The fall of the Western Zhou Dynasty "left behind" the regional states of China's central plain, creating a situation perhaps unique in history: the near-erasure of a colonizing power while its colonies continued to thrive. That the Western Zhou regime, despite its loose authority in the Guanzhong, can be considered a "colonizing" entity is here argued both in light of archaeological and textual evidence. Over time its destruction became re-imagined as a kind of traumatic inciting incident of the sort that many diasporic groups recall as the cause of their diasporic status. Just as with other diasporic groups, existing traditions and gaps in memory are filled in by re-imagined accounts and moral lessons displaying clear concern for the preservation of identity and discomfort with "outsiders." This new reading of the Zhou period opens up a new angle by which Warring States texts-especially those including the Confucian canon-must be re-read, explaining such things as Confucian concerns about traditionalism as absolutely understandable given the wider diasporic discourse that emerged in the Eastern Zhou period.
"Labor" as a specific domain of embodied experience and a source of imagery and figurative language in early China remains understudied. The study invites critical attention to this topic, focusing on four types of imagery of labor-plowing, weaving, fishing, and hunting-which constituted an interpenetrated rhetorical body sustaining varying socio-political and intellectual agendas. Either foregrounded with expressive rhetorical figures like metaphor and allegory or sedimented in commonplace language, the four types of labor imagery emerged and proliferated to present a constellation of moral, epistemic, and aesthetic values toward the characterization of specific practices of ruling, learning, speaking, and writing, as well as the intellectual agency thereof. This rhetorical phenomenon emerged in pre-imperial China and gained new prominence during Han times. Especially since the first century bce, the four tropes of labor were made particularly useful to characterize a growing body of intellectual labor, which was increasingly engaged and coupled with literary learning and production in a manner of self-oriented accumulation and manifestation. This change worked in concert with a forcefully emerging and proliferating literary culture, as well as its embedded scholarly aesthetics and ideology.
This article examines the inscriptional narratives of the chime bells of Lord Qiu of Zeng (c. 650 bce) and Marquis Yu of Zeng (c. 500 bce). These inscriptions were carefully crafted as speeches integral to ritual performances, tailored to address the distinct political and social concerns of their donors. Through an analysis of their composition, textual content, historical context, and materiality, this article explores the messages Qiu and Yu intended to convey and the utility these narratives served via the medium of bronze bells and inscriptions. It argues that while Lord Qiu of Zeng sought to legitimize and celebrate Zeng's superior position, Marquis Yu of Zeng aimed to affirm loyalty to Chu while simultaneously asserting Zeng's autonomous position within Chu's political order.
This article examines the tabular presentations in Sima Qian's Shi ji and Gu Donggao's Chunqiu dashi biao through the lens of a siege in 630 bce. Recognized as exemplary historical tables of the Spring and Autumn Period, the two tables process historical narratives at both micro and macro levels in an unprecedented manner, aiming to provide a larger picture of general historical trends. By emphasizing a visual and spatial representation of history in its tabular design, the Shi ji table invites the reader to examine the text nonlinearly and to construct a dialectical relationship between it and related narrative chapters. On the other hand, Gu's text-oriented tables, usually misunderstood as a mere continuation of those in the Shi ji, require a linear reading and cannot directly produce a visual representation of the general patterns of the Spring and Autumn Period. However, to compensate for the lack of a visual overview, Gu composed "impromptu poems" (kouhao), which orally sketch general historical trends, to help beginners memorize the history of the Spring and Autumn Period. This article aims to demonstrate the use of tabulation at the crucial beginning point of Chinese historiography and its reinvention in the late imperial period.
This article explores the logistics networks of the Qin state during its war of unification between 230 and 221 bce. First, the article investigates the Qin's "assigned transfer" logistics system, which was comprised of two forms: the horizontal transfer of resources among regional administrative units, and the vertical transfer between the central and regional governments. Second, it examines the infrastructures and institutions underpinning this logistics system during the Qin conquest, exploring how the emergence of long-distance, empire-wide logistics networks contributed to the reforms to the Qin's financial administration. Overall, this article analyzes not only the institutional reforms stimulated by the Qin's war of unification but also the impact of war on economic developments.
