Sarah Allan (simplified Chinese: 艾兰; traditional Chinese: 艾蘭; pinyin: Ài Lán; born 1945) is an American paleographer and scholar of ancient China. She was a Burlington Northern Foundation Professor of Asian Studies in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Literatures at Dartmouth College; she is currently affiliated to the University of California, Berkeley. She is Chair for the Society for the Study of Early China[1] and Editor of Early China.[2] Previously, she was Senior Lecturer in Chinese at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.[3] She is best known for her interdisciplinary approach to the mythological and philosophical systems of early Chinese civilization.
In her work, Allan has presented an attempt to reconstruct the basic concepts of the mythology of China's Shang dynasty based on evidence from a number of sources, including Shang inscriptions (primarily from oracle bones, as well as bronzes), myths and stories recorded during the Zhou and Han dynasties that followed the Shang, which appear to be derived from Shang sources, as well as archaeological data.[6] Her works have been translated into both Chinese and Korean.[7] Her most recent book is Buried Ideas: Legends of Abdication and Ideal Government in Recently Discovered Early Chinese Bamboo-slip Manuscripts (SUNY Press, 2015), which discusses four Warring States period (475-221 BCE)[8] bamboo-slip texts about Yao's abdication to Shun, centering on issues of meritocracy and hereditary succession.[9]
Allan has also collaborated extensively with Chinese scholars, Li Xueqin 李学勤 and Qi Wenxin 齐文心 in particular, in publishing Chinese materials in Western collections in order to make them available to scholars in China.[10] Another area of collaboration is her organization of international conferences and workshops on Chinese excavated texts.[11]
For a time, Allan was Senior Lecturer in Chinese at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. Until 2019, she was Burlington Northern Foundation Professor of Asian Studies in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Literatures at Dartmouth College. She currently resides in California. She is Chair for the Society for the Study of Early China and Editor of Early China.
Allan was married to the artist Nicol Allan,[12] who died in 2019.
Li Xueqin; Allan, Sarah, eds. (1995), Ouzhou Suocang Zhongguo Qingtongqu Yizhu 歐洲所藏中國青銅器遺珠 (Chinese Bronzes: A Selection from European Collections), Wenwu Press, ISBN978-7-501-00624-3
Li Xueqin; Qi Wenxin; Allan, Sarah (eds.), Oracle Bones Collections in Great Britain (Yingguo suo Cang Jiagu Ji 英國所藏甲骨集), Zhonghua Shuju, ISBN978-7-101-00955-2, OCLC638728434
Vol. 1 (1985)
Vol. 2 (1992)
Articles
Allan, Sarah (2015), "'When Red Pigeons Gathered on Tang's house': A Warring States Period Tale of Shamanic Possession and Building Construction Set at the Turn of the Xia and Shang Dynasties", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Series 3 (2015): 419–438, doi:10.1017/S1356186314000923, S2CID157955102
Allan 艾蘭, Sarah (2013), "The Life of a Chinese Historian in Tumultuous Times: Interviews with Li Xueqin, Part One", Early China, 35–36 (2012–13): 1–35, doi:10.1017/S0362502800000419, S2CID232154262
Allan, Sarah (October 2012), "On Shu 書 ('Documents') and the Origin of the Shang shu 尚書 ('Ancient Documents') in Light of Recently Discovered Bamboo Slip Manuscripts", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 75.3 (October 2012): 547–557, doi:10.1017/s0041977x12000547
Allan, Sarah (2010), "Abdication and Utopian Vision in the Bamboo Slip Manuscript, 'Rongchengshi'", Chinese Philosophy in Excavated Early Texts, Supplement to Journal of Chinese Philosophy, 37 (2010): 67–85, doi:10.1111/j.1540-6253.2010.01621.x
"He Flies like a Bird, He Dives like a Dragon, Who is that Man in the Animal Mouth? Shamanic images in Shang and Western Zhou Art", Orientations, 41, number 3 (April 2010): 45–51
Allan, Sarah (2009), "Not the Lun yu: The Chu Script Bamboo Slip Manuscript, 'Zi Gao', and the Nature of Early Confucianism", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 72 (2009): 115–151, doi:10.1017/s0041977x0900007x, JSTOR40378848, S2CID162500383
Allan, Sarah (2007), "Erlitou and the Formation of Chinese Chinese Civilization: Toward a New Paradigm", Journal of Asian Studies, 66.2 (May 2007): 461–497, doi:10.1017/S002191180700054X, S2CID162264919
Allan, Sarah (2003), "The Great One, Water, and the Laozi: New Light from Guodian", T'oung Pao, 89.4/5 (December 2003): 237–285, doi:10.1163/156853203773644358, JSTOR4528939