SOURCE: Nienhauser, William H, Jr. “A Reexamination of ‘The Biographies of the Reasonable Officials’ in the Records of the Grand Historian.” Early China 16 (1991): 209-33.

[In the following essay, Nienhauser examines problems with The Biographies of the Reasonable Officials section of the Shih chi and contends they can be resolved without concluding that the work is a forgery.]

INTRODUCTION

That a very short piece written over two millennia ago would serve as the subject for an extended academic discourse may puzzle some.¹ That the same work could be considered at best mediocre by any contemporary literary or historical standards may add to the consternation. Yet the nature and origins of the “Hsün-li lieh-chuan” (The Biographies of the Reasonable Officials; hereafter “The Reasonable Officials”) are suggestive to our overall assessment of the putative author, Ssu-ma Ch'ien (145-c. 85 b.c.), and his master narrative, the Shih chi (Records of the Grand Historian).

I use the adjective “putative” because one of the two major questions raised about this piece of writing has been its authenticity. Ts'ui Shih's (1852-1924) comments may represent this line of thought:

In my opinion there are seven reasons why the following [Biographies of the Reasonable Officials] is not that of the Grand Historian. “The Reasonable Officials” was written because of “The Biographies of the Harsh Officials” (“K'u-li lieh-chuan”; hereafter “The Harsh Officials”), and since “The Harsh Officials” is a forgery, we thereby can know that “The Reasonable Officials” is [also].

The harsh officials are all moderns, the reasonable officials all ancients; since the Grand Historian was not one of those who loved antiquity and despised modernity, it is not right that we have this [situation].

That the two biographies are not contiguous, but are separated by “The Biographies of Chi An and Cheng Tang-shih” (“Chi Cheng lieh-chuan”) and “The Biographies of the Confucian Scholars” (“Ju-lin lieh-chuan”), is also extremely irregular.

Sun Shu-ao aided in making his lord the hegemon; Tzu-ch'an was an excellent prime minister—to arrange them among the “reasonable officials” is to lower their status. The So-yin [Commentary] reads: “There are ‘The Biographies of Kuan Chung and Yen Ying’ (‘Kuan Yen lieh-chuan’) and those of Tzu-ch'an, and Yang-she Hsi; such men should be included together with Kuan and Yen, not placed in ‘The Reasonable Officials.’” This line of thought is correct. Moreover in “The Biographies [of the Reasonable Officials]” it is said that “During the time of Lord Chao of Cheng, he [the lord] took Tzu-ch'an as prime minister and Tzu-ch'an ruled Cheng for twenty-six years before passing away.” [But] according to “The Hereditary House of Cheng,” “Tzu-ch'an was the youngest son of Duke Ch'eng of Cheng, and since Duke Ch'eng is the fifth generation descendent of Duke Li and Duke Li the younger brother of Duke Shao [i.e., Lord Shao], how could Tzu-ch'an have served Duke Shao? In the “Chronological Tables” [we read], “In the twelfth year of Duke Chien, Tzu-ch'an became a minister. Duke Chien reigned for thirty-six years and beyond him Duke Ting sixteen years, Duke Hsien thirteen, and Duke Sheng five before Tzu-ch'an died.” If we figure from the year he first was a minister, it would be fifty-nine years, which differs from this “He ruled Cheng for twenty-six years.”

In the Tso chuan it was the twenty-third year of Duke Hsiang of Lu before Tzu-ch'an held the reins of government and after serving for thirty years he died in the twentieth year of Duke Chao; thus although the number of years he ruled Cheng is closer in this passage [to that in “The Reasonable Officials”], he still lived in an age extremely distant from that of Duke Chao.

Whenever The Grand Historian depicts a person so that parts of his life appear in several biographies, the achievements of the person and the years of these achievements are always meticulously matched, and only the achievements of Tsai-wo in “The Biographies of Confucius' Disciples” (“Chung-ni ti-tzu lieh-chuan”) and the chronology of Tzu-ch'an in this collective biography depart radically from this norm, as if the ignoramuses who forged each of them were following in the same rut.²

Ts'ui Shih's second comment is one made by many scholars who have studied these biographies—that they were written essentially as foils to those of the harsh officials. The modern scholar Hsü Shuo-fang's opinion is typical:

