Description

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The Grand Scribe's Records, Volume VI, contains annotated translations of the "hereditary houses" for the Ch'in and Han dynasties. Such "houses" were an invention of Ssu-ma Ch'ien and in early periods treated the history of various states. Here, however, the subjects vary, often containing merely biographies of their main protagonist. The volume begins with an account of the rebel Ch'en She in chapter 48, whose "house" consisted of the other rebel leaders he spawned into action against the Ch'in dynasty, and ends in chapter 60 with the memorials concerning the reigns of the sons of Emperor Wu of the Han born to concubines, men whose reigns ended badly. Besides accounts of the kings from the royal Liu family, included are the stories of the maternal relatives, empresses, and imperial consorts, as well as the major statesmen and military leaders who guided the Han victory.

About the Author

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Ssu-ma Ch'ien (145-ca. 86 BC) was an official at the court of the Han Emperor Wu (r. 141-87 BC), who was involved in the compilation of a mammoth historical project that resulted in this history, which came to be known as the Shih chi (The Grand Scribe's Records). William H. Nienhauser, Jr., is the Halls-Bascom Professor of Classical Chinese Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and editor of six previous volumes of The Grand Scribe's Records.Masha Kobzeva is Lecturer at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She has contributed to several of the volumes of The Grand Scribe's Records, and is managing editor of Chinese Literature: Essays Articles and Reviews (CLEAR).