Early Chinese Historiography
Oracle Bone Inscriptions (Shang Dynasty, ca. 1570-1045 BCE)
Oldest corpus of Chinese writing. These inscriptions record the divinations performed at the court of the last nine Shang Kings (starting with Wu Ding, who died in 1189 BCE). The king or his diviners would address an oral charge about the future (the weather, the harvest) or a plan to be executed (a war, a hunt), and then apply an intense heat source to hollows bored into the back of a cattle scapula or turtle shell, and then interprete the resultant stress cracks as auspicious or inauspicious. The question, and often also the answer of the oracle, would then be incised into the bone and kept as a record. The bones were discovered in 1898 near Anyang (Henan province); local inhabitants had found these bones for ages, but had not realized what the bones were and generally reburied them or ground them up as "dragon bones" for medicine. Now finally late Qing scholars recognized their true nature. Private collectors and archaeologists eventually collected over 200,000 oracle bone fragments from the area, which must have been the Shang's major sacra-administrative center (possibly Yin, the capital of the last twelve kings of the Shang). The inscriptions contain around 5,000 different characters, though only about 1,200 of them have been identified with certainty. They provide important information on the late Shang period, and scholars have reconstructed the Shang royal genealogy from the cycle of ancestral sacrifices they record. These records confirmed the existence of the Shang, which some scholars had until then doubted.
Translations: Sources p. 5-23; Mair p. 3.
[Ox scapula recording divinations by Zheng in the reign of King Wu Ding]Inscriptions on Bronze Vessels (Western Zhou Dynasty, 1045-771 BCE)
Thousands of inscriptions from the Western Zhou dynasty (1045-771 BCE) have come down to us, cast into ritual bronze vessels. Such vessels were generally intended to commemorate some achievement of the person for whom they were cast, and run the gamut from the briefest mention of the name of the addressee, to narratives of several hundred characters, recounting appointments at court, victories in battle, etc. Those inscriptions are reliable sources - especially as we have very little written sources for the Western Zhou - but they of course only enlighten us about a narrow segment of society.
Translations: Mair p 4-6.
[A bronze vessel from the Fu Hao Tomb,
where many vessels with inscriptions were found]Shang Shu (Venerated documents) or Shu Jing (Classic of documents)
Proclamations of Zhou and pre-Zhou rulers. The book has had a convoluted history. The pieces all pretend to date from the 3rd millennium BCE down to the 7th c. BCE. About half of the text was lost during the Han and reconstituted or forged in the 3rd or 4th c. CE. Of the remainder, just a handful of pieces are pre-Zhou. Other parts of it can not have been written earlier than the 3rd c. BCE, which is probably the time when the book was put together. Earlier, the various pieces circulated separately. By comparison with the style of archaic Chinese used in bronze vessel inscriptions from the Western Zhou, the following parts of the Shang Shu are probably authentic (note that in traditional China the whole Shang Shu was seen as a true record of the words and deeds of ancient rulers):- The Five Gao (Announcements) chapters (Da Gao "The Great Announcement", Jiu Gao "Announcement about Drunkenness" (these two record speeches by King Wu's son and successor King Cheng); Kang Gao (Announcement ot the Prince of Kang", Luo Gao (Announcement concerning Luo" (two speeches by the Duke of Zhou), Shao Gao "Announcement of the Duke of Shao" (a speech by the Duke of Shao)
- Jun Shi "Prince Shi" - a statement of political philosophy spoken by the Duke of Zhou to the Duke of Shao;
- Gu Ming "Testamentary Charge" - King Cheng's final testament.
- The Hong Fan "Great Plan" and Jin Teng "The Metal-Bound Coffer" chapters are often considered as important, but in fact these betray both linguistic and conceptual traits for which there is no evidence before the Late Spring and Autumn period (770-481 BCE) at the earliest.
- Two further speeches ascribed to the Duke of Zhou are border cases, as they are probably of Western Zhou date but written after the time of the Duke of Zhou.
- Pan Geng is supposed to have been a speech delivered by a Shang king in c. 1250 BCE, but the language is so different from that of the oracle bone inscriptions we also have from this period, that it is highly unlikely Pan Geng was written during the Shang dynasty.
