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昔者君老

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Text ID
KR2p0039
Date
-350–-250
Dynasty
戰國

Xī Zhě Jūn Lǎo 昔者君老

In Former Times When the Lord Grew Old (modern editorial title, from the opening words)

(anonymous; excavated bamboo manuscript, no attributable author)

About the work

Xī Zhě Jūn Lǎo 昔者君老 is the shortest text in 馬承源 Mǎ Chéngyuán ed., 《上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書》 vol. 2, Shànghǎi gǔjí chūbǎnshè 上海古籍出版社, 2002, comprising approximately 8 bamboo strips in 3 sections bearing roughly 300 graphs. The text describes a precise ritual protocol governing the interaction between a crown prince (tàizǐ 太子) and the ruling lord as the lord approaches old age. It specifies the postures, movements, and deferences required of the crown prince, his full brothers (mǔdì 母弟), and the lower nobility (shù 庶) in formal audiences. On the lord’s death, the text prescribes the crown prince’s immediate withdrawal into grief (wéi āi bēi shì sī 唯哀悲是思), forbidding him to issue commands.

Abstract

The text opens with the formula jūnzǐ yuē: xī zhě jūn lǎo 君子曰：昔者君老 (“the gentleman says: in former times when the lord grew old”), establishing the content as received precedent (xī zhě 昔者). The protocol described is for the crown prince in formal audience with the aged lord: the lord’s full brothers (母弟, lit. “brothers by the same mother”) stand beside the crown prince; the lower nobility knock (kòu 叩) and advance to stand before the crown prince’s full brothers; the brothers escort, then retire. After several repetitions, all parties listen together (bìng tīng zhī 並聽之). The crown prince’s full brothers then advance to the gate and relay a command to the palace eunuch, who enters to report to the lord. The lord summons the crown prince, who enters and is received as in a sacrificial ceremony.

The death protocol (§3) is more striking: when the lord dies, the crown prince “hears nothing, listens to nothing, does not hear, does not command; only grief and sorrow fill his thoughts; only the great affairs of the state are to be reverently attended to” (wéi āi bēi shì sī, wéi bāng zhī dà wù shì jìng 唯哀悲是思，唯邦之大務是敬). This is a statement of the crown prince’s proper emotional and political disposition in the liminal period between the old lord’s death and his own formal accession.

Genre and significance. Xī Zhě Jūn Lǎo belongs to the ritual-prescriptive genre of lǐ 禮 texts, resembling in format and vocabulary the shorter chapters of the received Lǐjì 禮記 and Yí Lǐ 儀禮. It is one of the few excavated texts of this genre from the Warring States period, and it is significant for the history of Confucian ritual prescription and for the study of crown-prince protocols in early China.

Translations and research

  • 馬承源 ed., 《上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書》 vol. 2, Shànghǎi gǔjí chūbǎnshè, 2002 — editio princeps.
  • Falkenhausen, Lothar von. Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius (1000–250 BC): The Archaeological Evidence. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA, 2006 — contextual study of Western Zhou and Warring States ritual protocols.
  • No substantial secondary literature located specifically for this text.

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