HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The ''Book of Documents'' ( zh, p=Shūjīng, c=書經, w=Shu King) or the ''Classic of History'', is one of the Five Classics of ancient
Chinese literature The history of Chinese literature extends thousands of years, and begins with the earliest recorded inscriptions, court archives, building to the major works of philosophy and history written during the Axial Age. The Han dynasty, Han (202  ...
. It is a collection of rhetorical prose attributed to figures of
ancient China The history of China spans several millennia across a wide geographical area. Each region now considered part of the Chinese world has experienced periods of unity, fracture, prosperity, and strife. Chinese civilization first emerged in the Y ...
, and served as the foundation of Chinese
political philosophy Political philosophy studies the theoretical and conceptual foundations of politics. It examines the nature, scope, and Political legitimacy, legitimacy of political institutions, such as State (polity), states. This field investigates different ...
for over two millennia. The ''Book of Documents'' was the subject of one of China's oldest literary controversies, between proponents of different versions of the text. A version was preserved from Qin Shi Huang's
burning of books and burying of scholars The burning of books and burying of scholars was the purported Book burning, burning of texts in 213 BCE and live burial of 460 Confucian scholars in 212 BCE ordered by Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang. The events were alleged to have destroye ...
by scholar Fu Sheng, in 29 chapters ( ). This group of texts were referred to as "Modern Script" (or "Current Script"; ), because they were written with the script in use at the beginning of the Western Han dynasty. A longer version of the ''Documents'' was said to be discovered in the wall of
Confucius Confucius (; pinyin: ; ; ), born Kong Qiu (), was a Chinese philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. Much of the shared cultural heritage of the Sinosphere originates in the phil ...
's family estate in Qufu by his descendant Kong Anguo in the late 2nd century BC. This new material was referred to as " Old Script" ( ), because they were written in the script that predated the standardization of Chinese script during the Qin. Compared to the Modern Script texts, the "Old Script" material had 16 more chapters. However, this seems to have been lost at the end of the Eastern
Han dynasty The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...
, while the Modern Script text enjoyed circulation, in particular in study, called the ''Ouyang Shangshu'' (). This was the basis of studies by Ma Rong and Zheng Xuan during the Eastern Han. In 317 AD, Mei Ze presented to the Eastern Jin court a 58-chapter (59 if the preface is counted) ''Book of Documents'' as Kong Anguo's version of the text. This version was accepted, despite the doubts of a few scholars, and later was canonized as part of Kong Yingda's project. It was only in the 17th century that
Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...
scholar Yan Ruoqu demonstrated that the "old script" were actually fabrications "reconstructed" in the 3rd or 4th centuries AD. In the transmitted edition, texts are grouped into four sections representing different eras: the legendary reign of Yu the Great, and the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties. The Zhou section accounts for over half the text. Some of its modern-script chapters are among the earliest examples of Chinese prose, recording speeches from the early years of the Zhou dynasty in the late 11th century BC. Although the other three sections purport to record earlier material, most scholars believe that even the New Script chapters in these sections were composed later than those in the Zhou section, with chapters relating to the earliest periods being as recent as the 4th or 3rd centuries BC.


Textual history

The history of the various versions of the ''Documents'' is particularly complex, and has been the subject of a long-running literary and philosophical controversy.


