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銀雀山漢簡《六韜》

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Text ID
KR3b0027
Date
-400–-200
Dynasty
周

Yínquèshān Hànjiǎn Liùtāo 銀雀山漢簡《六韜》

Yinqueshan Bamboo-Slip Liutao (Six Secret Teachings) attributed to 姜太公 (Jiāng Tàigōng / Lǚ Shàng, 周; attributed 撰)

About the work

The Yínquèshān 銀雀山 bamboo-slip version of the Liù tāo 六韜 (Six Secret Teachings), preserved in 14 chapter-sections. The slips were excavated in April 1972 from Tomb No. 1 at Yínquèshān, Línyí 臨沂, Shandong — the same tomb that yielded the Sūnzǐ bīngfǎ (KR3b0024), Sūn Bìn bīngfǎ (KR3b0025), Wèiliáozǐ (KR3b0026), and Shǒufǎ shǒulìng (KR3b0028). The tomb is dated to ca. 140–118 BCE (early reign of Hàn Wǔdì).

The Liù tāo is structured as a series of dialogues between Wén Wáng 文王 (King Wen of Zhou, trad. r. 1112–1050 BCE) and the strategist Dà Gōng Wàng 大公望 (= Lǚ Shàng 呂尚 / Jiāng Zǐyá 姜子牙 / 姜太公), the “Hoping-Father.” This file preserves 14 of the dialogue-chapters in bamboo-slip form, organized in numbered sections (yī 一 through sì 四) with named subsections. The visible subsection titles include Shàng zhèng 尚正 (Esteeming Rectitude), Shǒu tǔ 守土 (Defending Territory), and Shǒu guó 守國 (Defending the State), corresponding to chapters in the received Wén tāo 文韜 (Civil Secret Teaching) division of the Liù tāo.

The dialogues in this file discuss governance principles (the “three instruments and six preservations” of rulership, sān qì liù shǒu 三器六守), the qualities of loyal ministers (zhōng 忠, xìn 信, gǎn 敢), the proper conditions for defending territory and the state, and the political principle that the state belongs to “all under heaven” rather than to any single ruler (tiānxià fēi yīrén zhī tiānxià yě, tiānxià zhī tiānxià yě 天下非一人之天下也，天下之天下也) — a formulation that would later become canonical in early Chinese statecraft literature.

Prefaces

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

Abstract

The Liù tāo 六韜 (Six Secret Teachings) is one of the Wǔ jīng qī shū 武經七書 (Seven Military Classics) and the only one structured as dialogues between a ruler and his strategic counselor. The received text has 60 chapters in six divisions (tāo 韜): Wén tāo 文韜 (Civil), Wǔ tāo 武韜 (Martial), Lóng tāo 龍韜 (Dragon), Hǔ tāo 虎韜 (Tiger), Bào tāo 豹韜 (Leopard), and Quǎn tāo 犬韜 (Canine), attributed to Tàigōng 太公 Lǚ Wàng 呂望 (Lǚ Shàng 呂尚), the founding strategist of the Western Zhōu dynasty. The work is catalogued in the received WYG tradition as KR3b0002.

The pre-modern bibliographic record for the Liù tāo is complicated. Despite its presence in the Hàn shū yìwén zhì (listed under Dào jiā 道家 rather than military writings), Sòng and Qīng scholars repeatedly questioned its antiquity, arguing it was a later forgery. The Yínquèshān find of 14 chapters decisively refuted this: the bamboo-slip text confirms that a version of the Liù tāo was in circulation, if not composition, by the early Western Hàn (before ca. 140–118 BCE). The content of the Yínquèshān chapters is largely congruent with the received text (Theobald, ChinaKnowledge.de), and the time of compilation of the transmitted form is now estimated at late 4th to early 2nd century BCE. This rules out the extreme forgery hypotheses (Sòng-era fabrication) while leaving open the question of gradual accretion and editing.

The Yínquèshān Liù tāo fragments belong primarily to the Wén tāo 文韜 division — the “civil” teachings on government and administration — as evidenced by the dialogue topics: conditions for losing a kingdom (失國), the ruler’s instruments and ministerial qualities (三器六守), the principles of defending territory and the state (shǒu tǔ 守土, shǒu guó 守國), and the statement that the state belongs to all under heaven. The resonance of this last phrase with early Huáng-Lǎo thought and with the Shǒufǎ shǒulìng administrative texts found in the same tomb suggests that the Yínquèshān Liù tāo fragments were selected or copied with a particular interest in political philosophy as much as military strategy.

Composition date: The Liù tāo was compiled in layers over an extended period. The political philosophy of the Wén tāo sections reflects concerns of the middle-to-late Warring States period; the military content of the later tāo divisions is consistent with late 4th–3rd century BCE practice. The Yínquèshān tomb provides a firm terminus ante quem of ca. 118 BCE. Bracketed here at -400 to -200 for the composition of the sections represented in the Yínquèshān fragments; the full received text likely continued to be compiled into the early Hàn.

Translations and research

  • Sawyer, Ralph D. 1993. The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China. Westview. — complete English translation of the received Liù tāo; essential context for the Yínquèshān fragments.
  • 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 Liù tāo material.
  • Theobald, Ulrich. “Liutao 六韜.” ChinaKnowledge.de (Feb. 2019). — includes the Yínquèshān evidence for dating.
  • Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A New Manual (6th edn, 2022), §26.5.3, §59.7.2.2.
  • Yínquèshān Hànmù zhújiǎn 銀雀山漢墓竹簡, vol. 1. Wénwù chūbǎnshè, 1985. — principal edition.
  • Lewis, Mark Edward. 2005. Writing and Authority in Early China. SUNY. — contextualizes the Liù tāo within the Warring States and early Hàn textual environment.

Other points of interest

The aphorism “天下非一人之天下也，天下之天下也，同天下之利者，則得天下” (The world is not one person’s world; it is the world’s world; share the world’s benefits and you gain the world) appears in the Wén tāo of the received Liù tāo and is confirmed by the Yínquèshān fragments. This formulation became a cornerstone of early Chinese political thought and was cited, directly or implicitly, in numerous later texts.

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