Description
Book SynopsisThe Spring and Autumn Annals of Master Yan is the biography of the most important statesmen and political thinkers of the Eastern Zhou dynasty China: Yan Ying (d. 500 BCE). Living through an exceptionally troubled period, he served three rulers and two dictators of the state of Qi, in Shandong Province. His experiences informed his revolutionary theories concerning the relationship between the individual and the state. Long considered to be a forgery, recent archaeological discoveries have proved the Spring and Autumn Annals of Master Yan to be a genuinely ancient text. This book provides not only the first complete translation of the text into any Western language, but a detailed analysis of the context in which it was produced.
Trade Review"Milburn should be particularly congratulated on her contribution to what appears to be renewed engagement with Yanzi Chunqiu on the part of Western scholars. Her translation is fluid, generally accurate, and richly annotated. Accompanying chapters discuss the text’s history, its protagonists, its political context, and its ideology. The study will surely benefit both established scholars and, particularly, students, who may now be encouraged to engage with the text systematically. Milburn laudably introduces her readers to the research achievements of traditional and modern Chinese (and to a much lesser extent Japanese) scholars, whose studies of Yanzi Chunqiu have considerably advanced our understanding of the text. All this makes Milburn’s book a welcome contribution to the field." - Yuri Pines, Nankai University, Tianjin/Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in: Journal of the American Oriental Society 138.1 (2018)