Shang Shu at Chinese text project, Chinese text with full translation by James Legge: https://ctext.org/shang-shu
The full translation in Penguin Classics is not up to the necessary scholarly level and too idiosyncratic, so it can not be recommended.
Partial translations: Sources p. 29-37 (Canon of Yao, Canon of Shun, The Great Plan, The Metal-Bound Coffer, Announcement of the Duke of Shao): Mair p. 507-510 (The Great Announcement); Owen p. 124-125 (Tang's Vow); Watson p 21-36 (Announcement of the Duke of Shao, The Metal-Bound Coffer).
[A page of an annotated Shujing manuscript from the 7th century,
held by the Tokyo National Museum] Chunqiu (Spring and Autumn Annals)
Chronicle of the state of Lu (the state where Confucius lived) covering the years 722 to 481. The Spring and Autumn Annals was probably composed in the 5th c. BCE. Spring and Autumn' is equivalent to 'Annals, digested under the four seasons of every year,' only two seasons being given for the sake of brevity. It is the earliest surviving Chinese historical text in annals form (other Zhou states kept similar records, but these have all been lost). The records are very terse: they record events that occurred in Lu during each year, such as the accessions, marriages, deaths, and funerals of rulers, battles fought, sacrificial rituals observed, celestial phenomena considered ritually important, and natural disasters. The entries average only 10 characters per entry, and contain no elaboration on events or recording of speeches. But because the Annals was traditionally regarded as having been compiled by Confucius (after a claim to this effect by Mencius), it was included as one of the Five Classics. The Annals' succinct style was interpreted as Confucius' deliberate attempt to convey "lofty principles in subtle words," making commentaries necessary to bring that out (an example: using the normal word for "death" in the case of the decease of a ruler and not the specific honorable term usual in the case of rulers, to show that a particular ruler had not behaved as he should). Three commentaries have survived: the Commentary of Gongyang, the Commentary of Guliang, and the Commentary of Zuo. The Gongyang and Guliang commentaries were compiled during the 2nd c. BCE, although they may incorporate earlier written and oral traditions of explanation from the period of Warring States. The Commentary of Zuo (Zuo Zhuan) is different in character and will be treated below. The Annals became so important that the era they treat became generally known as the Spring and Autumn period (771-476 BCE).
Vol V of the Chinese Classics by James Legge contains a translation of the Spring and Autumn Annals: Part one https://archive.org/details/chineseclassics01legggoog, and Part two https://archive.org/details/chineseclassics03legggoog. The Zuozhuan is also included.
Watson pp. 37-40.Zuo Zhuan (the Commentary of Zuo or Zuo Tradition)
Besides textual exegesis, the 30 chapter Zuo Zhuan also contains succinctly told, highly detailed accounts of the events recorded in the Chunqiu, and of events of the same period not mentioned therein. It thus offers a lively and variegated picture of Chinese chivalrous society from the 8th to 5th c. BCE and its wars. The center of gravity of the book is not with the state of Lu, but with the state of Jin. The Zuo Zhuan was probably originally written as a stand-alone work (probably in the second half of the 4th c. BCE) and only later cut up into a commentary on the Chunqiu. The period it covers is also a bit off: 722 BCE to 468 BCE. The Zuo Zhuan is the first narrative history we have from China and by far the best historiographical work we have from the ages before the Han dynasty. The Zuo Zhuan is also the source of many Chinese sayings and idioms, and its concise, flowing style came to be considered as a model of elegant classical Chinese. Its tendency toward third-person narration and portraying characters through direct speech and action became hallmarks of Chinese narrative in general, and its style was imitated by historians, storytellers, and ancient style prose masters for over 2000 years of Chinese history.
Note: The Guoyu (Discourses of the States) is a collection of 240 speeches attributed to rulers and their advisors from the same period as the Zuo Zhuan. The anonymous work was at least partly compiled on the basis of the same materials as the Zuo Zhuan. However, it has none of the literary qualities of the Zuo Zhuan - the speeches are very didactic and cumbersome.
Modern translation: The Tso Chuan, Selections from China's Oldest Narrative History, by Burton Watson (Columbia UP 1989).
