"The three scholars who have joined forces to produce this new translation are. . . to be heartily congratulated. The resulting publication is. . . eminently readable, with bilingual text, helpfully divided into coherent sections, and annotation that provides necessary explanations without overwhelming the reader with minutiae."
- Paul R. Goldin (Critical Inquiry) "The translation team has successfully produced a work that is not only an English rendering but an accessible user manual for the Zuo Tradition...[T]his translation will at last allow the Zuo Tradition to take its proper place among the classics of world literature and ancient history."
(Journal of the American Oriental Society (JAOS)) "This is a long-awaited monumental work that keeps what has been promised: It is a very well readable translation of the first major narrative history of China, one that for many years to come will replace the version that James Legge produced almost 150 years ago."
(Monumenta Serica) "[A] precise, elegant—and, yes, reader-friendly—translation that brings out many nuances in the text that had heretofore been lost to the English reader. Zuo Tradition does not merely complement Legge's translation but supersedes it. It will itself be the new "measuring rod" in Zuozhuan studies."
(The Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture) "This is one of the greatest translations of the Chinese classical works into English."
(Asian and African Studies) "[N]ow, at last, we have a convenient, bilingual, and helpfully annotated edition from which to study this immensely rich work…Some books are so physically beautiful and so eminently useful that one is sorely tempted to celebrate their publication instead of reviewing them. Zuo Tradition is one of these wonderful publications that literally everyone with any interest in traditional China will need to hurry to buy. The book is handsomely produced, lavishly bound, and it is the result of many, many years of intensive cooperation between three of the world's leading scholars in the field…Thus this is not only a singularly beautiful printed object, it is also an authoritative translation if ever there was one, by the leading US scholars in the field. It seems bound to become a classic of sinology."
(Journal of Chinese Studies) "The quality of this translation as well as the accompanying introduction and critical apparatus are a strong argument for the long overdue insight that solid translation work must no longer be relegated to a secondary position in academia but deserves the same recognition as primarily interpretive or systematizing studies. The students of early China and ancient history in general owe immense gratitude to Stephen Durrant, Wai-yee Li, and David Schaberg for this truly exemplary magnum opus."
(China Review International)
