abstract":"The excavation of the Qin wooden documents from Well No. 1 at Liye 里耶, Hunan province has significantly reshaped our knowledge of Qin history. This article examines a multi-slip manuscript from Liye on the Qin management of human resources in a newly conquered area, Qianling County. The manuscript is the best example of the multi-layered structure of a Qin administrative document; it also sheds new light on the difficulties the Qin encountered in resource management during the early years of unification. The manuscript shows that the responsible officials in Qianling County had failed to engage <jats:italic>tuli</jats:italic> 徒隸 (laborer-servants)—a major labor source in the Qin—in agricultural production, which appears to have deviated from the Qin strategy of managing human resources. To minimize the harmfulness that this deviation might cause, the Qin heavily relied upon a system of supervision and punishment. This article offers a contextualized study of the manuscript with an analysis of the related Qin excavated sources.","PeriodicalId":11463,"journal":{"name":"Early China","volume":"45 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138518020","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Early ChinaPub Date : 2021-09-10DOI: 10.1017/S0362502800003813
R. Thorp, E. G. Pulleyblank
{"title":"Abstracts","authors":"R. Thorp, E. G. Pulleyblank","doi":"10.1017/S0362502800003813","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0362502800003813","url":null,"abstract":"This article places the recent literature on archaeological manifestations of the Xia in context, describes and analyzes the published data for the Erlitou typesite in some detail, and examines broader issues implicit in the debate on this contentious topic. The positivism that animates so much recent literature is linked to the Anyang excavations and the promise of scientific archaeology more generally. Particular attention is given to certain of the data from the Erlitou site —its layout, architectural features, burials, and prestige craft products (ritual bronze vessels and jades)—because these have figured prominently in most discussion of the nature and identity of the site and its eponymous culture. Broader issues are addressed, albeit more briefly, as a series of nested concepts: culture and subculture, periodization, cultural succession, developmental stage, ethnicity, and dynasty. Until the formal report of the Erlitou typesite reaches print, this article proposes a \"minimal\" definition of the current archaeological data, one that does not assume the historicity of the Xia.","PeriodicalId":11463,"journal":{"name":"Early China","volume":"16 1","pages":"iii - viii"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/S0362502800003813","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46794299","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}