Early China

The paper explores the evolution of meritocratic ideas in pre-imperial China. I show that these ideas, embedded in the concept of “elevating the worthy,” appeared first in the wake of the disintegration of the pedigree-based aristocratic order of the Springs-and-Autumns period (770-453 BCE), and proliferated rapidly throughout the Warring States period (453-221 BCE), being shared by every major intellectual current. Yet the proliferation of the concept of “elevating the worthy” generated manifold tensions, among which the most significant one was between the conflicting notions of “worthiness” and “merit.” For some, e.g., Confucius and his followers, “worthiness” was primarily related to one’s morality; yet other thinkers claimed that morality cannot be objectively measured and warned that unless precisely defined, “worthiness” can be manipulated to promote hypocrites and one’s partisans rather than truly capable public servants. From analyzing conflicting views of “worth” and “merit” I explore such crucial problems of meritocratic system as its relation to the idea of social fairness, to the government’s efficiency, and to the possibility to enhance the morality of public servants. The experience of pre-imperial and early imperial China remains highly relevant for possible implementations of meritocratic principles of rule well into our days.

The past ten years have been particularly exciting for scholars studying early China. The field has witnessed the publication of a number of scholarly monographs dealing with recent discoveries, and Xiaolong Wu’s recent monograph on the Zhongshan sites during theWarring States Period (475–221 BCE) is a significant and refreshing addition to that growing bibliography and to our knowledge of early Chinese material culture...

The article discusses uses of xiu shen, one among a number of terms referring to practices of moral and mental discipline in early China. It sketches out the contexts and discourses in which the term appears and hopes thus to contribute, albeit in a limited way, to eventual broader assessments of the role which different concepts, ideals, and practices of self-discipline played in political and social thought.

The character of the scholarly patronage community of Jixia in the Warring States (480–221 b.c.e.) polity of Qi has been hotly debated. Was it indeed an “academy,” as it has been retrospectively dubbed? What kind of activities did resident
scholars engage in? What teachings did they propound, what writings did they compose? Following the lead of research by Nathan Sivin and Andrew S. Meyer, the present article does not treat Jixia as an academy proper, but assumes that it was a patronage community sponsored by the Tian/Chen clan. Rather than indulge in more speculations about institutional arrangements and the activities of specific scholars, however, it is argued that intertextual relationships are more likely to shed light on the intellectual concerns of scholars at Jixia. To demonstrate the viability of such an approach, this article analyzes dialogues between King Xuan of Qi (319–301 b.c.e.) and Master Meng in the book Mengzi, demonstrating
that they can be divided into hostile and supportive ones, the latter propounding the principle of “sharing pleasures.” Dialogues included in other compilations that advocate the same principle are then shown to be almost invariably
associated with Jixia scholars. The notion of sharing pleasures, it is finally argued, was part of a wider political debate on princely wastefulness that was characteristic of Qi and is likewise reflected in such compilations as Guanzi,
Yanzi chunqiu, and Liu tao.

I have deliberately translated the contents table without reference to Jun Wenren's "Ancient Chinese encyclopedia of technology : translation and annotation of the kaogong ji (the artificers' record)" nor to Brian Vivier's compilation "Chart of Zhouli Offices, derived from Broman and Hucker. I thought it was useful to have one more translation for comparison.

Corrections and suggestions welcomed.

The Daoist classic Zhuangzi teaches not a single doctrine, but a method to approach all doctrines and situations by shifting perspectives and adapting our courses of action. This foundational work of Chinese philosophy, full of witty and irreverent humor, language games, extravagant characters, parables, and argumentative essays, will not leave you unchanged!
The limits of knowledge, the efficacy of action, death and happiness, change and transformations, friendship and humor, perspectivism and skepticism, playfulness and freedom, emptiness and the dao. The Zhuangzi is about living, thinking, knowing, acting, feeling, loving, changing, and dying well in a messy world.
This class follows the format of a graduate seminar. We read the text prior to class in an active, critical, and reflective manner (i.e. taking notes, asking questions, identifying themes and arguments, searching relevant concepts, acknowledging the literary form and style, finding secondary sources for further explanation, coming up with our own readings and interpretations, etc.). In class, we read line by line together and discuss until we are ready to move on to the next chapter. Readings will be provided in English, and no prior knowledge of Chinese is required.