Early references

According to a later tradition, the ''Book of Documents'' was compiled by
Confucius Confucius (; pinyin: ; ; ), born Kong Qiu (), was a Chinese philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. Much of the shared cultural heritage of the Sinosphere originates in the phil ...
(551–479 BC) as a selection from a much larger group of documents, with some of the remainder being included in the '' Yi Zhou Shu''. However, the early history of both texts is obscure. Beginning with Confucius, writers increasingly drew on the ''Documents'' to illustrate general principles, though it seems that several different versions were in use. Six citations to unnamed chapters of the ''Documents'' appear in the '' Analects''. While Confucius invoked the pre-dynastic emperors Yao and Shun, as well as figures from the Xia and Shang dynasties, he complained of the lack of documentation prior to the Zhou. The ''Documents'' were cited increasingly frequently in works through the 4th century BC, including in the ''
Mencius Mencius (孟子, ''Mèngzǐ'', ; ) was a Chinese Confucian philosopher, often described as the Second Sage () to reflect his traditional esteem relative to Confucius himself. He was part of Confucius's fourth generation of disciples, inheriting ...
'', '' Mozi'' and '' Zuo Zhuan''. These authors favoured documents relating to Yao, Shun and the Xia dynasty, chapters now believed to have been written in the
Warring States period The Warring States period in history of China, Chinese history (221 BC) comprises the final two and a half centuries of the Zhou dynasty (256 BC), which were characterized by frequent warfare, bureaucratic and military reforms, and ...
. The chapters currently believed to be the oldest—mostly relating to the early Zhou—were little used by Warring States authors, perhaps due to the difficulty of the archaic language or a less familiar worldview. Fewer than half the passages quoted by these authors are present in the received text. Authors such as
Mencius Mencius (孟子, ''Mèngzǐ'', ; ) was a Chinese Confucian philosopher, often described as the Second Sage () to reflect his traditional esteem relative to Confucius himself. He was part of Confucius's fourth generation of disciples, inheriting ...
and Xunzi, while quoting the ''Documents'', refused to accept it as genuine in its entirety. Their attitude contrasts with the reverence later shown to the text during the Han dynasty, when its compilation was attributed to Confucius.


Han dynasty: Modern and Old Scripts

Many copies of the work were destroyed in the Burning of Books during the
Qin dynasty The Qin dynasty ( ) was the first Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China. It is named for its progenitor state of Qin, a fief of the confederal Zhou dynasty (256 BC). Beginning in 230 BC, the Qin under King Ying Zheng enga ...
. Fu Sheng reconstructed part of the work from hidden copies in the late 3rd to early 2nd century BC, at the start of the succeeding
Han dynasty The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...
. The texts that he transmitted were known as the "Modern Script" ( ) because it was written in the clerical script. It originally consisted of 29 chapters, but the "Great Speech" 太誓 chapter was lost shortly afterwards and replaced by a new version. The remaining 28 chapters were later expanded into 30 when Ouyang Gao divided the "Pangeng" chapter into three sections. During the reign of Emperor Wu, renovations of the home of Confucius are said to have uncovered several manuscripts hidden within a wall, including a longer version of the ''Documents''. These texts were referred to as "Old Script" because they were written in the pre-Qin
seal script Seal script or sigillary script () is a Chinese script styles, style of writing Chinese characters that was common throughout the latter half of the 1st millennium BC. It evolved organically out of bronze script during the Zhou dynasty (1 ...
. They were transcribed into clerical script and interpreted by Confucius' descendant Kong Anguo. Han dynasty sources give contradictory accounts of the nature of this find. According to the commonly repeated account of the '' Book of Han'', the "Old Script" texts included the chapters preserved by Fu Sheng, another version of the "Great Speech" chapter and some 16 additional ones. It is unclear what happened to these manuscripts. According to the ''Book of Han'', Liu Xiang collated the Old Script version against the three main "Modern Script" traditions, creating a version of the ''Documents'' that included both groups. This was championed by his son Liu Xin, who requested in a letter to Emperor Ai the establishment of a ''boshi'' position for its study. But this did not happen. Most likely, this edition put together by the imperial librarians was lost in the chaos that ended the Western Han dynasty, and the later movement of the capital and imperial library. A list of 100 chapter titles was also in circulation; many are mentioned in the '' Records of the Grand Historian'', but without quoting the text of the other chapters. The ''shu'' were designated one of the Five Classics when Confucian works made official by
Emperor Wu of Han Emperor Wu of Han (156 – 29 March 87BC), born Liu Che and courtesy name Tong, was the seventh Emperor of China, emperor of the Han dynasty from 141 to 87 BC. His reign lasted 54 years – a record not broken until the reign of the Kangxi ...
, and ('classic') was added to its name. The term 'venerated documents' was also used in the Eastern Han. The Xiping Stone Classics, set up outside the imperial academy in 175–183 but since destroyed, included a Modern Script version of the ''Documents''. Most Han dynasty scholars ignored the Old Script version, and it disappeared by the end of the dynasty.


