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昭王毀室

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Text ID
KR2p0046
Date
-350–-250
Dynasty
戰國

Zhāowáng Huǐ Shì 昭王毀室

King Zhao Demolishes His Palace (modern editorial title, from the narrative’s central action)

(anonymous; excavated bamboo manuscript, no attributable author)

About the work

Zhāowáng Huǐ Shì 昭王毀室 is one of the texts in 馬承源 Mǎ Chéngyuán ed., 《上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書》 vol. 4, Shànghǎi gǔjí chūbǎnshè 上海古籍出版社, 2004, comprising approximately 10 bamboo strips. The text is a court narrative set in the reign of King Zhāo of Chǔ 楚昭王 (r. 516–489 BCE). The narrative records how the king ordered his newly completed palace demolished upon learning that the bones of a minister’s father lay beneath its threshold — an act of ritual scruple and reverence for the dead that the text presents as exemplary royal virtue.

Abstract

The narrative opens with the completion of a new royal palace (shì 室) at Sǐ Xù 死湑 (a place name, location uncertain). As the king prepares the inaugural drinking ceremony (luò 落 — a dedication ritual for a new building), a man in mourning dress (sāng fú 喪服) appears in the courtyard intending to enter. A palace attendant (shì rén 侍人, possibly the character is 雉人 “keeper of the pheasants”) tries to bar his entrance, saying that the king cannot be approached during the inaugural ceremony. The man replies that the burial of his father’s remains (cáo 窆 — the interment of bones) is scheduled for that very day, that he will interrupt it only if the attendant physically stops him, and otherwise will be compelled to begin the rite by force. The attendant gives way.

The man enters to the threshold, where Bǔ Lìngyǐn Chén Xǐng 卜令尹陳省 has been appointed to observe the auspicious day (wéi shì rì 為視日). He tells the king directly: “I would not dare shame the king, but my father’s bones lie beneath this palace’s threshold steps (jiē xià 階下). I must gather up my late father’s [remains] — I cannot have my father’s bones and mine [buried separately].” The king, upon hearing this, orders the palace demolished (huǐ shì 毀室) so that the minister’s father’s bones may be properly retrieved and reinterred.

Genre and significance. The text belongs to the genre of anecdotes praising ritual propriety and royal magnanimity (rén 仁) through concrete exemplary acts, similar in style to the narratives in the Guóyǔ 國語 and Zuǒzhuàn 左傳. The willingness of King Zhao to tear down a newly completed palace for the sake of a subordinate’s filial duty is presented without explicit moralizing — the action speaks for itself. The Chǔ narrative setting (King Zhāo is one of the historically attested Chǔ kings most praised in ancient sources for benevolence) links this text to a broader tradition of Chǔ court exemplary narrative found throughout the Shanghai Museum corpus.

Translations and research

  • 馬承源 ed., 《上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書》 vol. 4, Shànghǎi gǔjí chūbǎnshè, 2004 — editio princeps.
  • Lǐ Líng 李零, philological notes on Shangbo vol. 4 texts (Jianbo bsm.org.cn, 2004).
  • Kern, Martin. “Early Chinese Literature, Beginnings through Western Han.” In The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, vol. 1. CUP, 2010 — contextual framework for Warring States narrative anecdotes.

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