Qin / Western Han / Wang Mang



a. Reference 

Bielenstein, Hans. The Bureaucracy of Han Times. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.  Rev. Wm G. Crowell JAOS 104.3 (July 1984):559-562.

Cang Xiuliang, ed. 倉修良 Hanshu cidian 漢書辭典 [Dictionary of the History of the Former Han]. Jinan : Shandong jiaoyu chubanshe, 1991.  Dictionary of people, places and terms in the Han shu with references to the Zhonghua shuju edition. Entries do not examine all the occurences of a term or name in the text, sometimes resulting in incomplete descriptions or definitions.

_____. Shi ji cidian 史記辭典 [Dictionary of the Grand Scribe's records]. Jinan: Shandong jiaoyu chubanshe, 1991.  Dictionary of people, places and terms in the Shi ji with reference to the Zhonghua shuju edition. Entries do not examine all the occurences of a term or name in the text, sometimes resulting in incomplete descriptions or definitions.

de Crespigny, Rafe, comp. Official Titles of the Former Han Dynasty. Centre of Oriental Studies Monograph 2. Canberra: Australian National University, 1967.  Official titles of the Han dynasty as rendered by Homer H. Dubs for his translation of the Han shu, the History of the Former Han Dynasty. (See below.)

Dubs, Homer H., et al. trans. "Introduction to the Tables of the Hundred Officials in the Ch'ien Han-shu."  Dubs' unpublished meticulously executed and copiously annotated translation of Han shu 19A 白官公卿表.  http://e-asia.uoregon.edu/homer/

Han Dynasty History Project. "Official Titles of the Han Dynasty: A Tentative List" mimeo. Seattle: University of Washington, n.d. A working list developed for the now defunct Han Project at the University of Washington. Contains some titles not found in the preceding two works. Renderings are based on Dubs. Downloadeable copy at http://e-asia.uoregon.edu/homer/

He, Qinggu 何清谷.  Sanfu huang tu jiaoshi 三輔黃圖校釋 [Collated Exegeses of the Sanfu huangtu].  Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2005.  Invaluable for the study of the Qin and Former Han capitals.

Loewe, Michael. A Biographical Dictionary of the Qin, Han and Xin Periods, 221 BC - AD 24. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2000.  A magisterial work by the leading Western scholar of the Han. In addition to biographical entries, this work includes other useful reference information on Han administration, genealogical tables, etc. There is also a list official titles that are modified and improved over those of Dubs.

_____.  The Men who Governed  Han China: Companion to A Biographical Dictionary of the Qin, Former Han and Xin Periods.  Leiden: Brill, 2004.  Rev. Jean Levi,  TP 92 (2006): 166-88.

 

b. History

Bielenstein, Hans The Restoration of the Han Dynasty, with Prolegomena on the Historiography of the Hou Han Shu. Göteborg: Elanders Boktryckeri Aktiebolag, 1953. Reprinted in BMFEA 26 (1954). The author advanced the novel contention that Wang Mang's fall resulted from the devastation and turmoil caused by the Yellow River's breaching its dikes. For the counterview, see Yu Yingshi 余英時. “Dong Han zhengquan zhi jianli yu shizu daxing zhi guanxi" 東漢政權之建立與士族大姓之關係 Xinya xuebao 新亞學報 1.2 (Feb. 1956):270-80. 

_____. “The Restoration of the Han Dynasty. Vol. 4, The Government.” BMFEA 51 (1979): 1–300. Intended to be used in conjunction with the author's The Han Bureaucracy. (See next section.)

_____. “Wang Mang, the Restoration of the Han Dynasty, and Later Han.” In CHC, 1:223–290.  Bielenstein, in this article, repeats his assertion that Wang Mang's fall was caused by Yellow River flooding. He does not address the points made by Yu Yingshi. (See above.)

Bodde, Derk. China's First Unifier: A Study of the Ch'in Dynasty as Seen in the Life of Li Ssu. Leiden: Brill, 1938; rpt., Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press, 1967. 

