上博楚簡·性情論

Shànghǎi Bówùguǎn Chǔjiǎn · Xìngqíng Lùn 上博楚簡·性情論

Warring States Chu Bamboo Slips at the Shanghai Museum — Discourse on Human Nature and Emotions

About the work

Xìngqíng Lùn 性情論 (“Discourse on Human Nature and Emotions”) is the title given by the Shanghai Museum editors to a Warring States Chu bamboo-slip text that is closely parallel to Xìng Zì Mìng Chū 性自命出 found at Guōdiàn (KR2p0180). Published in vol. 1 of Shànghǎi Bówùguǎn cáng Zhànguó Chǔ zhúshū 上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書 (2001), edited by 馬承源 (Mǎ Chéngyuán, 1928–2004), it is the most complete surviving manuscript of this philosophical tradition. With 21 sections, it substantially extends the 6-section Guodian version and is the primary witness for the full scope of the text’s argument about nature, mandate, emotions, music, and moral self-cultivation.

Abstract

The 1,437 Warring States Chu bamboo slips now held by the Shanghai Museum were purchased from a Hong Kong dealer in 1994, having originated (most likely) from Jīnglíng 江陵 in Hubei, and are dated to roughly the same period as the Guodian slips (late 4th–early 3rd century BCE). Xìngqíng Lùn is the third of three texts published in vol. 1 (alongside Kǒngzǐ Shīlùn 孔子詩論 and Zīyī 緇衣). The Shanghai Museum editors titled it Xìngqíng Lùn 性情論; the title was assigned on the basis of the text’s content, since the slips bear no title. The text of Xìngqíng Lùn is substantially identical in its first six sections to the Guodian Xìng Zì Mìng Chū (KR2p0180), with variant readings throughout; the remaining fifteen sections are absent from the Guodian manuscript and are known only from this version.

Sections 1–7 are parallel to the Guodian Xìng Zì Mìng Chū, covering the derivation of nature from mandate, of emotion from nature, and the role of external stimuli in activating the emotions; the heart’s role in directing nature; the uniformity of nature across all humans and its differentiation through instruction; the seven modes by which nature is moved (things, pleasure, occasions, righteousness, circumstance, habituation, the Dao); and the agents of each mode. The opening formula 性自命出，命自天降 (“Nature issues from mandate; mandate descends from Heaven”) is shared with the Guodian version. Section 7 (not in the 6-section Guodian version) clarifies the referents of the key terms: “things” are what one sees; “pleasure” is what makes one happy; “circumstance” is what is established by things; “occasions” are when there is purpose (yǒu wéi 有為); “righteousness is the gathering-point of all that is good” (qún shàn zhī zuì 群善之蕝); “habituation is the having-something-by-which-to-practice-one’s-nature”; “the Dao is the Dao of all things.”

Sections 8–12 are unique to this manuscript and focus extensively on music (yuè 樂) and its relationship to emotion and moral cultivation:

• Section 8 addresses the role of teaching (jiào 教) through the four classics — the Shī 詩, Shū 書, Lǐ 禮, Yuè 樂 — as instruments for generating virtue within; introduces the beginnings of ritual in emotion and its refinement into measured form (wén 文); describes the progressive interiorization of musical experience as moving from shallow to deep.
• Section 9 explores the power of sound to enter and move the heart: hearing laughter produces freshness and joy; hearing song produces elevation and vitality; hearing lutes produces trembling and awe; witnessing the Lài 賚 and Wǔ 武 dances produces alignment and activity; witnessing the Sháo 韶 and Xià 夏 dances produces effort and restraint. Each sound and musical form produces a distinct emotional quality, validating music’s role as a vehicle of moral education.
• Sections 10–12 contrast “ancient music” (gǔ yuè 古樂) with “licentious music” (yì yuè 溢樂); describe the emotional arc of grief and joy; and reflect on the expressive power of the voice: “All sounds that emerge from emotion are trustworthy; afterward their entering and stirring the hearts of people is deep.” The critique of the music of Zhèng 鄭 and Wèi 衛 (non-ritual music) found in section 9 is consistent with received Confucian doctrine.

