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銀雀山漢簡《孫子》

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Text ID
KR3b0024
Date
-500–-200
Dynasty
周

Yínquèshān Hànjiǎn Sūnzǐ 銀雀山漢簡《孫子》

Yinqueshan Bamboo-Slip Sunzi attributed to 孫武 (Sūn Wǔ, trad. ca. 544–496 BCE, 周; attributed 撰)

About the work

The Yínquèshān 銀雀山 bamboo-slip edition of the Sūnzǐ bīngfǎ 孫子兵法, together with a set of supplementary military texts unique to this find. The slips were excavated in April 1972 from Tomb No. 1 at the foot of Yínquèshān (Silver Sparrow Mountain), south-east of Línyí 臨沂, Shandong province. The tomb is dated by numismatic and calendrical evidence to the early reign of Hàn Wǔdì (ca. 140–118 BCE), making these slips among the earliest surviving manuscript witnesses to the Sūnzǐ by several centuries.

This file preserves the 13 canonical Sūnzǐ chapters in their bamboo-slip form, followed by a cluster of additional texts not found in the received (shíyī jiā zhù 十一家注) edition: Wú Wèn 吳問 (Wu’s Questions), Sì Biàn 四變 (Four Contingencies), Huángdì Fá Chìdì 黃帝伐赤帝 (Yellow Emperor Attacks the Red Emperor), Dìxíng èr 地形二 (Terrain, Part Two), Jiàn Wú Wáng 見吳王 (Audience with the King of Wu), Dì bǎo 地葆 (Terrain Treasure), Shì bèi 勢備 (Preparation of Configuration), Bīng qíng 兵情 (Military Feelings), Xíng zuǎn 行篡 (Organization on the March), Shā shì 殺士 (Galvanising the Troops), Yán qì 延氣 (Extending Spirit-Energy), Yuè zhàn 月戰 (Monthly Warfare), Bā zhèn 八陣 (Eight Formations), and Zuǎn zú 篡卒 (Elite Troops). The pián tí mùdú 篇題木牘 (chapter-label wooden tablet), listing these sections, is included at the beginning of the file.

The text shows notable variant readings from the received edition: the character xíng 形 appears frequently as xíng 刑 (both meaning “form/configuration”), and shì 勢 as è 埶 (the archaic graph). The Sūnzǐ chapters appear in a slightly different order and with some textual variations, providing critical philological data for reconstructing the early transmission of the text.

Prefaces

This is an excavated bamboo-slip text; it carries no traditional preface or postface.

Abstract

The 1972 Yínquèshān discovery is one of the most important finds of bamboo-slip texts in twentieth-century Chinese archaeology. Tomb No. 1 (ca. 140–118 BCE) yielded 4,942 bamboo slips. Among them, the Sūnzǐ bīngfǎ portions — 13 chapters with variants plus supplementary texts unique to this manuscript — constitute the oldest extant copy of the Sūnzǐ text. The burial predates the Eastern Hàn commentaries of Cáo Cāo 曹操 and the Song shíyī jiā 十一家注 compilation by many centuries.

Key textual findings: (1) The Yínquèshān Sūnzǐ closely matches the received 13-chapter text, confirming the basic stability of the canonical form by the early Hàn. (2) The supplementary texts — particularly Wú Wèn, Sì Biàn, and Jiàn Wú Wáng — are otherwise unknown and may represent materials from a Sūnzǐ tradition broader than what was transmitted. (3) The physical co-burial of this text with the Sūn Bìn bīngfǎ (KR3b0025), Wèiliáozǐ (KR3b0026), and Liù tāo (KR3b0027) suggests that, by the early Western Hàn, these four texts formed a natural grouping in military library culture.

Among the supplementary texts, Wú Wèn 吳問 preserves an episode in which Sūn Zǐ answers King Hélǘ of Wú’s question about which of the six ministerial houses of Jìn will perish first, analyzing them by their land-measurement systems — a passage with important implications for economic and administrative history. Jiàn Wú Wáng preserves the famous story (also known from the Shǐjì and Wú Yuè chūnqiū 吳越春秋) of Sūn Zǐ drilling the king’s palace ladies with military commands, but in a more detailed and partly variant form. Sì Biàn 四變 supplements the received Jiǔ biàn 九變 chapter with additional material on tactical contingencies.

The standard edition is Yínquèshān Hànmù zhújiǎn 銀雀山漢墓竹簡, vol. 1 (Wénwù chūbǎnshè, 1985). The texts have since been re-examined with new imaging technology in the ongoing re-edition project (Chen Jian 陳劍 and others, from 2010).

Translations and research

  • Mair, Victor H. 2007. The Art of War: Sun Zi’s Military Methods. Columbia U.P. — translation with substantial discussion of the Yínquèshān textual tradition.
  • Petersen, Jens Østergaard. 1992. “What’s in a Name? The Origins of the Tàigōng wàng Appellation.” Acta Orientalia 45: 5–48. — includes discussion of the Yínquèshān Jiàn Wú Wáng.
  • Lǐ Líng 李零. 2006. Sūnzǐ gǔběn yánjiū 孫子古本研究. Běijīng Dàxué chūbǎnshè. — authoritative study of the Yínquèshān Sūnzǐ text.
  • Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A New Manual (6th edn, 2022), §26.5.1 (Sūnzǐ), §59.7.2.2 (Yínquèshān slips) — essential framing.
  • PLA Military Sciences Academy (Sūnzǐ bīngfǎ xīnzhù 孫子兵法新注). Zhōnghuá, 1977. — modern critical edition using Yínquèshān as primary collation source.
  • Yínquèshān Hànjiǎn wénzì biān 銀雀山漢簡文字編. Piān Yǔqiān 骈宇骞, ed. Wénwù, 2001. — character compendium.
  • Liú Xiǎowén 刘小文. 2015. Yínquèshān Hànmù zhújiǎn bīngshū wǔzhǒng zhěnglǐ yǔ yánjiū 银雀山汉墓竹简兵书五种整理与研究. Jílín Dàxué.

Other points of interest

The 篇題木牘 (chapter-label wooden tablet) with which this file opens provides an index of the chapters in a slightly damaged form; Lǐ Líng 李零’s reconstructed table of contents (李零復原表) is also included, offering a scholarly attempt to restore the original chapter order. The tablet is itself a rare witness to ancient book-organization practice.

The supplementary texts (Wú Wèn through Zuǎn zú) represent a broader corpus sometimes called the “new Sunzi texts” (新出孫子佚文). Scholars have debated whether they belong to the Sūn Wǔ tradition proper, the Sūn Bìn tradition, or a shared pre-Hàn military-text pool. The overlapping content between KR3b0024 and KR3b0025 (Sūn Bìn bīngfǎ) suggests the boundary between the two traditions was not fixed in the early Hàn textual environment.

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