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上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書‧昔者君老

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Text ID
KR2p0165
Date
-450–-300
Dynasty
周

Shànghǎi Bówùguǎn Cáng Zhànguó Chǔ Zhúshū‧Xī Zhě Jūn Lǎo 上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書‧昔者君老

Warring States Chu Bamboo Texts at the Shanghai Museum — “Once the Ruler Grew Old” (昔者君老 Xī Zhě Jūn Lǎo)

(anonymous Confucian ritual protocol text)

About the work

The Xī Zhě Jūn Lǎo 昔者君老 (“Once the Ruler Grew Old”) is a short bamboo-slip text from the Shanghai Museum’s Warring States Chu collection, published as text no. 8 in the Shànghǎi Bówùguǎn Cáng Zhànguó Chǔ Zhúshū 上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書 series edited by 馬承源. It is one of the shorter texts in the Shanghai Museum corpus, concerned with the ritual protocols governing the relationship between a retiring ruler and the crown prince during the period of succession — a topic also treated in other Warring States Confucian texts.

Abstract

Provenance. The Shanghai Museum slips were purchased from a Hong Kong dealer in 1994, originally from Jiangling 江陵, Hubei. The Chu-script paleography dates the manuscript to approximately 300 BCE.

Content. The text opens with the phrase “君子曰：昔者君老” (“The noble man says: Once the ruler grew old”), and proceeds to describe the ceremonial protocols for succession. When the ruler grows old, the crown prince (tàizǐ 太子) attends him at court while the ruler’s maternal brother serves as an intermediary. Petitioners (shù 庶) are heard and advance their cases. The crown prince defers to the ruler’s brother, who in turn defers to the crown prince — after three such deferrals they hear petitions together. The ruler’s brother goes to the gate (gé 閤门) to inform the palace attendant (sìrén 寺人), who reports to the ruler; the ruler summons the crown prince, who enters “as in the matter of sacrifices” — each official performing his duties solemnly, the commands not lapsing. After the ruler dies, the crown prince enters a period of withdrawal: hearing nothing, giving no orders, thinking only of grief and sorrow, attending only to the great affairs of the state. The text closes with a second “noble man says” passage on the importance of emotional containment: joy felt inwardly should not show outwardly; irritation felt outwardly should not penetrate inwardly; inner words should not go out, outer words should not come in; promote the good and eliminate the bad.

Relationship to received texts. The content has parallels in Lǐjì 禮記 chapters on mourning ritual, succession protocol, and the conduct of the crown prince. The emphasis on the correct ceremonial management of the transition from one ruler to the next reflects a broader Warring States Confucian concern with ritual as the guarantor of political stability. No exact received-text parallel has been identified.

Dating. Paleographic evidence dates the manuscript c. 300 BCE. notBefore -450 / notAfter -300.

Translations and research

  • 馬承源主編. 《上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書》. 上海古籍出版社. (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.

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