Publications
Ancient China in Context
All future Project publications will appear under this rubric. What does it mean?
The world knows ancient China as it is seen through the eyes of present-day China, reduced to a few iconic figures which have then been developed as parts of a national myth. Fine, and we need to know what the national myth consists of. But it is also possible to ask: What was ancient China at the time when it was still happening; still in the present tense? The Project has devoted decades of research to clarifying the nature and dates of the text sources on which any answer to that question must be based. That research has given a comprehensive and consistent account of the texts. We further find that the texts themselves, once they are understood in this way, yield a plausible historical picture, one that is different from the traditional account. It is the aim of Ancient China in Context to communicate those results to the scholarly and general public: to rescue the original texts from their later additions and interpretations, and from them to read ancient Chinese history in its own terms: as it happened from year to year.
And what is that view of history like?
The texts come alive when they are correctly dated, and when texts of the same date are placed next to each other. They make a picture of the past, in all its richness, and with all its dangers and disagreements intact. We see the philosophers debating with each other, rather than each of them talking alone, in his own box. We see ideas changing along with the background social changes. We see the Confucians of Lu adapting their old positions to meet new situations. We see rival movements doing the same thing, in opposition. We see the heavy statecraft theorists figuring out where they should drive the steamroller of state, and we see the agrarian primitivists trying to get out of the steamroller's way. We see antiquity being cited in support of particular theories, and we see antiquity being forged in order to have something to cite in support of other theories. Behind all this, we see generals learning how to convert raw recruits into an efficient killing machine, and accountants learning to manage the flow of supplies to the killing machine. We see in stunning detail what happened along the road to Imperial China, and we also see in poignant contrast the roads not taken: the ones that would have led to other Chinas than the one that actually happened.
This vision of ancient China is conveyed to different readers in different ways, and each of the ways defines a publication series:
- The New Chinese Classics (In-depth studies of major texts and developments)
- Introducing China (Accessible approaches to major figures and topics)
- Studies and Documents (A monograph series for scholars and teachers)
- Warring States Papers (Our journal, the basic channel for research results)
17 May 2007 / Contact The Project / Exit to Publications Page
