Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide (review)

Features 337 Michael Loewe, editor. Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide. Early China Special Monographs series, no. 2. Berkeley: Society for the Study of Early China and Institute ofAsian Studies, University ofCalifornia, Berkeley , 1993. xiv, 546 pp. Hardcover $35.00, isbn 1-55729-043-1. In the past fifty years, as sinologists have dispersed into diverse disciplines, the training ofChina specialists has turned away from philology; most members of the discipline have therefore felt it wise to keep their distance from the Classics. What edition to use in working with an early text, which ofthe often contradictory datings to go by, and whether to accept a certain passage as authentic—these have become painful decisions that few nonspecialists would dare tackle with much confidence on their own, and expert help is not always easy to come by. The unfortunate consequence has been that, in spite ofthe availability of ever-improving indexes for gaining access to them, die pre-Qin and Han texts have been little used beyond the narrow field ofEarly China studies—and when they have been used, this has often been in an uncritical and problematic fashion. Their potential for the study ofChinese civilization in all its aspects has hardly been realized; in particular , few researchers have tapped this fountain ofbasic cultural knowledge in attempting to understand the later periods ofImperial Chinese history. With the publication of this book, once-legitimate excuses have become invalid : suddenly, the classics need no longer remain the realm of the Experts. Early Chinese Texts enables anyone capable ofhandling literary Chinese to obtain stateof -the-art information on die vast majority of extant pre-Qin and Han texts. The conscientious handling ofthe texts will still require a certain amount ofeffort, but this book tells one exacdy how to proceed. In the words of the editor: This book is best used in conjunction with three copies ofa text that is under study; one ofthese should best derive from a traditional edition, and one should be a reputable modern print, with punctuation, but without the use of simplified characters; a third copy should be from one ofthe Japanese series of editions. Readers should also refer to the textual notes of Professor D. C. Lau that are available in the concordances published by the Institute of Chinese Studies of the Chinese University ofHong Kong. (Preface, p. xii) Following these straightforward injunctions and consulting the book under review , one will avoid most ifnot all ofthe potential pitfalls that have hitherto scared offmembers of the wider sinological community from the Classics. Early© 1996 by University Chinese Textsperforms the invaluable service ofguiding the reader to the editions ofHawaiiPressto ^6 use¿^ as we]i as t0 relevant secondaryliterature; and it provides reliable information regarding the nature, history, and authenticity ofeach individual text. As such, it will prove tremendously useful for China scholars at large. 338 China Review International: Vol. 3, No. 2, Fall 1996 To more specialized scholars working in the realm ofpre-Qin and Han philology , Early Chinese Texts will be, at the very least, a welcome statement ofauthority against which to test critically their own working habits and assumptions, and I suspect that even the most seasoned veteran will find much valuable new information. By summarizing what is known, and thus considerably shortening the process ofacquainting oneself with the received corpus of texts, this book will enable such specialists henceforth to channel their energies toward work at the frontiers of knowledge: deciphering and interpreting the manuscript texts excavated during the past two decades, which have already begun to transform fundamentally our understanding of intellectual configurations and processes during China's Classical Age. It goes without saying that, in such studies, an intimate knowledge of the received tradition is more essential than ever—a knowledge to which this book provides a convenient avenue. Another group of users that has reason to be grateful for this book are library and book trade professionals, for Early Chinese Texts goes a long way toward defining what should constitute the Classics section of a basic sinological collection. One hopes that college librarians everywhere will proceed to check the holdings of their institutions against the bibliographical data given in this book, and make every...