Claimed recovery of Old Script texts

A version of the ''Documents'' that included the "Old Script" texts was allegedly rediscovered by the scholar Mei Ze during the 4th century, and presented to the imperial court of the Eastern Jin. His version consisted of the 31 modern script texts in 33 chapters, and 18 additional old script texts in 25 chapters, with a preface and commentary purportedly written by Kong Anguo. This was presented as ''Guwen Shangshu'' 古文尚書, and was widely accepted. It was the basis of the ( 'Correct interpretation of the ''Documents) published in 653 and made the official interpretation of the ''Documents'' by imperial decree. The oldest extant copy of the text, included in the Kaicheng Stone Classics (833–837), contains all of these chapters. Since the
Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...
, starting from Wu Yu (), many doubts had been expressed concerning the provenance of the allegedly rediscovered "Old Script" texts in Mei Ze's edition. In the 16th century, Mei Zhuo () published a detailed argument that these chapters, as well as the preface and commentary, were forged in the 3rd century AD using material from other historical sources such as the '' Zuo Commentary'' and the '' Records of the Grand Historian''. Mei identified the sources from which the forger had cut and pasted text, and even suggested Huangfu Mi as a probable culprit. In the 17th century, Yan Ruoqu's unpublished but widely distributed manuscript entitled ''Evidential analysis of the Old Script Documents'' () convinced most scholars that the rediscovered Old Script texts were fabricated in the 3rd or 4th centuries.


Modern discoveries

New light has been shed on the ''Book of Documents'' by the recovery between 1993 and 2008 of caches of texts written on bamboo slips from tombs of the
state of Chu Chu (, Old Chinese: ''*s-r̥aʔ'') was an Ancient Chinese states, ancient Chinese state during the Zhou dynasty. Their first ruler was King Wu of Chu in the early 8th century BC. Chu was located in the south of the Zhou heartland and lasted ...
in Jingmen, Hubei. These texts are believed to date from the late Warring States period, around 300 BC, and thus predate the burning of the books during the Qin dynasty. The Guodian Chu Slips and the Shanghai Museum corpus include quotations of previously unknown passages of the work. The Tsinghua Bamboo Slips includes a version of the transmitted text "Golden Coffer", with minor textual differences, as well as several documents in the same style that are not included in the received text. The collection also includes two documents that the editors considered to be versions of the Old Script texts "Common Possession of Pure Virtue" and "Command to Fu Yue". Other authors have challenged these straightforward identifications.


Contents

In the orthodox arrangement, the work consists of 58 chapters, each with a brief preface traditionally attributed to Confucius, and also includes a preface and commentary, both purportedly by Kong Anguo. An alternative organization, first used by Wu Cheng, includes only the Modern Script chapters, with the chapter prefaces collected together, but omitting the Kong preface and commentary. In addition, several chapters are divided into two or three parts in the orthodox form.