Ariba  Suguya 有馬卓也.  "Kainam ō koku no hachijunen: Ei Fu yori Ryū Chō, Ryū An e"  淮南王國の八十年：英布より劉長，劉安へ [Eighty Years of the Kingdom of Huainan from Ying Bu to Liu Chang, Liu An].  Chūgoku kenkyū shūkan 中國研究集刊 25 (1999.12):21-42.

Goi Naosuhiro 五井直弘.  Kandai no goozoku shakai to kokka 漢代の豪族社会と国家　[Han Dynasty Elite Society and the State].  Tokyo: Meicho kankoo kai, 2001. Seven articles originally published between 1953 and 1970 by a leading Japanese historian.  Focus the political role of the elite families haozu  from the founding of the Qin Empire to the fall of the Han and the rise of Cao Cao.

Hsü, Cho-yun. “The Changing Relationship between Local Society and the Central Political Power in Former Han 206 B.C.-8 A.D.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 7.4 (1965).

_____. “The Interaction of Social Power and Political Authority during the Former Han Dynasty.” Bulletin. Institute of History and Philology, 35 (1964).

Kawachi Jyūzo 河地重造. "Ō Bō seiken no shutsugen"  王莽政権の出現　[Rise of Wang Mang].  In Sekai rekishi 4 kodai Tō Ajia no seikei  I  世界歴史 4 古代東アジアの成形 I. Tōkyō:  Iwanami Shoten, 1970, 367-402.

Loewe, Michael. Everyday Life in Early Imperial China during the Han Period, 202 B.C.-A.D. 220. London: Batsford, 1968; rpt., New York: Dorset, 1988.

_____. “The Former Han Dynasty.” In CIC, 1:103–222.

_____.  The Men who Governed  Han China: Companion to A Biographical Dictionary of the Qin, Former Han and Xin Periods.  Leiden: Brill, 2004.  Rev. Jean Levi,  TP 92 (2006): 166-88.

Loewe, Michael and Edward L. Shaughnessy, eds. The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 B.C. Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1999.  This work provides excellent background to understanding developments and institutions of the early Imperial period.  Chapter 14, "The Heritage Left to the Empires" by Michael Loewe, makes the links explicit.  A valuable aid to understanding the issues addressed herein is David Schaberg's review in MS 49 (2001):463-515.

Ōba Osamu 大庭脩. Shin Kan teikoku no iyō 秦漢帝国の威容 [The Majesty of the Qin-Han Empire]. Tōkyō : Kōdansha, 1977。

Twitchett, Denis and Michael Loewe, eds. The Cambridge History of China. Vol. 1, The Ch’in and Han Empires (221 B.C.–A.D. 220). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. Abbreviated as CHC 1. 

Wallacker, Benjamin E. “Liu An, Second King of Huai-nan (180?-122 B.C.),” JAOS 92 (1972):36-51.

Wang, Aihe. Cosmology and Political Culture in Early China.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.  Rev. Martin Kern. JESHO 44.2 (2001):239-41.

_____.  “Creators of an Emperor: The Political Group behind the Founding of the Han Empire,” AM (third series) 14.1 (2001): 19-50.

Hsing I-tien (Xing yitian) 邢義田. "Cong gudai Tianxiaguan kan Qin-Han changcheng de xiangzheng yiyi" 從古代天下觀看秦漢長城的象徵意義 [The Symbolic Significance of the Qin-Han Great Wall as Seen from the Ancient Concept of 'All under Heaven,'" Yanjing xuebao 燕京學報 13 (2002):15-64.


c. Government

Bielenstein, Hans H. The Bureaucracy of Han Times. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.  This volume is intended to complement the author’s “The Restoration of the Han Dynasty, Volume VI: The Government.” Provides brief descriptions of most Han offices and the changes they underwent from Western to Eastern Han. Includes a handy list of translations for most Han official titles based on Dubs. 

_____. “The Restoration of the Han Dynasty. Vol. 4, The Government.” BMFEA 51 (1979): 1–300. Intended to be used in conjunction with the preceding. 

Buxbaum, David C., ed. Chinese Family Law and Social Change. Asian Law Series 3. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1978.

