This is a transition year for Early China, and a chance to reflect on the work of Sarah Allan, who has stewarded the journal since 2010 with unmatched dedication. In 2017, in the 40th anniversary volume of Early China, Allan wrote: “It seems no longer to be a question of ‘doubting’ or not ‘doubting’ the ancient books, but one of understanding what they represent and how all of this evidence can work together to achieve a better understanding of the development of early Chinese civilization.” Here, as in her own writing, Allan was not guided by a need to enforce a particular orthodoxy, but a sense that the field benefited from new and different approaches. As editor, her priorities were to nurture young scholars, and to bring different scholarly communities together.
I begin my five-year term as editor of Early China with this brief appreciation of Sarah Allan's thoughtful leadership, in a volume where we are printing several articles that were submitted under her editorship and have ended up in my first issue. At a time when classical studies and the humanities are under increasing pressure, I hope to maintain the standard of excellence that she, and Early China's other previous editors, have set.
I also note that several other contributors have stepped away from the journal and the Society for the Study of Early China over the last year. Erica Brindley, Miranda Brown, and Crispin Williams ended their terms on the SSEC Board, and Christopher Foster, Guo Jue, and Nick Vogt were elected to replace them in 2023. Michael Lüdke completes his time as appointed member, and Vincent S. Leung will step into that position. At Cambridge University Press, Kayla Riddleberger, who had long worked with the journal on production, has moved on and we are now working with content manager Lucie Hudson-Grant, along with Molly Sheffer. Huang Wen-Yi 黃文儀 has long been a major part of Early China, compiling the Dissertation Abstracts and the Annual Bibliography. She was not able to do so this year, but a cumulative version of these features will return in volume 47. To make that task a little easier, I encourage dissertators and authors to proactively provide their information at EarlyChinaDissAbstracts@gmail.com and EarlyChinaBibliography@gmail.com, respectively.
Finally, I would like to remember my mother, Isabella Selega Csikszentmihalyi, who passed away after a long illness in June of 2023. I appreciate deeply how Sarah Allan and our colleagues at Cambridge leant me extra help during that time, and their patience as caring for her delayed my taking the reins of the journal. I am also sincerely grateful to Jesse Chapman for stepping in as Assistant Editor at the last minute.