It seems that neither Sima Qian's 司馬遷 famous “compensation theory” of Hanfei’s eloquence (“Fei, as a person, suffered from a stammer and was incapable of leading a discussion, but he excelled in the production of writing” 非爲人口吃，不能道說，而善著書), nor the central position he accorded to the “Difficulties of persuasion« (《說難》) chapter (Hunter 2013) has provoked a sustained engagement with the master's stylistics. Exceptions notwithstanding (張覺 2001, Zádrapa 2014), premodern criticism and contemporary scholarship mostly revolve around the “richness of his wide-ranging comparisons” (博喻之富, 《文心雕龍》4.6), especially in anecdote quotations, his use of parallelism before the Later Han stabilization of 駢文 prose (王懷成 1989). Another popular topic, originating with Ren Fang 任昉 (460–508), is whether the 'pearls on a string' (連珠) poetic genre emerged from his “Inner/Outer thesauri of sayings” (《内外儲說》), rather than with Yang Xiong 揚雄 (53 BCE–18 CE) (鄭良樹 1990, 孫良申 2010, 韓賢克 2010), well-known for his propensity towards imitatio (Schilling 2006), and how phrases coined or quoted in the text, survived as 'set phrases' (成語).
My talk will strive to complement this picture by analyzing three areas characterising “one of the most distinctive voices in all of Chinese literature” (Goldin 2013): (a) the use of line-end and internal rhyme to create textual cohesion (金毅 1984, Behr 2005), distinct from other prosimetric 散文 patterns of the Warring States; (b) argumentation via non-stock praonomastic puns; (c) tension resolution between innovated synonym compounds and phrasal repetition avoidance (魏得勝 1993).

This is a translation of Édouard Biot's 1851 translation of the 小司徒 chapter of the Zhouli (Rites of Zhou), with the Chinese version and those commentaries included by Biot. I have also tried to verify Biot's translation against the Chinese, using the modern editions of the Zhou Li, especially Sun Yirang's 周禮正義 (2000) and Yang Tianzi's 周禮 譯注 (2004), as well as the online version of the imperial edition 欽定周官義疏 (1748). Corrections are welcome.

The interest of this chapter is that it reveals something of how the populations of early China were organized, registered, monitored, and employed as corvée labor and military troops. The commentary is often more interesting than the book itself.

The French version is online here: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5038370

The Chinese version is online here:
https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/欽定周官義疏_(四庫全書本)/卷10

歷來學者皆以荀況既稱戰國儒家思想代表，因與道家莊周思想迥異，荀子甚或刻意貶抑莊子論說，儒道兩家壁壘分明。本書作者通過比對《莊》、《荀》兩書措辭用字，發現兩書關係密切，荀子每多採信《莊子》論說，此與前人論斷大相逕庭，因將相關論文結集付梓，望能為《莊》、《荀》兩書淵源，提供新證，並就《莊》、《荀》部分文本問題，提出新解，以就正方家，拋磚引玉，俾前輩學者深入討論。

https://www.chineseupress.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=3285

Abstract:
This paper surveys biography and major works of Liu Zehua 劉澤華, a leading scholar of China’s intellectual history, political thought and political culture. It explores the impact of Liu Zehua’s personal experience, in particular the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution, on his conceptualization of Chinese political culture as subjugated to the overarching principle of monarchism. Liu Zehua’s critical engagement with China’s past distinguishes him from proponents of revival of traditional values and makes him one of the powerful opponents of cultural conservatives in China.