Nature of the chapters

With the exception of a few chapters of late date, the chapters are represented as records of formal speeches by kings or other important figures. Most of these speeches are of one of five types, indicated by their titles: * Consultations ( ) between the king and his ministers (2 chapters), * Instructions ( ) to the king from his ministers (1 chapter), * Announcements ( ) by the king to his people (8 chapters), * Declarations ( ) by a ruler on the occasion of a battle (6 chapters), and * Commands ( ) by the king to a specific vassal (7 chapters). Classical Chinese tradition lists six types of ''Shu'', beginning with ''dian'' , Canons (2 chapters in the Modern corpus). According to
Su Shi Su Shi ( zh, t=, s=苏轼, p=Sū Shì; 8 January 1037 – 24 August 1101), courtesy name Zizhan (), art name Dongpo (), was a Chinese poet, essayist, calligrapher, painter, scholar-official, literatus, artist, pharmacologist, and gastronome wh ...
(1037–1101), it is possible to single out Eight Announcements of the early Zhou, directed to the Shang people. Their titles only partially correspond to the modern chapters marked as ''gao'' (apart from the nos. 13, 14, 15, 17, 18 that mention the genre, Su Shi names nos. 16 "Zi cai", 19 "Duo shi" and 22 "Duo fang"). As pointed out by Chen Mengjia (1911–1966), announcements and commands are similar, but differ in that commands usually include granting of valuable objects, land or servants to their recipients. Guo Changbao claims that the graph for announcement (), known since the Oracle bone script, also appears on two bronze vessels ('' He zun'' and ''Shi Zhi gui'' ), as well as in the "six genres" of the '' Zhou li'' In many cases a speech is introduced with the phrase ( 'The king seemingly said'), which also appears on commemorative bronze inscriptions from the Western Zhou period, but not in other received texts. Scholars interpret this as meaning that the original documents were prepared scripts of speeches, to be read out by an official on behalf of the king.


Traditional organization

The chapters are grouped into four sections representing different eras: the semi-mythical reign of Yu the Great, and the three ancient dynasties of the Xia, Shang and Zhou. The first two sections – on Yu the Great and the Xia dynasty – contain two chapters each in the Modern Script version, and though they purport to record the earliest material in the ''Documents'', from the 2nd millennium BC, most scholars believe they were written during the
Warring States period The Warring States period in history of China, Chinese history (221 BC) comprises the final two and a half centuries of the Zhou dynasty (256 BC), which were characterized by frequent warfare, bureaucratic and military reforms, and ...
. The Shang dynasty section contains five chapters, of which the first two – the "Speech of King Tang" and " Pan Geng" – recount the conquest of the Xia by the Shang and their leadership's migration to a new capital (now identified as
Anyang Anyang ( zh, s=安阳, t=安陽; ) is a prefecture-level city in Henan, China. Geographical coordinates are 35° 41'~ 36° 21' north latitude and 113° 38'~ 114° 59' east longitude. The northernmost city in Henan, Anyang borders Puyang to the eas ...
). The bulk of the Zhou dynasty section concerns the reign of King Cheng of Zhou (r. –1006 BC) and the king's uncles, the Duke of Zhou and Duke of Shao. The last four Modern Script chapters relate to the later Western Zhou and early Spring and Autumn periods.


