The Tso Chuan: Selections from China's Oldest Narrative History

by Burton Watson (Translator)

A vivid chronicle of events in the feudal states of China between 722 and 468 B.C. the "Tso Chuan" has longbeen consideredboth a major historical document and and an influential literary model. Covering over 250 years, these historical narratives focus not only on the political, diplomatic, and military affairs of ancient China, but also on its economic and cultural developments during the turbulent era when warring feudal states were gradually working towards unification. ending shortly after Confucius' death in 479 B.C., the Two Chuan provides a background to the life and thought of Confucius and his followers that is available in no other work.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, China

232 pages, Paperback

First published March 28, 1989

About the author

Burton Watson was an American sinologist, translator, and writer renowned for his English translations of Chinese and Japanese literature. Over his prolific career, he brought classical works of poetry, philosophy, and history to a wider audience, earning numerous accolades, including the PEN Translation Prize and the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation.
Born in New Rochelle, New York, Watson served in the U.S. Navy during World War II before studying Chinese at Columbia University. He later moved to Japan, where he worked as a scholar and translator, remaining there for most of his life. His translations, influenced by Arthur Waley and Ezra Pound, emphasized clarity and poetic resonance. Among his most notable works are translations of The Analects of Confucius, Records of the Grand Historian, The Lotus Sutra, Cold Mountain: 100 Poems by Han Shan, and The Tale of the Heike.
Watson’s work played a crucial role in introducing Chinese and Japanese literary traditions to the English-speaking world, and his translations continue to be regarded as both scholarly and literary achievements.

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Necessary. (This edition cuts out too many chapters, though).

[Yunis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great stories, well explained by the translator

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Tso Chuan is one of the most important Confucian classics.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the Analects (earlier on this Goodreads list), Confucius refers repeatedly to 3 of the "5 Classics" which he edited and commented on. One of these is the famous Spring and Autumn Annals. Though famous, I strangely have not been able to get a translation of it, and besides it is reputed to be merely a dry and laconically worded list of events of late Bronze Age China. In Chinese historiography this is the Spring and Autumn period (named after the Annals), when the heretofore dominant Zhou kingdom slowly disintegrated, yielding power to local fiefdoms. These fiefdoms proceeded to wage war on each other, resulting in the Warring States period, the age of Confucius and the Chinese Axial Age. The Annals are so skeletal a history that multiple attempts were made in the later Warring States period to comment on and expand the minimal documentation of the Annals. The most successful of these is the Tso Chuan (Zuǒ Zhuàn in pinyin), or Chronicles of Zuo. The Zuo Zhuan is the first proper historical writing in the Chinese literary corpus, and itself became part of the classical Confucian literary canon. This specific translation by Watson is but a selection of the more famous stories of the Zuo Zhuan. Watson praised this text mightily in his slim and wonderful book "Early Chinese Literature" (earlier on this Goodreads list). However, I found the pages rather dry and repetitive, not exactly great literature. The stories are full of palace intrigues and political machinations (and wars), with kings and dukes and concubines behaving badly, but they are generally not salacious enough to make up for the fact that they are not especially well-written. Also, the narratives include not a few speeches and admonitions by wiser folk (usually a minister or advisor) that in the end turn out to be correct, though in a told-you-so fashion. Thus the purpose of the Zuo Zhuan, in the eyes of the Confucians who canonized it, is to provide evidence for the efficacy of Confucian thought, rather than to document history for history's sake. A natural followup question is whether Zuo's agenda negatively affects the veracity of the stories (though one can also carry this sort of critique too far, potentially invalidating all historical documentation). But even if some of the narrative details are suspect (did Duke Zhuang of Zheng really break his vow to not meet his traitorous mother until they were both dead and buried, by digging an underground meeting place? Did Shen Hai really kill his 2 daughters to accompany the overthrown ex-King Ling of Chu who committed suicide in Shen Hai's home?), the stories do provide a window into what life was like for the elites of the Warring States. And Watson says they do set the precedent and standard for later Chinese historiography, which as an intellectual endeavor plays a huge role in subsequent East Asian civilization.