Ban Gu's History of Early China By Anthony E. Clark

Acknowledgments

First, I would like to thank Toni Tan and her colleagues at Cambria Press for their kind encouragement and support. I also thank my anonymous readers who rendered invaluable advice and corrections; they shall find their suggestions reflected throughout this work. This book has benefited from the comments of several people—colleagues, friends, and family. Early drafts have had the advantage of being read by Maram Epstein, who helped me to find details, often curiously entertaining, in passages that I otherwise would have overlooked; Ina Asim, who has helped an overall literary study become more historical; Michael Fishlen, who has demonstrated to me that below the text is a hidden narrative where the author is more personally present; Charles Sanft, who pointed out several embarrassing errors in my interpretations of certain essays and provided helpful counterpoints to many of my a priori assertions; David Schaberg, who helped my research yield a deeper understanding of what lies behind the etymological and philological complexities of classical Chinese; William Crowell, who has through his attention to historical details added richness to my interpretation of Ban Gu’s self-representation; and Stephen Durrant, who has given me the lens through which early China can emerge as a real and life-changing place.