上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書‧民之父母

Shànghǎi Bówùguǎn Cáng Zhànguó Chǔ Zhúshū‧Mín Zhī Fùmǔ 上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書‧民之父母

Warring States Chu Bamboo Texts at the Shanghai Museum — “Parents of the People” (民之父母 Mín Zhī Fùmǔ)

(dialogue attributed to 孔子 Kǒngzǐ and 卜商 Bǔ Shāng / Zǐxià 子夏)

About the work

The Mín Zhī Fùmǔ 民之父母 (“Parents of the People”) is a bamboo-slip text from the Shanghai Museum’s Warring States Chu collection, published as text no. 4 in Volume 4 (2004/2005) of Shànghǎi Bówùguǎn Cáng Zhànguó Chǔ Zhúshū 上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書, edited by 馬承源. It is a dialogue between Confucius (孔子 Kǒngzǐ) and his disciple Zǐxià 子夏 (Bǔ Shāng 卜商) on the meaning of the phrase “parents of the people” (mín zhī fùmǔ 民之父母) cited from the Odes (Shī 詩). The text has a close parallel in the received Lǐjì 禮記 chapter 《孔子閒居》 (Kǒngzǐ Xiānjū, “Confucius at Leisure”).

Abstract

Provenance. The Shanghai Museum slips were purchased from a Hong Kong dealer in 1994, originally from Jiangling 江陵, Hubei. This text forms part of Volume 4 of the editio princeps, which contains seven mainly historical and dialogic texts. The slips are in Chu script, datable to c. 300 BCE or slightly earlier.

Content. The text opens with 卜商 Zǐxià questioning 孔子 Confucius: “The Odes say: ‘The harmonious and courteous noble man, / the people’s father and mother.’ I venture to ask: what must one do to be called the father and mother of the people?” (子夏問於孔子：《詩》曰：『凱俤君子，民之父母』，敢問何如而可謂民之父母？) Confucius replies that one must “penetrate to the source of ritual and music” (bì dá yú lǐ yuè zhī yuán 必達於禮樂之源) and then practice the “Five Perfections” (wǔ zhì 五至) and “Three Without” (sān wú 三無), thereby reaching to all under Heaven. The “Five Perfections” are: where things arrive, will (zhì 志) also arrives; where will arrives, ritual (lǐ 禮) also arrives; where ritual arrives, music (yuè 樂) also arrives; where music arrives, grief (āi 哀) also arrives — “grief and joy mutually engender each other; the noble man uses these to set things right.” The “Three Without” are: “soundless music” (wú shēng zhī yuè 無聲之樂), “bodiless ritual” (wú tǐ zhī lǐ 無體之禮), and “garmentless mourning” (wú fú zhī sāng 無服之喪). These three are imperceptible to ear and eye yet fill the four seas. The dialogue continues with Zǐxià asking which Odes exemplify these three, and Confucius supplies three citations, then adds that “there are still five further stages” (yóu yǒu wǔ qǐ 猶有五起焉), which are elaborated in a sequence of fifteen triadic expansions linking the “three without” to wider and wider circles of moral influence.

Relationship to the received Lǐjì. The Kǒngzǐ Xiānjū 孔子閒居 chapter of the received Lǐjì presents the same dialogue with the same terminology. The Shanghai Museum manuscript version is briefer in some passages and shows numerous character variants. The existence of the manuscript version confirms that this material circulated as a free-standing dialogue text before being incorporated into the Lǐjì corpus.

Dating. The manuscript is dateable on paleographic grounds to c. 300 BCE. The dialogue itself represents a Warring States Confucian genre; notBefore -450 / notAfter -300.

Translations and research

• 馬承源主編. 《上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書》第四冊. 上海古籍出版社, 2004/2005. (editio princeps)
• 俞紹宏、張青松主編. 《上海博物館藏戰國楚簡集釋》. 社會科學文獻出版社, 2020.
• Shaughnessy, Edward L. Rewriting Early Chinese Texts. SUNY Press, 2006.
• Allan, Sarah. Buried Ideas: Legends of Abdication and Ideal Government in Early Chinese Bamboo-Slip Manuscripts. SUNY Press, 2015.

Links

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