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Wang Fu (ca. 85–162 CE) was a scholar who lived on the western frontier of the empire during the Eastern Han dynasty. Said to be the son of a low-ranking concubine, he never held an official government post. The Qianfulun is his only surviving work. Anne Behnke Kinney is professor of Chinese at the University of Virginia. She is translator of Exemplary Women of Early China: The Lienü zhuan of Liu Xiang (Columbia, 2014), among other books. John S. Major, formerly professor of history at Dartmouth College, is an independent scholar. He is cotranslator of The Huainanzi (Columbia, 2010), among other books.
This is a gem: a complete translation of Wang Fu’s searing and comprehensive indictment of how Eastern Han society has betrayed its Confucian ideals. By physically separating passages written in parallel prose from those in a looser contemporary style, the translators masterfully display the sophisticated texture and logic of the work. -- Keith Knapp, The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina Wang Fu was an impassioned critic of the social and political order of his day, especially irate at the obstacles faced by those without connections to the powerful. By translating Wang Fu’s wide-ranging essays, Kinney and Major bring much needed attention to this important observer of life in second century China. -- Patricia B. Ebrey, University of Washington
