NEW LIGHT ON THE LI JI 禮記: THE LI JI AND THE RELATED WARRING STATES PERIOD GUODIAN BAMBOO MANUSCRIPTS

Early China ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 519-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen Xing
Keyword(s):  
Warring States Period ◽  
Early China ◽  
Warring States ◽  
Excavated Manuscripts

AbstractThis article starts by examining how “Li ji” was used as a title in early China. In addition to the Li, Li jing, Shi li, Li yi and Yi li, etc., “Li ji” was used as an alternative title for the Li canon, and the “Li” as a title was used to indicate what we now refer to as the Li ji or the Xiao Dai Li ji as well. By discussing how the Guodian bamboo slip texts are related to the transmitted version of the Li ji, this article argues that the writing styles of the related excavated bamboo manuscripts are the particular Li gujing- or Li guji-styles, that the “Li gujing” or “Li guji” is more a description of those ancient retrieved texts than an actual title, and that many of the Guodian bamboo-slip texts are the Li guji- or Li gujing-style writings. According to the Li guji-style Zi yi text, it is evident that the material in the Li ji comes from creditable pre-Qin textual sources. Although the Li ji text came to its current shape as a result of later editing work, it does not mean that the received Li ji sections have higher textual value than the excavated manuscripts do. On the contrary, the excavated manuscripts could have many valuable early textual sources that the transmitted Li ji has lost.

A SELF-REFLEXIVE PRAXIS: CHANGING ATTITUDES TOWARDS MANUSCRIPT AND TEXT IN EARLY CHINA

Early China ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 75-110
Author(s):  
Rens Krijgsman
Keyword(s):  
Traditional Knowledge ◽  
Warring States Period ◽  
Early China ◽  
Warring States ◽  
Knowledge Practices ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
The Status ◽  
Changing Attitudes

AbstractThis article examines the attitudes of Warring States textual witnesses to the increase in presence of and reliance on bamboo manuscripts in communicating knowledge. Based on a rereading of transmitted materials and four manuscript texts (*Wuwang JianzuoA and B,*Baoxun, and theZhou Wuwang you ji) from the Warring States period, I analyze how contemporaries dealt with questions about the status of (manuscript) texts, their use and transmission, their trustworthiness, and their ability to preserve knowledge. These are texts that talk about themselves. They remark upon the physicality of text and the act of writing, the problem of oral and written transmission, and the differences in the ability of memory and manuscripts to store, hide, and reveal knowledge. I argue that these different reflections reveal a change in the predominant medium of communicating knowledge towards an increased reliance on bamboo manuscripts gradually and partially replacing traditional knowledge practices.

Weak-Party Negotiators of Ancient China: The Mohists, Offensive Warfare, and Power

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 298-328
Author(s):  
Hung-yok Ip
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
State System ◽  
Warring States Period ◽  
Early China ◽  
Ancient China ◽  
Warring States ◽  
Weak Party ◽  
Inter State

Abstract This article situates the topic of weak-party negotiators in the context of early China. It examines the Mohists, activists known for their efforts to confront aggressive warfare in the Warring States period (476–221 BC), when various regional states competed fiercely with one another in China’s inter-state system. By examining the foundational text of Mohism, the Mozi, I show how the Mohists pioneered techniques and tactics regarded as beneficial for weak-party negotiators by modern day experts on negotiation and conflict resolution. More importantly, I emphasize that with their long and deep historical engagement with an ancient Chinese elite driven by self-interests, the Mohists pursued power and were consequential by developing their own approach to asymmetrical negotiation in war-related contexts. This approach was heavily dependent on the Mohists’ use of positive and negative leverage. And it is, according to the Mozi, made possible by the activists’ relentless pursuit of knowledge.

The Altars of the Soil and Grain are Closer than Kin” 社稷戚於親: The Qi 齊 Model of Intellectual Participation and the Jixia 稷下 Patronage Community

Early China ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 37-99 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Life ◽  
Warring States Period ◽  
Early China ◽  
Intellectual Activity ◽  
Intellectual Community ◽  
Social Patterns ◽  
Warring States ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
The Social ◽  
Do So

This essay describes a distinct model for intellectual participation in public life promoted by the Tian kings of Qi during the Warring States Period (418–221 B.C.E.). Recent scholarship has too often assumed that categories like “Master,” “disciple,” and “school” had broadly conventional and stable meanings in early China, and that the social patterns of intellectual life ran along common and predictable lines established by these constructs. In fact, however, the sources demonstrate that all of the different categories with which intellectual life was depicted in early texts were heatedly contested and prone to volatile fluctuations in meaning and usage, as different interest groups fought to establish preferred parameters for the conduct of intellectual life. The Tian kings of Qi, in support of their bold usurpation of the Qi throne from the Lü clan, promoted a model for intellectual life radically different than the highly personal Master-disciple bond depicted in the Analects. In patronage texts like the Guanzi and Yanzi chunqiu, the Tian kings advocated that intellectuals identify with the Qi state in the abstract rather than with an individual “Master” or particular “school,” and that they should do so anonymously as thinkers, teachers, students, and writers in the service of Qi. The Jixia patronage community arose as a compromise between this advocacy position of the Tian kings and the preferences of the intellectual community at large, which generally favored the maintenance of the personal prestige of individual Masters. Jixia was founded on the basis of patronage practices that were widely current among powerful and wealthy figures of the Warring States, but Jixia itself was very atypical of such patronage communities. Unlike other client retinues, Jixia was made up exclusively of intellectuals who were lodged as clients of the Qi state rather than of an individual patron. Also, the dispensation of emoluments to individual clients was not tightly controlled at Jixia as in other patronage communities, but was “subcontracted” to the few Grand Masters who retained their own large retinues of disciples. Jixia thus combined the Tian king's desire to subordinate intellectual activity to state service while preserving to a degree the autonomous prerogatives that intellectuals had established for themselves and their own chosen leaders.

