Description
The Spring and Autumn (Chunqiu) is a chronicle kept by the dukes of the state of Lu from 722 to 481 B.C.E. Luxuriant Gems of the "Spring and Autumn" (Chunqiu fanlu) follows the interpretations of the Gongyang Commentary, whose transmitters sought to explicate the special language of the Spring and Autumn. The work is often ascribed to the Han scholar and court official Dong Zhongshu, but, as this study reveals, the text is in fact a compendium of writings by a variety of authors spanning several generations. It depicts a utopian vision of a flourishing humanity that they believed to be Confucius's legacy to the world. The Gongyang masters thought that Confucius had written the Spring and Autumn, employing subtle phrasing to indicate approval or disapproval of important events and personages. Luxuriant Gems therefore augments Confucian ethical and philosophical teachings with chapters on cosmology, statecraft, and other topics drawn from contemporary non-Confucian traditions. A major resource, this book features the first complete English-language translation of Luxuriant Gems, divided into eight thematic sections with introductions that address dating, authorship, authenticity, and the relationship between the Spring and Autumn and the Gongyang approach. Critically illuminating early Chinese philosophy, religion, literature, and politics, this book conveys the brilliance of intellectual life in the Han dynasty during the formative decades of the Chinese imperial state.
A major resource expanding the study of early Chinese philosophy, religion, literature, and politics, this book features the first complete English-language translation of the Luxuriant Gems of the "Spring and Autumn" (Chunqiu fanlu), one of the key texts of early Confucianism. The work is often ascribed to the Han scholar and court official Dong Zhongshu, but, as this study reveals, the text is in fact a compendium of writings by a variety of authors working within an interpretive tradition that spanned several generations, depicting a utopian vision of a flourishing humanity that they believed to be Confucius's legacy to the world.
About the Author
Dong Zhongshu (195-104 B.C.E.) was a native of the kingdom of Guanquan (part of present-day Hebei Province), where at an early age he mastered the Spring and Autumn. A court-appointed scholar of the Gongyang Commentary to the Spring and Autumn, he was known for his interpretations of disasters and anomalies recorded in the text. Sarah A. Queen is professor of history at Connecticut College. She is the author of From Chronicle to Canon: The Hermeneutics of the "Spring and Autumn" According to Tung Chung-shu; the co-translator, with John S. Major, Andrew Seth Meyer, and Harold D. Roth, of The "Huainanzi": A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Government in Early Han China and The Essential "Huainanzi"; and the coeditor, with Michael Puett, of The "Huainanzi" and Textual Production in Early China. John S. Major taught East Asian history at Dartmouth College. Now an independent scholar, he is the author of Heaven and Earth in Early Han Thought: Chapters Three, Four, and Five of the "Huainanzi" and the co-translator, with Queen, Meyer, and Roth, of The "Huainanzi" and The Essential "Huainanzi."
Reviews
This book is a major achievement, one that will open many avenues for research into the mind and method of the most influential cosmological synthesis of ancient China. -- Victor H. Mair, University of Pennsylvania With this first complete translation of the famed Chunqiu fanlu, Sarah A. Queen and John S. Major have met a level of sinological scholarship and erudition seldom achieved since it was first set by James Legge's translations in the 1870s. Limpid throughout and with many and varied commentaries on the text and its context, this work is guaranteed to find a place on the bookshelf of every serious student of classical Chinese history and philosophy. Bravo!" -- Henry Rosemont Jr., Brown University In this first complete translation of a complex and frequently misunderstood text, expert translator-editors Sarah A. Queen and John S. Major show how the work was brought together by some unknown compiler, long after the death of the reputed author, Dong Zhongshu. The translation is fluent, the scholarship impeccable, and the interpretations convincing: it will not be surpassed for many generations. -- Robin D. S. Yates, McGill University Queen and Major offer far more than a reliable, rigorous, and meticulous translation of a major work of ancient Chinese political thought: theirs is a new reading of the notoriously sprawling Chunqiu fanlu together with an exemplary, sophisticated study of the text as a layered, composite work, revealing in detail its multiple ideological agendas and contexts from across the centuries of early imperial intellectual history. An exemplary accomplishment and a wonderful resource for students and scholars alike! -- Martin Kern, Princeton University
Book Information
ISBN 9780231169325
Author Zhongshu Dong
Format Hardback
Page Count 704
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press
A major resource expanding the study of early Chinese philosophy, religion, literature, and politics, this book features the first complete English-language translation of the Luxuriant Gems of the "Spring and Autumn" (Chunqiu fanlu), one of the key texts of early Confucianism. The work is often ascribed to the Han scholar and court official Dong Zhongshu, but, as this study reveals, the text is in fact a compendium of writings by a variety of authors working within an interpretive tradition that spanned several generations, depicting a utopian vision of a flourishing humanity that they believed to be Confucius's legacy to the world.
About the Author
Dong Zhongshu (195-104 B.C.E.) was a native of the kingdom of Guanquan (part of present-day Hebei Province), where at an early age he mastered the Spring and Autumn. A court-appointed scholar of the Gongyang Commentary to the Spring and Autumn, he was known for his interpretations of disasters and anomalies recorded in the text. Sarah A. Queen is professor of history at Connecticut College. She is the author of From Chronicle to Canon: The Hermeneutics of the "Spring and Autumn" According to Tung Chung-shu; the co-translator, with John S. Major, Andrew Seth Meyer, and Harold D. Roth, of The "Huainanzi": A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Government in Early Han China and The Essential "Huainanzi"; and the coeditor, with Michael Puett, of The "Huainanzi" and Textual Production in Early China. John S. Major taught East Asian history at Dartmouth College. Now an independent scholar, he is the author of Heaven and Earth in Early Han Thought: Chapters Three, Four, and Five of the "Huainanzi" and the co-translator, with Queen, Meyer, and Roth, of The "Huainanzi" and The Essential "Huainanzi."
Reviews
This book is a major achievement, one that will open many avenues for research into the mind and method of the most influential cosmological synthesis of ancient China. -- Victor H. Mair, University of Pennsylvania With this first complete translation of the famed Chunqiu fanlu, Sarah A. Queen and John S. Major have met a level of sinological scholarship and erudition seldom achieved since it was first set by James Legge's translations in the 1870s. Limpid throughout and with many and varied commentaries on the text and its context, this work is guaranteed to find a place on the bookshelf of every serious student of classical Chinese history and philosophy. Bravo!" -- Henry Rosemont Jr., Brown University In this first complete translation of a complex and frequently misunderstood text, expert translator-editors Sarah A. Queen and John S. Major show how the work was brought together by some unknown compiler, long after the death of the reputed author, Dong Zhongshu. The translation is fluent, the scholarship impeccable, and the interpretations convincing: it will not be surpassed for many generations. -- Robin D. S. Yates, McGill University Queen and Major offer far more than a reliable, rigorous, and meticulous translation of a major work of ancient Chinese political thought: theirs is a new reading of the notoriously sprawling Chunqiu fanlu together with an exemplary, sophisticated study of the text as a layered, composite work, revealing in detail its multiple ideological agendas and contexts from across the centuries of early imperial intellectual history. An exemplary accomplishment and a wonderful resource for students and scholars alike! -- Martin Kern, Princeton University
Book Information
ISBN 9780231169325
Author Zhongshu Dong
Format Hardback
Page Count 704
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press