The close relationship between the “Shiji jie” (Exposition of Historical Records) chapter of the Yi Zhoushu (Remaining Zhou Documents) and the “Wangzheng” (Portents of Destruction) chapter of the Han Feizi has long been recognized, but prior to this, the precise nature of the connection has been unexplored. This article presents a comparative study structured around an annotated translation of these two texts. The “Shiji jie” describes how King Mu of Zhou fell asleep and dreamed of a set of instructions for how to avoid the mistakes made by other dynasties and states that led to their decline and fall. This “mirror for princes” text is thought to have inspired Han Fei to create his own version, which has traditionally been read as a series of abstract warnings, describing situations which could lead to disaster for the monarch. This article argues that what Han Fei was actually doing was presenting a series of riddles for the reader to guess, each of which alludes to a specific historical event. The “Wangzheng” thus reframes the “Shiji jie” in terms of both style and content, creating a new literary work.
Huainanzi 淮南子 contributes a model of sage rulership as, among other things, rule through wuwei 無為, or “non-action.” Through analysis of several concepts core to the text’s political cosmology of governance by wuwei — qi 氣 (vital breath, energy-matter), resonance ( gan-ying 感應), and sincerity ( cheng 誠)—this article suggests that Huainanzian sagely wuwei refers to an act that seemingly straddles a patterned level of reality of distinct forms, on the one hand, and a primordial, chaos-like reality, beyond the bounds of form, on the other. In an effort to grasp, first, how a singular Huainanzian cosmos may present two seemingly structurally antithetical faces, and second, how the sage-ruler’s program may not only embrace, but put to powerful political effect, the paradoxical union of these two “faces,” this paper draws on a heuristic of fractal and Euclidean geometries, simplified from modern mathematics. The article thereby contributes a further representational modality for thinking through Huainanzi ’s extensive, multi-faceted political cosmology, joining in discourse a recent swell of research interested in the same.
Huainanzi (sic)(sic)(sic) contributes a model of sage rulership as, among other things, rule through wuwei (sic)(sic), or "non-action." Through analysis of several concepts core to the text's political cosmology of governance by wuwei-qi (sic) (vital breath, energy-matter), resonance (gan-ying (sic)(sic)), and sincerity (cheng (sic))-this article suggests that Huainanzian sagely wuwei refers to an act that seemingly straddles a patterned level of reality of distinct forms, on the one hand, and a primordial, chaos-like reality, beyond the bounds of form, on the other. In an effort to grasp, first, how a singular Huainanzian cosmos may present two seemingly structurally antithetical faces, and second, how the sage-ruler's program may not only embrace, but put to powerful political effect, the paradoxical union of these two "faces," this paper draws on a heuristic of fractal and Euclidean geometries, simplified from modern mathematics. The article thereby contributes a further representational modality for thinking through Huainanzi's extensive, multi-faceted political cosmology, joining in discourse a recent swell of research interested in the same.
The *Rui Liangfu bi, a previously unattested Warring States manuscript held by Tsinghua University, purports to record two admonitory songs that Rui Liangfu (fl. ninth century bce) presented to King Li (r. 853/57-841 bce) and his derelict ministers at court. The genre identity of the manuscript text is contested, owing in part to two similar texts, a shi-poem preserved in the Odes and a shu-document in the Yi Zhou shu, also traditionally interpreted as Rui Liangfu's speech at the same event. Although none of the three texts share anything literatim with one another, they all rhyme and cleave closely to a well-known legend. Proceeding from complete translation of the manuscript text, I show that it diverges significantly from the canonical categories thus far used to classify it, with regard to both prosody and theme. Moreover, a structural analysis reveals that the manuscript's paratextual encapsulation demonstrates an early precedent for the explicit, historical contextualization of songs that became pervasive in the Mao Odes. On the basis of structure, the manuscript can also be classed with a set of verse collections known only in manuscript form, save for one "forgery" preserved in the ancient-script Documents.
