Across Time and Space: The Basic Annals, Tables and Treatises of the Shiji

How to make sense of a 2,100-year-old foundational text of Chinese civilization, a work that set the structural pattern for every subsequent dynastic history and continues to influence how the Chinese people think, communicate, and see themselves? Across Time and Space offers an inviting gateway. Developed from Professor Zhenghong Chen’s popular Fudan University courses and online lectures, this book distills four decades of rigorous scholarship in classical Chinese textual studies. It closely reads the first three structural genres of Sima Qian’s Shiji (The Grand Scribe’s Records)–the twelve dynasty- and ruler-centered "Basic Annals" and the often-overlooked yet seminal ten "Tables" and eight "Treatises"–while engaging with two millennia of hermeneutic and reception history, drawing on recent archaeological discoveries, and featuring rich illustrations of important Shiji editions. Chen’s reading advances the thesis that the Shiji transcends mere chronology to provide foundational concepts for a shared cultural and political identity among the Chinese. The English edition captures Chen’s witty, relatable persona, making his unique blend of erudition and accessibility resonate as powerfully with English readers as it does with his original audience.