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戰國縱橫家書

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Text ID
KR3h0106
Date
-320–-168
Dynasty
周

Zhànguó Zònghéngjīa Shū 戰國縱橫家書

Writings of Warring States Diplomatic Strategists attributed to 蘇秦 and others

About the work

The Zhànguó Zònghéngjīa Shū 戰國縱橫家書 (“Writings of Warring States Diplomatic Strategists”) is a silk manuscript (bóshū 帛書) excavated in 1973 from Mawangdui Tomb 3 (馬王堆三號漢墓), Changsha, Hunan. The tomb’s burial date is ca. 168 BCE (second year of Emperor Wen of Han). The manuscript contains 27 chapters totalling approximately 11,000 characters and is the only Warring States zònghéng 縱橫 (diplomatic-strategist) text to survive in manuscript form from the pre-Han period. The text in the Kanripo corpus represents the transcription published by the Mawangdui editorial group (see below).

Of the 27 chapters, sixteen contain material on 蘇秦 蘇秦 (d. ca. 284 BCE) with no parallels in transmitted texts; eleven chapters have partial or full parallels in the Zhànguó Cè 戰國策 or the Shǐjì 史記. The non-Su Qin chapters include speeches attributed to figures such as 須賈 (Xū Jiǎ), 朱己 (Zhū Jǐ), 觸龍 (Chù Lóng), 虞卿 (Yú Qīng), 公仲倗 (Gōng Zhòng Péng), 李園 (Lǐ Yuán), and others, primarily in the context of late Warring States diplomacy.

The text contains numerous lacunae (□) reflecting damage to the silk. Chapter headings follow a standard formula: “X謂Y章” (chapter in which X addresses Y) or “X獻書於Y章” (chapter in which X presents a letter to Y). All 27 chapters present in the published transcription are present in the KR text.

Prefaces

No preface. The Kanripo text reproduces the editorial transcription without apparatus.

Abstract

The manuscript belongs to the archive of the zònghéng jiā 縱橫家 (school of diplomatic strategists), whose twelve works were reportedly extant in the 1st century CE (as recorded in the 《漢書·藝文志》) but had largely disappeared by the 7th century. The discovery of the Mawangdui text in 1973 was therefore a major event in the history of pre-Qin studies, as it provided the only direct manuscript evidence for this tradition.

The sixteen new chapters significantly revise the historical picture of Su Qin that had been constructed from the Zhànguó Cè and Shǐjì. The received tradition conflated Su Qin with an earlier homonymous figure and placed him in the late 4th century BCE as an ally of the Qin state; the Mawangdui chapters reveal a Su Qin active ca. 300–284 BCE, working primarily as a spy/agent (jiàn 間) for the King of Yan against Qi, not as an architect of the Six-State Alliance (liù guó héng 六國縱) that the transmitted sources describe. The manuscripts thus correct a major historical error in the received biographical tradition. The historical Su Qin to whom the Mawangdui text is attributed died in Qi ca. 284 BCE, executed after the exposure of his covert operations.

Wilkinson (Chinese History: A New Manual, §27.1.3) notes that the text demonstrates that “persuasion and diplomacy were superior forms of warfare” to strategists such as Su Qin, and characterises it as the closest surviving analogue to a manual of Warring States diplomatic practice.

The manuscript was given the editorial title 戰國縱橫家書 by the first modern editors (1976). It had no transmitted title.

Composition date: The content reflects events of ca. 320–280 BCE; the principal letters are addressed to the King of Yan (King Zhao of Yan 燕昭王, r. 311–279 BCE) and the King of Qi (King Xuan of Qi 齊宣王, r. 319–301 BCE, and King Min of Qi 齊湣王, r. 300–284 BCE). NotBefore and notAfter in the frontmatter reflect the compositional window; the manuscript itself was copied before 168 BCE (the burial date of Tomb 3).

Translations and research

  • 馬王堆漢墓帛書整理小組 (Mawangdui Hanmu Boshu Editorial Group), 《戰國縱橫家書》. 北京: 文物出版社, 1976. (Editio princeps of the transcription.)
  • 裘錫圭 (Qiū Xīguī), chief ed., 《長沙馬王堆漢墓簡帛集成》 7 vols. 北京: 中華書局, 2014 (rev. edn. 2024). Vol. 3 contains the 戰國縱橫家書 with revised transcription and annotation. (Standard modern edition.)
  • 唐蘭 (Táng Lán), “馬王堆出土帛書《戰國縱橫家書》的研究.” Kaogu xuebao 考古學報 1975.4, pp. 11–32. (First scholarly study.)
  • Zhang Zhenglang 張政烺, “Reading the Mawangdui Silk Texts,” Wenwu 文物 1975.4. (Early studies.)
  • 陳松長 (Chén Sōngcháng), 《馬王堆帛書研究》. 北京: 商務印書館, 2021.
  • J. I. Crump, tr. Chan-kuo-ts’e. Rev. edn. with index, Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1996. (Translation of the transmitted Zhanguo ce, with reference to Mawangdui variants.)
  • Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A New Manual. §27.1.3 (diplomatic strategists), §58.4 (Warring States sources), §59.7.4 (Mawangdui).

Other points of interest

The Mawangdui text preserves several formulaic chapter openings not found in the Zhanguo ce (e.g., “●使X獻書於Y曰…” — the filled circle ● appears in the manuscript to mark the beginning of an embedded letter). The KR transcription reproduces these markers faithfully.

The historical rehabilitation of Su Qin’s biography on the basis of the Mawangdui manuscript is one of the most significant revisions to the Warring States historical record accomplished through 20th-century archaeology. Earlier historians (including Sima Qian 司馬遷 in the Shiji) had combined the earlier and later Su Qin into a single confused biographical account.

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