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文王訪太公

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Text ID
KR2p0085
Date
-350–-250
Dynasty
戰國

Wén Wáng Fǎng Tàigōng 文王訪太公

King Wen Consults the Grand Preceptor (modern editorial title)

(anonymous; excavated bamboo manuscript, no attributable author)

About the work

Wén Wáng Fǎng Tàigōng 文王訪太公 is among the longest texts in the Shanghai Museum corpus of Warring States Chǔ 楚 manuscripts, preserved on approximately 28 bamboo strips, published in 馬承源 Mǎ Chéngyuán ed., 《上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書》 vol. 9, Shànghǎi gǔjí chūbǎnshè 上海古籍出版社, 2012. It belongs to the substantial body of dialogic literature — typically framed as conversations between sage rulers and their advisors — that proliferated in the Warring States period. The text presents Tàigōng Wàng 太公望 (also called Shàngfù 尚父, Lǚ Shàng 呂尚) as the supreme political and cosmological counselor, and situates his advice within a span of seven years of consultations with King Wén 文王 of Zhōu.

Abstract

Prologue: Gǔ Gōng meets Tàigōng. The text opens: “Gǔ Gōng 古公 [i.e., Tài Wáng 太王, King Wén’s grandfather] saw Dàgōng Wàng 大公望 at Lǚ 呂 and said: ‘I have heard that the Zhōu clan is in trouble (Zhōu zōng yǒu nán 周宗有難)…‘” The meeting at Lǚ — a received tradition in which Tàigōng Wàng is discovered fishing and recognized as the sage counselor the Zhou house requires — frames the entire text. The passage appears to include a test (xì 謑, “taunt/test”) to reveal the sage’s true quality.

King Wén’s question about his situation. Strip 3 records a reminiscence or praise-verse: “Gaining Shàngfù (shàng fù 尚父), we took all under heaven; losing Shàngfù, the Zhōu would tremble.” The great counselor then ascends to the throne hall (jiē zhì 階至, reaches step by step).

The seven-year consultations (strips 4–28). The main body of the text is structured as a series of dialogic encounters between King Wén 文王 and Shàngfù 尚父 spanning seven years (wéi qī nián 惟七年), organized around progressively deeper questions about governance.

First consultation (strip 4): “King Wén consulted Shàngfù and said: ‘I have troubles on the left and difficulties on the right; I wish to reach the center and hold to the Way (dá zhōng chí dào 達中持道). Formerly when I found the center, generation after generation there was no later regret.‘”

On the Way and virtuous people (strip 5): “The Way has something that must be cultivated; it is not what Heaven directs toward — nothing can obtain it. One should retire and reflect on it: is it not [through] the worthy among the people (xián mín 賢民)?”

On governing and relying on others (strip 6): “If you make a way for me, our ruler cannot do even one of these things; there are intercessors and substitutes. The work of establishing the people is the world’s most difficult matter; some [states] rise by it, others perish.”

The sage-kings (strips 7–28): Shàngfù instructs King Wén by reviewing the governance of the Five Sage-Kings (xiān sì dì 先四帝, possibly including the Yellow Emperor, Yáo, Shùn, and Yǔ as the four paradigm-emperors, plus a fifth):

  • Huángdì 黃帝: “Cultivated three rounds/members (xiū sān yuán 修三員), provided for the day’s [circuit] (bèi rì xíng 備日行), practiced non-knowledge (xí wú zhì 習無智).” All things were put in order; the four cardinal officers received their tasks. Further questions on what “the day’s circuit” means: “The day’s circuit — use it to bear [results] through to completion; diffuse it to [make it] pervasive; by approximation [distribute it] equally to the multitudes; at a distance first reach them — this is the day’s circuit.”

  • Yáo 堯: Governed the four quarters; consulted Shùn (through a question to Yǔ: “What comes first in governance?” — Yǔ replied: “Only the will (zhì 志)”); addressed four calamities (sì hài 四害); asked about leisure and foresight. “Do not forget what you cannot do” (wú wàng qí suǒ bù néng 毋忘其所不能). The relationship between Yáo and Shùn is given extended treatment.

  • Shùn 舜: “Shùn ruled all under heaven; the Three Miáo 三苗 did not submit. Shùn did not cut off their [access to the] Way, did not block their [communication]…”

  • Yǔ 禹 (strips 23–28, with three separate accounts labeled 一曰, 二曰, 三曰): (1) Yǔ dredged the rivers and streams: divided the Jiāng 江 into three, the Hé 河 into nine channels; 100 rivers all channeled; blocked 90 channels; cut through 300 drainage ditches; his hands were callused and bent (shǒu gǒu lí 首耇黧), his body covered with scales (shēn mìng lín 身命鱗). Yǔ mobilized the people with two harmonies (yǐ èr hé 以二和) and the people all exerted themselves; the hundred rivers were conducted and the world was stable. (2) “Carrying on Shùn’s succession, spreading virtue to the four lands, teaching the weary people, comprehensively exhausting [all effort] — Yǔ exerted himself with full determination; had desires but did not go against [duty]; deep, solid, firm, accomplished.” (3) “Yǔ ruled all under heaven; showed great ambition without selfishness; abandoned his own person; during [his] life he labored the people; in death he practiced not being sacrificed to; in advancing he built achievements; in the middle [of his rule] he strengthened solidarity; in the end his [achievements] were inexhaustible.”

The final strips are damaged. The text concludes on the theme of virtuous rule requiring both broad principle (dào yǒu yào 道有要乎) and practical application: “Respect people and be near the Way; do not set yourself up, and be trustworthy.”

Significance. Wén Wáng Fǎng Tàigōng is a major document for the study of Tàigōng Wàng literature — a substantial genre in early China that includes the Liùtāo 六韜 and Sānjūn 三軍 texts — as well as for the construction of sagely antiquity in Warring States philosophical discourse. The text’s treatment of Yǔ’s flood-control as the paradigmatic example of self-sacrificing governance, and its use of Huángdì’s “three members” as a cosmological governance principle, closely parallels ideas developed in other excavated texts (e.g., the Guōdiàn 郭店 corpus) and in the transmitted Guǎnzǐ 管子. The seven-year temporal frame may be conventional (echoing consultation narratives in other early texts) rather than literal. The text bears comparison with passages in the received Liùtāo 六韜 attributed to Tàigōng, but the Shanghai Museum version preserves independent traditions not attested in the received text.

Translations and research

  • 馬承源 ed., 《上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書》 vol. 9, Shànghǎi gǔjí chūbǎnshè, 2012 — editio princeps.
  • Shaughnessy, Edward L. Rewriting Early Chinese Texts. SUNY Press, 2006.
  • Pines, Yuri. Envisioning Eternal Empire. University of Hawai’i Press, 2009.
  • Sawyer, Ralph D. The Six Secret Teachings on the Way of Strategy: Liutao. Westview Press, 1993 — the received Liùtāo tradition for comparative context.

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