Dubs, Homer H., et al. trans. "Introduction to the Tables of the Hundred Officials in the Ch'ien Han-shu."  Dubs' unpublished meticulously executed and copiously annotated translation of Han shu 19A 白官公卿表.  An important complement to the foregoing works by Hans Bielenstein.  http://e-asia.uoregon.edu/homer/

Dull, Jack L. “Determining Orthodoxy: Imperial Roles.” In Imperial Rulership and Cultural Change in Traditional China, ed. by Frederick P. Brandauer and Chün-chieh Huang. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994, 3-27. 

_____. "Kao-tsu's Founding and Wang Mang's Failure." http://e-asia.uoregon.edu/homer/

_____. "The Legitimation of the Ch'in." http://e-asia.uoregon.edu/homer/ 

_____. "A Study of the Han Dynasty Prefecture." MA Thesis, 1959. Based on Yan Gengwang (see below), this remains useful and about the only thing available on the subject in English. 

Gale, Esson M., tr. Discourses on Salt and Iron: A Debate on State Control of Commerce and Industry in Ancient China. Sinica Leidensia 2. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1931.

Gale, Esson M., et al. “Discourses on Salt and Iron [Yen T’ieh Lun: Chaps. XXXXVIII],” JNCBRAS 65 (1934): 73-110.

Houn, Franklin. "The Civil Service recruitment System of the Han Dynasty," Tsng-hua hsüeh-pao, New Series 1 (1956):138-64.

Lao, Gan 勞幹.  Handai zhengzhi lunwenji 漢代政治論文集 [Collected Articles on Han Government]. Taibei Xian Banqiao: Yi Wen yinshuguan, 1976.

_____.  Juyan Han jian 居延漢簡 [Supplied Title:  Documents of the Han Dynasty on Wooden Slips from Edsin Gol,  Part 2:  Transliterations and Commentaries]. Zhongyang yanjiuyuan lishi yuyan yanjiusuo zhuankan, 40. Taibei: Zhongyan yanjiuyuan lishi yuyan yanjiusuo, 1960.  Transcriptions and study of Former Han administrative documents from Juyan (Edsin Gol).  See also below Loewe, Records of Han Administration.

Loewe, Michael. Chinese Ideas of Life and Death: Faith, Myth and Reason in the Han Period (202 bc–ad 220). London: George Allen & Unwin, 1982.  

_____. “The Conduct of Government and the Issues at Stake (A.D. 57–167).” CIC, 1:291–316.

_____. Crisis and Conflict in Han China, 104 B.C. to A.D. 9. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1974.

_____. Divination, Mythology and Monarchy in Han China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. 

_____. Records of Han Administration. University of Cambridge oriental publications, nos. 11-12. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967.

Nishijima Sadao 西島定生.  "Kōtei shihai no seiritsu" 皇帝支配の成立「Establishment of Imperial Control]. In Sekai rekishi 4 kodai Tō Ajia no seikei  I  世界歴史 4 古代東アジアの成形 I. Tōkyō:  Iwanami Shoten, 1970, 217-56.

Ōba Osamu 大庭脩.  "Kan ō chō no shihai kikō" 漢王朝の支配機構 [Administrative Organs of the Han Court].  In Sekai rekishi 4 kodai Tō Ajia no seikei  I  世界歴史 4 古代東アジアの成形 I. Tōkyō:  Iwanami Shoten, 1970, 257-94.

Tsai, Yen-zen. “Scripture and Authority: The Political Dimension of Han Wu-ti’s Canonization of the Five Classics.” In Ching-I Tu, ed. Classics and Interpretations: The Hermeneutic Traditions in Chinese Culture. New Brunswick, N.J., and London: Transaction, 2000, 85-105.

Wallacker, Benjamin E. “Dethronement and Due Process in Early Imperial China.” Journal of Asian History (Wiesbaden). 21.1 (1987): 48–67. Discusses the role of empresses dowagers in legitmating the deposing of a sitting emperor.  

