Book launch of The Tsinghua University Warring States Bamboo Manuscripts: Studies and Translations book series

On April 27, the Research and Conservation Center for Unearthed Texts, Tsinghua University, together with Tsinghua University Press, and XuetangX held a book launch in celebration of the publication of the first volume in the book series, The Tsinghua University Warring States Bamboo Manuscripts: Studies and Translations 《清華大學藏戰國竹簡》研究與英譯.

The book launch was held in room 413 of the Humanities Building, Tsinghua University and was simultaneously live-streamed across the globe through the MOOC platform XuetangX, and social media including Tsinghua University’s Official Weibo and WeChat channels, Douyin, Bilibili, Facebook and Twitter, etc. Over 130,000 people at home and abroad attended the event online.

With 18 volumes planned, The Tsinghua University Warring States Bamboo Manuscripts: Studies and Translations systematically translates, introduces, and studies the Tsinghua University Warring States Bamboo Manuscripts. The series editors are professor Huang Dekuan 黃德寬, director of the Research and Conservation Center for Unearthed Texts, Tsinghua University, and professor Edward L. Shaughnessy, director of the Creel Center for Chinese Paleography, University of Chicago. The series is published by Tsinghua University Press 清華大學出版社.

Each volume in the series presents the latest state of research and carefully annotated translations of a selection of manuscripts by a specialist in the field of early Chinese manuscript studies. The arrangement of manuscripts in the individual volumes in the series follows the ordering and the latest developments of scholarship presented in the Qinghua daxue cang Zhanguo zhujian jiaoshi 清华大学藏战国竹简校释 Collated Interpretations of the Tsinghua University Warring States Bamboo Manuscripts, carefully prepared by scholars of the Research and Conservation Center for Unearthed Texts. The volumes bring together manuscripts from the Tsinghua University collection that are closely related in terms of text, topic, and materiality. The texts are presented in the original Warring States period (481-221 BCE) Chu-state script, transcriptions in modern standard Chinese, and annotated English translation. To ensure quality, members of the translation team meet regularly to discuss and review each other’s work, and the final volumes are subjected to rigid peer-review. Currently, a number of follow up volumes are in the process of completion and the remainder of the series will be published in succession.

The launch celebrates the publication of the first volume in the series: The Tsinghua University Warring States Bamboo Manuscripts: Studies and Translations 1, The Yi Zhou Shu and Pseudo-Yi Zhou Shu Chapters, written by Edward L. Shaughnessy, renowned scholar of early Chinese paleography and history. The volume introduces six manuscripts from the Tsinghua University collection related to the Yi Zhou shu 逸周书 or “Leftover Zhou Scriptures.” The Yi Zhou shu is a quasi-canonical collection of scriptures from the Zhou-dynasty (1045-249 BCE) said to have been left over after Confucius edited the Exalted Scriptures Shang shu 尚书.

In the introductory chapters and the appendix, Shaughnessy provides a thorough introduction of the Yi Zhou shu, its textual history, and its relation to the Tsinghua Manuscripts. In the remainder of the book, Shaughnessy provides carefully annotated translations and studies of the individual manuscripts and related texts from the transmitted tradition. The manuscripts include the Instruction on Mandates (Ming Xun 命训); Awakening at Cheng (Cheng Wu 程寤); August Gate (Huang Men 皇门); The Duke of Zhai’s Retrospective Command (Zhai Gong zhi Gu Ming 祭公之顾命); The Protective Instruction (Bao Xun 保訓); and finally, The Command Enfeoffing Xu (Feng Xu zhi Ming 封鄦之命).

At the launch, Tian Lixin, director-general of the Ministry of Education’s Language and Information directorate and Professor Peng Gang, vice-President of Tsinghua University delivered addresses. Qiu Xianqing, the chairman of Tsinghua University Press introduced the publication process of the book series. Professor Huang Dekuan introduced the scope and aims of the book series and the editing of the Tsinghua bamboo manuscripts, and professor Edward L. Shaughnessy introduced the contents and format of the volume, the translation team and their work on the manuscripts. Additionally, various scholars both from within China and the international academic community provided their views on the significance of the series and this first volume.