Reference
Rules for Warring States Research

Some methodological and general recommendations are here crystallized into guidelines which since 1993 we have recommended for Project discussions of early Chinese subjects. They are designed to simplify conversation by avoiding some of the commonest of the recurring errors in that field.

• 1. Do not import results from Shang or Jou (the latter ended in 0771), or from the postclassical period. Warring States questions should be decided on Warring States evidence.
• 2. Do not extrapolate results to regions other than those for which the evidence is valid. Ours is a geographically diverse period.
• 3. Do not argue that something existed earlier than the first evidence for it. The silence of the evidence is the basic argument for nonexistence.
• 4. Do not assume that a text is integral; this must be demonstrated. Beware of traditional pressures to ascribe texts to famous individuals.
• 5. Do not propose a theory without a scenario: a way in which it could have come about. The word "oral" by itself is not a valid scenario.
• 6. Do not give dates in vague terms. You will be corrected sooner, and science will advance faster, if you give them as precisely as you can.
• 7. Do not rely on authorities in place of evidence. Avoid the word "great" for persons or periods; it contains an implicit authority argument.
• 8. Do not substitute paradigms, Marxist, comparativist, or other, for research. The nature of the period is to be determined by studying it, not by predicting it.
• 9. Do not regard classical problems as necessarily solved by citing Imperial-period commentaries. The commentaries often have their own harmonizing or other agendas.
• 10. Do not decide ancient questions so as to enhance their relevance to modern issues. Modern needs may well require modern initiatives.

These suggestions have been much discussed over the years in the Working Group. Further fine-tuning is still possible, but we have the impression that the Rules as they stand point in a fruitful direction, and that no equally basic ones remain to be discovered.

9 May 2003 / Contact The Project / Exit to Reference Page