About

The Library of Chinese Humanities (LOCH) is an ongoing series of facing-page translations of important works in the premodern Chinese textual tradition. The series encompasses all periods of premodern Chinese humanities, from antiquity to the early twentieth-century. It publishes works of literature, history, thought, religion, theory of the arts, and miscellanies that cut across standard academic fields.

Translators in the series are all experts in the field who can offer accurate and readable translations, informed by the most up-to-date research and scholarship. The texts and editions are chosen to represent the most reliable sources of a given work. Footnotes help the immediate readability of the translation, while scholarly endnotes are provided after the text and translation. The editorial board collectively makes the final decisions on all publications, and each volume is overseen by at least one member of the editorial board.

The series was founded by Stephen Owen (1946–2026) through the utilization of his Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Distinguished Achievement Award and, later, the entirety of his Tang Prize Research Fund. Thanks to the dedication of its Editorial Board members, who generously volunteer their time, expertise, and energy, and to the support of its Advisory Board members and munificent donors, the LOCH series is available both as hardcover volumes from De Gruyter and as Open Access searchable PDF files at degruyter.com, providing an invaluable resource for students, scholars, and readers worldwide and making classical Chinese tradition accessible to a global audience.