{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.03621314019658562, 'fraction_numerical': 0.005173305742369374, 'mean_word_length': 4.671554252199414, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
James D. Sellman, Timing and Rulership in Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals (Lüshi chunqiu). Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002. xi + 265 pp.

The Lüshi chunqiu 呂氏春秋 is a text that has only recently begun to receive the attention it deserves in the English-speaking world, thanks in large part to the translating efforts of Jeffrey Riegel and the late John Knoblock. Many past critics of the text have been less than kind (in all languages), deeming it incoherent, derivative, or boring. In this respect James Sellman’s monograph-length study is a long overdue corrective. Sellman, approaching the Lüshi chunqiu from the perspective of philosophy, treats the entire text as expressing novel and significant ideas. He thus offers a sustained argument for the value and intrinsic interest of what is undeniably a monument of pre-Qin literature. Sellman argues that, although its content is obviously diverse (the work of multiple authors representing an array of pre-Qin viewpoints) the text as a whole expresses unique insights into the nature of “proper timing” in human affairs, especially as it relates to ordering the social and political realms. In the first four chapters of the monograph, Sellman articulates the notion of “proper timing” and attempts to demonstrate how it can serve as an interpretive key to the integrity and coherence of the Lüshi chunqiu as a whole. He begins with a brief introduction to the text, its compiler Lü Buwei 呂不韋 (d. 235 b.c.e.), and the history of its composition. In his second chapter he does a survey of the text’s treatment of the concept of xing 性 (“human character” in Sellman’s rendering, most often translated as “human nature”). Next, he turns to the problem of the state, its origins and rationale. In the fourth chapter, he surveys the text’s application of “proper timing” to the issues of cosmology, history, and human morality. In his conclusion, he applies this