Table Of ContentChinese
AutobiogrAphiCAl
Writing
Chinese
Autobiographical
Writing
An Anthology
of personAl ACCounts
Edited by
Patricia Buckley Ebrey,
Cong Ellen Zhang,
and Ping Yao
University of Washington Press | Seattle
The open-access edition of Chinese Autobiographical Writing
was made possible in part by an award from the James P. Geiss
and Margaret Y. Hsu Foundation.
Additional support was provided by the McLellan Endowment, established
through the generosity of Martha McCleary McLellan and Mary McLellan Williams.
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university of WAshington press | uwapress.uw.edu
librAry of Congress CAtAloging-in-publiCAtion dAtA
Names: Ebrey, Patricia Buckley, 1947– editor. | Zhang, Cong, 1967– editor. |
Yao, Ping (Professor of history), editor.
Title: Chinese autobiographical writing : an anthology of personal accounts /
edited by Patricia Buckley Ebrey, Cong Ellen Zhang, and Ping Yao.
Description: Seattle : University of Washington Press, [2023] | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lCCn 2022032466 (print) | lCCn 2022032467 (ebook) | isbn 9780295751221
(hardcover) | isbn 9780295751238 (paperback) | isbn 9780295751245 (ebook)
Subjects: lCsh: Autobiography—Chinese authors. | Biography as a literary form. |
China—Biography—History and criticism.
Classification: lCC Ct34.C6 C45 2022 (print) | lCC Ct34.C6 (ebook) | ddC 808/.06692—
dc23/eng/20220713
lC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022032466
lC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022032467
This paper meets the requirements of Ansi/niso z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).
Contents
prefACe And ACknoWledgments ix
trAnslAtion Conventions xi
Chronology of imperiAl ChinA
With Authors of AutobiogrAphies xiii
introduCtion 1
1 A son’s tribute to his mother | An inscription on a bronze
vessel (10th c. bCe) 20
2 Crime And punishment | Personal testimony given
in four legal cases (3rd–2nd c. bCe) 23
3 A hAn emperor ACCepting the blAme | Edict by
Emperor Wu 武帝 (r. 141–87 bCe) 29
4 letters home | Three letters sent by ordinary men
and women (3rd c. bCe and 9th–10th c. Ce) 33
5 A nAturAl philosopher’s ACCount of his life | Last chapter
of his collected essays by Wang Chong 王充 (27–ca. 97 Ce) 38
6 A fAther Writing to his son | A letter by Zheng Xuan 鄭玄
(127–200) 49
7 An AbduCted WomAn on returning home | Poems by
Cai Yan 蔡琰 (ca. 177–ca. 249) 53
8 militAry men touting their merits | Essays by Cao Cao 曹操
(155–220) and his son Cao Pi 曹丕 (187–226) 59
9 the pAin of sepArAtion | Poetic writings by Imperial Consort
Zuo Fen 左芬 (ca. 253–300) 67
10 An emperor’s disC ourse on kArmA And vegetAriAnism |
Preface by Emperor Wu 梁武帝 (r. 502–549) of the Liang 72
11 lAte tAng Writers on life beyond offiCe-holding |
Accounts by Bai Juyi 白居易 (772–846) and Lu Guimeng 陸龜蒙
(ca. 836–881) 78
12 mourning friends And relAtions | Elegies by Han Yu 韓愈
(768–824) and Han Qi 韓琦 (1008–1075) 86
13 An AdvoCAte of the simple life | Autobiography by
Liu Kai 柳開 (948–1001) 94
14 reCords of things seen And heArd | Prefaces to five
Song miscellanies (11th–13th c.) 101
15 ChAnting About oneself | Poems by four Song scholars
(11th–13th c.) 107
16 An envoy’s trip to the Jin Court | Travel diary by Lou Yue
樓鑰 (1137–1213) 111
17 Women And suiCide | Writing on an inn wall by Qiongnu 瓊奴
(11th c.) and a poem by Han Ximeng 韓希孟 (mid-13th c.) 116
18 Witnessing dynAstiC CollApse | Writings by Yuan Haowen
元好問 (1190–1257) and Wen Tianxiang 文天祥 (1236–1283) 121
19 peACeful Abodes | Accounts of their homes by Yelü Chucai
耶律楚材 (1190–1244) and Xie Yingfang 謝應芳(1296–1392) 129
20 A femAle doCtor’s l ife And Work | Preface and postfaces
to a book by Tan Yunxian 談允賢 (1461–1556) 135
21 An eCCentriC Considers suiC ide | Self-authored funerary
biography by Xu Wei 徐渭 (1521–1593) 141
22 life in the exAminAtion hell | Preface to a set of examination
essays by Ai Nanying 艾南英 (1583–1646) 146
23 A royAl Consort’s song | Music for the zither by Madame Zhong
鐘氏 (fl. 1570–1620) 153
24 environmentAl CAtAstrophes | Harrowing reports
by Chen Qide 陳其德 (fl. 1640s) and Pu Songling 蒲松齡
(1640–1715) 166
25 A Con mAn posing As An offiCiAl | Legal Confession
of Luo Fenpeng 羅奮鵬 (b. 1726) 176
26 A privAte seCretAry’s itinerAnt life | Year-by-year
autobiography by Wang Huizu 汪輝祖 (1730–1807) 181
27 tributes to Close relAtives | Appreciations written
by a woman for her husband and a man for his elder sister
(18th and 19th c.) 208
28 A teenAger CAptured by the niAn rebels | Record of a
fifteen-week ordeal by Liu Tang 柳堂 (1844–1929) 213
29 keeping fAmily members informed | Letters to his eldest son
by Zeng Guofan 曾國藩 (1811–1872) 227
Appendix | A Select List of Widely Available Translations
of Prose Personal Accounts to 1880 241
index 249
prefACe And ACknoWledgments
This volume has many points of origin. One is the work Patricia Ebrey did in
the late 1970s with support from an NEH grant that led to Chinese Civiliza-
tion and Society: A Sourcebook (New York: Free Press, 1981). Over a period of
about three years, a group of graduate students at the University of Illinois
working with Pat looked for texts that would make good classroom reading,
then drafted translations. Pat went over them all, did some translations her-
self, wrote the introductions, and tested them in class. So many pieces were
translated that publishing them all in a single volume became impossible, so
Pat set aside several longer autobiographical pieces, thinking they might one
day be published in a set of personal accounts. Four of the pieces included
here were resurrected from the old paper copies that had been sitting in file
folders for decades. They had to be shortened to be included here but are
still among the longer pieces.
Another point of origin is our history together. This goes back to the 1990s,
when first Ping Yao and later Cong Ellen Zhang entered the graduate program
at the University of Illinois, took courses with Pat, and became good friends
with each other. Although we have since scattered, a quarter century later
we still read and discuss each other’s work. Together, the three of us edited
Chinese Funerary Biographies: An Anthology of Remembered Lives (Seattle:
University of Washington Press, 2019). That volume, having begun with a
workshop, contained translations by nineteen different scholars. This time
we thought we would try doing most of the translations ourselves, making
consistency easier to achieve. Ping largely did the first drafts of the pieces
through the Tang, and Cong and Pat the ones for later periods, but we each
spent quite a bit of time going over the others’ work, so have not credited
translations to one person. In the end, we also chose to include four transla-
tions by other scholars.