“The Reasonable Officials” contains five biographies: Sun Shu-ao of Ch'u, Tzu-ch'an of Cheng, Kung-i Hsiu of Lu, Shih She of Ch'u, Li Li of Ch'u—not one is a person from Ch'in times on. Just as among those ten men recorded in “The Harsh Officials,” there is none who is earlier than the Han. At the head of the chapter [on the reasonable officials] Ssu-ma Ch'ien said, “In upholding their duties they followed the principles of reason that can also be used to rule—what need is there for severity!?” Through one [group] which conforms, one which runs contrary, one described in detail, one in synopsis, the author reveals his dissatisfaction with the extreme oppressiveness of the rule of officials during the time of Emperor Wu of the Han. His meaning lies outside his words.³

Hsü indeed cites the key passage from Ssu-ma Ch'ien's prefatory remarks to his account of the reasonable officials:

In upholding their duties they followed the principles of reason which can also be used to rule—what need is there of severity!?

The adverb, “also,” suggests Ssu-ma Ch'ien had an antecedent in mind when he wrote this, an antecedent which could only have been the “The Harsh Officials.” Moreover, in that text the term shen-k'o, “extremely oppressive,” is a key word, the concept of wei-yen, “severity,” a leitmotif.

Since I acknowledge the close relationship between these two biographies, I propose in this paper to examine “The Reasonable Officials” in the context of its foil in an attempt to reassess the claim that the “The Reasonable Officials” is a forgery.

THE BIOGRAPHIES OF THE HARSH OFFICIALS

This chapter is one of the eleven collective biographies (tsa-chuan) in the Shih chi. Although these biographical chapters may differ considerably in some aspects, narrative coherence and considerable length are characteristic of most.⁴ The “Harsh Officials” contains about 6,000 characters and is linked in usual narrative fashion by chronology, as the following excerpts illustrate:

Formerly [during the Ch'in dynasty] the net of law was drawn tight. … When the Han arose, it broke off the corners [of the Ch'in code] to achieve a roundness, hewed away the ornamentation to effect a simplicity; then the net [of law] was stretched so that it would have allowed a fish which could swallow the sea to slip through, the officials in ruling advanced to the point that they did nothing evil,⁵ and the common people were orderly and content. From this we can see that good government lies in virtue and rites, not in laws and punishments.

In the time of Empress Lü, only Hou Feng was a harsh official. …

During the time of Emperor Ching, Ch'ao Ts'o, with brutality in the extreme gave full play to his talents for machinations so that the leaders of the seven kingdoms rose in revolt. …

Chih Tu was from Yang. He served Emperor Wen as a court gentleman.⁶ … At this time the people were still simple and, fearing punishment, they were careful not to break the law. Chih Tu alone considered severity and harshness of primary importance and in carrying out the law made no exceptions even for the imperial in-laws.

Ning Ch'eng was from Jang. He served Emperor Ching as a court gentleman and a master of guests. … After some time, Chih Tu died … and the emperor summoned Ning Ch'eng to become commandant-in-ordinary of the nobles.

Chou-yang Yu … served Emperors Wen and Ching. … After Ning Ch'eng and Chou-yang Yu, legal cases became more numerous and the people more clever in dealing with the law.

Under the present emperor … Chao Yü became a censor. The emperor considered him talented and appointed him superior grand master of the palace. Together with Chang T'ang he formulated all the laws and statutes and drew up the “seeing or knowing” (chien chih) and the “officials passing on what they have learned about each other” (li ch'uan te hsiang chien ssu) laws.⁷ The increasing brutality in carrying out the law probably began with this …⁸

Aside from this chronological structuring, “The Harsh Officials” also uses a string of key words, yen-k'o, “severe and harsh,” pao-k'u, “fiercely severe,” wen-shen, “to follow the letter of the law to the extreme,” or shen-wen “to follow extremely [closely] the letter of the law,” and shen-k'o, “extremely brutal,” or k'o-shen, “brutal in the extreme,” to link these biographies thematically.⁹

