Guōdiàn Chǔmù Zhúshū‧Yǔ Cóng Sān 郭店楚墓竹書‧語叢三
Chu Tomb Bamboo Books from Guōdiàn — “Yǔ Cóng Sān” (Sayings Collection 3)
(anonymous; early philosophical miscellany)
About the work
The third of four Yǔ Cóng 語叢 (“Sayings Collections”) in the Guōdiàn 郭店 Chu Tomb 1 corpus (sealed ca. 300 BCE). A miscellany of aphorisms on rhetoric, persuasion, diplomacy, social relations, and governance. Unlike the chain-derivation format of Yǔ Cóng 2 (KR2p0157), this text consists of independent aphorisms grouped loosely by theme. It contains several striking sayings, including a famous parallel to the idea that the size of a crime determines its punishment — or rather, its impunity.
Abstract
Provenance. Guōdiàn Tomb 1, Jīngmén, Húběi, ca. 300 BCE. For archaeological background see KR2p0148.
Content. The text preserves two sections:
Section 1 is concerned with rhetoric, persuasion (shuì 說), and political speech:
“凡說之道，急者為首。既得其急，必有及之。及之而不可，必度以訛，毋令知我。彼邦亡將，流澤而行” (“In the way of persuasion, what is urgent must come first. Once you have obtained what is urgent, there will certainly be follow-ons. If a follow-on is not possible, one must calculate a deviation — do not let [the other] know my position. When that state has no general, move like flowing grace”).
“言以始，情以久。非言不讎，非德亡復” (“Speech begins [a relationship]; genuine feeling sustains it. Without speech there is no response; without virtue nothing is given back”). “言而苟，牆有耳” (“If speech is careless, walls have ears”). “往言傷人，來言傷己” (“Words that go out wound others; words that come in wound oneself”). “言之善，足以終世” (“Good speech suffices to last through a lifetime”). “三世之福，不足以出亡” (“Three generations of good fortune are not enough to buy one’s way out of death”). “口不慎而戶不閉，惡言復己而死無日” (“If the mouth is not careful and the gate is not closed, evil words will return to oneself and death has no fixed day”).
Then the famous saying: “竊䮦者誅，竊邦者為諸侯。諸侯之門，義士之所存” (“One who steals a piece of hide is executed; one who steals a state becomes a lord of the realm. The gates of the lords — that is where the righteous man takes up his position”). This line is a striking parallel to later statements about the inverse relationship between the scale of a crime and its social consequences, echoed in early Chinese thought from the Zhuāngzǐ and later texts.
Section 2 contains aphorisms on social intelligence, the value of worthy companions, and governance:
“車轍之鮅鮪，不見江湖之水” (“The fish in wheel-ruts do not see the water of rivers and lakes”) — on limited perspective. “匹婦愚夫，不知其鄉之小人、君子” (“The common woman and foolish man do not know who in their village is a petty person or a gentleman”). “早與賢人，是謂央行” (“Associating early with the worthy — this is called cutting a good path”). “賢人不在側，是謂迷惑” (“If the worthy person is not at your side, this is called confusion”).
The section develops further themes: the importance of having a great hero (jù xióng 巨雄) in the state and co-opting him as an ally; the metaphor of using a tree’s shade without breaking its branches (lì mù yīn zhě, bù zhé qí zhī 利木陰者，不折其枝); using a marsh without blocking its streams; the value of managing those below like the legs of a centipede — numerous but not harmful to one another; managing superiors like teeth and tongue — in constant proximity without conflict. “山亡嶞則阤，城無蓑則阤” (“A mountain without ridges will collapse; a city without [defensive works] will fall”). Military power, gold and jade, numerical strength — none compares to good planning (móu 謀).
Significance. The Yǔ Cóng 3 is distinctive in containing aphorisms of a more pragmatic, even proto-Legalist or diplomatic flavor alongside Confucian observations. The rhetoric aphorisms in Section 1 suggest a persuasion-oriented context consistent with the world of Warring States diplomats and persuaders (shuì kè 說客). The famous “steal a hide / steal a state” saying anticipates the Zhuāngzǐ (Chapter 10, “Qù Qiè” 胠篋): “竊鉤者誅，竊國者為諸侯” — suggesting that the Zhuāngzǐ version may depend on or parallel the same maxim tradition attested at Guōdiàn.
Dating. Manuscript copied ca. 300 BCE; composition probably late 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.
- Holloway, Kenneth. Guodian: The Newly Discovered Seeds of Chinese Religious and Political Philosophy. Oxford University Press, 2009.
- Shaughnessy, Edward L. Rewriting Early Chinese Texts. SUNY Press, 2006.
Other points of interest
The “steal a hide / steal a state” aphorism (“竊䮦者誅，竊邦者為諸侯”) in Yǔ Cóng 3 is one of the most frequently cited passages from the Guōdiàn corpus in both specialist scholarship and popular writing. Its Guōdiàn attestation confirms that this proverbial saying was current in Chu intellectual circles by ca. 300 BCE. The later version in Zhuāngzǐ ch. 10 (“竊鉤者誅，竊國者為諸侯”) may be a variant of the same maxim, supporting the view that some passages in the received Zhuāngzǐ draw on pre-existing aphoristic material rather than being original compositions of Zhuāngzǐ himself. The aphorism about “the gates of the lords — where the righteous man takes up his position” (諸侯之門，義士之所存) adds an ironic moral comment absent in the Zhuāngzǐ parallel: the righteous man is forced to seek employment among those who have stolen states.
Links
- Wikipedia (Guodian Chu Slips): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guodian_Chu_Slips