Walter, Georges, et al., trs. Dispute sur le sel et le fer: Chine, an -81. Paris: J. Lanzmann et Seghers, 1978.

Xiao Fan 蕭璠. "Guanyu Handai de huan guan" 關於漢代的宦官 [On Eunuchs during the Han]. In Lao Zhenyi xiansheng ba zhi rongqing lunwen ji 勞貞一先生八秩榮慶論文集 [Fetschrift for Lao Zhenyi (Lao Gan) on His Eightieth Birthday]. Taibei: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1986, 563-612.

Hsing I-tien (Xing Yitian ) 邢義田. "Cong jiandu kan Handai de xingzheng wenshu fanben -- 'shi'" '從簡牘看漢代的行政文書範本—「式」[Examining the Han time administrative document model "shi" in the wooden strips]. In  嚴耕望先生紀念論文集. Taibei: Daoxiang chubanshe, 1998, 387-404; reprinted in 簡帛研究 第三輯. Guangxi jiaoyu chubanshe, 1998, 295-311, and  in 紀念王國維先生誕辰120周年學術論文集. Guangdong: Guangdong jiaoyu chubanshe, 1999, 90-107

_____, with Xiao Fan 蕭璠, Lin Suoqing 林素清, and Liu Zenggui 劉增貴. Juyan Han jian bubian 居延漢簡補編 [Han Bamboo Strips from Juyan: Supplement]. Institute of History and Philology Special Publication No. 99. Taibei: Institute of History and Philiology, Academia Sinica, 1998.

_____. "Yunmeng Qin jian jianjie – fu: dui 'wei li zhi dao' ji muzhu xi zhiwu xingzhi de yize" 雲夢秦簡簡介 – 附：對「為吏之道」及墓主喜職務性質的臆測 [Brief Introduction to the Yun Bamboo Strips – Appendix: Conjectures about the Nexus between "the way of an official" and the Nature of the Official Duties of Tomb Occupant Xi], Shihuo yuekan 食貨月刊 9.4 (1979):33-39.

_____. "Yun wen yun wu: Handai guanli de yi zhong dianxing" 允文允武:漢代官吏的一種典型 [Skilled in Military and Civil Affairs: One Model of the Han-Tiem Official],  Lishiyuyan yanjiusuo jikan 歷史語言研究所集刊 75:2（2004):1-66.

Yates, Robin D.S. “State Control of Bureaucrats under the Qin: Techniques and Procedures.” EC 20 (1995): 331-65. 

    Law:

Ch’ü, T’ung-tsu. Law and Society in Traditional China. École Pratique des Hautes Études, Sorbonne; Sixième section: Sciences économiques et sociales; Le monde d’outremer passé et present, Première série: Études 4. Paris and the Hague: Mouton, 1961.

Hulsewé, A. F. P. Remnants of Han Law. Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1955.  A pioneering study by one of the world's leading experts on the subject. Hulsewé published numerous articles on Qin and Han law. See the bibliography in Idema and Zürcher title below.

_____ . "Ch'in and Han Law." CIC, 1:520-44.

_____. Remnants of Ch'in Law: An Annotated Translation of the Ch'in Legal and Administrative Rules of the 3rd century B.C. Discovered in Yün-meng Prefecture, Hu-pei Province, in 1975. Sinica Leidensia 17. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1985. Review article: Bernard Paul Sypniewski. "The Use of Variables in the Remnants of Qin Law" MS 52 (2004):345-61.

Idema, W. L., and E. Zürcher, eds. Thought and Law in Qin and Han China: Studies Dedicated to Anthony Hulsewé on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday. Sinica Leidensia 24. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1990. In addition to several valuable articles, contains a comprehensive bibliography of Hulsewé's work to the time of publication. 

Loewe, Michael.  "On the Terms bao zi, yin gong, yin guan, huan, and  shou: Was Zhao Gao a Eunuch?" TP 91.4-5 (2005): 301-19.

McLeod, Katrina C. D. & Robin D. S. Yates "Forms of Ch'in Law: An Annotated Translation of The Feng-chen shih," HJAS 41.1 (June 1981):111-163.