Chih Tu alone considered severity and harshness of primary importance and in carrying out the law made no exceptions even for the imperial in-laws … But among the officials occupying positions with salaries of two-thousand piculs Chou-yang Yu was the most fiercely severe and arrogantly willful … Chou-yang Yu said, “I thoroughly understand that Chao Yü is very talented, but he follows the letter of the law too closely, so it would never do to give him too high a position!” … Under the present emperor … Chao Yü became a censor. The emperor considered him talented and appointed him superior grand master of the palace. Together with Chang T'ang he formulated all the laws and statutes and drew up the “seeing or knowing” and the “officials passing on what they have learned about each other” laws so that officials would have to keep an eye on each other and to investigate each other's activities. The increasing brutality in carrying out the law probably began with this … After Chang T'ang became a high official … he paid calls on the highest officials, undeterred by cold or heat. For this reason, although he was too extreme in following the letter of the law, was suspicious, and was not impartial, still he managed to win this kind of fame. … At this time Chao Yü and Chang T'ang had used their extreme brutality to advance to the highest positions, but their rule was still more lenient and based on the law than that of I Tsung. I Tsung ruled as if he were a falcon ready to attack with its wings held [by its handler].¹⁰ … Yang P'u because of his severity and harshness was made commandant-in-ordinary of the nobles. … Chien Hsüan in every detail followed the letter of the law to the utmost and the number of people who died was very large. … Tu Chou was more fiercely severe in governing than Wang Wen-shu and the others.¹¹

A third method of maintaining narrative coherence, as the late Ch'ing scholar Li Ching-hsing has noted, are the comparisons Ssu-ma Ch'ien draws between the ten harsh officials:

The comparative method used to describe the harsh officials [can be seen in] “in his rule he [Ning Ch'eng] followed the example of Chih Tu,” “in their rule they [Wang Wen-shu and others who arose later] followed the example of¹² [Chao] Yü, “his [Yin Ch'i's] reputation was even greater than that of Chang T'ang,” “in his rule he [Yang P'u] imitated Yin Ch'i,” “in his rule he [Tu Chou] was similar to Chien Hsüan,” “in his rule he [Tu Chou] generally imitated Chang T'ang,” and “he [Tu Chou] was even more harsh than [Wang] Wen-shu.”¹³

Finally, by portraying the early and unnatural deaths of most of these ten men—many of them at the hands of the harsh legal system they helped to construct—Ssu-ma Ch'ien underlines another unifying factor: “Chih Tu's being cut asunder,” “Chou-yang Yu's beheading,” “Chang T'ang's suicide,” “I Tsung's beheading,” “the relatives to the fifth degree of Wang Wen-shu joining him in his execution,” and “Hsien Hsüan's suicide.”¹⁴

Given what must be seen as general disapproval of such methods by the author, we might ponder what compelled Ssu-ma Ch'ien to put together such a collection of biographies. In his “Preface” to the chapter the Grand Historian explains his reasons:

When the people turn their backs on what is basic and are too ingenious, they ravage traditions and play with the laws, so that even the good among them cannot be transformed and only a thorough severity can return them to good order. Thus I wrote “The Harsh Officials.”¹⁵

Nevertheless, Ssu-ma Ch'ien acknowledged (in his comments following the chapter) two types of these severe men:

From Chih Tu to Tu Chou, all ten of these men earned reputations for their harshness … Yet among these ten, those who were incorrupted may serve as models for discussion and those who were corrupted may serve as admonitions.¹⁶

Moreover, Ssu-ma Ch'ien also emphasizes Emperor Wu of the Han's inability to distinguish the incorrupted:

After Emperor Wu took the throne, he moved Ning Ch'eng to the position of chamberlain of the capital. Many of the imperial in-laws “slandered” Ch'eng's faults and had him convicted and condemned to have his head shaved and to wear a convict's metal collar. … Wang Wen-shu was like this. When the emperor heard of it, he had him transferred to the post of commandant-in-ordinary of the nobles.

The moral of this chapter can be expressed in the language Ssu-ma Ch'ien used to begin the “The Reasonable Officials”:

Guide them with good government, keep them in order with punishments.

Having thus examined “The Harsh Officials,” let us now turn to “The Reasonable Officials.”

THE BIOGRAPHIES OF THE REASONABLE OFFICIALS

Ssu-ma Ch'ien begins this chapter of biographies as he does most such collective biographies, with an introduction to the general type he is illustrating:

The Grand Historian remarks, laws are that by which one guides the people and punishments are that by which one prohibits evil. When the civil [laws] and the martial are not each complete, the reason people will vigilantly cultivate themselves is that the officials have not acted disorderly. As long as officials fulfill their duties and act according to reason, they can effect their rule. What need is there for severity?¹⁷

From this preface, two reasons make it is easy to understand why previous scholars have linked “The Harsh Officials” and “The Reasonable Officials.”

