Guides: HIST 441: Culture and Ritual in China: Home

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Encyclopedia and Bibliographies

Brill's Handbooks of Oriental Studies: China
Handbooks of various aspects of Chinese history. Valuable resource!

Chinese History: A New Manual by Endymion Porter Wilkinson
Call Number: DS735 W695 2015
ISBN: 9780674088467
Publication Date: 2015
Brill's Encyclopedia of China by Daniel Leese (Editor)
Call Number: DS755 B86 2009
Publication Date: 2009
Available as an eBook or for in-library use (Reference Collection).

Oxford Bibliographies: Chinese Studies
Authoritative bibliographies on a wide variety of Chinese topics.

Find Secondary Sources

Find books and eBooks

Library Catalogue

Find peer-reviewed articles

Database

Bibliography of Asian Studies
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Bibliographic database covering principally the areas of humanities and the social sciences on the East, Southeast, and South Asia. Abstracts published worldwide from 1971 to present.
Academic Search Complete (Ebsco)
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A scholarly, multidisciplinary database providing indexing and abstracts for over 10,000 publications, including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, and others.

Individual Journals

Asian Perspectives
Semiannual journal of archaeology; Asian and Pacific history; prehistory; and anthropology.
Chinese Cultural Relics
Chinese Cultural Relics is the official English translation of the prestigious award-winning Chinese archaeology journal Wenwu (Cultural Relics).
Early China
Journal that publishes original research on all aspects of the civilization of China from earliest times through the Han dynasty period (CE 220). It is interdisciplinary in scope, including Chinese archaeology, history, religion, literature, and paleography.
Early Medieval China
A journal devoted to academic scholarship relating to the period roughly between the end of the Han and beginning of the Tang eras.
Journal of Chinese History
Publishes research articles, review essays, and book reviews on all periods of Chinese history and all sub-specialties of history—social, cultural, political, economic, and intellectual.

Find Primary Sources

Highlighted Resources

Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide (4 volumes) by David R. Knechtges (Volume Editor); Taiping Chang (Volume Editor)
Call Number: PL2265 A63 2010
The first Western-language reference guide focusing exclusively on Chinese literature from ca. 700 B.C.E. to the early seventh century C.E. Alphabetically organized, it contains no less than 1095 entries on major and minor writers, literary forms and "schools," and important Chinese literary terms. In addition to providing authoritative information about each subject, the compilers have taken meticulous care to include detailed, up-to-date bibliographies and source information. The reader will find it a treasure-trove of historical accounts, especially when browsing through the biographies of authors. Indispensable for scholars and students of pre-modern Chinese literature, history, and thought.
Part 1: A-R
Part 2: S - Xi
Part 3: Xia - Y
Part 4: Z
Available for in-library use (Reference Collection) and as eBooks. Recommended to use physical books rather than eBooks.

Resources from Prof. Paul R. Goldin
Note in particular:
1. Principal Translations of the Thirteen Classics into Western Languages
2. Ancient Chinese Manuscripts: Bibliography of Materials in Western Languages

Digital Collections

The following databases and websites include items related to early Chinese history from 1600 BCE to the 6th century CE.

Chinese Text Project
This project is a web-based e-text system designed to present ancient Chinese texts, particularly those relating to Chinese philosophy in a well-structured and properly cross-referenced manner. It uses the electronic medium to aid in the study and understanding of these texts, and includes English translations for some sources.
Traditions of Exemplary Women
This project focuses on the Lienü zhuan (Categorized Biographies of Women) of Liu Xiang (77-6 B.C.), the earliest extant book in the Chinese tradition solely devoted to the moral education of women. The book consists of biographical accounts of female role models in early China and became the standard textbook for women’s education for the next two millennia. The Lienü zhuan offers important insights into the culture, politics, and social structure of early China, as well as into the representation of women in various phases of China’s history. This digital archive serves as a publicly accessible tool for scholarly exploration of early woodblock editions of the Lienü zhuan held by the National Library of China, as well as other early Chinese sources offered here in Chinese and English translation.
Also available in eBook and print formats - see below.

Scripta Sinica
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This database was developed by the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica in Taiwan. It comprises more than 688 titles of classic Chinese works. Users can browse subjects and titles using the traditional Chinese classification system. It is freely accessible.

UC Berkeley Chinese Rubbings Collection
he East Asian Library of UC Berkeley has more than 1,500 items in its rubbings collection, which contains many albums of model calligraphy (fa-tieh 法帖), bronze inscriptions, and stone rubbings. About half of the collection date before the year 1000.
Stele Inscriptions of Han, Wei and the Six Dynasties
This database contains rubbing images made from 2,466 Stele Inscriptions collected from Han to the Six Dynasties (206BC – 589). Interface in Chinese.

