Albert E. Dien - The Cambridge History of China: Volume 2, The Six Dynasties, 220–589

Contents

Bibliography

Figures and Tables

Figures

Tables

Maps

Preface

We both knew that assembling the second volume of the Cambridge history of China would be a formidable task. Denis Twitchett had already endeavored to do so in the mid-1980s, but was unable to for a variety of reasons. The lack of a Cambridge history of China volume for the Six Dynasties period meant that there was no way that a reader could acquire by reading just one book a sound feeling for the period and all of its political and social complexities, as well as an appreciation for its wide range of cultural achievements. Over the years, we have both heard many fellow scholars lamenting the fact of the non-existence of a Six Dynasties volume. Since there are now many excellent specialists writing about the history and culture of early medieval China, we decided to take on the challenge, but the project was far more complicated and time-consuming than either of us anticipated.

Completing this volume would not have been possible without the help of numerous institutions and individuals. To start off the process of writing the chapters, we had hoped to invite all of the contributors to a conference. Unfortunately, the costs of doing so were prohibitive. Due to the generosity of two universities, we were instead able to hold two smaller meetings. The first was the Six Dynasties Material Culture, Arts, Literature, and Ritual Workshop, which took place at the University of Chicago on May 2627, 2012. The workshop was generously sponsored by the China Committee of the Center for East Asian Studies and the Adelyn Russell Bogert Fund of the Franke Institute for the Humanities, University of Chicago, and was organized by the University of Chicagos Center for the Art of East Asia, Department of Art History. The workshop included all of the contributors who were working on topics related to material culture and the arts. We owe much to Professors Wu Hung and Katherine Tsiang, who played a large role in organizing and making this meeting possible. The second workshop took place at the exquisite Stanford Center at Peking University. This meeting with some of our East Asian contributors was made possible through the arrangements provided by the executive director of the center, Dr. Andrew J. Andreasen. We also wish to thank Professor Tu Wei-ming for his active and informative participation at the workshop. Many thanks too to Peking University for assisting with the logistics of this meeting.

The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, generously provided the support for much of this work. For the duration of this project, the college supplied us with a graduate assistantship. Through this funding, Victoria Musheff served as a superb internal editor who polished the chapters prose and made sure that the information within was intelligible to nonspecialists. Isabelle Bailey Knight, another graduate assistant, helped us put our bibliography in good order. The History Departments Henry and Jenny Johnson Endowment Fund and the Citadels School of Humanities and Social Sciences funded honorariums for the translators of the Western Jin and Local Society chapters.

Many thanks to Professors Joelle Neulander for translating the Western Jin chapter from French and Jon Felt for translating the Local Society chapter from Chinese. Albert Dien translated from Chinese both the chapters on the Sogdians and on the southern economy.

Many thanks to our contributors as well. They not only contributed their expertise through the writing of their chapters; they also patiently endured the editors requests to adjust their chapters contents for readability and clarity. Charles Holcombe and Albert Dien are especially to be commended for taking on the burden of writing more than one chapter.

Working with the dedicated and talented staff of Cambridge University Press has been a joy. Marigold Acland, our first editor, recruited us to do the volume. After Marigolds retirement, our new editor, Lucy Rhymer, turned out to be every bit as helpful and encouraging. Heather Lings took on the difficult role of preparing the GlossaryIndex, and John Gaunt performed the Herculean task of making the text readable. Natasha Whelan and Lisa Carter greatly helped us get the final manuscript in order.

Finally, we need to acknowledge each of our familys patience and assistance. With no say in the matter, Dora and Joseph Dien and Jade and Melissa Knapp were swept into the project in ways big and small. Their help ranged from technical assistance to listening to endless worries and complaints. Their support, although usually indirect, was essential to the projects completion.

Guidelines For Readers

Following the precedent set by The Cambridge history of ancient China: From the origins of civilization to 221 b.c. , for the romanization of Chinese words, we have decided to use the Pinyin system rather than the WadeGiles system, which has been employed in previous volumes of the Cambridge history of China . We do this in recognition that the Pinyin system is now the most popular romanization system of Chineseit is used by nearly all English-language newspapers and academic journals and books. By now, only specialists are still acquainted with the WadeGiles system.