Ōba Osamu 大庭 脩. Shin Kan hōseishi no kenkyū 秦漢法制史の硏究 [Studies in the History of the Qin-Han Legal System]. Tōkyō: Sōbunsha, 1982.

Turner, Karen.  “The Theory of Law in the Ching-fa,” EC 14 (1989): 55-76.

_____.  “Rule of Law Ideals in Early China?” Journal of Chinese Law 6.1 (1992): 1-44.

_____.  “War, Punishment, and The Law of Nature in Early Chinese Concepts of The State," HJAS 53.2 (Dec., 1993):285-324. 

Vandermeersch, Léon. “Le statut des terres en China à l’époque des Han.” In Lionello Lanciotti, ed. Il diritto in Cina: Teoria e applicazioni durante le dinastie imperiali e problematica del diritto Cinese contemporaneo. Civiltà Veneziana: Studi 34. Florence: Leo S. Olschki,, 39-56.

Vankeerberghen, Griet. “Family and Law in Former Han China (206 BCE-8 CE): Arguments Pro and Contra Punishing the Relatives of a Criminal,” Cultural Dynamics 12.1 (2000): 111-25.

Wallacker, Benjamin E. “The Spring and Autumn Annals as a Source of Law in Han China,” Journal of Chinese Studies 2.1 (1985): 59-72.

Hsing I-tien (Xing Yitian) 邢義田. "Cong antu zhongqian lun Qin Han shidai de ximin yu qianxi xing – fu lu: lun qianxi xing zhi yu rouxing zhi bu fu" 從安土重遷論秦漢時代的徙民與遷徙刑 – 附錄：論遷徙刑之用與肉刑之不復 [The Qin-Han Punishment of Exile and the Relocation of People Considering the Concept of "Secure on the Land and Reluctant to Relocate" – Addendum: Discussion of the Use of Exile and the Non-restoration of Mutilation], Lishi yuyan yanjiusuo jikan 歷史語言研究所集刊 57 (1986):321-349.

____. "Cong Zhang Jiashan Han jian er nian lüling lun Qin-Han de xingqi wenti" 從張家山漢簡二年律令論秦漢的刑期問題 [Discussion of Qin-Han Terms of Punishment Based on the ernian lingl of the Zhangjia shan Bamboo Strips], Taida lishi xuebao 台大歷史學報 31 (2003):311-323.

_____. "Qin Han lüling xue – jian lun Cao Wei lü boshi de chu xian" 秦漢的律令學 – 兼論曹魏律博士的出現 [Qin-Han Legal Studies, with A discussion of the Rise of the Law Erudit of the Cao Wei], Lishi yuyan yanjiusuo jikan 歷史語言研究所集刊 54.3 (1983): 51-101.

_____. "Zhang Jiashan Han jian 'er nian lüling' du ji" 張家山漢簡＜二年律令＞讀記 [Notes on the "ernian luling"], Yanjing xuebao 燕京學報 n.s. 15(2003):1-46.

Yao, Shan-yu. “The Cosmological and Anthropological Philosophy of Tung Chungshu,” JNCBRAS 73 (1948): 40-68.

Yates, Robin D.S. "Social Status in The Ch'in: Evidence From The Yun-meng Legal Documents. Part One: Commoners," HJAS 47.1 (June 1987):197-237. 

_____. “Some Notes on Ch’in Law,” EC 11-12 (1985-87): 243-75.

    Military:

Chang Chun-shu. “Military Aspects of Han Wu-ti’s Northern and Northwestern Campaigns.” HJAS 26 (1966):148-73.

Kierman, Frank A., Jr. "Phases and Modes of Combat in Early China." In Kierman and John K. Fairbank, Chinese Ways in Warfare. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1974, 27-66.  

_____, and John K. Fairbank, eds. Chinese Ways in Warfare. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1974. 

Lewis, Mark Edward.  "The Han Abolition of Universal Military Service."  In  Hans van de Ven, ed.  Warfare in Chinese History.  Leiden: Brill, 2000.