After its epochal unification of the Huaxia ecumene in 221bce, the First Emperor of Qin embarked on a series of political and social reforms. One of the most influential measures was the universal implementation of a centralized and unitary provincial administrative system, conventionally called the "commandery-county system" (junxian zhi 郡縣制). Beneath this uniform picture, however, the Qin ruler instituted schemes to structure its empire into three concentric zones with asymmetrical political relations. In this essay, I shall detail how the Qin used various border control measures to demark their empire's internal territories, and how these territories were designed to function. The commandery-county system has been regarded as the highest achievement of the short-lived Qin empire. The mid-Tang statesman Liu Zongyuan 柳宗元 (773-819), in his "On the Enfeoffment and Establishment of Regional Kingdoms" (Fengjian lun 封 建 論), singled out this system as the most vital means to exert strong territorial control and avert the chaos and wars that the Zhou multistate system had engendered.1 Liu's opinions were shared by later generations of literati who often recognized the advantages of the Qin provincial administrative system even as they despised the brutality of its governing policies.2

Die Tang-Dynastie (618-907) – auch das goldene Zeitalter Chinas genannt – war eine blühende Epoche voller faszinierender Kulturphänomene. Das Zentrum des kosmopolitisch ausgerichteten Kaiserreichs bildete die vom heutigen Xi’an überlagerte Millionenstadt Chang’an – eine der größten Metropolen ihrer Zeit. Als Protagonisten des höfischen Lebens prägten Adelige das Stadtbild, deren luxuriöser Lebensstil sich auch in den pompös ausgestatteten Grabanlagen widerspiegelt. Diese findet man heute meist beraubt vor. Nur die herrlichen Wandmalereien und die zahlreichen, von den Grabräubern unbeachteten Tonfiguren konnten bisher eine vage Vorstellung vom ursprünglichen Umfang der Grabbeigaben und der ehemaligen Pracht der unterirdischen Kammern vermitteln. Im Jahr 2001 wurde in Xi’an das unversehrte Grab der 736 verstorbenen Li Chui ausgegraben, einer Urenkelin des Kaisers Gaozu. Sechs Jahre dauerte die Restaurierung des umfangreichen Grabinventars durch ein deutsch-chinesisches Team. Erstmalig gelang es, das opulente Schmuckensemble einer Tang-zeitlichen Dame zu rekonstruieren. Mit den Ergebnissen der wissenschaftlichen Auswertung durch ein Team von Spezialisten unterschiedlicher Disziplinen bieten sich neue Erkenntnisse zur damaligen Bestattungskultur. Diese werden hier erstmals einem breiten Publikum vorgestellt. Reich bebilderte Exkurse zu Themen wie z.B. Weinkultur, Daoismus oder Alchemie gewähren darüber hinaus einen Einblick in den Tang-zeitlichen Alltag.

This essay analyzes the early Chinese elite discourse on filial death rituals, arguing that early Chinese texts depict these rituals as performance events. Building on spectacle of xiao sacrifices in the Western Zhou Dynasty,  authors in the Warring States Period and Han Dynasty conceived of filial rituals for the dead as dramaturgical phenomena that underscored not only what needed to be performed, but also how it should be performed, and led to an important distinction between personal dispositions and inherited ritual protocol. This distinction, then, led to concerns about artifice in human behavior, both inside and outside the Ruist (Confucian) tradition. By end of the Warring States Period and in the early Western Han Dynasty, with the embracement of artifice in self-cultivation, the dramatic role of the filial son in death rituals became even more developed and complex, requiring the role of cultivated spectators to be engaged critics who recognized the nuances of cultivated performances.

