Zuo Tradition / Zuozhuan左傳

It is impossible to do justice to this monumental publication in a brief review; let me merely emphasize that these renowned translators, working as a trio, amount to even more than the sum of their parts because their strengths are complementary. No single human being could have handled so many aspects of this text . . . which is compact but rooted in three lifetimes of learning and reflection.

The three scholars who have joined forces to produce this new translation are. . . to be heartily congratulated. The resulting publication is. . . eminently readable, with bilingual text, helpfully divided into coherent sections, and annotation that provides necessary explanations without overwhelming the reader with minutiae. . . Naturally it is impossible to do justice to this monumental publication in a brief review; let me merely emphasize that these renowned translators, working as a trio, amount to even more than the sum of their parts because their strengths are complementary.

The translation team has successfully produced a work that is not only an English rendering but an accessible user manual for the Zuo Tradition...[T]his translation will at last allow the Zuo Tradition to take its proper place among the classics of world literature and ancient history.

This is a long-awaited monumental work that keeps what has been promised: It is a very well readable translation of the first major narrative history of China, one that for many years to come will replace the version that James Legge produced almost 150 years ago.

[A] precise, elegant—and, yes, reader-friendly—translation that brings out many nuances in the text that had heretofore been lost to the English reader. Zuo Tradition does not merely complement Legge’s translation but supersedes it. It will itself be the new “measuring rod” in Zuozhuan studies.

This is one of the greatest translations of the Chinese classical works into English.

[N]ow, at last, we have a convenient, bilingual, and helpfully annotated edition from which to study this immensely rich work…Some books are so physically beautiful and so eminently useful that one is sorely tempted to celebrate their publication instead of reviewing them. Zuo Tradition is one of these wonderful publications that literally everyone with any interest in traditional China will need to hurry to buy. The book is handsomely produced, lavishly bound, and it is the result of many, many years of intensive cooperation between three of the world’s leading scholars in the field…Thus this is not only a singularly beautiful printed object, it is also an authoritative translation if ever there was one, by the leading US scholars in the field. It seems bound to become a classic of sinology.

The quality of this translation as well as the accompanying introduction and critical apparatus are a strong argument for the long overdue insight that solid translation work must no longer be relegated to a secondary position in academia but deserves the same recognition as primarily interpretive or systematizing studies. The students of early China and ancient history in general owe immense gratitude to Stephen Durrant, Wai-yee Li, and David Schaberg for this truly exemplary magnum opus.

It is to be hoped that the Zuozhuan Reader will whet the appetite of future students to explore the full world of the Zuozhuan when having read the starters presented here… the Reader-version will present a good starting-point for a new generation of scholars who will try to unravel the enigma of the Zuozhuan itself and to take scholarship concerning this first narrative history of ancient China to a level unreached so far.

Whether considered as a work of history or literature, Zuo Tradition is surely one of the masterpieces of world literature, and the translators and publisher are to be applauded for making it more accessible to readers everywhere in this handsome and readable new complete translation. The translation is crisp and lively, the introduction straightforward and informative, and the notes and indexes invariably helpful. In every respect, Zuo Tradition is a realization of Confucius's maxim 'Use words that are adequate to the intent; use ornamentation that is adequate to the words.'

Zuozhuan has anchored the entire corpus of Chinese historical writing for the last two millennia. Its canonical status as the work of Confucius has given it enormous authority not just in determining how Chinese historians should record past events, but in shaping how the Chinese imagine that history itself unfolds. Now that we have this meticulously researched and carefully considered translation, this foundational text can finally take its place among the core classics of early historical writing worldwide.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that with the publication of this new translation, Zuozhuan will become accessible to an incomparably larger audience, benefiting Western studies of ancient Chinese history, thought, and culture. . . . This translation will establish new professional standards for future translations in the field.

A milestone in the development of the fields of Chinese history, historiography, literature, and political thought. . . . For the very first time, this translation makes it possible to read the text continuously, to gain a comprehensive view of its rhetorical features, and to follow the inner patterns and structures of this highly complex text. . . . [It] will inspire entirely new lines of scholarly inquiry into the textual and historical world of ancient China.