Loewe, Michael. "The Campaigns of Han Wu-ti." In Frank A. Kierman and John K. Fairbank, Chinese Ways in Warfare. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1974, 67-122. 

Hsing I-tien (Xing Yitian) 邢義田. "Lue lun Handai hu jun de xingzhi" 略論漢代護軍的性質 [Brief Discussion of the Character of the Military Protector of Han Times], Dalu zazhi 大陸雜誌 82.3 (1991):12-113.

_____. "Cong Juyan jian kan Handai jundui de ruogan renshi zhidu – du "Juyan xinjian zha ji zhi yi" 從居延簡看漢代軍隊的若干人事制度 – 讀＜居延新簡＞札記之一 [Some Han Military Personnel Systems Seen from the Juyan Bamboo Strips – Notes on Juyan xin jian], Xin shixue 新史學 3.1 (1992): 95-130. 

d. Language and Literature:

Baxter, William. "Zhou and Han Phonology in the Shijing." In Studies in the Historical Phonology of Asian Languages, ed. William G. Boltz and Michael C. Shapiro. Amsterdam: John Benjamins B.V., 1991, 1-34.

Connery, Christopher Leigh. The Empire of the Text: Writing and Authority in Early Imperial China.  Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1998.  Rev.tephen Durrant, JAS 59.3 (2000): 703-5.

Kern, Martin. "In Praise of Political Legitimacy: The miao and jiao Hymns of Western Han," Oriens Extremus 39:1 (1996):29-67.

_____. Die Hymnen der chinesischen Staatsopfer: Literatur und Ritual in der politischen Repräsentation;von der Han-Zeit bis zu den Sechs Dynastien. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1997.  

_____. "Ritual, Text, and the Formation of the Canon: Historical Transitions of Wen in Early China," TP 87 (2001):43-91.

_____ . The Stele Inscriptions of Ch'in Shih-huang: Text and Ritual in Early Chinese Imperial Representation. New Haven: American Oriental Society, 2000. 

_____.  Text and Ritual in Early China. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2005.  Rev. Yuri Pines, JAOS 125.4 (2005): 553-56. 

Knechtges, David R. "The Poetry of an Imperial Concubine: The Favorite Beauty Ban." OE 36 (1993): 127-44.

_____. "The Emperor and Literature: Emperor Wu of the Han." In Frederick P. Brandauer and Chün-chieh Huang, eds. Imperial Rulership and Cultural Change in Traditional China. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1994, 51-76.

_____. "Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju's 'Tall Gate Palace Rhapsody,'" HJAS 41.1 (June 1981): 47-64.

Lewis, Mark Edward. Writing and Authority in Early China. Albany: SUNY Press, 1999.  Rev. Hans van Ess, MS 50 (2002):655-59; Robert Ford Campany, HJAS 61.1 (June 2001):198-201; Michael Nylan, EC 25 (2000):205-58.

Svarverud, Rune. “Body and Character: Physiognomic Description in Han Dynasty Literature.” In  Halvor Eifring, ed. Minds and Mentalities in Traditional Chinese Literature. Studies of Chinese Literature and Psychology 1. Beijing: Culture and Art Publishing House, 1999, 120-46.

    Classics:

Hightower, James Robert. "The Han-shih wai-chuan and the San-chia shih," HJAS 11(1948):241-310.

Karlgren, Bernhard. “The Early History of the Chou Li and Tso Chuan Texts.” BMFEA 3 (1931): 1–59. While primarily concerned with the authenticity of these texts, also discusses their role in Han times and whether Liu Xin may have forged them.  

_____. "On the Autheticity and Nature of the Tso-chuan," Götesborgs högsskolas arsskrift 32 (1926).

Nylan, Michael.  The Five "Confucian" Classics. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2001.

Svensson, Martin. “What Happened When Mao Heng Read the Poems? A Study of the Exercise of Hermeneutic Authority in Han Dynasty China,” Journal of the Oriental Society of Australia  30 (1998): 78-94; 31 (1999): 51-78.

