Zhou History Unearthed

Zhou History Unearthed strikes a laudable balance between being interpretive and informative. Pines’s impeccable mastery of the field, as evinced by his numerous incisive observations and wide-ranging bibliography, allows him to dig deep into textual details without losing his grip on the bigger picture. This learned book, an indispensable guide to ancient Chinese historiography, history, and manuscript studies, will surely stimulate new and meaningful debates. * Journal of Asian Studies *
A splendid addition to the scholarship on the Xinian, one that shows once again why Yuri Pines is the Western world’s foremost historian of early China. * T'oung Pao *
In [Pines's] capable hands, the Xinian has become the touchstone for a judicious and highly original inquiry into early Chinese writing about the past. One confidently predicts that this book will have a long shelf life, and that it will be found useful not only by China specialists, but by anyone interested in comparative historiography. * Journal of Chinese Studies *
In this remarkable book, Yuri Pines not only provides a scholarly translation of the recently unearthed bamboo manuscript Xinian, he also uses this quasi-historical text from the fourth century BCE as an opportunity to reexamine and recast our understanding of the entire field of Zhou historiography. It is a breakthrough work and will surely stimulate many new debates. -- Sarah Allan, author of The Formation of Chinese Civilization: An Archaeological Perspective
Zhou History Unearthed provides more than a precise, carefully annotated translation of the newly discovered Xinian manuscript. With an unrivaled command of the sources and their scholarship, Yuri Pines reads the uniquely important Xinian against our transmitted texts and offers a magisterial reevaluation of early Chinese historiography altogether. -- Martin Kern, author of The Stele Inscriptions of Ch'in Shih-huang: Text and Ritual in Early Chinese Imperial Representation
Zhou History Unearthed is a magisterial account of recently excavated sources for early Chinese history. It offers crucial insights into the lacunae in transmitted historical accounts and reshapes our understanding of the formation and transmission of historical knowledge in early China. The excellent translations are accompanied by meticulously researched annotations and astute introductory essays that invite the reader to rethink the shape and trajectory of early Chinese history and historical writings. -- Wai-yee Li, author of The Readability of the Past in Early Chinese Historiography
Zhou History Unearthed is a magnificent work from Yuri Pines, a scholar who knows the history of the Zhou period as well as anyone currently writing in English. -- Stephen Durrant, cotranslator of Zuo Tradition / Zuozhuan: Commentary on the "Spring and Autumn Annals"
In Pines’s masterful hands, an accessible, deeply informed translation and study of Xinian becomes the basis for a ground-up reinterpretation of early Chinese historical writing practices and sources. Compelling in its vision and its engagement with primary and secondary sources, the study is likely to influence debate for years to come. -- David Schaberg, cotranslator of Zuo Tradition / Zuozhuan: Commentary on the "Spring and Autumn Annals"
A superb work, admirable not only for introducing exciting Chinese manuscript discoveries to broader audiences, but also for using these new discoveries to problematize foundational received texts and, in doing so, reconsider the nature of history writing itself in early China. * Journal of the American Oriental Society *
The great strength of this book is that it caters to all those interested in early Chinese historiography. Pines provides new insights into the rich and complex development of early Chinese historiography and increases our previous knowledge of transmitted texts. * Monumenta Serica *