First, the preface to “The Reasonable Officials” echoes the Grand Historian's comments to “The Harsh Officials.” In those comments we read:

Yet among these ten, those who were incorrupted may serve as models for discussion, and those who were corrupted may serve as admonitions. They planned and plotted to teach and guide [the people], to prohibit them from evil and stop them from the vile. All they did was balanced, their substance being both civil and martial.¹⁸ Although they were harsh, this could be said to be necessary for their position.¹⁹

In the preface we find a number of exact or very similar textual resonances—“prohibited them doing evil,” “by which the people are guided,” “civil and martial”—suggesting a relationship between the texts.

The second connection between the texts is the rhetorical question which ends the preface to “The Reasonable Officials”: “What need is there for severity?” In a preamble to a discussion of officials who are careful to avoid severity, this query seems out of place unless we assume that the question is put in reaction to the “The Harsh Officials.”

This textual evidence of a linkage between the two chapters only supplements the large body of criticism which argues for the association primarily on the basis of the similar subject matter. Burton Watson's long headnote to his translation of “The Reasonable Officials” may be the most explicit expression of this line of thinking:

In this brief chapter Ssu-ma Ch'ien for a moment seems to forget the harsh realities of life under Emperor Wu as he relates a series of anecdotes about some officials who lived many centuries earlier, during the middle of the Chou dynasty, and were noted for their just and reasonable conduct. But this mask of the garrulous teller of old tales only faintly conceals Ssu-ma Ch'ien's real purpose. As history these anecdotes are practically worthless. Their function here can only be understood when the chapter is read in conjunction with the following one on “Harsh Officials” and the description of Emperor Wu's economic policies in “The Treatise on the Balanced Standard.” Not only does Ssu-ma Ch'ien make an over-all satirical point by making all his “reasonable officials” men of the Chou and his “harsh officials” men of his own day; each anecdote in the chapter—the official who objected to the change in currency, the official who would not accept gifts and was so careful not to compete with the occupations of the common people, the law officials whose sense of responsibility drove them to suicide—is calculated to contrast with and satirize some policy or characteristic of official life under Emperor Wu.²⁰

Having satisfied ourselves as to a direct textual relationship between these texts, let us move on to examine the remainder of “The Reasonable Officials”:

Sun Shu-ao was a retired scholar of Ch'u. Yü Ch'iu, the prime minister, recommended him to King Chuang of Ch'u, suggesting that Sun Shu-ao replace him. After three months as prime minister, he instructed and guided the people, so that those on high and those below came together in harmony, society prospered and the customs were beautified. Administrative orders were eased and prohibitions dropped, so that the petty officials did not engage in evil and bandit groups did not rise up. In autumn and winter he exhorted the people to hunt in the mountains, and in spring and summer to fish the waters, so that everyone was able to obtain what was easy to obtain, and the people all delighted in their lives.

The problems in this passage are numerous. For example, is Sun Shu-ao the surname and given name of this man, or should he be called Wei Ao (with Sun-shu his cognomen)?²¹ Was he really a retired scholar of Ch'u?²² Was he recommended to King Chuang? If so, was the man who recommended him named Yü Ch'iu or Shen Yin, or were Yü and Shen the same person? These questions are related to the sad state of materials in the Han and pre-Ch'in texts on this man. In the Meng-tzu, for example, we read:

Shun rose from the fields, Fu Yüeh was raised to office from amongst the builders, Chiao Ke from amidst the fish and salt, Kuan Chung from the hands of the prison officer, Sun Shu-ao from the sea and Po-li Hsi from the market. That is why Heaven, when it is about to place a great burden on a man, always first tests his resolution, exhausts his frame and makes him suffer starvation and hardship, frustrates his efforts so as to shake him from his mental lassitude, toughen his nature and make good his deficiencies. As a rule, a man can mend his ways only after he has made mistakes. It is only when a man is frustrated in mind and in his deliberations that he is able to innovate.²³

This text tends to support the idea of Sun as a retired scholar, someone who had left the Ch'u court “after his efforts were frustrated” there for the safer confines of his home area near the Huai River.²⁴ But the story of Yü Ch'iu recommending Sun cannot be traced earlier than Han-dynasty texts. Even these texts differ considerably, the Shuo-yüan arguing that the patron's name was Yü-ch'iu tzu while the Han-shih wai-chuan claims that the prime minister, there called “Shen Yin,” promoted Sun only after the beauty Fan Chi first suggested to King Chuang that Shen was lax in promoting men of worth.