This article explores the commentaries on Analects 3.5 and related texts in light of Confucius' other discussions of the Yi Di. It also speculates on the ways readings of these texts have been shaped by the historical-cultural contexts of the scholars who have interpreted them over the years. Finally, it questions whether there might be a relationship between Analects 3.5 and the pericopes that make up the rest of chapter 3.
This article focuses on passages in which Confucius is portrayed in dialogue with Lord Ai of Lu (r. 494–468 bce ), found scattered throughout a range of early texts, most centrally in the Li ji , the Da Dai Li ji , and the Xunzi . Examining intertextual connections among these dialogues and related texts, both received and excavated, it seeks to adduce evidence to determine whether their particular shared narrative frame might be original and integral to the content of these texts, as well as to reveal their close links with other early Confucian texts that hold important implications for the dating of all these interrelated texts.
The textual history of the Analects ((sic)(sic)) has long been based on narratives according to which disciples of Confucius (tr. 551-479 bce) recorded his sayings after his death. During the Western Han (206 bce-9 ce), three textual traditions of the Analects circulated: the Lu (sic), the Qi (sic), and the "old script" ((sic)(sic)). The Lu Analects in 20 chapters would eventually become the only one transmitted. Early textual losses have been offset in the last decades by recoveries of several ancient manuscripts. In this paper, we examine two manuscripts produced around 300 bce with a close connection to the Analects: the Anhui University *Zhongni said ((sic)(sic)(sic)) and the Wangjiazui *Kongzi said ((sic)(sic)(sic)). Their dating makes them of particular importance to cast new light on traditional narratives. By looking at parallels and linguistic evidence of these manuscripts, we argue that *Zhongni said and *Kongzi said confirm the existence by ca. 300 bce of a tradition of collecting sayings attributed to Confucius. We define these manuscripts as "Analects-like materials," which are characterized as lists of sayings, with little to no context, attributed to Confucius. This label separates them from Warring States narratives about the figure of Confucius.
Studies of the Jing Ke lore in early China have focused on three major texts: the "Yan ce" (sic)(sic) (Stratagems of the Yan) in Zhanguo ce (sic)(sic)(sic) (Stratagems of the Warring States), "Cike liezhuan" (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic) (The Biography of Assassins) in the Shi ji (sic)(sic) (Grand Archivist's Records), and Yan Dan zi (sic)(sic)(sic) (Prince Dan of Yan). Most discussions have centered on the similarities and differences among the three accounts-e.g., how the main characters are depicted, and different interpretations of Jing Ke's motivations and Prince Dan's plot. However, a myriad of transmitted and excavated materials on the Jing Ke lore have not been sufficiently discussed in the context of the culture of early China. This article adopts a multidisciplinary approach, combining literature, history, philosophy, fine arts, and archaeology, to examine Pre-Qin and Han dynasty accounts of the Jing Ke lore. In addition, this article comprehensively investigates the iconography of the Jing Ke lore found in burial paintings and huaxiang shi (sic)(sic)(sic) (pictorial stones) dating to the Han dynasty which have been found throughout China. It delves into the disparities between these visual representations and the records of the Jing Ke lore in transmitted texts and explains the likely underlying reasons behind these disparities. By analyzing both transmitted texts and excavated materials, this article traces the construction of this influential and controversial figure in early China, and in elite discourse as well as in folk culture and art, and in so doing provides a glimpse into the transformation of the socio-political, literary, and intellectual history of early China.
Excavated from the Western Han tomb M336 at Zhangjiashan (sic)(sic)(sic), Hubei (sic)(sic), and published in 2022, the *Ci Mamei (sic)(sic)(sic) bamboo manuscript has yet to receive much attention. This article serves as a preliminary study of the manuscript, providing an annotated translation of its contents, a description of its codicological features, an examination of the ritual it documents, and a survey of its linguistic characteristics. The *Ci Mamei manuscript is studied in close comparison with the Ma (sic) text from the Qin (sic) tomb M11 at Shuihudi (sic)(sic)(sic), as well as bamboo strip fragments from the Han (sic) (202 BCE-220 CE) Jianshui Jinguan (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic) frontier that document a similar ritual. I argue that *Ci Mamei, like the Shuihudi Ma text, is a ritual manual recording instructions on the performance of a sacrificial ritual. I show that the main purpose of the *Ci Mamei and Ma rituals is to pray for the overall well-being of horses, not specifically for having more newborn foals. I then illustrate that rhyme changes in the *Ci Mamei text denote different phases of the sacrifice. Lastly, I discuss the generic and formulaic properties of the language in *Ci Mamei, noting the possibility that the manuscript was interred because its language was believed to possess apotropaic qualities.
