Chinese Annals in the Western Observatory: An Outline of Western Studies of Chinese Unearthed Documents.

• Author: Staack, Thies

Chinese Annals in the Western Observatory: An Outline of Western Studies of Chinese Unearthed Documents. By EDWARD L. SHAUGHNESSY. Library of Sinology, vol. 4. Boston: DE GRUYTER MOUTON, 2019. Pp. xx + 485. $69 (cloth); open access: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781501516948/html?lang=en.

Chinese Annals in the Western Observatory by Edward L. Shaughnessy is the English translation of a book that Shaughnessy originally published in Chinese under the title Xiguan Hanji: Xifang hanxue chutu wenxian yanjiu gaiyao [phrase omitted]: [phrase omitted] (Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2018). The Chinese version was conceived as an introduction to studies on Chinese "unearthed documents" in Western languages and was intended for a Chinese readership. As such, it is essentially a literature review that is limited in scope to formally published works of scholarship as well as doctoral dissertations dealing with Chinese inscriptions and manuscripts. Only research on materials dating to the Han period (206 BCE-220 CE) or earlier that was published up to the end of the year 2015 is included.

As mentioned in the "Preface to the English Edition," the book under review is a faithful translation of the Chinese original and has not undergone substantial revisions. Apparently, colleagues and friends had to persuade the author before he even agreed to undertake the preparation of an English translation. He deserves praise for having eventually taken this task upon him, because it makes this immensely rich and helpful work (more) accessible to all those not proficient in Chinese or simply preferring to read English.

Besides a brief introduction, Chinese Annals consists of four chapters. Whereas the first of these is devoted to general studies of Chinese paleography, the others introduce research on three major groups of paleographic materials: oracle bone inscriptions, bronze and stone inscriptions, and, finally, bamboo, wood and silk manuscripts. This division along the lines of types of writing support follows common practice in general works on Chinese inscriptions and manuscripts. It is true that more than just a few scholars that are mentioned in the book did research on materials from more than one of these broad categories, but in reality the three resemble quite distinct scholarly fields, especially in China. And although it would seem desirable to foster research and interaction between scholars across these fields, the book's chapter division...