List of Tables
List of Sets
Acknowledgments
Scholarly Conventions
Chronology: Lu Rulers of the Spring and Autumn
Introduction
1. Orientations: Approaches to Spring and Autumn
Historiography
2. Recording the Day
3. Encoding Individual Rank
4. An Idealized Interstate Order
5.Registering Judgments
6. Concealing Submission
Conclusions: Spring and Autumn Historiography and the
Formally Regular Core
Appendix 1: Defining a "Record"
Appendix 2: Event Types in the Spring and Autumn
Appendix 3: Diachronic Changes in Frequency and Form in the
Spring and Autumn
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Newell Ann Van Auken teaches at the University of Iowa. She is the author of The Commentarial Transformation of the Spring and Autumn (2016).
Newell Ann Van Auken's pathbreaking scholarship demolishes the old
conventional view of the Spring and Autumn as a dull and
uninteresting chronicle. Her elegant analysis of how the text's
rule-based formulaic language served the interests of the lords of
Lu opens the way to an exciting new view of the political dynamics
of early China. -- John S. Major, cotranslator of Luxuriant Gems
of the Spring and Autumn
Lucid and rigorous, this analysis of the Spring and Autumn
is the most valuable study we have of this important early Chinese
chronicle. Van Auken's careful reconstruction of the formal
requirements for event notations in the chronicle dramatically
advances our understanding of this crucial type of
historiographical activity, calling into doubt the traditional
association of the chronicle with Confucius and revealing its
function in displaying the hierarchical claims and ambitions of the
state of Lu. -- David Schaberg, author of A Patterned Past: Form
and Thought in Early Chinese Historiography
This book-length study of Chunqiu (Spring and
Autumn), the first in a Western language, is clearly written
and impeccably argued. Through careful analysis, Van Auken
convincingly demonstrates that ancient Lu annalists created a rigid
verbal form through which they present an idealized and blatantly
biased picture of their home state. A brilliant study certain to
become a foundation for all subsequent Chunqiu scholarship.
-- Stephen Durrant, professor emeritus, University of Oregon
This book is an eye-opener. Combining philological acumen with
theoretical understanding, Van Auken uncovers the regular patterns
that underlie the Spring and Autumn. Her analysis of how the
text arranges-or omits-information provides unprecedented insight
into the history and function of this seemingly enigmatic classic.
-- Kai Vogelsang, Universitat Hamburg
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