Jìng Jiàn Nèi Zhī 競建內之
Jing Establishes That Which Is Internal (modern editorial title; the exact referent of “Jìng” 競 and “Nèi zhī” 內之 remain debated)
(anonymous; excavated bamboo manuscript, no attributable author)
About the work
Jìng Jiàn Nèi Zhī 競建內之 is one of the texts in 馬承源 Mǎ Chéngyuán ed., 《上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書》 vol. 5, Shànghǎi gǔjí chūbǎnshè 上海古籍出版社, 2005, comprising approximately 17 bamboo strips. The source file contains strips labeled with two different text-identifiers in the TLS transcription — 【競 】 and 【鮑 】 — indicating that the volume’s editors identified these strips as belonging to two related (or interleaved) text groups; the first group is associated with the title Jìng Jiàn Nèi Zhī, the second (Bào 鮑) with the remonstrance of Bàoshūyá 鮑叔牙. The narrative setting throughout is the court of Duke Huán of Qí 齊桓公, with his two ministers Bàoshūyá 鮑叔牙 and Xí Péng 隰朋 as interlocutors.
Abstract
The eclipse narrative (竸-strips). The text opens with a scene at Duke Huán’s ancestral altar during a solar eclipse. Bàoshūyá and Xí Péng attend. When the duke asks “What is this eclipse for?”, Bàoshūyá replies that it is a portent of disaster (shěng biàn, zāi 眚變，災) — military trouble and personal danger for the Duke are coming. Xí Péng is more direct: “The Duke himself has been acting without the Way, and refuses to move toward the good. Can such a thing be averted?” The duke acknowledges that without his ministers’ reprimands, things would have reached the point of the sun being eaten.
The text then introduces an analogy with Shang King Gāozōng 高宗 (Wǔ Dīng 武丁): a pheasant crowed on the altar-tripod during his sacrificial ceremony; Gāozōng inquired of his minister Zǔ Jǐ 祖己. Zǔ Jǐ explained that the former king had said: “When Heaven does not show harm and Earth does not produce calamity, then make a report to ghosts and spirits… Near advisers do not remonstrate, distant ones do not criticize: report to the villages and neighbourhoods.” Gāozōng then commanded Fù Yuè 傅說 to perform a rite of avoidance (ráng 禳) and afterwards ordered enforcement of the laws of the former kings: those who abolished established practices were to die; those who failed to enact them also to die. Within three years, seven hundred states among the Di 狄 peoples submitted. The moral: this is “someone who was able to follow the good and eliminate the fault.”
The reform program (鮑-strips). The second group of strips has Duke Huán confessing his failures and Bàoshūyá and Xí Péng cataloguing his misdeeds: consorting with the royal concubine Huá Mèngjǐ 華孟子 to race carriages at the Ní 郳 court; indulging in excessive hunting; alienating the people. Bàoshūyá then identifies the three desires of human nature (rén zhī xìng sān: shí, sè, yì 人之性三：食，色，愒) and criticizes Shū Dāo 豎刁 and Yì Yá 易牙 as flattering men who corrupt the duke. The duke asks what to do; Bàoshūyá outlines three failures of Qi governance — the people hate death yet punishments are excessive; they desire food yet taxes are heavy; they hate coercive labour yet service is untimely.
The duke then issues reform orders: sacrificial vessels must be immaculate; offerings must be complete; old and weak people must be exempt from punishment; tax on farmland must be reduced; road repairs and bridge construction must be timed seasonally. He commands his officials to study the fates of the Xià 夏, Shāng 商, and Zhōu 周 dynasties: Xia attended to appearances; Shang attended to appearances and listened to words; Zhou attended to appearances, listened to words, and examined results — and what destroyed each was abandoning the examination of results.
Genre and significance. The text is a Qi court narrative of governance reform, drawing on the omen-response tradition (a solar eclipse as Heaven’s warning of political failure) and invoking Shang precedent (the Gāozōng and pheasant story, known also from the 《尚書》 Gāozōng Róng Rì 高宗肜日 chapter). The critique of flattering ministers (Shū Dāo and Yì Yá — the same figures who appear in the Guǎnzǐ 管子 and Hán Feǐzǐ 韓非子 as causing Duke Huán’s downfall) places this text within the broader tradition of Spring and Autumn retrospective governance literature.
Translations and research
- 馬承源 ed., 《上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書》 vol. 5, Shànghǎi gǔjí chūbǎnshè, 2005 — editio princeps.
- Lǐ Líng 李零, philological notes on Shangbo vol. 5 texts (Jianbo network bsm.org.cn, 2005).
- Pines, Yuri. Envisioning Eternal Empire. University of Hawai’i Press, 2009 — background on Warring States retrospective governance discourse.
Links
- Wikipedia (Shanghai Museum bamboo texts): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Museum_bamboo_texts