_____. “A Second Look at the Great Preface on the Way to a New Understanding of Han Dynasty Poetics,” CLEAR 21 (1999): 1-33.

Van Zoeren, Steven. Poetry and Personality: Reading, Exegesis, and Hermeneutics in Traditional China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991.  Discusses the Han interpretation of the Shijing.

    Historiography:

Mansvelt Beck, B.J. The Treatises of Later Han: Their Author, Sources, Contents and Place in Chinese Historiography. Sinica Leidensia Vol. 21. Leiden: Brill, 1990. Discusses the forerunners of Sima Biao's treatises found in the Shi ji and the Han shu.  

Beasley, W. G., and Edwin G. Pulleyblank. Historians of China and Japan. London: Oxford University Press, 1961.

Ng, On-cho and Q. Edward Wang. Mirroring the Past: the Writing and Use of History in Imperial China. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2005. A sweeping and superficial overview that must be used with great care. Rev. T.H. Barrett. BSOAS 69.3 (2006):496-7; Wm G. Crowell, EMC 12 (2006): 183-204.

Van Der Loon. “The Ancient Chinese Chronicles and the Growth of Historical Ideals.” In W. G. Beasley, and Edwin G. Pulleyblank. Historians of China and Japan. London: Oxford University Press, 1961, 24-30. 

    Shiji :

Sima Qian 司馬遷 (145-86 B.C.) Shi ji 史記 [Records of the Grand Scribe] rev. ed. 10 vols. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1985.

Takigawa Kametarō 瀧川龜太郎. Shiki kaichū kooshō 史記會注考證 10 vols. Tōhō bunka gakuin, Tokyo kenkyū jō, 1932-34. Various reprints. Indispensable to any study of the Shi ji.

    Studies 

Crawford, Robert B. “The Social and Political Philosophy of the Shih-chi.” JAS 22.4 (1963): 401-16. 

Durrant, Stephen W. The Cloudy Mirror: Tension and Conflict in the Writings of Sima Qian. Albany: SUNY Press, 1995. Rev. Michael Puett. HJAS 57.1, (June 1997):290-301; Hans Van Ess. MS 49 (2001):517-28; Bernhard Fürher. MS 46 (1998):419-20.

_____. “Ssu-ma Ch’ien’s Conception of Tso chuan.” JAOS 112.2 (1992): 295–301.

_____. “Ssu-ma Ch’ien’s Portrayal of the First Ch’in Emperor.” In Frederick P. Brandauer and Chün-chieh Huang, eds. Imperial Rulership and Cultural Change in Traditional China . Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994, 28-50. 

_____.  “Truth Claims in Shiji.”  In Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer,  et al., eds. Historical Truth, Historical Criticism, and Ideology: Chinese Historiography and Historical Culture from a New Comparative Perspective. Leiden Studies in Comparative Historiography 1. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2005., 93-113.

 Hardy, Grant. Worlds of Bronze and Bamboo : Sima Qian's Conquest of History. New York : Columbia University Press, 1999.  Rev. David Schaberg. HJAS 61.1 (2001):249-60; Hans Van Ess. MS 49 (2001):517-28; Michael Loewe, TP 88 (2001): 221-30. 

Hervouet, Yves. "La valeur relative des textes du Che-ki et du Han-chou." Mélanges de Sinologie offerts à Monsieur Paul Demiéville, II, 55-76. 

Honey, David B.  "The Han shu Manuscript Evidence, and the Textual Criticism of the Shih-chi: The Case of the Hsiung-nu lieh-chuan," CLEAR 21 (1999), 67-97.

Hulsewe, A.F.P.  “The Problem of the Authenticity of Shih chi ch. 123, the Memoir on Ta-yüan.” TP 61.1-3 (1975): 83-147. Cf. article by Lu Zongli below.

_____. "A Striking Discrepancy between the Shih chi and the Han shu." TP 76.4-5 (1990): 322-23. 

Kern, Martin. "A Note on the Authenticity and Ideology of Shih-chi 24, 'The Book on Music,'" JAOS 119.4 (1999):673-77.

