Translations from the Asian Classics

In recent years, three ancient manuscripts relating to the Yi jing (I Ching), or Classic of Changes, have been discovered. The earliest—the Shanghai Museum Zhou Yi—dates to about 300 B.C.E. and shows evidence of the text's original circulation. The Guicang, or Returning to Be Stored, reflects another ancient Chinese divination tradition based on hexagrams similar to those of the Yi jing. In 1993, two manuscripts were found in a third-century B.C.E. tomb at Wangjiatai that contain almost exact parallels to the Guicang's early quotations, supplying new information on the performance of early Chinese divination. Finally, the Fuyang Zhou Yi was excavated from the tomb of Xia Hou Zao, lord of Ruyin, who died in 165 B.C.E. Each line of this classic is followed by one or more generic prognostications similar to phrases found in the Yi jing, indicating exciting new ways the text was produced and used in the interpretation of divinations. Unearthing the Changes details the discovery and significance of the Shanghai Museum Zhou Yi, the Wangjiatai Guicang, and the Fuyang Zhou Yi, including full translations of the texts and additional evidence constructing a new narrative of the Yi jing's writing and transmission in the first millennium B.C.E. An introduction situates the role of archaeology in the modern attempt to understand the Classic of Changes. By showing how the text emerged out of a popular tradition of divination, these newly unearthed manuscripts reveal an important religious dimension to its evolution.

The Ming-i tai-fang lu of Huang Tsung-hsi (1610-1695) is unique in the history of Chinese political literature. Since the time of Confucius and Mencius, no other work in the long Confucian tradition has stood out so clearly as a major critique of Chinese dynastic institutions. The importance of this work rests not only on its advocacy of basic principles of humane governance but also on its incisive analysis of the key institutions of imperial rule and political economy. Huang's treatise, translated here as Waiting for the Dawn: A Plan for the Prince, though firmly grounded in classic Confucian teachings emphasizing government based on democratic principles, also incorporates significant elements from alternative schools of thought and reflects the long experience of Chinese dynastic rule subsequent to the great age of classical thinkers in the later Chou period. Huang draws together in a concise manner both his own original ideas and those others had expressed only in scattered form over two millennia. Later reformers and revolutionary leaders such as Liang Ch'i-ch'ao and Sun Yat-sen used Huang's essays on the Prince, Ministership, Law, the Schools, and the Land System to promote their own political aims. Modern scholars have confirmed Huang's stature as the most enduring and influential critic of Chinese despotism and have recognized his Plan as the most powerful affirmation of a liberal Confucian political vision in premodern times.

A fascinating, detailed account of Japanese court life in the eleventh century. Written by a lady of the court at the height of Heian culture, this book enthralls with its lively gossip, witty observations, and subtle impressions.

"Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1725), often referred to as "Japan's Shakespeare" and a "god of writers," was arguably the most famous playwright in Japanese history and wrote more than 100 plays for the kabuki and bunraku theaters. Today the plays of this major literary figure are performed on kabuki and bunraku stages as well as in the modern theater, and forty-nine films of his plays have been made, thirty-one of them from the silent era.". "In this volume Gerstle translates five plays - four histories and one contemporary piece - never before available in English that complement other collections of Chikamatsu's work, revealing new dimensions to the work of this great Japanese playwright and artist."--BOOK JACKET.

"No one has influenced Chinese life as profoundly as Confucius. Among the most important embodiments of that influence is the Analects, a seeming record of Confucius's conversations with his disciples and with the rulers and ministers of his own time. These sayings, many of them laconic, aphoristic, and difficult to interpret, have done much to shape the culture and history of East Asia.". "Bruce and Taeko Brooks have returned this wide-ranging text to its full historical and intellectual setting, organizing the sayings in their original chronological sequence, and permitting the Analects to be read for maximum understanding, not as a closed system of thought but as a richly revealing record of the interaction of life and thought as it evolved over almost the entire Warring States period.". "The Original Analects has clarified contradictions in the text by showing how they reflect changing social conditions and philosophical emphases over the two centuries during which it was compiled. The book includes a fresh and fluid translation, a detailed commentary and interpretation for each saying, illustrations of objects from the Warring States period, and an extensive critical apparatus setting forth the textual argument on which the translation is based, and indicating how the later view of the work as the consistent maxims of a universal sage gradually replaced the historical reality."--BOOK JACKET.

p. 1-36 of 2nd group.