A complete translation can be found in Legge's translation of the Spring and Autumn Annals (cut up to fit the Chunqiu, so see above). Another web-based Legge edition (perhaps easier to read than the previous one) can be found here.
Other partial translations: Watson pp. 40-66; Owen p. 78-80 and 125-27; Mair 514-17.
Zhanguoce (The Intrigues of the Warring States)
The Spring and Autumn period is followed by the Warring States period (475-221 BCE), an era characterized by warfare, as well as bureaucratic and military reforms and consolidation. It concluded with the Qin wars of conquest which led to that state's victory over all other states in 221 BCE and the establishment of the first unified Chinese empire. The chapters of the Zhanguoce take the form of anecdotes which serve to illustrate various strategies and tricks employed by the Warring States. With the focus more on providing general political insights than on presenting the whole history of the period, there is no stringent year-by-year dating. Stories are sorted chronologically by under which ruler they take place, but within the reign of a single king there is no way to tell if the time elapsed between two anecdotes is a day or a year. Most of the 452 longer and shorter texts consist of speeches or letters addressed to a prince or high minister in order to persuade him to a certain policy, or to make him abandon one. The emphasis is on the persuasiveness of the arguments and not on the correctness of the proposed action. The style is sharp and sometimes witty, and to support the argumentation often fables and anecdotes are employed. However, the historical reliability of these texts is very limited; probably many of them were written as a school exercise in speaking persuasively in response to a hypothetical assignment. The Zhanguoce was compiled in the second half of the first century BCE by the imperial court librarian Liu Xiang. Due to its amoral political opportunism, the Zhanguoce has often been criticized, although the text has also been admired for its style.
Full translation: Chan-kuo Ts'e by J.I. Crump (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970); partial translation: Legends of the Warring States, Persuasions, Romances and Stories from the Chan-kuo Ts'e, by J.I. Crump (Michigan UP 1999). Also see Watson p. 74-91.
Chinese text at Chinese text project: https://ctext.org/zhan-guo-ceShiji (Records of the Grand Historian)
The Shiji is a monumental history of ancient China finished around 94 BCE by the Western Han Dynasty official Sima Qian (140-87) after having been started by his father, Sima Tan, Grand Astrologer to the imperial court. The Shiji is a history from the earliest (mythical) times to the reign of Emperor Wu of Han in the author's own time. The history was compiled on the basis of the historical works discussed above, comparable texts which since have been lost, and verbal accounts Sima Qian collected during his many travels through the Chinese empire. The Shiji consists of 130 chapters in five genres:- Basic Annals: largely similar to records from the ancient Chinese court chronicle tradition, such as the Spring and Autumn Annals.
- Tables: one genealogical table and nine chronological tables. They show reigns, important events, and royal lineages in table form.
- Treatises: eight chapters on the historical evolution of ritual, music, pitch pipes, the calendar, astronomy, sacrifices, rivers and waterways, and financial administration.
- Hereditary Houses: the histories of the various states during the Zhou dynasty, as well as the most important domains under the Han dynasty.
- Biographies: the largest of the five sections, covering more than 40% of the work. Biographical profiles of about 130 outstanding ancient Chinese; some chapters are dedicated to one particular person, others are about two related figures; and again others cover small groups of figures who shared certain roles, such as assassins, caring officials, or Confucian scholars. Unlike most modern biographies, the biographies do not describe individual persons as fully as possible, but instead try to give an impression of the exemplary fulfillment of a social role. The last chapters in this section describe the relations between China and various neighboring peoples.
The Records set the model for the 24 subsequent dynastic histories of China (only the section Hereditary Houses would be dropped as not relevant in later times, for the rest all dynastic histories follow the model of the Shiji, breaking history up into smaller, overlapping units dealing with famous leaders, individuals, and major topics of significance.
Translations: Watson, Burton, trans. (1961). Records of the Grand Historian of China. New York: Columbia University Press; Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang (1974), Records of the Historian. Hong Kong: Commercial Press;
William H. Nienhauser, Jr., ed. (1994– ). The Grand Scribe's Records, 9 vols. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Ongoing translation, and being translated out of order. As of 2020, 92 out of 130 chapters.