The Xuanquan postal station is to date the most well-documented example of a working postal station from the Han period. This paper presents a corpus of 115 excavated horse names recorded in Xuanquan administrative documents. Analysis of these names not only clarifies what tasks these horses were expected to perform at the station, but two unique naming conventions further articulate the complex relationships forged between humans and horses at this frontier site: giving horses human surnames and venerating aged horses. This article thus centers the act of naming individual animals as being of significant importance for future studies of human-animal interactions.
Abstract Chi jiu zhi ji Tang zhi wu (赤鳩之集湯之屋, “[When] Red Doves Gathered on Tang’s house”) is an excavated Chu manuscript that belongs to the Tsinghua University bamboo slips collection. The manuscript concerns several important early Chinese figures such as Tang and Yi Yin, while also featuring rich supernatural elements. Many studies have focused on “shamanism elements” depicted in the tale or defined the genre of the text as xiaoshuo. This article offers a reexamination of Chi jiu and the above assumptions by contextualizing the text within its original three-text manuscript. The article reveals how early compilers constructed a chronological sequence to frame an overarching narrative in a heterogeneous compilation, and further generates a unique narrative regarding the extraordinary status of Yi Yin the founding minister. In its conclusion, the paper draws attention to potential alternative narratives about the minister-ruler relationship in early China, and also places Chi jiu in the context of early compilation practices. Additionally, it considers possible parallels between the Chi jiu story and two of the Grimms’ Tales, viewing Chi jiu within folklore studies.
Chi jiu zhi ji Tang zhi wu ((sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic) (sic), "[When] Red Doves Gathered on Tang's house") is an excavated Chu manuscript that belongs to the Tsinghua University bamboo slips collection. The manuscript concerns several important early Chinese figures such as Tang and Yi Yin, while also featuring rich supernatural elements. Many studies have focused on "shamanism elements" depicted in the tale or defined the genre of the text as xiaoshuo. This article offers a reexamination of Chi jiu and the above assumptions by contextualizing the text within its original three-text manuscript. The article reveals how early compilers constructed a chronological sequence to frame an overarching narrative in a heterogeneous compilation, and further generates a unique narrative regarding the extraordinary status of Yi Yin the founding minister. In its conclusion, the paper draws attention to potential alternative narratives about the minister-ruler relationship in early China, and also places Chi jiu in the context of early compilation practices. Additionally, it considers possible parallels between the Chi jiu story and two of the Grimms' Tales, viewing Chi jiu within folklore studies.
The *Rui Liangfu bi , a previously unattested Warring States manuscript held by Tsinghua University, purports to record two admonitory songs that Rui Liangfu (fl. ninth century bce ) presented to King Li (r. 853/57–841 bce ) and his derelict ministers at court. The genre identity of the manuscript text is contested, owing in part to two similar texts, a shi -poem preserved in the Odes and a shu -document in the Yi Zhou shu, also traditionally interpreted as Rui Liangfu’s speech at the same event. Although none of the three texts share anything literatim with one another, they all rhyme and cleave closely to a well-known legend. Proceeding from complete translation of the manuscript text, I show that it diverges significantly from the canonical categories thus far used to classify it, with regard to both prosody and theme. Moreover, a structural analysis reveals that the manuscript’s paratextual encapsulation demonstrates an early precedent for the explicit, historical contextualization of songs that became pervasive in the Mao Odes . On the basis of structure, the manuscript can also be classed with a set of verse collections known only in manuscript form, save for one “forgery” preserved in the ancient-script Documents .
