This ambitious book, which considers Chinese historiography from the “Age of Confucius” to the Qing, is a welcome addition to predecessors such as Charles S. Gardner's Chinese Traditional Historiography (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1938) and William G. Beasley and Edwin G. Pulleyblank's Historians of China and Japan (London: Oxford University Press, 1961). While its scope allows us to discern general trends in Chinese historiography, this work sometimes suffers from sweeping generalizations and problematic assumptions. Amid such accurate assertions as Chinese historiography's function as a means of “political legitimization and propaganda” (p. xi), one finds the statement that Confucius is “generally acknowledged as the author-editor of the Spring and Autumn Annals” (p. x). Most scholars reject the attribution of Confucius as the author of this text. Beyond occasional quibbles, however, readers will appreciate the readability of this work and its impressive use of scholarship to produce a cogent account...
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