本文論述王充命論具有因果關係，及與因果環節相應的時間排 序，並由此因果關係與時間觀，本文主張關於王充命論涉及之必然性 與偶然性爭議的「命定論與適偶說是否相容」，及牽涉命論是否與氣 論思想不一致的「氣與命何者為較根源概念」的問題，皆無不相容與 不一致。由因果關係視之，氣為命論最根源的原因，命定是稟氣以後 形成的狀態，適偶為不同遭遇，彼此適值成偶的說明，所以命定不包 含結果的必然決定，適偶也非偶然性意涵，所以命定論與適偶說無涉 及必然性與偶然性爭議的不相容問題。另外，就氣作為最根源原因而 言，命論與氣論也無不一致，皆以氣為最根源的概念。 其次由時間觀視之，王充命論雖具有以未來結果當作原因的時間 錯置，導致結果預定的錯衍，然命定之時早於結果成為事實之時，仍 為命論實質內容，所以命定仍非結果必然決定義，而適偶發生在適值 偶遇之時，雖由因果事件聯結無法確定，而有偶然性之感，然命論的 因果決定關係確具，所以適偶仍非偶然性義。另外，由於稟氣早於命 定，所以氣當為命論中更為根源的概念無疑。
This paper argues that Wang Chong’s theory of Ming has a dimension of causality and a corresponding temporal order, and from this perspective I propose that there is no incompatibility between Ming-Ding and ShihOu concerning necessity and contingency, nor any inconsistency between Ming and Qi concerning their priority. Causally speaking, Qi is the ultimate origin in the theory of Ming, while Ming-Ding is the resulting state after Qi, and Shih-Ou is an account of different things meeting in a coincidence. So the concept of Ming-Ding does not contain the notion of necessary determination, nor does the concept of Shih-Ou the notion of contingency, and consequently there is no incompatibility between Ming-Ding and ShihOu. Moreover, so far as Qi is the ultimate origin, there is no inconsistency concerning Ming and Qi about their priority. Temporally speaking, though Wang Chong’s theory of Ming contains a certain temporal disorder in taking the future as a cause to pre-determine the result, the time of determination is still prior to the time of happening, and hence Ming-Ding still falls short of necessity. On the other hand, though coincidence occurs when things happen to meet, thus acquiring a sense of contingency underdetermined by causal connections, coincidence still falls short of contingency. Moreover, as Qi is prior to Ming-Ding, Qi should be taken as the ultimate origin beyond any doubt.

Initially, commerce did not play an important role in ancient China. However, starting from the 6th century BCE, China experienced unprecedented growth in this area. Land became privatized and a highly sought-after commodity, contracts began to be widely used in transactions, some sort of market network emerged, and merchants started to exert influence on society. This transformation was due to the various reforms and policies that reshaped the overall structure of ancient Chinese economy and emancipated the strength of merchants. Furthermore, the sophistication and advancement of agriculture meant ordinary farmers had a surplus of labor and products, providing them with incentives to go to market.

"Residents in Qin-Han rural society had close relationship with their land, kinship, and
neighbourhood. Leaving home was regarded as full of uncertainty and fear due to the
difficulty and danger of transportation. Thus, residents were not easily intended to
depart from their home or take a long distance journey. Their mobility was limited and
their movement was confined to a small area and maintained at the xiangli 鄉里 level.
The concept of antu zhongqian 安土重遷 (contenting with the land and cautious about
migration) is treated as one of the characteristics of Qin-Han rural society in modern
scholarship.

Concerning the occurrence of the movement of population (人口流動), modern
scholarship often places emphasis on the role of the government and the effect of civil
war and natural disaster, all of which can be considered as passive factors, pushing
people to leave their land reluctantly. This paper examines the active factor which could
encourage the movement of population in Qin-Han rural society. Here the author wishes
to argue the importance of the hired activities (僱傭活動) which is underrated by modern
scholars. Hiring labours was widely adopted and treated as one of the most important
trading methods in Qin-Han labour market. Hired activities appeared when there was high
demand for labourers and low qualification requirements for acceptance, hence creating
many job opportunities. Residents departing from their homes or travelling a long distance
could earn their living by filling such job vacancies. The anxieties and fear of leaving
home were thereby relieved. It would give rise to the movement of population.

