三德

Sān Dé 三德

The Three Virtues (modern editorial title, from the central formula of §3)

(anonymous; excavated bamboo manuscript, no attributable author)

About the work

Sān Dé 三德 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 28 bamboo strips in 26 sections. The text is a cosmological-ethical instruction text setting out a theology of Heaven (tiān 天) and its governance of human conduct, organized around prohibitions, warnings, and prescriptions for proper behavior at every level of society from the ruler to the household. The central formula — “Heaven provides seasons, Earth provides materials, the people provide labor; the sage king does not ponder — this is called the Three Virtues (sān dé 三德)” — is stated in §3 and the entire text elaborates on what it means to align with these three sources.

Abstract

Opening prohibitions (§§1–2). The text begins abruptly with a series of conditional prohibitions tied to astronomical and agricultural cycles: “When [something] is flourishing, do not cut it; when rising, do not kill; when reaching completion, do not slaughter — these are [times of] malign omens; Heaven’s disasters come in succession, they do not diminish and do not fall.” Moral injunctions follow: “Doing good brings blessings; doing not-good, calamity will come.” Various specific prohibitions: do not heighten a low wall (cosmic omen); do not raise up the abandoned. Those abandoned by August Heaven and hated by the Lord on High — “the dark is utterly dark; High Heaven has governance below.”

The Three Virtues formula (§3). “Heaven provides seasons (tiān gòng shí 天供時), Earth provides materials (dì gòng cái 地供材), the people provide labor (mín gòng lì 民供力); the sage king does not ponder (míng wáng wú sī 明王無思) — this is called the Three Virtues.” The sage king’s task is to channel and coordinate these three ready-made provisions, not to contrive solutions from his own cleverness.

Heaven’s constants (§§4–6). Grasses and trees must await their season before flourishing. “Do not rejoice at what Heaven hates; at dawn do not weep; at the dark of the moon do not sing; at the full and quarter moons, keep your vigil fasting (zhāi sù 齋宿) — this is called following Heaven’s constants.” “The reverent obtain it, the idle lose it — this is Heaven’s constant.” Do not practice deceit — the Lord on High will abhor it. If you neglect [the prescribed times] or fail to [stop at due times], Heaven will send calamities; the disasters will reach to your descendants.

Social norms and their cosmic implications (§§7–14). A series of paired maxims with cosmic stakes: “The yang [active] concealed is a great sorrow; the yin [passive] exposed is ill-omened.” Men and women must have proper distinctions and nodes; this is “Heaven’s ritual” (tiān lǐ 天禮). “Revere it, revere it — Heaven’s mandate is most brilliant (kǒng míng 孔明).” Various prohibitions against attacking the ruler before spirits, seeking easy pleasures to gain advantage, killing one’s relatives — these are called “the lord’s crimes.” A ruler without principal ministers — called a “state in danger, the household will fall.”

Agricultural timing prohibitions (§§18–19). Repeatedly seizing the people’s farming time brings inevitable famine. Three specific scenarios: taking the people’s time for earthworks (called jī 稽 — bringing endless anxiety); taking it for water-works (called nào 淖 — bringing dissipation and eventual disorder from the four quarters); taking it for military affairs (called lì huò 厲禍 — [a catastrophe] passing year by year, failing to complete the harvest [text continues]).

Speeches by Gāoyáng and Huáng Hòu (§§20–23). Two authorities — Gāoyáng 高陽 (the Emperor Zhuānxū 顓頊 tradition, or an alternate ancient sage) and Huáng Hòu 皇后 (“August Lord”) — deliver series of injunctions:

• Gāoyáng: “Do not use mourning dress for sacrifices; do not wear fine patterned garments with the shoulder bare — this is called forgetting the spirits.”
• Huáng Hòu (extensive): “Do not speak harshly; do not be a ringleader; do not undertake great affairs; do not harm the constants. Do not block waterways; do not cut off pools; do not extinguish clans; do not leave bedchambers empty; do not change prisons; do not alter affairs; do not trouble sisters-in-law; do not shame fathers and brothers. Do not be ashamed of poverty; do not mock punishment. Do not probe the depths; do not measure mountains. Do not indulge your body while multiplying your words. In dwelling do not be idle; in action do not be negligent. Do not destroy the good; do not do what is inauspicious. Do not rejoice in ruins; do not sing on hills — these are what constitute Heaven’s ritual.”

Closing admonitions (§§23–26). Proportionality in construction and conduct for all levels: the city of a hundred chariots, the household of ten rooms — each must carefully observe its degree, not losing the Way. “Desires kill people; he who does not eat or drink, holds without sureness, gives without authority — he turns to punishment with sorrow, turns away from [it] with scheming; what the people desire, ghosts and spirits assist.” “When the state is about to perish, it abhors the sage’s planning; when the household is about to be abandoned, do not disturb sacrificial offerings; dwelling in anger, all is [lost].” “Those who are thus — if they do not have great calamity, they will certainly have great disgrace.” The text ends with a warning: “What Heaven defeats, [he has] many bribes and few anxieties — raise him up and when he stumbles, do not rescue.”

Genre and parallels. The title Sān Dé 三德 occurs also in the received text of the Yìzhōushū 逸周書 (Sān Dé chapter), which similarly sets out a Heaven-oriented governance ethics with paired warnings and prescriptions. The Shanghai Museum Sān Dé is both longer and more cosmologically explicit than the Yìzhōushū version; scholars debate whether both texts derive from a common source tradition. The cosmological framework — Heaven providing the raw materials of time, space, and labor, with the sage king’s task being coordination rather than invention — is characteristic of Warring States naturalistic political thought.

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 with extensive philological annotation.
• Pines, Yuri. Envisioning Eternal Empire. University of Hawai’i Press, 2009 — background on Heaven-oriented political ethics in Warring States literature.
• Shaughnessy, Edward L. Rewriting Early Chinese Texts. SUNY Press, 2006 — contextual analysis of the Shanghai Museum corpus as a window onto pre-canonical textual production.

Other points of interest

The alignment of Sān Dé 三德 with the same-titled chapter of the Yìzhōushū 逸周書 (which also contains Heaven-Earth-people triads and governance injunctions) invites comparison: the received Yìzhōushū text is far more succinct, while the Shanghai Museum version appears to preserve a fuller and more cosmologically integrated version of the tradition. The question of priority (whether the Shanghai Museum text is an expansion, or the Yìzhōushū text a condensation) remains open.

Links

• Wikipedia (Shanghai Museum bamboo texts): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Museum_bamboo_texts