Abstract
In this chapter, the author tries a new approach to early Chinese textuality. The point of departure is no longer the traditional dating of the transmitted text but the possible forms of the underlying original textual and/or oral objects and their evolution. In other words, the date of the transmitted text is the date of the earliest object in that form that can be attested as such, for instance the early Western Han for the Lunyu. What is truly interesting about the history of Chinese written texts or the practice of writing is not that it was developed so early but rather that so little use was made of it until the late fourth century BCE. Attention is drawn to the fact that there are really very few (if any) early texts for which it is certain that they have been transmitted as texts (rather than as oral and changing traditions), since the Shang or early Zhou period. What we have are the end point of traditions, in which the purpose and nature of the transmission is by no means self-evident. This leads to interesting possibilities in the case of Confucius, for instance. Since the Lunyu containing his aphorisms is a late textual object anyhow, none of which faithfully reflects his original ideas (as far as we can establish); there is no logical reason to limit ourselves to this particular text when we want to learn more about the early traditions reflecting his teachings. In other words, any early quotation ascribed to Confucius in any sources becomes relevant source material. Traditional histories of early philosophy that limit themselves to the Lunyu can be rewritten.
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Notes
- 1.
C.H. Wang, The Bell and the Drum: Shih Ching as Formulaic Poetry in an Oral Tradition (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974) is a rare exception. David Schaberg, A Patterned Past: Form and Thought in Early Chinese Historiography (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001), 78–80 and passim treats the use of Yi, Shi, and Shu in early texts, reflecting their use in oral as well as written discourse. To him these are quotations, seemingly implying a “correct” and “original” version. More recently, a number of excellent essays were published in Martin Kern, ed.,Text and Ritual in Early China (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2005) addressing the importance of ritual and texts in ritual. As major a step forward as the studies in this work are, I propose to go still further toward prioritizing the role of the oral.
- 2.
Mark Edward Lewis, Writing and Authority in Early China (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999). See the thoughtful review by Michael Nylan, “Textual Authority in Pre-Han and Han,” Early China 25 (2000): 205–58. By and large I do not share the confidence of Lewis that writing had such a dominant position in the pre-Han period. I see this dominance developing much later and by no means in a straightforward manner. This will have to be the topic of future papers.
- 3.
On the notion of “transmitted” texts, see for instance William Boltz, “Manuscripts with Transmitted Counterparts,” in: New Sources of Early Chinese History: An Introduction to the Reading of Inscriptions and Manuscripts, ed. Edward L. Shaughnessy (Berkeley: Society for the Study of Early China and Institute of East Asian studies, 1997), 253–283.
- 4.
I use “Shang period” as a compromise. I am not convinced that we can speak of the Shang rulers as a dynasty in the same way that we speak about later periods. It is clear that they did not have a fixed territory, and I am not certain that King Tang was truly their founder and not a mythological figure. The meaning of his name (“hot water” in its eventual version) is much too close to core mythological elements for comfort. See Sarah Allan, The Shape of the Turtle: Myth, Art, and Cosmos in Early China (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991), 28–29 and passim, albeit without drawing my conclusion. I am much in favor of her use of later sources to flesh out Shang mythology—or perhaps we should say mythology “in the Shang tradition.”
- 5.
William G. Boltz, The Origin and Early Development of the Chinese Writing System (New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1994) is my inspiration for this strict position. David N. Keightley, Sources of Shang History: The Oracle-Bone Inscriptions of Bronze Age China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985) is our standard resource on Shang oracle bone inscriptions.
- 6.
Constance A. Cook, Death in Ancient China: The Tale of One Man’s Journey (Leiden: Brill, 2006), 80–97 and passim.
- 7.
Some examples are contained in Keightley, Sources of Shang History. I have also looked unsystematically at a variety of source publications by the Academia Sinica, including Zhongguo kaogu baogao ji 2, Xiaodun II, Yinxu wenzi, bingbian (Taibei, 1957).
- 8.
For some thoughts, see my Ritual and Mythology of the Chinese Triads: Creating an Identity (Leiden: Brill, 1998).
- 9.