Sections 13–21 address social ethics and self-cultivation:

• Section 13 discusses the types of person who command respect without instruction, including those with “beautiful emotion” (měi qíng 美情), those of “good nature” (xìng shàn 性善), those with inner power (hán fú 含福), and those who inspire awe without punishment. Social interaction is categorized by the modes through which one connects: by the Dao, by righteousness, by virtue, by skill.
• Sections 14–21 offer a series of maxims on self-conduct: stillness of body, virtue of mind, depth of deliberation, gravity in withdrawal, grace in advance, directness in speech. Section 14’s catalogue of virtuous comportment (節節, 柬柬, 齊齊, 臍臍, 累累) describes the characteristic internal qualities corresponding to each social role.

The relationship between Xìngqíng Lùn and the Guodian Xìng Zì Mìng Chū is one of the most discussed problems in the study of the excavated manuscripts. The two manuscripts share the first six sections but diverge significantly in detail, suggesting that both copies derive from a common archetype rather than one being a copy of the other. The Guodian copy is in a single hand; the Shanghai Museum copy may have been copied by a different scribe. The Shanghai Museum version is generally regarded as more complete.

The editio princeps is 馬承源 (Mǎ Chéngyuán), chief ed., 《上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書》, vol. 1 (Shànghǎi gǔjí, 2001). Transcription by Lǐ Líng 李零 with commentary. A comprehensive collected notes edition is Yú Shàohóng 俞绍宏 and Zhāng Qīngsōng 张青松, eds., 《上海博物館藏戰國楚簡集釋》, 10 vols. (Shèhuì kēxué wénxiàn, 2020).

No tiyao found in source.

Translations and research

• Shaughnessy, Edward L. “The Editing of Archaeologically Recovered Manuscripts and Its Implications for the Study of Received Texts.” In Rewriting Early Chinese Texts. SUNY Press, 2006, pp. 9–62. — analysis of the editorial process for the Shanghai Museum slips and the relationship to Guodian.
• Cook, Scott, tr. The Bamboo Texts of Guodian: A Study and Complete Translation. 2 vols. Cornell East Asia Series, 2012. — translates and annotates the Guodian version with extensive reference to the Shanghai Museum parallel.
• Csikszentmihalyi, Mark. Material Virtue: Ethics and the Body in Early China. Brill, 2004. — uses both versions as primary sources for early Confucian virtue ethics.
• Goldin, Paul R. “Xunzi in the Light of the Guodian Manuscripts.” Early China 25 (2000): 113–146.
• Kern, Martin, ed. Text and Ritual in Early China. University of Washington Press, 2005.
• Yú Shàohóng 俞绍宏 and Zhāng Qīngsōng 张青松, eds. 《上海博物館藏戰國楚簡集釋》. 10 vols. Shèhuì kēxué wénxiàn, 2020. — collected annotations.
• Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A New Manual. Harvard Asia Center, 2018, §58.4 — brief characterization of the Shanghai Museum text in its corpus context.

Other points of interest

The Shanghai Museum version’s fifteen additional sections on music constitute the most extensive early Chinese discussion of the psychology of musical listening to survive from the pre-imperial period. The phenomenology of musical affect described there — the specific emotional qualities triggered by different genres of music and dance, the complementary nature of grief and joy (āi yuè qí xìng xiāng jìn 哀樂，其性相近也), and the transformation of sound into body movement in dance — anticipates the arguments of the received Yuèjì 樂記 (Record of Music) chapter of the Lǐjì 禮記, and the parallel has led several scholars to propose that the Yuèjì drew on a tradition closely related to Xìngqíng Lùn.

The opening of Section 13 — 凡人之情為可悅也。苟以其情，雖過不惡；不以其情，雖難不貴 (“In general, human emotions can be appreciated. If one acts in accordance with one’s emotion, even mistakes are not bad; if one does not act in accordance with one’s emotion, even difficult things are not valued”) — is a key statement of the text’s commitment to the authenticity of emotional expression as a criterion of moral worth, a position that has no direct equivalent in the received Confucian canon and that distinguishes this philosophical tradition from later Confucian orthodoxies.

Links

• Wikipedia (Xing Zi Ming Chu): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xing_Zi_Ming_Chu
• Wikipedia (Shanghai Museum bamboo slips): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Museum_bamboo_slips