The passage “In ruling though he was lenient, there were restrictions and preventions so that the petty officials did not engage in evil and bandit groups did not rise up,” recalls references to Sun in two Taoist works, Chuang-tzu and Huai-nan tzu:

Sun Shu-ao reclined contentedly holding a feather-fan and the men of Ying threw away their arms.²⁵

In antiquity Sun Shu-ao lay peacefully and the men of Ying had nothing on which to damage their spears.²⁶

There is a similar passage in the Han-dynasty collection, Lieh-nü chuan:

In antiquity when Sun Shu-ao was made prime minister, no one picked up articles that had been left along the roadside, doors were not locked, and the bandit groups on their own ceased to exist.²⁷

Aside from the possible intertextual associations with earlier works, the reverberations from the Grand Historian's own comments to “The Harsh Officials” should not be overlooked:

These men, by their schemes and strategies, their teaching and leadership, restricted wickedness and ended evil.

The second passage in the biography of Sun Shu-ao reads as follows:

[Once] King Chuang decided that the coins were too light and had them replaced by larger ones.²⁸ But the common people found them inconvenient and all abandoned their occupations. The master of the marketplace spoke of this to the prime minister, saying, “The market is in chaos! The people have not settled into their places, and the order of their stalls is not set!”²⁹

The prime minister asked, “How long has it been like this?”

The master of the marketplace said, “A little over three months.”

“You may go now! I will order the coins restored the way they were.”

Five days later when court was held the prime minister spoke of it to the king, saying, “Recently the coins were changed because they were too light. Now the master of the market has come to me and said, ‘The market is in chaos! The people have not settled into their places, and the order of their stalls is not set!’ I thus ask that you order them to be restored as they were formerly.” The king approved it and after three days the market was as before.

Although this anecdote can be found in none of the other Han or pre-Ch'in texts, it could be intended (as Watson suggests) to satirize the implementation—at the suggestion of the ruler—of the new “white-metal coins” and “five-chu cash” during Emperor Wu's reign.³⁰

The next passage from “The Reasonable Officials” continues to illustrate Sun Shu-ao's reasonable rule:

The people of Ch'u were by custom fond of low-slung carriages, but the king did not think low carriages were good for the horses and wanted to issue an order causing them to be raised. The prime minister said, “If orders are issued too frequently, the people won't know which to follow, and this would not be good. If Your Majesty would raise the carriages, I request that you instruct that the village gates have their sills raised. Those who ride in carriages are all gentlemen, and a gentleman cannot be getting down from his carriage so often.” The king consented to this and within half a year, the people had all of their own accord raised their carriages.

This is another anecdote which cannot be traced to other contemporary or earlier texts. We have also not found a parallel with any similar changes during Emperor Wu's reign. But the message that there were solutions to problems other than issuing new laws certainly contradicts the tendency towards much new legislation during Ssu-ma Ch'ien's lifetime.

The final passage regarding Sun Shu-ao draws a conclusion from this anecdote and records another well known tradition:

In this way, without instructing them, the people were made to follow the king's influence, those who were near observing and imitating [Sun], those who were distant looking up to him from the four directions and taking him as their model. Therefore, he was able to become prime minister three times without joy, because he understood it was merely the result of his natural talents; and three times he was dismissed from the position without regret, because he knew it was not due to his own faults.

Sun's “becoming prime minister three times” is also mentioned in “Tsou Yang lieh-chuan” and is a leitmotif in pre-Ch'in and Han accounts of him.³¹ However, in the Kuo-yü the same story is told about another prime minister of Ch'u, Tzu Wen,³² suggesting that this is a formulaic method of describing a man unmoved by political fate.

The next section of “The Reasonable Officials” describes Tzu-ch'an.³³

Tzu-ch'an was a ranking grand master of Cheng. During the reign of Lord Chao of Cheng, because he used his favorite, Hsü Chih, as prime minister, the country became chaotic—superiors were not close to their subordinates, and fathers were not on good terms with sons.

Here Ssu-ma Chen (fl. 713-741) comments:

In “The Hereditary House of Cheng” it says Tzu-ch'an was the youngest son of Duke Ch'eng of Cheng. He served Dukes Chien and Ting. Duke Chien enfeoffed Tzu-ch'an with six cities, but Tzu-ch'an only accepted half. Tzu-ch'an did not serve Lord Chao and there was also no instance of Hsü Chih acting as prime minister [in “The Hereditary House of Cheng”]. This must have come from another source and the Grand Historian must have recorded it dissimilarly [here and in “The House of Cheng”].³⁴

Tzu-ch'an served Duke Chien (r. 565-530 b.c.) and Duke Ting (r. 529-514 b.c.). It is impossible to imagine that he served Duke Chao (r. 696-695 b.c.), who died one-hundred and thirty years before Duke Chien ascended to power. Moreover, Hsü Chih does not appear in any other early, extant text. Thus Ssu-ma Chen is too kind to the Grand Historian, since regardless of the source, the facts here are certainly incorrect.³⁵

“The Reasonable Officials” continues with a description of Tzu-ch'an's rise to power:

Ta-kung Tzu-ch'i spoke to the lord and he made Tzu-ch'an prime minister.

