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彭祖

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Text ID
KR2p0043
Date
-350–-250
Dynasty
戰國

Péng Zǔ 彭祖

Pengzu (modern editorial title, after the legendary sage of longevity who is the principal speaker)

(anonymous; excavated bamboo manuscript, no attributable author)

About the work

Péng Zǔ 彭祖 is one of five texts in 馬承源 Mǎ Chéngyuán ed., 《上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書》 vol. 3, Shànghǎi gǔjí chūbǎnshè 上海古籍出版社, 2003, comprising approximately 8 bamboo strips bearing roughly 350 graphs across 10 sections. The text is a dialogue between an unnamed questioner identified as “Gǒu Lǎo” 狗老 (lit. “Old Dog” — probably an eccentric sage-name) and Péng Zǔ 彭祖, the legendary long-lived sage of Chinese antiquity. Gǒu Lǎo asks Péng Zǔ for wisdom about longevity and proper conduct; Péng Zǔ’s answers combine cosmological reflection, ethical precepts, and what appear to be yǎngshēng 養生 (nurturing life) principles, though the text is too fragmentary in places to reconstruct clearly.

Abstract

The text opens with Gǒu Lǎo’s question: “Gǒu [I myself] keep my heart from caprice and receive [Heaven’s] mandate for a long life — what arts can I practice that will translate into my own body, that will bring harmony with the celestial constants?” (gǒu shì zhí xīn bù wàng, shòu mìng yǒng cháng chén hé yì kě xíng, néng qiān yú zhèn shēn, ér mì yú dì cháng? 狗氏執心不妄，受命永長臣何藝可行，能遷於朕身，而謐于帝常?). Péng Zǔ answers by affirming that the Way of Heaven is constant (héng 恒) and does not know where it ends, and then offers a series of teachings:

Heaven–Earth–Human correspondence (§3). “Heaven and Earth and humans are related as warp and weft, as inner and outer” (tiāndì yǔ rén, ruò jīng yǔ wěi, ruò biǎo yǔ lǐ 天地與人，若經與緯，若表與裏). This classical weaving metaphor for human–cosmic integration is one of the earliest surviving examples of its use.

The Five Relationships (§5). Péng Zǔ instructs Gǒu Lǎo on the five relational bonds (wǔ jì 五紀: probably father-son, ruler-minister, elder-younger brother, husband-wife, friend-friend). “Though poor, you must cultivate the five bonds; if the five bonds are not mastered, though rich, you must lose” (suī pín bì xiū wǔ jì, wǔ jì bùgōng, suī fù bì shī 雖貧必修五紀，五紀不工，雖富必失).

The command sequence (§9). Péng Zǔ articulates a ladder of governance:

  • One command, one cultivation (yī mìng yī xiū): called “becoming better”
  • One command, three cultivations: called “self-enrichment”
  • Three commands, four cultivations: called “master of a hundred surnames [i.e., ruler of the people]” And the negatives: one command, one loosening: called “encountering calamity”; etc. The text ends with three prohibitions: “Do not pursue wealth; do not boast of worthiness; do not prize reputation-building” (wú zhú fù, wú kuā xián, wú shàng shù 毋逐富，毋誇賢，毋尚樹).

Genre and context. Péng Zǔ is a figure who appears in the Zhuāngzǐ 莊子 (where his 800-year lifespan is mentioned), the Lǎozǐ 老子 tradition, and various yǎngshēng 養生 texts as a proto-Daoist sage of extreme longevity. The dialogue format here — with Péng Zǔ as teacher of both cosmological wisdom and practical ethics — links the text to the tradition of yǎngshēng handbooks (compare the Mǎwángduī 馬王堆 Hé Yīnyáng 合陰陽 KR2p0015), while the five-relationships content and the governance-ladder in §9 place it in a Confucian frame. The combination is characteristic of the eclectic philosophical environment of the late Warring States Chu region.

Translations and research

  • 馬承源 ed., 《上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書》 vol. 3, Shànghǎi gǔjí chūbǎnshè, 2003 — editio princeps.
  • Harper, Donald J. Early Chinese Medical Literature: The Mawangdui Medical Manuscripts. Kegan Paul International, 1998 — contextual study of yǎngshēng traditions; relevant to the Péng Zǔ figure and genre.
  • Puett, Michael J. To Become a God: Cosmology, Sacrifice, and Self-Divinization in Early China. Harvard-Yenching Institute, Harvard UP, 2002 — background on sage-longevity and self-cultivation cosmology.

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