CHANT (Chinese Ancient Texts)
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The CHANT (CHinese ANcient Texts) databases, compiled under the Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS) of the Chinese University of Hong Kong since 1988, give full-text access (single words, phrases and sentence patterns) to all traditional texts from the Pre-Han (pre 220AD) period up to the Six Dynasties (581 AD) (over 30 million characters.) These texts are divided into two databases: Pre-Han & Han (Xian Qin Liang Han), and Six Dynasties (Wei Jin Nanbeichao). CHANT also includes databases of excavated wood/bamboo and silk scripts (the Zhu-jian-bo shu database), oracular inscriptions (the Jiaguwen database, and bronze inscriptions (Jinwen). Interface in Chinese.

Museum Collections

Ancient Chinese Art: The Ernest Erickson Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Erickson Collection contains works of outstanding quality that range through different media and across the whole span of ancient China, from the Neolithic to the T'ang period. This site offers both a book on Ancient Chinese Art from the Met (which can be downloaded as a PDF or read online) as well as links to 134 artifacts and works of art including sculptures, figurines, and serving vessels.
Ancient artifacts at the National Museum of China
Dozens of artifacts from ancient China held at the National Museum of China, with detailed explanations of each item. Interface and explanations in English.

Books and eBooks

Find more translated primary sources by searching the catalogue with keywords and the term "sources" or "sourcebook".

Early Medieval China by Wendy Swartz (Editor); Robert Ford Campany (Editor); Yang Lu (Editor); Jessey Choo (Editor)
Available as eBook only.
Classical Chinese Literature: an Anthology of Translations (2 vols.) by John Minford (Editor); Joseph S. M. Lau (Editor)
Call Number: PL2658 E1 C59 2000
Publication Date: 2000-08-24
Sources of Chinese Tradition, vol. 2 by Wm. Theodore de Bary (Editor); Irene Bloom (Editor)
Call Number: DS721 D37 1999
A Source Book of Ancient Chinese Bronze Inscriptions by Constance A. Cook (Editor); Yan Sun; Paul R. Goldin (Editor); David M. Sena; David W. Pankenier; Laura A. Skosey; Martin Kern; Maria Khayutina; Robert Eno; Wolfgang Behr
Call Number: CN1160 S68 2016
On reserve for this course.
Chinese Civilization by Patricia Buckley Ebrey (Editor)
Call Number: DS721 C517 1993
Exemplary Women of Early China by Anne Behnke Kinney (Translator)
Call Number: CT3710 L5813 2014
Available in eBook and print formats. Also available as a standalone website (see above).

Discover More

Chinese Archival Handbook Collection
From Princeton University Library. The map viewer of the Chinese Archival Handbooks collection allows discovering the holdings of archival handbooks on the provincial, prefectural, and the county level. Clicking on any region will provide an overview of the archival handbooks that cover the specific region. Many of these handbooks have been digitized by the Princeton Library. To access digitized handbooks: after identifying a useful archival collection, copy and paste the title into the Princeton Library Catalogue: https://catalog.princeton.edu/.
Chinese Studies Guide (Princeton University Library)
For even more resources on Chinese history, see the excellent guide developed by Joshua Seufert of Princeton University Library, which helped guide the selection of the resources on this Course Guide.
Chinese Studies Pre-1949: Digital Special Collections (UC Berkeley)
A list of useful resources curated by UC Berkeley Librarian Jianye He. This guide helped inform the selection of resources for this Course Guide.

Citations

History as a discipline uses the Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition) for citations, and usually the Notes-Bibliography form. This requires creating properly formatted footnotes footnotes and a Bibliography for your assignments. Resources to understand the Chicago style of citations are included below.

The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition
Call Number: Z253 U69 2017
Use VPN to access the electronic resource off-campus.

Guides

Chicago Manual of Style Citation Quick Guide
Purdue OWL Chicago Style Guide
Resource from Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) with explanations of how to write Chicago-style citations. Select the source type (books, periodicals, web sources) on the left-hand side.
McGill Library Citation Subject Guide
Under "citation styles by subject", select "History" for more resources on Chicago style.

Library Support

Attend a Chicago Citation Style Workshop
Virtual workshop on Chicago citation style offered by McGill librarians. Click the link to find the date and time and register!
Get Started with Zotero
Zotero is a free, open-source citation management system that will make it easier for you to write and cite throughout your undergraduate education and beyond! Get started early for the most benefits.

Liaison Librarian

Kristen Howard

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Subjects: Classical studies, History, Indigenous studies, Religious studies