Garden of Eloquence / Shuoyuan說苑

An anthology of literary gems compiled in early China, newly translated and annotated

Winner of the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for a Translation of a Literary Work, sponsored by the Modern Language Association

An anthology of literary gems compiled in early China, newly translated and annotated

In 17 BCE the Han dynasty archivist Liu Xiang presented to the throne a collection of some seven hundred items of varying length, mostly quasi-historical anecdotes and narratives, that he deemed essential reading for wise leadership. Garden of Eloquence (Shuoyuan), divided into twenty books grouped by theme, follows a tradition of narrative writing on historical and philosophical themes that began seven centuries earlier. Long popular in China as a source of allusions and quotations, it preserves late Western Han views concerning history, politics, and ethics. Many of its anecdotes are attributed to Confucius’s speeches and teachings that do not appear in earlier texts, demonstrating that long after Confucius’s death in 479 BCE it was still possible for new “historical” narratives to be created.

Garden of Eloquence is valuable as a repository of items that originally appeared in other early collections that are no longer extant, and it provides detail on topics as various as astronomy and astrology, yin-yang theory, and quasi-geographical and mystical categories. Eric Henry’s unabridged translation with facing Chinese text and extensive annotation will make this important primary source available for the first time to Anglophone world historians.

Liu Xiang (79–08 BCE), a scholar-official of the Western (Former) Han dynasty, collated and edited material from the imperial library to create definitive versions of canonic, philosophic, and poetic texts.Henry Eric :

Eric Henry is senior lecturer emeritus of Asian studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.Nylan Michael :

Michael Nylan is professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of The Five "Confucian" Classics (Yale University Press, 2001) and Yang Xiong and the Pleasures of Reading and Classical Learning in China (American Oriental Society, 2011), coauthor of Lives of Confucius: Civilization's Greatest Sage through the Ages (Doubleday, 2010); translator of Exemplary Figures (University of Washington Press, 2013) and The Canon of Supreme Mystery (SUNY Press, 1993) by Yang Xiong; and coeditor of Chang'an 26 BCE: An Augustan Age in China (University of Washington Press, 2014).

Liu Xiang (79–08 BCE) was a scholar-official of the Western (Former) Han dynasty. Eric Henry is senior lecturer emeritus of Asian studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"[A] great achievement . . . It is only with excellent translations such as the one Eric Henry has given to the world of Sinology (and as it may be hoped even beyond) that it eventually will become possible to do what has been neglected for a long time due to the lasting influence of the founding fathers of our discipline in the nineteenth century: To rethink the vocabulary that we use when rendering ancient Chinese texts."

"[S]uperbly crafted and aptly annotated. A monumental translation, which is much recommended to scholars of Confucianism and premodern East Asian religions."

"[M]asterful and meticulously annotated rendering of Shuoyuan說苑. Garden of Eloquence is an excellent and beneficial contribution to the growing number of translations of ancient Chinese literature."

"This definitive translation of a very important classical Chinese text with its useful scholarly apparatus will be of great value to the fields of Chinese history and literary studies."—J. Michael Farmer, University of Texas at Dallas

"The Shuoyuan is one of the most important texts that have come down to us from the Han dynasty. Eric Henry's complete and profusely annotated translation includes the establishment of a carefully collated critical text based on the best modern critical editions published in China. Professor Henry's work, based on many years of meticulous research, makes a very substantial contribution to the study of ancient Chinese intellectual history."—Christoph Harbsmeier, professor emeritus, University of Oslo

"With his usual wit and style, Eric Henry brings to life Liu Xiang's Shuoyuan. This engaging compendium of anecdotes and aphorisms addresses the various means to achieve an enlightened government. But it is also an important source on other topics, such as music, morals, yin-yang theory and rhetoric. The text also embodies the Han fondness for mining historical anecdotes for useful models of administering the state. In short, the Shuoyuan is essential reading for understanding the political and administrative concerns of the late Western Han dynasty."—Anne Behnke Kinney, University of Virginia

"Perhaps more than any other scholar of early China, Liu Xiang was responsible for determining the content and configuration of official Chinese knowledge. Henry’s translation makes audible in English a hitherto unheard but important voice."—Sarah Queen, Connecticut College