Studies: Durrant, Stephen (2001). "The Literary Features of Historical Writing". In Mair, Victor H. (ed.). The Columbia History of Chinese Literature. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. pp. 493–510; Watson, Burton (1958). Ssu Ma Ch'ien Grand Historian Of China. Columbia University Press; The Cloudy Mirror, Tension and Conflict in the Writings of Sima Qian, by Stephen W. Durrant (State University of New York Press, 1995).
The Shiji in Chinese text project: https://ctext.org/shiji
[Records of the Grand Historian. Transcription; oldest manuscript of the Shiji; handed down in the Oe family. Tohoku University, Sendai]Hanshu (Book of Han or History of the Former Han)
History covering the Western, or Former Han dynasty from the first emperor in 206 BCE to the fall of Wang Mang in 23 CE, based on the model of the Shiji, but now only for one dynasty. The work was composed by Ban Gu (32–92 CE), an Eastern Han court official, with the help of his sister Ban Zhao, continuing the work of their father, Ban Biao. The work was finished in 111. More than the Shiji, the Hanshu relies on preserved source material. What is gained in historical reliability, is lost in liveliness. For the periods it overlapped with the Shiji, Ban Gu adopted nearly verbatim much of Sima Qian's material. An outstanding scholar in her own right, Ban Gu's sister Ban Zhao is thought to have written volumes 13–20 (eight chronological tables) and 26 (treatise on astronomy). As with the Records of the Grand Historian, Zhang Qian, a notable Chinese general who traveled to the west, was a key source for the cultural and socio-economic data on the Western Regions contained in the 96th fascicle. From the Tang dynasty on, the compilation of the history of the previous dynasty would be undertaken by a large governmental bureau.
Translation: Watson, Burton. 1974. Courtier and Commoner in Ancient China. Selections from the History of the Former Han. Columbia University Press, New York. (A translation of chapters 54, 63, 65, 67, 68, 71, 74, 78, 92, and 97).
Hanshu in Chinese text project: https://ctext.org/han-shu
[Three Heroes of Three Kingdoms, by Sakurai Sekkan (1715–1790),
depicting Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.]Sanguozhi (Records of the Three Kingdoms)
The history of the late Eastern Han dynasty (c. 184–220 CE) and the Three Kingdoms period (220–280 CE), written by Chen Shou in the third century. The work synthesizes the histories of the rival states of Wei, Shu and Wu in the Three Kingdoms period into a single compiled text. Chen Shou (233–297) was a former Shu state official. The work was not based on an official commission, but done on the initiative of Chen Shou himself. In the fifth century, Pei Songzhi (372-451) was ordered by Emperor Wen of the Liu Song dynasty to write an extensive commentary on the work, because the text was too concise and contained too many errors. The commentary, which was completed in 429, was remarkably thorough and modern from a historiographical point of view.
The reason I mention The Records of the Three Kingdoms here, is that it became the main source for the 14th century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguo Yenyi), one of the most popular Chinese novels.
Translation (partial): Robert Joe Cutter and William Gordon Crowell, Empresses and Consorts: Selections from Chen Shou's Records of the Three States With Pei Songzhi's Commentary (University of Hawaii Press, 1999). Includes volumes 5, 34, and 50.
The Sanguozhi in Chinese text project: https://ctext.org/sanguozhi
The novel of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms exists in three translations: by Charles H. Brewitt-Taylor, (Tuttle Publishing), Moss Roberts (California UP) and Yu Sumei, edited by Ronald C. Iverson (Tuttle Publishing).
References:
An Anthology of Chinese Literature by Stepen Owen, Norton 1996; The Cambridge History of Ancient China (ed. Michael Loewe and Edward L. Shaughnessy), Cambridge UP 1999; The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature (ed. Victor Mair), Columbia UP 1994; The Columbia History of Chinese Literature (editor: Victor Mair), Columbia UP 2001; Early Chinese Literature by Burton Watson, Columbia UP 1962; A Guide to Chinese Literature by Wilt Idema and Lloyd Haft (Michigan UP 1997); Sources of the Chinese Tradition from the earliest times to 1600 (compiled by WM. Theodore de Bary & Irene Bloom), Columbia UP 1999.
All photos from Wikimedia Commons.