Although Ta-kung Tzu-ch'i is not mentioned in either the Tso chuan or the Kuo-yü, Ssu-ma Chen argues that:

the prime ministers of Cheng, Tzu-ssu, Tzu-k'ung, and Tzu-ch'an, were contemporaries, and Tzu-ch'i must also have been one of their cousins.

But this claim exhibits a virtual ignorance of the practices of naming in the late Spring and Autumn era and cannot be taken seriously. Moreover, as Wang Shu-min has pointed out, numerous other texts tell us that Tzu-p'i recommended Tzu-ch'an.³⁶ “The Reasonable Officials” continues:

After he had been prime minister for a year, young people stopped idling about and being disrespectful, gray-haired elders were no longer seen carrying heavy burdens, and young boys did not have to work in the fields. After two years, no one overcharged in the markets.³⁷ After three years, people stopped locking their gates at night and no one ventured to pick up articles that had been left along the roadside. After four years, people did not bother to take home their farm tools when the day's work was finished, and after five years, no more conscription orders were sent out to the servicemen and the periods of mourning were observed by people without having to be ordered to do so.³⁸

This passage is essentially a topos of the effects of a good official on his nation (cf. the description of Ch'u after Sun Shu-ao had ruled for three months above).

After he ruled Cheng for twenty-six years, he died, …

Several other chronologies have been proposed by other critics. Liang Yü-sheng (1745-1819) points out some of the alternatives:

In the Tso chuan, Tzu-ch'an became a minister in the nineteenth year of Duke Hsiang (554 b.c.) and served as prime minister of Cheng for thirty years, before passing away in the twentieth year of Duke Chao (514 b.c.). Now if we consider his years as minister, it would be thirty-three years, and if we consider the years as prime minister, it would be twenty-two years. This passage must be in error. In the “Chronological Tables” and “The Hereditary House of Cheng” it mistakenly says that Tzu-ch'an died in the fourteenth year of Duke Ting (of Lu, i.e., 496 b.c.), the fifth year of Duke Sheng of Cheng, and twenty-six years from the year in which Tzu-ch'an really died. Could it be that after he died years were added without any basis to those which he ruled the nation? If so, there is an error within the error.³⁹

The first error is, of course, that of “twenty-six years of rule” which concerns us here. The second addresses the dating in other sections of the Shih chi.⁴⁰ Ts'ui Shih provides another assessment of this passage:

Further, the biography says, “During the reign of Lord Chao of Cheng … he made Tzu-ch'an prime minister … after he ruled Cheng for twenty-six years, he died.” According to the “Hereditary House of Cheng,” “Tzu-ch'an was the younger son of Duke Ch'eng of Cheng (r. 584-571 b.c.). Duke Ch'eng was a fifth-generation descendant of Duke Li (r. 700-692 b.c.), and Duke Li was the younger brother of Duke Chao.” How could Tzu-ch'an have served Duke Chao? In the “Chronological Tables,” it says: “In the twelfth year of Duke Chien (554 b.c.), Tzu-ch'an was made a minister. Duke Chien was in power for thirty-six years; beyond these were Duke Ting's sixteen years, Duke Hsien's thirteen years, and five years of Duke Sheng before Tzu-ch'an died—fifty-nine years away from the year he was made a minister. From this it is incompatible to say he “ruled Cheng for twenty-six years.”⁴¹

Wang Shu-min adds other evidence to question the accuracy of a twenty-six-year rule for Tzu-ch'an.⁴²

The final passage in “The Reasonable Officials” on Tzu-ch'an reads:

Able-bodied men wailed and wept, and the old cried like children, saying, “Tzu-ch'an has died and left us! Who can we turn to now!”

