Grand Scribe's Records: Volume II: The Basic Annals of the Han Dynasty (Grand Scribe's Records) (Hardback)
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Short Description for Grand Scribe's Records: Volume II A new volume in a new annotated translation of The Grand Scribe's Records, one of the most important histories of Ancient China
Full description- Publisher: Indiana University Press
- Published: 07 June 2002
- Format: Hardback 384 pages
- See: Full bibliographic data
- Categories: Literary Essays | Cultural Studies | Asian History | Ancient History: To C 500 CE
- ISBN 13: 9780253340221 ISBN 10: 0253340225
- Sales rank: 752,479
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Full description for Grand Scribe's Records: Volume II
This second volume of the ongoing annotated translation of Ssu-ma Ch'ien's Shi chi(The Grand Scribe's Records), widely acknowledged as the most important early Chinese history, contains the "basic annals" of five early Han-dynasty emperors. The annals trace the first century of Han rule (206 BC to ca. 100 BC) in a year-by-year account that focuses on imperial activities. In The Grand Scribe's Records, Ssu-ma Ch'ien revitalised the style of the annals he had written for previous rulers. Here are accounts of the peasant who founded the dynasty, Liu Pang, a man noted as much for his licentiousness as he was his ruthless political instinct, and of his cruel wife, Empress Lu, who murdered her chief rival for Liu Pang's affections in the most gruesome manner. The annals of two relatively undistinguished emperors follow. The volume concludes with Ssu-ma's depiction of perhaps the greatest ruler of the Han, Emperor Wu, told within the context of his delusive attempts to find a means to achieve immortality. When completed this translation will bring all 130 chapters of the Shih chi into English. Volumes 1 and 7 were published by Indiana University Press in 1994.