scholarly journals Innovation Transfer during the Warring States Period: Considering the Importance of Early China’s Relationship with the Steppes

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-128
Author(s):  
Christine M. Havliček
Keyword(s):  
Past Century ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
Warring States Period ◽  
Early China ◽  
Warring States ◽  
History Of ◽  
Second Millennium Bce ◽  
Historical Developments ◽  
The Impact

Abstract This paper focuses on the contact between pre-imperial China and the peoples living on the steppes in her vicinity. For all the obscurity that had been shrouding the steppe inhabitants throughout centuries of historical scholarship, archaeological discoveries during the past century attest to their highly developed culture and economy and, what is more, make obvious that they had been entertaining close relations with the Chinese from as early as the second millennium BCE. Following a line of scholarship which has set out to redefine the role of the steppes in world history on the basis of this new data, this paper aims to demonstrate certain aspects of the important role they played in the history of China. Several very impactful innovations diffused to early China through interactions with the steppes, influencing Chinese history to a major degree. The paper specifically concentrates on a timeframe surrounding the Warring States Period (c. 500- 221 BCE), during which a couple of key innovations can be shown to have been adopted from the steppes. Furthermore, it illustrates the impact of these innovations on historical developments within China, thereby reinforcing the argument that the role of the steppes in Chinese history was one of tremendous importance.

Study of Colored Lacquerwares from Zenghou Yi Tomb in early Warring States

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meng Wu ◽  
Yunfan Zhang ◽  
Bingjian Zhang ◽  
Lan Li
Keyword(s):  
Warring States Period ◽  
Warring States

Zenghou Yi Tomb (433 B.C) in the early Warring States Period of China is a very important archaeological discovery. Lots of lacquerware was unearthed here, typically representative of that from...

Nondestructive Analysis of Dragonfly Eye Beads from the Warring States Period, Excavated from a Chu Tomb at the Shenmingpu Site, Henan Province, China

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 335-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yimin Yang ◽  
Lihua Wang ◽  
Shuya Wei ◽  
Guoding Song ◽  
Jonathan Mark Kenoyer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Inner Core ◽  
Nondestructive Method ◽  
Henan Province ◽  
Manufacturing Technology ◽  
Warring States Period ◽  
Warring States ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Mold Casting ◽  
Warring State Period ◽  
Manufacturing Features

AbstractDragonfly eye beads are considered to be the earliest types of glass objects in China, and in the past have been considered as evidence of culture interaction or trade between West and East Asia. In this article, synchrotron radiation microcomputed tomography and μ-probe energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence were used to determine the chemical composition, microstructure, and manufacturing technology of four dragonfly eye beads, excavated from a Chu tomb at the Shenmingpu site, Henan Province, China, dated stylistically to the Middle and Late Warring State Period (475 bc–221 bc). First, a nondestructive method was used to differentiate the material types including faience (glazed quartz), frit, glazed pottery (clay ceramic), and glass. Three beads were identified as faience and one bead as glazed pottery. The glaze recipe includes quartz, saltpeter, plant ash, and various copper, and is classified as belonging to the K2O-CaO-SiO2 glass system, which indicates that these beads were not imported from the West. Based on computed tomography slices, the manufacturing technology of the faience eye beads appears to include the use of an inner core, molding technology, and the direct application glazing method. These manufacturing features are consistent with the techniques used in China during this same time period for bronze mold-casting, proto-porcelain, and glass.

Worth Vs. Power: Han Fei’s “Objection to Positional Power” Revisited

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuri Pines
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Warring States Period ◽  
Warring States ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Han Feizi ◽  
Positional Power ◽  
Political Message ◽  
Chinese Political Thought

AbstractThis article discusses the chapter “Objection to Positional Power” (Nan shi 難勢) of Han Feizi 韓非子. It provides a full translation cum analysis of the text and explores systematically the chapter’s structure, rhetoric, and its political message. The discussion, which contextualizes the chapter’s message within broader trends of the Warring States-period political debates, demonstrates that beneath the surface of debates about “positional power” (shi 勢) versus “worth” (xian 賢), the chapter addresses one of the touchiest issues in Chinese political thought: that of the intrinsic weakness of hereditary monarchy. Furthermore, “Objection to Positional Power” also addresses problems of the meritocratic system of rule and elucidates some of the reasons for Han Fei’s dislike of meritocratic discourse. By highlighting some of the chapter’s intellectual gems I hope to attract further attention to the immense richness of Han Feizi as one of the most sophisticated products of China’s political thought.

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