The Grand Scribe’s Records, Volume VII

This volume is part of the first complete translation (in nine volumes) of the Shih chi (The Grand Scribe's Records), one of the most important narratives in traditional China. Compiled by Ssu-ma Ch'ien (145-c. 86 B.C.), it draws upon most major early historical works and was the foremost model for style and genre in Chinese history and literature through the eleventh century A. D., and through the early twentieth century for some genres.

Volume 7, The Memoirs of Pre_Han China, translates twenty-eight Lieh-chuan or "memoirs" which depict more than a hundred men and women: sages and scholars, recluses and rhetoricians, persuaders and politicians, commandants and cutthroats of the Ch'in and earlier dynasties. Although the memoirs also begin with what is now often considered myth—an account of the renowned recluses Po Yi and Shu Ch'i—the emphasis in these texts is on the fate of various states and power centers as seen through the biographies of key individuals from the seventh to the third centuries B. C.

Dedication
Acknowledgements
Introduction
On Using This Book
A Note on Chronology
Weights and Measures
List of Abbreviations

Po Yi, Memoir
Kuan Yi-wu and Yen Ying, Memoir
Lao Tzu and Han Fei, Memoir
Marshal Jang-chu, Memoir
Sun Tzu and Wu Ch'i, Memoir
Wu Tzu Hsu, Memoir
Confiucius's Disciples, Memoir
The Lord of Shang, Memoir
Su Ch'in, Memoir
Chang Yi, Memoir
Shu-li Tzu and Kan Mao, Memoir
The Marquis of Jang, Memoir
Pai Ch'i and Wang Chien, Memoir
Meng Tzu and Excellency Hsun, Memoir
The Lord of Meng-ch'ang, Memoir
The Lord of P'ing-yuan and Excellency Yu, Memoir
The Noble Scion of Wei, Memoir
The Lord of Ch'un-shen, Memoir
Fan Sui and Ts'ai Tse, Memoir
Yueh Yi, Memoir
Lien P'o and Lin Hsiang-ju, Memoir
T'ien Tan, Memoir
Lu Chung Lien and Tsou Yang, Memoir
Ch'u Yuan and Scholar Chia, Memoir
Lu Pu-wei, Memoir
The Assassin-Retainers, Memoir
Li Ssu, Memoir
Meng T'ien, Memoir

Bibliography
Index
Maps