Warring States Papers is an annual repository for leading-edge research in the classical Chinese texts (those dating from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods), including related developments in the early Empire, and the historical development which the texts imply. It has a central focus on the methodology of text-based historical research, and includes examples of the application of basic historical and philological methods to texts in other traditions, including Homeric and Biblical Greek.
In the past, classical China has largely been viewed from the perspective of its own evolving tradition, and not on its own terms. The work of the Project, and thus the contents of the journal, seek to provide an alternative view, based on early rather than late evidence, representing of a more international perspective. The contents of WSP derive from the work of the Warring States Project at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and its colleagues at other institutions, from its foundation in 1993 to the present.
Volume 2, nominally including work up to 2011, has been delayed in printing, and it has this been possible to include significant studies of the Mencius by Project principals and others from 2014. Highlights of Volume 2 include:
Confucius Tradition in the Mencius
Doubling in Dzwo Jwan
Some Common Lines in the Shr
Lau Dan and the Dau/Dv Jing
Mencius 1B4 and the Proto-Yendz
Disorderly Intoxication in the Shr
Warring States Economy and Trade