Kierman, Frank Algerton, Jr. Ssu-ma Ch'ien's Historiographical Attitude as Reflected in Four Late Warring States Biographies. Studies on Asia. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1962.

Li, Wai-Yee. “The Idea of Authority in the Shih chi (Records of the Historian), HJAS 54. 2 (Dec., 1994):345-405.

Lu, Zongli. "Problems Concerning the Authenticity of Shih-Chi 123 Reconsidered." CLEAR 17 (1995): 51-68.

Nienhauser, William. "A Reexamination of ‘The Biographies of the Reasonable Officials' in the Records of the Grand Historian." EC 16 (1991): 209-33.

_____. "Travels with Édouard—V.M. Alekseev's Account of the Chavannes Mission of 1907 as a Biographical Source." Asian Culture 22 (1994): 81-95.

_____. "Historians of China." CLEAR 17 (1995): 207-16.

_____. "The Implied Reader and Translation: The Shih chi as Example." In Eugene Eoyang and Lin Yao-fu, eds. Translating Chinese Literature. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1995, 15-40.

_____. "The Study of the Shih-chi (The Grand Scribe's Records) in the People's Republic of China." In Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer, Das andere China: Festschrift für Wolfgang Bauer zum 65. Geburtstag. Wolfenbütteler Forschungen 62. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1995., 381-403.

_____. "A Century (1895-1995) of Shih chi 史記 Studies in the West." Asian Culture Quarterly 24.1 (1996):1-51. A helpful survey of translations and scholarship in English, French and German on the Shi ji by the leader of the "Wisconsin Group" that has undertaken a complete translation of the Shi ji.

_____. "A Note on a Textual Problem in the Shih chi and Some Speculations Concerning the Compilation of the 'Hereditary Houses.'" TP 89.1-3 (2003): 39-58.

Nylan, Michael. "Sima Qian: A True Historian?" EC 23-24 (1998-99):203-46. 

Okazaki, Fumio 岡崎文夫. Shiba Sen 司馬遷 [Sima Qian]. Kyōyō bunko. Tōkyō: Kōbundō Shobō, 1947.

Pokora, Timoteus. “Ch'u Shao-sun—The Narrator of Stories in the Shih-chi.” Annali, Istituto Orientale di Napoli 41 (1981): 403–430.

Schaab-Hanke, Dorothee. "The Power of an Alleged Tradition: A Prophecy Flattering Han Emperor Wu and its Relation to the Sima Clan," BMFEA 74 (2002): 243-90. 

Smith, Kidder.  “Sima Tan and the Invention of Daoism, ‘Legalism,’ et cetera,” JAS 62.1 (2003): 129-56.

Van Ess, Hans.  "Praise and Slander: The Evocation of Empress Lü in the Shiji and the Hanshu," Nan nü 8.2 (2006): 221-54.

Watson, Burton. “The Shih Chi and I,” CLEAR 17 (1995): 199-206. 

_____. “Some Remarks on Early Chinese Historical Works.” In Kao, Translation of Things Past, 35-48.

_____. Ssu-ma Ch’ien: Grand Historian of China. New York: Columbia University Press, 1958.

    Translations (including baihua):  

Chavannes, Edouard, trans. Les Mémoires historiques de Se-ma Tsien. 6 vols. 1895–1905. Reprint (with supplement). Paris: Adrien Maisonneuve, 1967–1969.  Also available on line at http://classiques.uqac.ca/ by doing a search for "chine."

De Francis, John. "Biography of the Marquis of Huai-yin," HJAS 10.2 (Sept. 1947):179-215.

Hervouet, Yves. Le chapitre 117 du Che-ki (Biographie de Sseu-ma Siang Jou). Bibliotheque de l'Institute des Hautes Etudes Chinoises, vol. 23. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1972.

Nienhauser, William H., Jr., ed. The Grand Scribe’s Records. Vol. 1, The Basic Annals of Pre-Han China. Translated by Tsai-fa Cheng et al. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994. This and the following vols. are the fruits of a project to produce a complete translation of the Shi ji.  Rev. Michael Loewe. TP 84