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table of contents
CONTENTS
- PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- TRANSLATION CONVENTIONS
- CHRONOLOGY OF IMPERIAL CHINA WITH AUTHORS OF AUTOBIOGRAPHIES
- INTRODUCTION
- 1 A SON’S TRIBUTE TO HIS MOTHER | An inscription on a bronze vessel (10th c. BCE)
- 2 CRIME AND PUNISHMENT | Personal testimony given in four legal cases (3rd–2nd c. BCE)
- 3 A HAN EMPEROR ACCEPTING THE BLAME | Edict by Emperor Wu 武帝 (r. 141–87 BCE)
- 4 LETTERS HOME | Three letters sent by ordinary men and women (3rd c. BCE and 9th–10th c. CE)
- 5 A NATURAL PHILOSOPHER’S ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE | Last chapter of his collected essays by Wang Chong 王充 (27–ca. 97 CE)
- 6 A FATHER WRITING TO HIS SON | A letter by Zheng Xuan 鄭玄 (127–200)
- 7 AN ABDUCTED WOMAN ON RETURNING HOME | Poems by Cai Yan 蔡琰 (ca. 177–ca. 249)
- 8 MILITARY MEN TOUTING THEIR MERITS | Essays by Cao Cao 曹操 (155–220) and his son Cao Pi 曹丕 (187–226)
- 9 THE PAIN OF SEPARATION | Poetic writings by Imperial Consort Zuo Fen 左芬 (ca. 253–300)
- 10 AN EMPEROR’S DISCOURSE ON KARMA AND VEGETARIANISM | Preface by Emperor Wu 梁武帝 (r. 502–549) of the Liang
- 11 LATE TANG WRITERS ON LIFE BEYOND OFFICE-HOLDING | Accounts by Bai Juyi 白居易 (772–846) and Lu Guimeng 陸龜蒙 (ca. 836–881)
- 12 MOURNING FRIENDS AND RELATIONS | Elegies by Han Yu 韓愈 (768–824) and Han Qi 韓琦 (1008–1075)
- 13 AN ADVOCATE OF THE SIMPLE LIFE | Autobiography by Liu Kai 柳開 (948–1001)
- 14 RECORDS OF THINGS SEEN AND HEARD | Prefaces to five Song miscellanies (11th–13th c.)
- 15 CHANTING ABOUT ONESELF | Poems by four Song scholars (11th–13th c.)
- 16 AN ENVOY’S TRIP TO THE JIN COURT | Travel diary by Lou Yue 樓鑰 (1137–1213)
- 17 WOMEN AND SUICIDE | Writing on an inn wall by Qiongnu 瓊奴 (11th c.) and a poem by Han Ximeng 韓希孟 (mid-13th c.)
- 18 WITNESSING DYNASTIC COLLAPSE | Writings by Yuan Haowen 元好問 (1190–1257) and Wen Tianxiang 文天祥 (1236–1283)
- 19 PEACEFUL ABODES | Accounts of their homes by Yelü Chucai 耶律楚材 (1190–1244) and Xie Yingfang 謝應芳(1296–1392)
- 20 A FEMALE DOCTOR’S LIFE AND WORK | Preface and postfaces to a book by Tan Yunxian 談允賢 (1461–1556)
- 21 AN ECCENTRIC CONSIDERS SUICIDE | Self-authored funerary biography by Xu Wei 徐渭 (1521–1593)
- 22 LIFE IN THE EXAMINATION HELL | Preface to a set of examination essays by Ai Nanying 艾南英 (1583–1646)
- 23 A ROYAL CONSORT’S SONG | Music for the zither by Madame Zhong 鐘氏 (fl. 1570–1620)
- 24 ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHES | Harrowing reports by Chen Qide 陳其德 (fl. 1640s) and Pu Songling 蒲松齡 (1640–1715)
- 25 A CON MAN POSING AS AN OFFICIAL | Legal Confession of Luo Fenpeng 羅奮鵬 (b. 1726)
- 26 A PRIVATE SECRETARY’S ITINERANT LIFE | Year-by-year autobiography by Wang Huizu 汪輝祖 (1730–1807)
- 27 TRIBUTES TO CLOSE RELATIVES | Appreciations written by a woman for her husband and a man for his elder sister (18th and 19th c.)
- 28 A TEENAGER CAPTURED BY THE NIAN REBELS | Record of a fifteen-week ordeal by Liu Tang 柳堂 (1844–1929)
- 29 KEEPING FAMILY MEMBERS INFORMED | Letters to his eldest son by Zeng Guofan 曾國藩 (1811–1872)
- APPENDIX | A Select List of Widely Available Translations of Prose Personal Accounts to 1880
- INDEX