天子建州

Tiānzǐ Jiàn Zhōu 天子建州

The Son of Heaven Establishes Provinces (modern editorial title, from the opening phrase)

(anonymous; excavated bamboo manuscript, no attributable author)

About the work

Tiānzǐ Jiàn Zhōu 天子建州 is one of the texts in 馬承源 Mǎ Chéngyuán ed., 《上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書》 vol. 6, Shànghǎi gǔjí chūbǎnshè 上海古籍出版社, 2007, comprising approximately 13 bamboo strips in 11 sections. The text is a ritual-political instruction text systematically articulating the hierarchical structure of the Zhou feudal order — the Son of Heaven, feudal lords (bāng jūn 邦君), great officers (dàfū 大夫), and officers (shì 士) — in terms of their respective administrative units, ancestral generation counts, deportment norms, food protocols, and speech prohibitions.

Abstract

The administrative hierarchy (§1). “In general: the Son of Heaven (tiānzǐ 天子) establishes provinces (zhōu 州); the lord of a state (bāng jūn 邦君) establishes capitals (dū 都); the great officer (dàfū 大夫) establishes villages (lǐ 里); the officer (shì 士) establishes a household (shì 室). In general: the Son of Heaven [maintains] seven generations [of ancestors]; the lord of a state, five generations; the great officer, three generations; the officer, two generations.”

The penalty for overreach (§2). “An officer who assumes the position of a great officer — his body cannot escape [punishment]; a great officer who assumes the position of a lord — his body cannot escape; a lord who assumes the position of the Son of Heaven — his body cannot escape.” The hierarchy is absolute: crossing rank boundaries is a capital offense, even in symbolic form.

Ritual and rightness (§3). “Ritual (lǐ 禮) is the elder of rightness (yì zhī xiōng 義之兄也). Ritual in the ancestral temple: what is not refined, [ritual] treats as refined; what is not beautiful, [ritual] treats as beautiful. Rightness reverses this: what is refined, [rightness] treats as not refined; what is beautiful, [rightness] treats as not beautiful. Hence without ritual there is great abandonment; without rightness there is great sin.” The distinction here is subtle: ritual operates by transformative elevation (making the imperfect acceptable through proper form); rightness operates by honest evaluation (insisting on genuine quality). The interplay of the two is what sustains moral order.

Pure conduct and state outcomes (§4). “When conduct is purely of emotion (qíng 情), the state is lost. When expenditure is purely on material goods (wù 物), the state is lost. One must balance internal emotion with external goods (luó yú wù 羅於物); judge and kill [when necessary] and the state is corrected.”

Cosmological dyads (§5). “Culture (wén 文) is yin, military (wǔ 武) is yang. Trust in culture brings officers; trust in military brings [agricultural] fields. Cultural virtue (wén dé 文德) governs; military virtue (wǔ dé 武德) attacks. Culture generates; military kills.”

The Luoyin and the two aspects (§7). A difficult passage: “The Luoyin (Luò Yǐn 洛尹) walks, moderating the two: one delight and one anger. The Son of Heaven sits squarely (zuò yǐ jǔ 坐以矩), eats by rightness (shí yǐ yì 食以義), stands by plumb-line (lì yǐ xuán 立以縣), walks by cord (xíng yǐ xīng 行以興[=繩]), looks at the count of regional lords (shì hóu liàng 視侯量), glances by turning the body (gù huán shēn 顧還身).” The feudal lords eat the same form, look at the hundred [officials] and correct [themselves], glance by turning their shoulders, share shame-measure with ministers and great officers.

Hierarchical dining, space, and deportment norms (§§8–9). The Son of Heaven receives tribute food; the feudal lord eats second-grade; the great officer takes what is offered; the officer accepts leftovers. The Son of Heaven has four unrolled mat-layers; the lord three; the great officer two; the officer one.

Speech prohibitions by occasion (§10). “In serving ghosts and spirits, practice reverence; in appeasing the people, use virtue; in deciding punishments, use grief. In court, do not speak of inner [household] affairs; at offerings, do not speak of battle; on the road, do not speak of hidden matters; managing governance, do not speak of pleasure; [when] in the presence of altar vessels, do not settle affairs; when assembling the crowd, do not speak of resentment; between men and women, do not speak of humiliation; between friends, do not speak of division; when approaching food, do not speak of the disgusting.”

Divination prohibitions (§11). “When approaching a divination ritual, do not speak of disorder, do not speak of aggression, do not speak of annihilation, do not speak of defeat, do not speak of deficiency — hence the turtle-shell has five taboos. When approaching a city wall, do not speak of demolition; when observing a state, do not speak of its perishing.” The text then closes with apotropaic prescriptions for encountering ghosts (yáng 禓) and entering dark places (yào 窔).

Genre and parallels. Tiānzǐ Jiàn Zhōu belongs to the category of ritual hierarchy texts organizing Zhou political order by rank-dependent norms. The content is closely related to chapters of the received Lǐjì 禮記 (especially Qǔlǐ 曲禮, Wángzhì 王制, and Jīyì 祭義), the Zhouli 周禮, and the Yǐlǐ 儀禮. The correlation of the yin-yang dyad with culture/military (wén/wǔ 文武) is characteristic of Warring States cosmological thought. The speech prohibition system — matching taboo topics to social occasions — is a systematic articulation of discretion norms not found in this form in any received text.

Translations and research

• 馬承源 ed., 《上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書》 vol. 6, Shànghǎi gǔjí chūbǎnshè, 2007 — editio princeps.
• Eno, Robert. “Shang State Religion and the Pantheon of the Oracle Texts.” In Ancient Chinese Religion. Brill, 2009 — contextual background on Zhou ritual hierarchy.
• Falkenhausen, Lothar von. Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius (1000–250 BC). Cotsen Institute, 2006 — archaeological and textual context for Zhou rank-differentiated ritual practice.

Links

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