This course looks at the rise of historiography in China, examining the major features of such texts as Zuozhuan, Shiji, and Hanshu, and compares this to the roughly simultaneous rise of two other historiography traditions: that of Greece as seen in the works of Herodotus and Thucydides and that of Israel as reflected in the Deuteronomic historians. What I will attempt to add to the usual discussion of this topic is a narratological perspective, examining and comparing, among other topics, the tension between simple chronology and the “narrative demands” of story-telling, the nature of the narrator (i.e., hidden vs. overt, omniscient vs. limited), and what we might loosely call “the goal of narration.”
(Note: All readings can either be completed in Chinese, when available, or English, when available).

Session 1: Introduction. A description of the course and the instructor’s expectations. A Western reader looks and reflects upon some early Chinese historiographical sources: Sima Qian’s 司馬遷 discussion with Hu Sui 壺遂 in Shiji 史記 (130:3297-3330), Ban Biao’s 班彪 “Luelun” 略論 from Hou Hanshu 後漢書 (40:1325 & 1326), and Liu Zhiji’s 劉知幾 Shitong 史通, chps. 1 & 2 (六家 ﹠二體).

Session 2: The origin and roughly simultaneous development of three great traditions. Reading: Du Weiyun 杜維運, 中西古代史學比較 (Taipei: Dongda, 2006), chapters. 1, 2, and 3.

Session 3: Further reflections on early Chinese historiography. Reading: Liu Jie 劉節, Zhongguo shixueshi gao 中國史學史稿 (Taipei: Hongwen, 1986), pp. 17-46.

Session 4: Further reflections on early Greek historiography. Reading: Arnoldo Momigliano, “Persian Historiography, Greek Historiography, Jewish Historiography” and “The Herodotean and Thucydidean Tradition,” The Classical Foundations of Modern Historiography (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), pp. 5-53.

Session 5: Further reflections on early Jewish historiography. Reading: Baruch Halpern, “The Trouble with History” and “As It Really Was: The History of the Trouble,” The First Historians: The Hebrew Bible and History (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003), pp. 3-36.

Session 6: Conclusion and summary of session1-5.

Session 7: Discussion of sample no. 1 (Zuozhuan 左傳): “The rise of Lord Wen of Jin.” Reading: Zuozhuan 左傳, Lord Xi 僖公 years 23-32.

Session 8: Discussion of sample no. 2 (Herodotus: The Histories): “The fall of Croesus and the rise of Cyrus.“ Reading: Herodotus, 1:6-92 (Chinese or English translation).

Session 9: Discussion of sample no. 3: “The rise and reign of King David.” Reading: I Book of Samuel, ch 16 to end of II Book of Samuel (approximately 45 pp., Chinese or English translation).

Session 10: Discussion of sample no 4 (Shiji 史記): “The rise and fall of Xiang Yu.” Reading: Shiji 7:295-339 (項羽 本紀).

Session 11: Discussion of sample no. 5 (Thucydides: The Peloponnesian War): “The Beginning of the War, the Plague of Athens, and Pericles, “ Thucydides, chps. 6 & 7 (approximately 25 pages, Chinese or English translation).

Session 12: Discussion and summary of session7-11.

Session 13: A narratological perspective (introduction)—What kind of methodology does a narratologist deploy? What questions are asked? Narrative and history. Readings: Maurice Halbwachs, “The Reconstructions of the Past,” On Collective Memory (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), pp. 46-51; Hayden White, “The Value of Narrativity in the Representation of Reality,” The Content of the Form (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987), pp. 1-25.

Session 14: Narrative in early Chinese historical texts. Reading: Selected pages from:
傅修延，先秦敘事研究─關於中國敘事傳統的形成；Pan Wanmu 潘萬木， Zuozhuan xushu moshi lun 左傳敘述模式論 (Wuhan: Huazhong shifan daxue).

Session 15: Narrative in early Greek historical texts. Reading: Emily Baragwanath, “The Homeric Background,” Motivation and Narrative in Herodotus (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 35-54.

Session 16: Narrative in the Hebrew Bible. Reading; Robert Alter, “Sacred History and the Beginning of Prose Fiction,” The Art of Biblical Narrative (Basic Books, 1983), pp. 23-46.

Session 17: Conclusion and summary. What have we learned? Where should study of comparative early historiography go from here?

Session 18: Final Examination.