This conclusion to the account of Tzu-ch'an reflects the achievements his rule provided these groups: the “able-bodied men” were once “joking and teasing” youths, while “the old” once “had to carry heavy burdens” or “work in the fields.”⁴³

“The Reasonable Officials” next turns to the third of its subjects:

Kung-i Hsiu was an academician of Lu. Because of his high estate,⁴⁴ he was made prime minister of Lu. In carrying out the laws he followed reason, not making changes in them without a need, so that all the officials under him were naturally upright. He caused those on government salaries to stop contending for profit with the common people and those who received high salaries to stop taking from those with low ones.

The late Ch'ing scholar Yang Shao-wen in his “On Reading ‘The Reasonable Officials’ in the Records of the Grand Historian” notes:

Sun Shu-ao, Tzu-ch'an and Kung-i Hsiu are not famous for their official service.⁴⁵

Although this claim may be true, we could go further to argue that Kung-i Hsiu is really not well known in any sense and is thus ill-suited to be matched with men of considerable reputations such as Sun Shu-ao and Tzu-ch'an. In fact, extant source materials on Kung-i Hsiu are as contradictory as they are scant. For example, one of the better known passages is that in Meng-tzu:

In the time of Duke Mu of Lu (r. 407-377 b.c.), Master Kung-i was in charge of affairs of state and Tzu-liu and Tzu-ssu were in office, yet Lu dwindled in size even more rapidly than before. Are good and wise men of so little benefit to a state?⁴⁶

Although it is generally believed that this Master Kung-i was Kung-i Hsiu, according to a passage in the Shuo-yüan, Kung-i Hsiu served one of the dukes of Lu who reigned concurrently with King Ch'eng of Ch'u (r. 671-626 b.c.).⁴⁷ In addition, scholars have pointed out that the position of academician may not have been established prior to Ch'in times.⁴⁸

The second section of Kung-i Hsiu's biography reads:

A retainer once sent him a fish, but the prime minister did not accept it. The retainer said, “I heard that you were fond of fish, so I sent you this. Why didn't you accept it?”

Kung-i Hsiu replied, “It is just because I am fond of fish that I didn't accept it. Now as prime minister, I can provide fish for myself. If I were now to lose my position by accepting this fish, who would ever give me fish again? Therefore, I have not accepted it.”

This passage is very similar to that recorded in the “Wai-ch'u” chapter of the Han Fei tzu:

When Kung-i Hsiu was prime minister of Lu he was fond of fish. The entire nation strove to buy fish to present to him. But Master Kung-i would not accept them. His cousin admonished him saying, “You are fond of fish and yet you haven't accepted any. Why?”

“It is solely because I am fond of fish that I didn't accept them,” he replied. “If I were to accept the fish, I would take on the appearance of an underling. This would be bending the law. If I bent the law, then I would be dismissed from my position as prime minister. So although I am fond of fish, this does not mean others will be able to send them to me.⁴⁹ Through this it can be understood that relying on others is not as good as relying on yourself. It can also be understood that others doing things for you is not as good as doing things for yourself.”⁵⁰

A similar account also occurs in the “Tao-ying hsün” chapter of the Huai-nan tzu.⁵¹

“The Reasonable Officials” concludes its account of Kung-i Hsiu as follows:

When he ate vegetables and found them tasty, he pulled up all the vegetables in his garden and threw them away. When he saw that the cloth woven in his home was of good quality, he quickly sent away the women working there and burned their looms, saying, “Do you want to make things so that the farmers and weavers have nowhere to sell their goods?”

This passage may originally have come from an early Han Fei tzu edition, since a similar anecdote is cited in the T'ai-p'ing yü-lan as originating from the Han-tzu.⁵²

The fourth biography in “The Reasonable Officials” follows:

Shih She was prime minister to King Chao of Ch'u (r. 515-490 b.c.). He was steady and straight-forward, honest and of integrity, and there was no one he flattered, nothing he shunned. Once when he was making a tour of inspection through the countryside, he saw someone murder a man and, when he gave chase, found it was his father. He released his father and returned to bind himself up. He sent someone to the king to report, “The murderer [I apprehended] was my father. Now if I use my father to establish my government, it will be unfilial. But if I abandon the law and forgive his crime, I will be disloyal. Thus my crime is deserving of the death penalty.”

The king said, “You pursued him, but did not catch him, so you shouldn't be punished. Just go about your duties!”

Shih She said, “If I were not partial to my own father, I would not be a filial son. But if I don't uphold the laws of my ruler, I would not be a loyal subject. Your majesty through kindness may pardon my offense, but it is my duty as a minister to accept punishment and die.”

