Early China Special Monograph Series
No. 1: A Concordance of the Xiaotun Nandi Oracle-Bone Inscriptions, by Cai Fangpei, Edward L. Shaughnessy, and James F. Shaughnessy Jr.
This item is no longer available.
No. 2: Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide, edited by Michael Loewe
This book includes descriptive articles on 64 literary works written or compiled before the end of the Han Dynasty. Contributions by leading scholars from the United States and Europe summarize the subject matter and contents, present conclusions regarding authorship, authenticity and textual history, and indicate outstanding problems that await solution. Each item is supported by lists of traditional and modern editions, commentaries, translations, and research aids.
No. 3: New Sources of Early Chinese History, edited by Edward L. Shaughnessy.
No longer available.
No. 4: Chinese Writing, by Qiu Xigui, translated by Gilbert L. Mattos and Jerry Norman
Chinese Writing is a translation of Qiu Xigui’s renowned Wenzixue gaiyao 文字學概要, based on the revised edition published in 1994 in Taipei by the Wanjuanlou Tushu Co. Ltd. Recognized as the most authoritative work of its type, Chinese Writing discusses in detail the nature, composition, history, and evolution of Chinese script, drawing upon a wide variety of original source materials from Shang oracle bones to slips of paper from Dunhuang. By providing a comprehensive basis for the analysis of Chinese script, Chinese Writing represents an outstanding contribution not only to the field of Chinese grammatology but to grammatology as a whole. The translation by Gilbert L. Mattos and Jerry Norman represents the first scholarly, systematic study on the subject published in a Western language. The usefulness of Professor Qiu’s original work has been enhanced by the addition of new indexes of characters discussed and topics, as well as a classified bibliography of all sources cited in the text.
No. 5: The Guodian Laozi: Proceedings of the International Conference, edited by Sarah Allan and Crispin Williams
The Guodian Laozi: Proceedings of the International Conference is the first major publication in English on the bamboo strips excavated from a late fourth century BCE Chu-state tomb at Guodian 郭店, Hubei, in 1993. The monograph followed the first international conference held in the US on these manuscripts, attended by leading scholars from China, the United States, Europe, and Japan.
The monograph includes individually authored essays, covering several topics related to the discovery, such as the archaeological background; the conservation and ordering of the bamboo slips; the transcription and interpretation of the graphs; the relationship between the Guodian Laozi materials and the received text; and the Confucian texts from the Guodian tomb. It includes the full text in Chinese with an apparatus that gives slip and graph numbers, the original transcription of variant and loan graphs, other suggested readings for graphs, and notes on pertinent features of the text. The fourth section contains supplementary materials, including additional textual notes and afterthoughts by participants as well as a critical summary of Chinese scholarship in the year after the conference with complete bibliography.
No. 6: Japanese Scholarship on Early China, 1987-1991, edited by Lothar von Falkenhausen
Japanese Scholarship on Early China, 1987-1991 presents translations of eleven summaries of Japanese scholarship on early China from Shigaku zasshi for those years. With this translation, there is now a complete record in English of Japanese scholarly publications on early China since 1975. The monograph was undertaken by the Society for the Study of Early China to ensure that any scholars of early China may benefit from more intimate knowledge of the work of their Japanese colleagues. Given the range of subjects covered in the summaries — including archaeology, art history, epigraphy, linguistics, philology, ethnography, biography, politics, economic history, historical geography, history of science, philosophy, and religion — the monograph is itself a rich mine of information and a valuable source of bibliographic references. In addition, readers will find the monograph (along with the summaries published in Early China) an indispensable guide to current trends in Japanese scholarship on early China — to the theoretical issues, research methods, analytic terminology, and scholarly groupings. The utility of the monograph is enhanced by an author index (including corrections of names that were mistranscribed in Early China) and a subject index.
No. 7: A Source Book of Ancient Chinese Bronze Inscriptions, edited by Constance A. Cook and Paul R. Goldin (Revised edition)
Bronze inscriptions are not only the most important category of historical sources for the Chinese Bronze Age, but also records of crucial rituals in ancient Chinese religious life. Addressed both to unborn descendants and to the spirits of deceased ancestors, bronze inscriptions, and the ceremonies they memorialized, connected the human world to the spirit world, and linked the generations of a lineage for all time.
This source book is a collaborative effort involving ten scholars, including Constance A. Cook, Wolfgang Behr, Robert Eno, Paul R. Goldin, Martin Kern, Maria Khayutina, David W. Pankenier, David Sena, Laura Skosey, Yan Sun. It begins with an editorial introduction outlining the significance of bronze inscriptions, followed by more focused discussions of subjects such as the implied ceremonies of bronze inscriptions, typological trends, and modern interpretive methods. The body of the book consists of eighty-two illustrative inscriptions, each with a brief introduction detailing the historical value and distinctive features of the text, as well as a list of further readings. The book concludes with a glossary of technical terms, a comprehensive bibliography, and an index.