A Patterned Past: Form and Thought in Early Chinese Historiography (Harvard East Asian Monographs)

In this comprehensive study of the rhetoric, narrative patterns, and intellectual content of the Zuozhuan and Guoyu , David Schaberg reads these two collections of historical anecdotes as traces of a historiographical practice that flourished around the fourth century BCE among the followers of Confucius. He contends that the coherent view of early China found in these texts is an effect of their origins and the habits of reading they impose. Rather than being totally accurate accounts, they represent the efforts of a group of officials and ministers to argue for a moralizing interpretation of the events of early Chinese history and for their own value as skilled interpreters of events and advisers to the rulers of the day. "In this comprehensive study of the rhetoric, narrative patterns, aesthetics, and intellectual content of the Zuozhuan and Guoyu, David Schaberg reads these two collections of historical anecdotes as traces of a historiographical practice that flourished around the fourth century B.C.E. among groups that we now label "Confucian." Since the Han dynasty, the Zuozhuan has been considered a classic, an accurate account of the period it covers, and an expansion and explanation of the terse entries in the Spring and Autumn Annals. Because of the Guoyu's similarities to the Zuozhuan, it has shared in this prestige. Schaberg, in contrast, contends that the coherent view of early China found in these texts is an effect of their origins and the habits of reading they impose. The political and ethical attitudes dominating these texts suggest that they originated in circles associated with the courts of the day but outside the direct control of rulers. The narratives are so constructed as to demonstrate the truth and indeed the naturalness of these attitudes. Their dominant perspective is that of officials rather than rulers, and the anecdotes represent the efforts of a group of officials and ministers to argue for a moralizing interpretation of the events of Zhou history and for their own value as skilled interpreters of events and advisors to the rulers of the day."--Jacket Frontmatter Conventions (page xi) Dukes of Lu in the Spring and Autumn Period (page xiii) Abbreviations (page xv) Introduction (page 1) Part I Speech and Pattern 1 The Rhetoric of Good Order (page 21) 2 Wen and the Meaning of Verbal Art (page 57) 3 Intelligibility in the Extra-human World (page 96) 4 Order in the Human World (page 125) Part II Narrative and Justice 5 The Anecdotal History (page 163) 6 Narrative and Recompense (page 191) 7 Aesthetics and Meaning (page 222) 8 Writing and the Ends of History (page 256) Appendix Orality and the Origins of the Zuozhuan and Guoyu (page 315) Reference Matter Notes (page 327) Works Cited (page 443) Chinese Character List (page 471) Index Locorum (page 487) Subject Index (page 491) David Schaberg. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [443]-470) And Indexes.