William H. Nienhauser

Bio: William H. Nienhauser is an academic researcher from University of Wisconsin-Madison. The author has contributed to research in topics: Literary criticism & Literature. The author has an hindex of 6, co-authored 20 publications receiving 272 citations.

The Indiana companion to traditional Chinese literature.

Abstract: "A vertitable feast of concise, useful, reliable, and up-to-dateinformation (all prepared by top scholars in the field), Nienhauser's now two-volumetitle stands alone as THE standard reference work for the study of traditionalChinese literature. Nothing like it has ever been published." --ChoiceThe second volume to The Indiana Companion to TraditionalChinese Literature is both a supplement and an update to the original volume. VolumeII includes over 60 new entries on famous writers, works, and genres of traditionalChinese literature, followed by an extensive bibliographic update (1985-1997) ofeditions, translations, and studies (primarily in English, Chinese, Japanese, French, and German) for the 500+ entries of Volume I.

A Patterned past: Form and Thought in Early Chinese Historiography

Abstract: In this comprehensive study of the rhetoric, narrative patterns, and intellectual content of the Zuozhuan and Guoyu, David Schaberg reads these two collections of historical anecdotes as traces of a historiographical practice that flourished around the 4th century BCE among the followers of Confucius. He contends that the coherent view of early China found in these texts is an effect of their origins and the habits of reading they impose. Rather than being totally accurate accounts, they represent the efforts of a group of officials and ministers to argue for a moralising interpretation of the events of early Chinese history and for their own value as skilled interpreters of events and advisers to the rulers of the day.

Tang Dynasty Tales: A Guided Reader

Abstract: The Tale of Hongyan (W Cao) Tu Tzu-ch'un (R Huntington) Record within the Pillow (B Knickerbocker) Record of the Governor of Southern Branch (W H Nienhauser, Jr.) An Account of Li the Red (W H Nienhauser, Jr.) An Account of Feng Yan (W H Nienhauser, Jr.) An Account of Huo Hsiao-yu (Z Zhang).

The memoirs of pre-Han China

Abstract: 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 ChOi, Memoir Wu Tzu Hsu, Memoir ConfiuciusOs Disciples, Memoir The Lord of Shang, Memoir Su ChOin, Memoir Chang Yi, Memoir Shu-li Tzu and Kan Mao, Memoir The Marquis of Jang, Memoir Pai ChOi and Wang Chien, Memoir Meng Tzu and Excellency Hsun, Memoir The Lord of Meng-chOang, Memoir The Lord of POing-yuan and Excellency Yu, Memoir The Noble Scion of Wei, Memoir The Lord of ChOun-shen, Memoir Fan Sui and TsOai Tse, Memoir Yueh Yi, Memoir Lien POo and Lin Hsiang-ju, Memoir TOien Tan, Memoir Lu Chung Lien and Tsou Yang, Memoir ChOu Yuan and Scholar Chia, Memoir Lu Pu-wei, Memoir The Assassin-Retainers, Memoir Li Ssu, Memoir Meng TOien, Memoir Bibliography Index Maps

Virtue Ethics and Consequentialism in Early Chinese Philosophy

Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. Kongzi and Ruism 3. Mozi and early Mohism 4. Mengzi 5. Pluralistic Ruism.

Discussion: The futures of global history

Abstract: Global history has come under attack. It is charged with neglecting national history and the ‘small spaces’ of the past, with being an elite globalist project made irrelevant by the anti-globalist politics of our age, with focusing exclusively on mobile people and things, and with becoming dangerously hegemonic. This article demonstrates that global history is, intertwined with a focus on the nation and the local, on individuals, outsiders, and subalterns, and on small and isolated places. Moreover, global history has directly addressed immobility and resistances to flow, and remains relatively weak in the discipline, versus the persistent dominance everywhere of national history. The article offers a new short history of the rise of the contemporary idiom of global history, and a prospect for a future in which scholars may find, through collaboration, alternatives to the European weights and measures of the past, and to the dominance of Anglophone historians. It argues that we should no more reverse the ‘global turn’ than we should return history’s gaze only to propertied white men. Rather than a retreat from global history, we need it more than ever to fight against myths of imperial and national pasts, which often underpin nationalist populisms.

Astrology and Cosmology in Early China: Conforming Earth to Heaven

Abstract: Introduction Part I. Astronomy and Cosmology in the Time of Dragons: 1. Astronomy begins at Taosi 2. Watching for dragons Part II. Aligning with Heaven: 3. Looking to the supernal lord 4. Bringing heaven down to earth 5. Astral revelation and the origins of writing Part III. Planetary Omens and Cosmic Ideology: 6. The cosmo-political mandate 7. The rhetoric of the supernal 8. Cosmology and the calendar Part IV. Warring States and Han Astral Portentology: 9. Astral prognostication and the battle of Chengpu 10. A new astrological paradigm Part V. One with the Sky: 11. Cosmic capitals 12. Temporality and the fabric of space-time 13. The sky river and cosmography 14. Planetary portentology east and west Epilogue Appendix. Astrology for an empire: the 'treatise on the celestial offices' in The Grand Scribe's Records (c.100 BCE) Glossary Index.

Mirroring the Past: The Writing And Use of History in Imperial China

Abstract: China is known for its deep veneration of history. Far more than a record of the past, history to the Chinese is the magister vitae (teacher of life): the storehouse of moral lessons and bureaucratic precedents. "Mirroring the Past" presents a comprehensive history of traditional Chinese historiography from antiquity to the mid-qing period. Organized chronologically, the book traces the development of historical thinking and writing in Imperial China, beginning with the earliest forms of historical consciousness and ending with adumbrations of the fundamentally different views engendered by mid-nineteenth-century encounters with the West. The historiography of each era is explored on two levels: first, the gathering of material and the writing and production of narratives to describe past events; second, the thinking and reflecting on meanings and patterns of the past. Significantly, the book embeds within this chronological structure integrated views of Chinese historiography, bringing to light the purposive, didactic, and normative uses of the past. Examining both the worlds of official and unofficial historiography, the authors lay bare the ingenious ways in which Chinese scholars extracted truth from events and reveal how schemas and philosophies of history were constructed and espoused. They highlight the dynamic nature of Chinese historiography, revealing that historical works mapped the contours of Chinese civilization not for the sake of understanding history as disembodied and theoretical learning, but for the pragmatic purpose of guiding the world by mirroring the past in all its splendor and squalor.

The Archaeology of Early China: From Prehistory to the Han Dynasty

Abstract: This volume aims to satisfy a pressing need for an updated account of Chinese archaeology. It covers an extended time period from the earliest peopling of China to the unification of the Chinese Empire some two thousand years ago. The geographical coverage includes the traditional focus on the Yellow River basin but also covers China's many other regions. Among the topics covered are the emergence of agricultural communities; the establishment of a sedentary way of life; the development of sociopolitical complexity; advances in lithic technology, ceramics, and metallurgy; and the appearance of writing, large-scale public works, cities, and states. Particular emphasis is placed on the great cultural variations that existed among the different regions and the development of interregional contacts among those societies.