Susan R. Weld, “The Covenant Texts from Houma and Wenxian,” in New Sources of Early Chinese History: An Introduction to the Reading of Inscriptions and Manuscripts, ed. Edward L. Shaughnessy (Berkeley: Society for the Study of Early China and Institute of East Asian studies, 1997); Crispin Williams, “Ten Thousand Names: Rank and Lineage Affiliation in the Wenxian Covenant Texts,” Asiatische Studien/Études Asiatiques 63, no. 4 (2009): 959–89. The practice of sworn oaths or covenants is a good example of a ritual practice that is surprisingly stable over the centuries, as discussed by me in Ritual and Mythology, 151–79.
- 10.
The idea that this character represents bamboo or wooden slips is the common view. Tsien Tsuen-hsuin, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology, pt. 1, Paper and Printing (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985). Also see the booklet by Hsu Ya-hwei, Ancient Chinese Writing: Oracle Bone Inscriptions from the Ruins of Yin (Taipei: National Palace Museum, 2002), 32 with the same etymology but with a picture of oracle bones with holes on page 33. References to slips being buried or thrown in the water could equally likely refer to the later Daoist (no doubt dating back to the feudal and even pre-feudal period) customs of burying prayers to chthonic deities or throwing prayers in the water for aquatic deities. In the latter case, they would be on silver. See Edouard Chavannes, “Le jet des dragons,” Mémoires concernant l’Asie orientale vol. 3 (Paris: Leroux, 1919): 53–220.
- 11.
Karel van der Toorn, Scribal Culture and the Making of the Hebrew Bible (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007).
- 12.
On the Zhushu jinian, see Shaughnessy, Rewriting Early Chinese Texts (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2006), 185–256 in particular. Although the Zhushu jinian is an extremely important source that deserves full study and translation, I do think the very earliness of some of its chronology should raise more eyebrows.
- 13.
Anna K. Seidel, “Imperial Treasures and Taoist Sacraments: Taoist Roots in the Apocrypha,” in Tantric and Taoist Studies in Honour of R. A. Stein, vol. 2, Mélanges chinois et bouddhiques, ed. Michel Strickmann, vol. 2: 291–371 (Brussels: Institut belge des hautes études chinoises, 1983).
- 14.
Jan Vansina, Oral Tradition: A Study in Historical Methodology, trans. H. M. Wright (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1965).
- 15.
Sima Qian, Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1974 and many reprints), juan 13. This chapter is signed by Master Chu (13: 505), rather than Taishishi or Mr. Grand Scribe, but I do not know whether this proves that Sima Tan or his son Qian did not compose it.
- 16.
Sarah Allan, The Heir and the Sage: Dynastic Legend in Early China (San Francisco: Chinese Materials Center, 1981).
- 17.
Seidel, “Imperial Treasures,” passim makes extensive use of these texts.
- 18.
My own research in progress on the cult of Emperor Guan.
- 19.
Jessica Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections (Washington, DC: Arthur M. Sackler Foundation), 96–102; Lothar von Falkenhausen, Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius (1000–250 BCE): The Archaeological Evidence (Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, 2006), 48–49.
- 20.
Hsu Ya-hwei, Ancient Chinese Writing, 54–59. Edward Shaughnessy, Before Confucius: Studies in the Creation of the Chinese Classics (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997), 31–67. The chapter “‘New’ Evidence on the Zhou Conquest” discusses a document long excluded from the Shujing on the basis of Mengzi’s rejection. Shaughnessy demonstrates that the contrary is true. Ironically, this is also one of the best examples of a document that rings true as a bronze inscription.
- 21.
The bronze inscriptions have been published in Xu Xitai, Zhouyuan jiaguwen zonglu (General Record of the Oracle Bone Inscriptions from Zhouyuan) (Taiyuan: Sanqin chubanshe, 1987). They are extremely brief and, in so far as my untrained eye can determine, look much more like the Shang inscriptions.
- 22.
Von Falkenhausen, Chinese Society, 148–149 discusses Ode 209 as an example. Also see Martin Kern, “ShijingSongs as Performance Texts: A Case Study of ‘Chu Ci’ (Thorny Caltrop),” Early China 25 (2000): 49–111.
- 23.
Edward Shaughnessy, Sources of Western Zhou History: Inscribed Bronze Vessels (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 75–76. The other examples are one from the Shijing and one from the Shujing, not a large harvest. Also Shaughnessy, Before Confucius, 31–67.
- 24.
Kai Vogelsang, “Inscriptions and Proclamations: On the Authenticity of the ‘Gao’ Chapters in the ‘Shujing,’” Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities 74 (2002): 138–209.
