Faculty & Staff

Faculty

Edward L. Shaughnessy

Edward L. Shaughnessy, Ph.D.

Lorraine J. and Herrlee G. Creel Distinguished Service Professor in Early Chinese Studies and Department Chair, East Asian Languages and Civilizations and the College; Director of the Creel Center for Chinese Paleography.

eshaughn@uchicago.edu


CV

Teaching/Research Interests:

conferenceI am interested generally in the cultural and literary history of the Zhou period, and am committed especially to the study of its archaeologically recovered textual materials, from oracle-bone and bronze inscriptions through the bamboo-strip manuscripts that have been unearthed in such breathtaking profusion in the last two decades.  At the same time, I remain fascinated with the received literary tradition of the period, especially the three classics: Zhou Yi, Shang shu and Shi jing. Indeed, I find it most rewarding when it proves possible to use these two types of texts to explicate each other.

Within this general scholarly agenda, I have resolutely maintained two focal points: bronze inscriptions and the Zhou Yi, both of which reached their full maturity toward the end of the Western Zhou period (1045-771 B.C.). I am presently completing a monographic study to be entitled conference“The Changes Unearthed,” a survey of recently excavated manuscripts of or relating to the Yi jing.  I hope in the near future to turn my attention to an analytic dictionary of the language of Western Zhou bronze inscriptions, and in the long term to prepare a comprehensive history of the Western Zhou period.

In addition to these individual research projects, under the auspices of the Creel Center for Chinese Paleography I am also collaborating with my colleague Don Harper as well as other colleagues at other institutions both in the United States and in China and Taiwan, to produce a synoptic overview of the manuscript culture of ancient China.

Recent Publications

Books:

Yuanfang zhi shi xi: Gudai Zhongguo jingxuanji 遠方之時習：古代中國精選集 (Timely practices from distant parts: Selections from Early China), editor. Shanghai: Shanghai Guji chubanshe, 2008.

Rewriting Early Chinese Texts. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2006.

Ancient China: Life, Myth and Art. London: Duncan Baird Publishers, 2005. Polish translation: Chiny: Życie,Legendy I Sztuka. Warzawa: National Geographic Society, 2005; French translation: La Chine ancienne: Vie, art et mythes, tr. Emmanuel Pailler. Paris: Gründ, 2005; Spanish translation: La Antigua China: Vida, Mitologia y Arte. Madrid: Ediciones Jaguar, 2005; Portugese translation: Antiga China. Lisbon: Edição Única, 2005.

conferenceGu shi yi guan 古史異觀 (A different view of ancient history). Shanghai: Shanghai Guji chubanshe, 2005.

Articles:

“Chronologies of Ancient China: A Critique of the ‘Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project,” in Windows on the Chinese World: Reflections by Five Historians, ed. Clara Wing-chung Ho. Lanham, Md.:  Lexington Books, 2008. Pp. 15-28.

“Gongyuanqian 1000 nian qianhou dong xi wenming jiaoliu san ze” 公元前1000年前後東西文明交流三則 (Three studies of East West cultural exchange at about 1000 B.C.), Hua xue 華學 (Sinology) 9 (2008): 288-90.

“San lun Zhushu jinian de cuojian zhengju” 三論竹书纪年的错简证据 (A third discussion of evidence for misplaced strips in the Bamboo Annals), Jianbo 简帛 (Bamboo and silk) 3 (2008): 403-415.

 “Changing Semiotics and Hermeneutics: A Review of Zheng Jixiong 鄭吉雄, Yi tuxiang yu Yi quanshi 易圖象與易詮釋,” China Reviews International, 14.1 (Spring 2007): 312-17.

 “The Bin Gong Xu Inscription and the Beginnings of the Chinese Literary Tradition,” in The Harvard-Yenching Library 75th Anniversary Memorial Volume, ed. Wilt Idema. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2007. Pp. 1-19.

“The Religions of Ancient China,” in A Handbook of Ancient Religions, ed. John Hinnells. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Pp. 490-536.

“You tongqi mingwen chongxin yuedu Shi Da Ya Xia Wu” 由銅器銘文重新閲讀《詩大雅下武》(A new reading of the Shi jing poem Xia Wu on the basis of bronze inscriptions), in Qu Wanli xiansheng bai sui danchen guoji xueshu yantaohui lunwenji 屈萬里先生百嵗誕辰國際學術研討會論文集 (Essays from the International Conference Commemorating the Hundreth Anniversary of Mr. Qu Wanli’s Birth). Taibei: Taiwan daxue, 2007. Pp. 65-69.

“Shilun Shangbo Zhou Yi de gua xu” 試論上博《周易》的卦序 (A trial  discussion of the hexagram sequence in the Shanghai Museum  Zhou Changes), Jianbo 簡帛 (Bamboo and silk) 1 (2006): 97-105.

conference“Shi zhong: Jianlun Mao Shi de xungu fangfa yi ze” 釋潀：兼論毛詩的訓詁方法一則 (An explanation of the character 潀: With a discussion of exegetical methods as applied to the Shi jing), Zhonghua wenshi luncong 中華文史論叢 (Essays on Chinese cultural history) 2006.3: 77-85.

“Shilun Xi Zhou tongqi mingwen de xiezuo guocheng: Yi Meixian Shan shi jiazu tongqi wei li” 試論西周銅器銘文的寫作過程：以眉縣單氏家族銅器為例 (A trial discussion of the process of composition of Western Zhou bronze inscriptions: Taking the Meixian Shan Family bronzes as examples), in Chutu wenxian yu Zhongguo sixiang yantaohui lunwenji 新出土文獻與先秦思想重構論文集 (Collection of papers reconsidering newly excavated documents and Pre-Qin thought), ed. Guo Lihua 郭梨花. Taipei: Taiwan Guji chuban youxian gongsi, 2007. Pp. 119-130; English version published as “The Writing of a Late Western Zhou Bronze Inscription,” Asiatische Studien/Études Asiatiques LXI.3 (2007): 845-877.

“Cong Xian Gui kan Zhou Mu Wang zai wei nianshu ji niandai wenti” 從夘簋看周穆王在位年數及年代問題 (A look at the problems of the length and date of the reign of King Mu of Zhou on the basis of the Xian Gui), Zhongguo lishi wenwu 中國歷史文物 (Chinese historical cultural relics) 2006.3: 9-10.

“Texts Lost in Texts: Recovering the ‘Zhai Gong’ Chapter of the Yi Zhou Shu,” in Studies in Chinese Language and Culture: Festschrift in Honour of Christoph Harbsmeier on the Occasion of His 60th Birthday, ed. Christoph Anderl and Halvor Eifring.Oslo: Hermes Academic Publishing, 2006. Pp. 31-47.

“The Guodian Manuscripts and their Place in Twentieth-Century Historiography on the Laozi,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 65.2 (December 2005): 417-57.

Courses