Dating of the Modern Script chapters

Not all of the Modern Script chapters are believed to be contemporaneous with the events they describe, which range from the legendary emperors Yao and Shun to early in the Spring and Autumn period. Six of these chapters concern figures prior to the first evidence of writing, the oracle bones dating from the reign of the Late Shang king Wu Ding. Moreover, the chapters dealing with the earliest periods are the closest in language and focus to classical works of the
Warring States period The Warring States period in history of China, Chinese history (221 BC) comprises the final two and a half centuries of the Zhou dynasty (256 BC), which were characterized by frequent warfare, bureaucratic and military reforms, and ...
. The five announcements in the Documents of Zhou feature the most archaic language, closely resembling inscriptions found on Western Zhou bronzes in both grammar and vocabulary. They are considered by most scholars to record speeches of King Cheng of Zhou, as well as the Duke of Zhou and Duke of Shao, uncles of King Cheng who were key figures during his reign (late 11th century BC). They provide insight into the politics and ideology of the period, including the doctrine of the
Mandate of Heaven The Mandate of Heaven ( zh, t=天命, p=Tiānmìng, w=, l=Heaven's command) is a Chinese ideology#Political ideologies, political ideology that was used in History of China#Ancient China, Ancient China and Chinese Empire, Imperial China to legit ...
, explaining how the once-virtuous Xia had become corrupt and were replaced by the virtuous Shang, who went through a similar cycle ending in their replacement by the Zhou. The "Timber of Rottlera", "Numerous Officers", "Against Luxurious Ease" and "Numerous Regions" chapters are believed to have been written somewhat later, in the late Western Zhou period. A minority of scholars, pointing to differences in language between the announcements and Zhou bronzes, argue that all of these chapters are products of a commemorative tradition in the late Western Zhou or early Spring and Autumn periods. Chapters dealing with the late Shang and the transition to Zhou use less archaic language. They are believed to have been modelled on the earlier speeches by writers in the Spring and Autumn period, a time of renewed interest in politics and dynastic decline. The later chapters of the Zhou section are also believed to have been written around this time. The "Gaozong Rongri" chapter comprises only 82 characters, and its interpretation was already disputed in Western Han commentaries. Pointing to the similarity of its title to formulas found in the Anyang oracle bone inscriptions, David Nivison proposed that the chapter was written or recorded by a collateral descendant of Wu Ding in the late Shang period some time after 1140 BC. The "Pan Geng" chapter (later divided into three parts) seems to be intermediate in style between this group and the next. It is the longest speech in the ''Documents'', and is unusual in its extensive use of analogy. Scholars since the Tang dynasty have noted the difficult language of the "Pan Geng" and the Zhou Announcement chapters. Citing the archaic language and worldview, Chinese scholars have argued for a Shang dynasty provenance for the "Pan Geng" chapters, with considerable editing and replacement of the vocabulary by Zhou dynasty authors accounting for the difference in language from Shang inscriptions. The chapters dealing with the legendary emperors, the Xia dynasty and the transition to Shang are very similar in language to such classics as the ''Mencius'' (late 4th century BC). They present idealized rulers, with the earlier political concerns subordinate to moral and cosmological theory, and are believed to be the products of philosophical schools of the late Warring States period. Some chapters, particularly the "Tribute of Yu", may be as late as the
Qin dynasty The Qin dynasty ( ) was the first Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China. It is named for its progenitor state of Qin, a fief of the confederal Zhou dynasty (256 BC). Beginning in 230 BC, the Qin under King Ying Zheng enga ...
.


Influence in the West

When Jesuit scholars prepared the first translations of Chinese Classics into Latin, they called the ''Documents'' the "Book of Kings", making a parallel with the
Books of Kings The Book of Kings (, ''Sefer (Hebrew), Sēfer Malik, Məlāḵīm'') is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Kings) in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. It concludes the Deuteronomistic history, a history of ancient Is ...
in the
Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...
. They saw Shang Di as the equivalent of the Christian God, and used passages from the ''Documents'' in their commentaries on other works.


Notable translations

* * * ; rpt. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1960. (Full Chinese text with English translation using Legge's own romanization system, with extensive background and annotations.) *
part 1
Prolegomena and chapters 1–26 (up to books of Shang) *
part 2
chapters 27–58 (books of Zhou), indexes * Includes a minor revision of Legge's translation. * Reprinted (1999), Paris: You Feng. * (Modern Script chapters only) Reprinted as a separate volume by Elanders in 1950. * * * * *


Notes


References


Citations


Works cited

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


External links


– ''Shang Shu''
at the Chinese Text Project, including both the Chinese text and Legge's English translation (emended to employ pinyin)
Shangshu
at the Database of Religious History.

(also emended)
Annotated Edition of ''The Book of Documents''
(13th century)

Chinese text with matching English vocabulary at chinesenotes.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Book of Documents 1st-millennium BC books Book of Documents Chinese classic texts Textual criticism Chinese history texts Confucian texts Four Books and Five Classics Old Chinese Thirteen Classics Zhou dynasty texts mos:ZH