A Patterned Past

David Schaberg

ISBN 10: 0674008618 / ISBN 13: 9780674008618

Published by Harvard University, Asia Center, US, 2002

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. Seller Inventory # LU-9780674008618

Synopsis:

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.

About the Author: David Schaberg is Associate Professor of Chinese at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Bibliographic Details

Title: A Patterned Past
Publisher: Harvard University, Asia Center, US
Publication Date: 2002
Binding: Hardback
Condition: New