Historiography, thought, and intellectual development during the Springs and Autumns Period

2020 ◽  
pp. 511-527
Author(s):  
Yuri Pines
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Intellectual Development ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Warring States Period ◽  
Historical Knowledge ◽  
Historical Texts ◽  
Warring States ◽  
System P ◽  
Zuo Zhuan

This chapter explores the historiography and political thought of the Springs and Autumns period. It analyzes major historical texts from the period—the Springs and Autumns Annals (Chunqiu) and the Zuo zhuan—addressing their nature, audience, and (especially in the case of the Zuo zhuan) the nature of their primary sources. The multiplicity of genres in the Springs and Autumns period historiography is contrasted with the proliferation of didactic anecdotes as major building blocks of historical knowledge during the subsequent Warring States period. The second part of the chapter explores major aspects of the Springs and Autumns period’s political thought as reflected in the Zuo zhuan. The marked aristocratic nature of this thought is contrasted with major trends of the subsequent Warring States period. The discussion focuses on the views of multistate order, concepts of rulership and ruler-minister relations, and views of social hierarchy and the importance of the ritual system.

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.

scholarly journals A weapon in the battle of definitions: a special rhetorical strategy in Hánfēizǐ

2014 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 969-999
Author(s):  
Lukáš Zádrapa
Keyword(s):  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Warring States Period ◽  
Rhetorical Strategy ◽  
Semantic Relationships ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Warring States ◽  
Structural Relationships ◽  
Textual Strategies ◽  
The Given

Abstract Regardless of the actual views on the art of embellished speech of the author(s) presented by the collection of essays known as Hánfēizǐ, the work is well known for its formal intricacy and refinement. The composition of several chapters appears unique against the background of other transmitted texts of the Warring States period, and the same is true of some textual strategies serving to convey the presented ideas with intensified rhetorical appeal. In this study, I aim to identify one of these strategies, showing, on the basis of thorough textual analysis, how the sections in which it is employed are structured and how the given devices contribute to the construction of meaning. Relevant parts of the chapters 45 (“Guǐshǐ” 詭使), 46 (“Liùfǎn” 六反) and 47 (“Bāshuō” 八說) are analyzed here both with regard to their formal features, such as various arrangements of basic building blocks or transformations of metalinguistic formulae, and to their semantics, including the systematic lexical-semantic relationships of synonymy and antonymy. It is argued that not only overt interventions by the author in favour of “correct” definitions of selected terms, but also the very inventory of the terms itself and their deeper structural relationships and tensions reveal much about the author's intentions and opinions.

The Chinese Writing System

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Imre Galambos
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Script ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Warring States Period ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Warring States ◽  
System P ◽  
Archaeological Materials ◽  
Chinese Writing System ◽  
Chinese Writing

The Chinese script is one of the major writing systems of the world and has over three thousand years of recorded history. Native accounts of its origin have been extremely influential and remain part of the general discourse, even though newly discovered archaeological materials in many cases challenge the traditional view. The earliest known examples of Chinese characters survive on oracle bones, and these are essentially ancestral to all modern forms of written Chinese, even though the script went through great changes during the following millennia. One of the most important such changes was the Qin-Han transition from the scripts of the Warring States period to that of the dynastic era. In the medieval period, the Chinese script was adopted for other languages in East and Central Asia, and in some cases was modified to create new Sinoform scripts (e.g., Khitan, Jurchen, and Tangut).

Researching the Image of the Yellow Emperor in China’s Early Textual Sources and Archaeological Materials

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaowei Su
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Warring States Period ◽  
Warring States ◽  
Yin Yang ◽  
Archaeological Materials ◽  
Five Elements ◽  
Chinese Political Thought

In China’s early textual sources and archaeological materials, the Yellow Emperor 黄帝 appears in the following three contexts: in genealogical records, among predynastic rulers, and in sacrificial rituals. The earliest appearance of the Yellow Emperor is probably in genealogical records; then, after being an ancestral ruler, he becomes the earliest emperor and a legendary ruler. This demonstrates his shift from an ancestral context to a monarchic context and illustrates the gradual yet colossal shift in ancient Chinese political thought from a system of enfeoffment built on blood relations to a system of prefectures and counties based on regional ties. The image of the Yellow Emperor in the context of sacrifice is closely linked to the yin-yang and five elements theories beginning in the later stage of the Warring States period; as society developed, this image also became associated with a certain Daoist path, thereby acquiring a religious value.

Clausewitz and the Eighteenth-Century Context of Partisan Warfare

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sibylle Scheipers
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Intellectual Development ◽  
Small Wars ◽  
System P ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Partisan Warfare

Clausewitz was an ardent analyst of partisan warfare. In 1810 and 1811, he lectured at the Berlin Kriegsschule, the war academy, on the subject of small wars. Clausewitz’s lectures focused on the tactical nature of small wars. However, the eighteenth-century context was by no means irrelevant for Clausewitz’s further intellectual development. On the contrary, he extrapolated from his analysis of the tactical nature of small wars their strategic potential, as well as their exemplary nature for the study of war as such. The partisan, in Clausewitz’s eyes, possessed exemplary qualities in that he acted autonomously and, in doing so, had to draw upon all his human faculties. As such, he was the paradigmatic antagonist to the regular soldier who displayed a ‘cog mentality’ fostered by the Frederickian military system.

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.

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