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郭店楚墓竹書‧六德

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Text ID
KR2p0156
Date
-400–-300
Dynasty
周

Guōdiàn Chǔmù Zhúshū‧Liù Dé 郭店楚墓竹書‧六德

Chu Tomb Bamboo Books from Guōdiàn — “Liù Dé” (Six Virtues)

(anonymous; early Confucian systematic ethics)

About the work

A systematic Confucian philosophical text in six sections, organizing the fundamental social relationships (六位 liù wèi, six positions), their corresponding social functions (六職 liù zhí, six duties), and their corresponding moral virtues (六德 liù dé, six virtues), recovered from Guōdiàn 郭店 Chu Tomb 1, Jīngmén, Húběi (sealed ca. 300 BCE). The text is notable for containing what is recognized as one of the earliest — possibly the earliest — explicit list of the Six Classics (Liù Jīng 六經: Shī 詩, Shū 書, Lǐ 禮, Yuè 樂, Yì 易, Chūnqiū 春秋).

Abstract

Provenance. Guōdiàn Tomb 1, Jīngmén, Húběi, ca. 300 BCE. For archaeological background see KR2p0148.

Content. The text in six sections develops a systematic ethical and social framework:

Section 1: The governing principle — the gentleman (jūnzǐ 君子) who wishes to seek the human way (rén dào 人道) must proceed through the six positions (liù wèi 六位), taking on the six duties (liù zhí 六職), and relying on the six virtues (liù dé 六德). The six positions correspond to the three dyadic relationships: husband–wife (fū fù 夫婦), father–son (fù zǐ 父子), and ruler–minister (jūn chén 君臣). The six duties are: leading/following, commanding/serving, teaching/receiving instruction. The six virtues are: sageness (shèng 聖) and wisdom (zhì 智); benevolence (rén 仁) and righteousness (yì 義); loyalty (zhōng 忠) and faithfulness (xìn 信). These virtues are matched to the positions: sageness and wisdom are required to create ritual and music, establish penal law, and educate the people; benevolence and righteousness to draw kin together, harmonize ministers, and pacify neighbors; loyalty and faithfulness to gather the people, manage the land, and sustain the common life.

The first section then crucially contains the famous list of six classical texts: “觀諸《詩》、《書》則亦在矣，觀諸《禮》、《樂》則亦在矣，觀諸《易》、《春秋》則亦在矣” (“Observe it through the Shī and Shū — it is there; observe it through Lǐ and Yuè — it is there; observe it through the Yì and Chūnqiū — it is there”). This passage confirms that the concept of “Six Classics” (Liù Jīng) was already current in the late fourth century BCE, well before the canonical consolidation of the Han.

Section 2: Meritocratic governance — the worthy should be employed wherever they are found, even in mountain wildernesses; kinsmen and distant relatives are appointed according to their actual talent: the father-figure (fù xiōng 父兄) is entrusted with authority, and those with great talent receive great offices, those with lesser talent lesser offices. The virtues are assigned to each position: righteousness (yì 義) is the ruler’s virtue; loyalty (zhōng 忠) is the minister’s virtue; wisdom (zhì 智) is the husband’s virtue; faithfulness (xìn 信) is the wife’s virtue; sageness (shèng 聖) is the father’s virtue; benevolence (rén 仁) is the son’s virtue.

Sections 3 and 4: The inner/outer distinction — benevolence is inner; righteousness is outer; ritual and music are shared (gòng 共). Internal relationships (father, son, husband) are governed by benevolence; external relationships (ruler, minister, wife) by righteousness. Mourning grades (from the heaviest to the lightest) are ordered accordingly. The principle: “為父絕君，不為君絕父” (“Break with the ruler for the father’s sake; do not break with the father for the ruler’s sake”). The six persons, each fulfilling their role, are the foundation of social order: “故夫夫，婦婦，父父，子子，君君，臣臣” (“Husband as husband, wife as wife, father as father, son as son, ruler as ruler, minister as minister”). Filial piety (xiào 孝) is the root. The great law (dà fǎ 大法) of the gentleman’s conduct in establishing himself consists of three principles, with six elaborations and twelve further derivations.

The Six Classics reference. The passage in Section 1 listing the six canonical texts (Shī, Shū, Lǐ, Yuè, Yì, Chūnqiū) by name is frequently cited in modern scholarship as among the earliest explicit references to the Six Classics as a defined corpus. The implication is that by ca. 300 BCE, these six texts were already treated as a coherent group through which one could verify moral and social principles. This carries significant implications for the history of the Chinese classical canon and its formation.

Significance. The Liù Dé is one of the most systematic texts in the Guōdiàn corpus, presenting an organized table of social positions, duties, and virtues that is more schematic than most of the other Confucian texts from the tomb. Scholars associate it with the broader Zǐsī school tradition, though its highly systematic character also anticipates features of later Han Confucian cosmological thought.

Dating. Manuscript copied ca. 300 BCE; composition probably fourth century BCE. Bracket notBefore: −400, notAfter: −300.

Translations and research

  • 荊門市博物館, 《郭店楚墓竹書》, 文物出版社, 1998 — editio princeps.
  • Cook, Scott. The Bamboo Texts of Guodian: A Study and Complete Translation. 2 vols. Cornell East Asia Series, 2012 — includes full translation and analysis.
  • Holloway, Kenneth. Guodian: The Newly Discovered Seeds of Chinese Religious and Political Philosophy. Oxford University Press, 2009.
  • Nylan, Michael. The Five “Confucian” Classics. Yale University Press, 2001 — contextualizes the Six Classics list in the history of the classical canon.
  • Shaughnessy, Edward L. Rewriting Early Chinese Texts. SUNY Press, 2006.
  • Pines, Yuri. Envisioning Eternal Empire. University of Hawai’i Press, 2009.

Other points of interest

The Liù Dé reference to all six classical texts by name — at a time predating any received Han canonical formulation — has made this passage one of the most cited in debates about when and how the Chinese classical canon was formed. Wilkinson (Chinese History: A Manual, rev. ed. 2015, p. 342) notes that the Six Classics as a defined group appear in texts from the late Warring States, and the Liù Dé provides one of the clearest pre-Han attestations. The text also provides the earliest known explicit articulation of the three dyadic social relationships (sān lún 三倫, or as they became in later Confucianism, the sān gāng 三綱) as a systematic framework.

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