However, the government’s objective was to keep the residents staying on their land
and devoting to agriculture. The appearance of liuyong 流傭 (migrant labourers) often
frustrated the ruler and was an important issue in local administration, but the government
was not intended to eradicate the hired activities completely. This author suggests two
ways to comprehend the government’s attitude. First, the government was the biggest
employer and demander in the hired labour market. Second, the hired activities had charity
function which can alleviate the social crisis during the hard times of civil war and natural
disaster. From the ruler’s point of view, an ideal measure to handle the hired activities was
to monitor and keep the labourers in check to the extent that they could benefit the rule of
the empire, not disturbing the order of the society."

This article partly parallels my study of “Zhou history and historiography: Introducing the Bamboo manuscript Xinian” published in T’oung Pao  2014. It advances deeper into the exploration of Xinian primary sources with a specific focus on the Annals of the state of Chu, the traces of which are observable in Xinian.

The paper summarizes current knowledge on the paleographical evidence for rén 仁 and its earliest variants. It is argued that no reliable attestations of the character exist prior to the mid-Warring States period. The variants recently discovered in the Guōdiàn and Shàngbó corpuses and elsewhere are shown to be predominantly based on phonetic principles which can be explained in a systematic fashion using current models of reconstruction. Proceeding
from Baxter’s (1991) arguments for rén as a cognate of Written Tibetan snying (heart; mind) and extending it to Tibeto-Burman congeners, a final section speculates about a chain shift, which propelled rén from its Sino-Tibetan meanings to an ethical notion harnessed by early
Confucianism. This shift left a lexical gap which was quickly filled by xīn 心 and ài 愛.

The material features of the Shanghai Museum *Yong yue 用曰 and Zhangjiashan Yinshu 引書 manuscripts structure their texts in ways different from each other, inviting questions on production methods and the influence of form on the reception of content. I provide an overview of developments in manuscript formatting, noting a gradual development towards increased visual formatting in manuscripts over time. The article examines what the use of codicological features such as manuscript materiality, layout, and punctuation reveal about manuscript production and how these translate to the reception and understanding of text. It analyzes how such features in the two manuscripts contribute to a sense of textual unity, order their respective contents, and facilitate different modes of reading such as vocalization, memorization, browsing, and linear reading. I propose that developments in manuscript formatting increasingly facilitated visually clearer, context-independent, and text-centered modes of reading, allowing for a dynamic involvement of readers with the modes of engagement structurally favored by the manuscripts. This, in turn, possibly reveals broader shifts towards the formation of readership in Early China.

上海博物館所藏的《用曰》寫本以及張家山漢簡中的《引書》寫本在物質屬性層
面上對其各自文本的結構安排互不相同，從而引發了與其生產方式以及形式如何
影響內容的接收所相關的問題。在本文中，作者提供一個有關寫本格式發展的綜
覽，并指出其中逐漸出現的對寫本的視覺格式安排的愈發重視。同時，本文考察
寫本的“形制和形態” (codicological) 特征，即寫本的物質性、格式佈局、以及
標識符號能為我們揭示出什麼樣的有關其生產的信息，以及這些信息如何轉化成
讀者對其文本內容的接收和理解。本文逐一分析上述兩個寫本的該類特征如何有
效地促成了一種文本的一致性，如何安排各自的文本內容，并使得不同的閱讀模
式更為便利，比如發聲閱讀 (vocalization) ，記憶性閱讀 (memorization) ，瀏覽
性閱讀 (browsing) 以及線性 (linear) 閱讀。本文認為寫本的格式發展促進了視覺
上更為清晰，語境獨立，且以文本為中心的閱讀模式，從而也使得讀者與寫本之
間不同的交互模式 (modes of engagement) 成為可能。寫本這種物質性的發展或
許也凸顯出早期中國閱讀習慣的轉變。
Full paper: http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/15685322-10412p02