- 25.
Von Falkenhausen, Chinese Society, 162–67 postulates the existence of archives, probably to keep the original bamboo or wooden slips on which the texts had initially been written. While there is no proof of this, it would only strengthen the argument that it is surprising that nothing is quoted in later sources that truly resembles a bronze inscription. However, I suspect that the bronzes with the inscriptions are the real archives. After the object had been created and the largely oral ritual performed, there would have been no need to keep a written aide-mémoire. The assumption of an archive is much too modern, and without explicit evidence we cannot just assume that it “must” have existed. Nylan, “Textual Authority,” 245n90 raises doubts about the idea that oracle bones formed an archive for later consultation or that bronze inscriptions were archived.
- 26.
Li Feng, Landscape and Power in Early China: The Crisis and Fall of the Western Zhou, 1045–771 BC (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006). In his study of Western Zhou history, Li Feng refers now and then to the Shi, suggesting that they are relevant to understanding specific events in Western Zhou history. This may be true, but I am struck more by the differences. These can be easily explained by assuming a long oral tradition similar to that of early Greek history vis-à-vis the Homerian epics in which we then fit the Shijing and Shujing. In that tradition, facts got distorted, but things like place names and big events might have been preserved with more or less accuracy. The real issue is how much more or how much less.
- 27.
The same is true of course for material in the Shijing. Such work is usually done with an eye to proving their ancient pedigree, but a reverse project might be necessary.
- 28.
Martin Kern, Die Hymnen der chinesischen Staatsopfer: Literatur und Ritual in der politischen Repräsentation von der Han-Zeit bis zu den Sechs Dynastien (The Hymns of Chinese States-sacrifice: Literature and Ritual in Political Representation from the Han Period until the Six Dynasties) (Stuttgart: F. Steiner, 1997).
- 29.
See the wonderful “‘New’ Evidence” chapter by Shaughnessy in Before Confucius, 31–67.
- 30.
For a list, see for instance Liu Qixu, Shangshu xue shi (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1989), 88–92 and especially 149–54 (confusingly he refers to them as New Text, although the list patently includes many Old Text titles and texts). Detailed discussions of the book can be found in Nylan, The Five “Confucian” Classics (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), 120–67. The standard work is probably still Matsumoto Masaaki, Shunshū sengoku ni okeru shōsho no tenkai (The Development of the Shujing in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods) (Tokyo: Kazema shobo, 1966).
- 31.
Lothar von Falkenhausen, “Issues in Western Zhou Studies: A Review Article,” Early China 18 (1993): 146–52 in particular.
- 32.
See Dirk Meyer, “Meaning-Construction in Warring States Philosophical Discourse: A Discussion of the Palaeographic Materials from Tomb Guodian One,” (PhD dissertation, Leiden University: 2008). The Guodian material is by no means the same as the later book, but it shows that the material which we know now as the Laozi or Daodejing was already coagulating. The earliest hard evidence of the eventual book is formed by the two chapters on the Laozi in the Hanfeizi, which follow the sequence of the final Laozi in the inverted sequence which we know from Mawangdui.
- 33.
Paul van Els, “Dingzhou: The Story of an Unfortunate Tomb,” Asiatische Studien/Études Asiatiques 63, no. 4 (2009): 909–41.
- 34.
John Makeham, in “The Formation of Lunyu as Book,” Monumenta Serica 44 (1996): 1–24, demonstrates that the creation of the Lunyu was closed around 150 BCE, yielding the version that has been transmitted since.
- 35.
E. Bruce Brooks and A. Taeko Brooks, The Original Analects: Sayings of Confucius and his Successors (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998). See for instance the review by Schaberg, “‘Sell it! Sell it!’: Recent Translations of Lunyu,” Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 23 (2001): 115–39. For a very different approach, see Oliver Weingarten, “Confucius and Pregnant Women: An Investigation into the Intertextuality of the Lunyu,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 129, no. 4 (2009).
- 36.
Schaberg, in Patterned Past, discusses the use of the Shujing in political and diplomatic discourse.
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ter Haar, B.J. (2013). Toward Retrieving Early Oral Traditions: Some Ruminations on Orality and Textuality in Early Chinese Culture. In: Cheng, Pk., Fan, K. (eds) New Perspectives on the Research of Chinese Culture. Chinese Culture, vol 1. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4021-78-4_3
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