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Product Description: 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...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: "... an essential source for the study of events in early China, a guide to the moral philosophy of the gentlemen of Han, and a splendid work of literature which may be read for the pleasure of its style and the power of its narrative...read more

Product Description: Andre Levy sets out in this slim volume to provide a picture of Chinese literature of the past. He does so not in lengthy dissertations on literature, but by blending the colors of approximately 120 vivid translations with his personal insights on these works, and then framing these readings in innovative historical accounts...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: 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...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: 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...read more

Product Description: André Lévy provides a "picture of Chinese literature of the past" that brilliantly illustrates the four great literary genres of China: the classics, prose, poetry, and the literature of entertainment. His discussion of approximately 120 vivid translations combines personal insights with innovative historical accounts in a genre-based approach that moves beyond the typical chronology of dynasties...read more

Product Description: The book begins with a history of previous translations of Tang tales, surveying how Chinese scholarship has shaped the reception and rendition of these texts in the West. In that context, Tang Dynasty Tales offers the first annotated translations of six major tales (often called chuanqi, "transmitting the strange") which are interpreted specifically for students and scholars interested in medieval Chinese literature...read more

The 16 chapters translated herein continue the biographies of individuals in pre-Han China presented in volume seven of The Grand Scribe's Records. The reader is introduced to the major supporters and rivals of the founders of the Han Dynasty: the generals, advisors, strategists, and ministers who helped to shape the foundations of the first sustained empire in Chinese history. Although these men were often of common stock, they influenced the development of many aspects of the Han culture, a culture which in turn served as a model for subsequent eras. Based on oral and written accounts as well as on administrative records, these biographies range stylistically from anecdotal tales to repetitious reports of achievements in battle. The failure of the first five Han emperors to trust the loyalty of their subordinates is a leitmotif in many of these chapters. But the individual motifs that echo other sections of the Grand Scribe's Records―unrecognized heroes, both loyal and disloyal retainers, broken friendships, and faithless lovers―also appear in these pages.

Product Description: This volume supplements Tang Tales, A Guided Reader (Volume 1; 2010) and presents twelve more Tang tales, going beyond the standard corpus of these narratives to include six stories translated into English for the first time. The rich annotation and translator's notes for these twelve tales provide insights into many aspects of Tang material culture and medieval thought, including Buddhism and Daoism...read more