Reading Sima Qian from Han to Song

The Father of History in Pre-Modern China
Erscheinungsjahr 2018
ISBN: 978-90-04-37293-1
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 10, 440 Seiten, Format (B × H): 159 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 789 g

Reihe: Studies in the History of Chinese Texts

In Father of Chinese History, Esther Klein explores the life and work of the great Han dynasty historian Sima Qian as seen by readers from the Han to the Song dynasties. Today Sima Qian is viewed as both a tragic hero and a literary genius. Premodern responses to him were more equivocal: the complex personal emotions he expressed prompted readers to worry about whether his work as a historian was morally or politically acceptable. Klein demonstrates how controversies over the value and meaning of Sima Qian’s work are intimately bound up with larger questions: How should history be written? What role does individual experience and self-expression play within that process? By what standards can the historian’s choices be judged?

Autoren/Hrsg.

Klein, Esther S

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein Biographien & Autobiographien: Historisch, Politisch, Militärisch
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein Historiographie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents

Acknowledgements

List of Tables

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

Structure of the Book

Historians, Lineages, and Confucian Scholars: Good Problems in Translation

Part 1: Contextualization

1 A Record of Doubts and Difficulties

Overview

Sources and Attribution

Who is the Honorable Senior Historian?

Autobiography and Authenticity

Chu Shaosun: A Third Author?

Extreme Textual Damage and Loss

A Conclusion Leading Onward

2 Sima Qian’s Place in the Textual World

Aspects of Self-Description

Early Views of the Shiji

The New Historical Tradition

Sima Qian in the Realm of Literary Prose

Part 2: Autobiographical Readings

3 Subtle Writing and Piercing Satire

Sources for Sima Qian’s Biography

Early Autobiographical Readings

Six Dynasties Developments

Autobiographical Readings in the Tang

4 Creating and Critiquing a Sima Qian Romance

A Reversal of Verdicts

Su Shi’s Gentlemen and the Shiji

Blaming Emperor Wu

Backlash: Three Southern Song Critiques

Part 3: Reading Truth in the Shiji

5 A “True Record”

On the Term “True Record”

Issues of Historical Truth in the Shiji: Early Views

Wang Chong and “Real Events” in the Shiji

Against “Defamatory Text” Readings

Dangers of “Straight Writing” in the Tang

Song Dynasty Developments

6 Finding Truths in the Shiji’s Form

The Overall Form of the Shiji

Intention and Invention in the Shiji’s Five Sections

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Esther Sunkyung Klein, Ph.D. (2010), Princeton University, is a lecturer in the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Sydney and a visiting researcher (2018) in the Department of Philosophy at the Australian National University. She also researches topics in early Chinese philosophy and medieval Chinese historiography.