Wáng Jū (shàng) 王居 (上)
The King’s Residence (Part One) (modern editorial title; this text and KR2p0077 KR2p0077 form the two parts of a single text 王居)
(anonymous; excavated bamboo manuscript, no attributable author)
About the work
Wáng Jū 王居 (“The King’s Residence”) is a Chu court narrative text in 馬承源 Mǎ Chéngyuán ed., 《上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書》 vol. 8, Shànghǎi gǔjí chūbǎnshè 上海古籍出版社, 2011, comprising approximately 13 bamboo strips total in two parts: KR2p0076 (c. 7 strips) and KR2p0077 (c. 6 strips). The TLS transcription clearly marks strips in KR2p0077 as belonging to the same 王居 text. The first part records an interview between 葉公子高 (Ye Gong Zigao)‘s son and the Prime Minister Zǐchūn 子春 (令尹子春) about ministerial virtue. The second part KR2p0077 records a royal audience and the king’s admonishment.
Abstract
Part One: The interview with Ye Gong’s son (§§1–5). The text opens with Ye Gong Zǐgāo’s son (Yè Gōng Zǐgāo zhī zǐ 葉公子高之子) coming to see the Prime Minister Zǐchūn. Zǐchūn says to him: “The king [has a case of a person in] straitened and desperate straits; he has commanded me to be the one who gives [judgment] for Chu — I do not know if I am able; lest I bring dishonour on the axe-and-anvil [= penalty/office] of your late great officer’s (xiān dàfū 先大夫) admonitions, [your advice] can be told to me.”
Ye Gong’s son answers: “I have already been honoured with [admission to] the Day-Observer’s (shì rì 視日 — the keeper of auspicious days / a Chu royal official) courtyard; I have received the command to seek words for a reply — even if I were split on the axe-and-anvil, I dare not disobey the command. As I observe the Day-Observer — [he] surpasses my [grandfather] thirteen-fold without me (shí yòu sān wú pú 十又三亡僕).”
The Prime Minister asks: “Your late great officer [= your grandfather Ye Gong Zigao] served as the heir-apparent Prime Minister (sì lìngyǐn 嗣令尹), received the [office of] Minister of War (sīmǎ 司馬), and governed Chu’s administration — the black-haired people, ten thousand folk, none were not delighted; within the four seas, none did not hear of it. You say [this person] surpasses your late great officer — may I ask why?”
Ye Gong’s son answers: “When [my grandfather] had charge of Chu’s governance, [he had] five seated friends (zuò yǒu 坐友) and seven standing friends (lì yǒu 立友). Whatever the king commanded and whatever [my grandfather] did for Chu — he must first have consulted all thirteen of them (nèi ǒu zhī yú shí yòu sān 必內偶之於十又三) without exception, and all thirteen would then act without a single error or delay. Now the Day-Observer [= the current official being evaluated] serves as Chu’s Prime Minister without a single seated friend or standing friend — and yet the state’s governance has not failed. Hence I say the Day-Observer surpasses [my grandfather] thirteen-fold without me.”
Significance. The concept of “seated friends” (zuò yǒu 坐友 — intimate advisers sitting in the same rank) and “standing friends” (lì yǒu 立友 — advisers who stand at the ready) is a formal articulation of a minister’s social network of confidants used for collective deliberation before action. Ye Gong Zigao (葉公子高) is a well-attested Chu figure, known in the received tradition for his love of dragons (the anecdote of “Ye Gong who loved dragons” 葉公好龍) and for suppressing the revolt of Bai Gong Sheng (白公勝 — recorded in the Zuǒzhuàn, Āi 16). The Shanghai Museum text presents a more substantive portrait of Ye Gong’s governance through the eyes of his son.
Translations and research
- 馬承源 ed., 《上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書》 vol. 8, Shànghǎi gǔjí chūbǎnshè, 2011 — editio princeps.
- Pines, Yuri. Envisioning Eternal Empire. University of Hawai’i Press, 2009 — background on Warring States ministerial virtue discourse.
Links
- Wikipedia (Shanghai Museum bamboo texts): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Museum_bamboo_texts