In the end he wouldn't accept the king's orders, but slit his throat and died.

Liang Yü-sheng comments on this biography:

The prime ministers of Ch'u were called “Ling-yin.” During King Chao's time Tzu-hsi took care of this—I haven't heard of a prime minister named Shih She. In the “Exalted Righteousness” (“Kao-i p'ien”) chapter of the Lü-shih ch'un-ch'iu it says: “King Chao entrusted the government to Shih She,” which is the same as this (passage). The Records of the Grand Historian must be based on the Lü-shih ch'un-ch'iu, mistakenly changing She to a prime minister. Both the second chapter of the Han-shih wai-chuan and the “Virtuous Officers” (“Chieh shih”) section of the Hsin-hsü read: “King Chao had an officer named Shih She and entrusted control to him.”⁵³

There is no mention of Shih She elsewhere in the Shih chi. Liang Yü-sheng's hypothesis that Ssu-ma Ch'ien used the Lü-shih ch'un-ch'iu as the basis for this biography seems questionable, since in one of the other sources Liang cites, the Hsin-hsü, a similar passage on Shih She is immediately followed by an anecdote about Li Li, the fifth and final of the reasonable officials.⁵⁴ Before exploring the ramifications of this juxtaposition, let us examine Li Li's biography:

Li Li was a judicial official under Duke Wen of Chin (r. 636-628 b.c.). Because he once misjudged a case and had someone put to death, he had himself bound and sentenced to die. Duke Wen said to him, “As there are high and low official positions, so are there light and heavy punishments. If one of your subordinates made a mistake, it is not your crime.”

Li Li replied, “I occupy the position of supervisor and have not yielded this to any of my subordinates. My salary and benefits are numerous, and I do not share the profits with my underlings. Now when I misjudged a case, a man died. To shift this responsibility to a subordinate official is something I've never heard of.” Thus he declined to accept the duke's pardon.

Duke Wen then said, “If you feel you are guilty, am I not also guilty [as your superior]?”

“A judicial officer has a set of laws,” Li Li replied. “If he errs in assigning a punishment, that same punishment must be his. If he errs in executing a man, he must be executed. Your Grace made me a judge because you considered I was able to investigate the evidence thoroughly and come to a verdict even in doubtful cases. Now I have misjudged a case and killed a man and my crime deserves to be the death penalty.”

Ultimately he was unwilling to accept the pardon, fell on his sword, and died.

Aside from this biography and similar passages in the Hsin-hsü and Han-shih wai-chuan,⁵⁵ there is no other material on Li Li. Liang Yü-sheng is again skeptical in his comments on this section:

The second chapter of the Han-shih wai-chuan and the “Virtuous Officers” in the Hsin-hsü describe this matter of Li Li in different terms, but this account (in “The Reasonable Officials”) is even less complete.⁵⁶

Finally, let us look at the historian's comments at the end of the chapter:

The Grand Historian says, “Sun Shu-ao uttered one word and the markets of Ying returned to normal. When Tzu-ch'an died of an illness, the people of Cheng wailed and wept. Master Kung-i saw the cloth was of good quality and sent the women away from his home. Shih She released his father and died, establishing the fame of King Chao of Ch'u. Li Li erred in executing a man and fell on his sword, enabling Duke Wen of Chin to regularize the nation's laws.⁵⁷

There are two characteristics of this commentary that deserve notice. First, although Ssu-ma Ch'ien often offers information on his sources in these commentaries,⁵⁸ he says nothing here of the origin of these biographies. Second, the first part of the passage seems to be rhymed.

CONCLUSION

At the beginning of this paper two traditional criticisms of “The Reasonable Officials” were discussed: first, that “The Reasonable Officials” is closely related to “The Harsh Officials”; second, that “The Reasonable Officials” is, for a number of reasons, possibly not from the hand of Ssu-ma Ch'ien. Having examined, augmented, and accepted the thesis that “The Reasonable Officials” was written as a foil to “The Harsh Officials,” let us now turn to the question of the authenticity of “The Reasonable Officials.”

It is obvious that all of the narrative devices which we saw unify “The Harsh Officials”—chronological sequence, a common theme, repeated key words, mutual comparisons of the subjects of the biographies—are missing in “The Reasonable Officials.” Among traditional critics, Yang Shao-wen's observations may be seen as typical:

Sun Shu-ao, Tzu-ch'an and Kung-i Hsiu are not famous because of their official service, and Shih She and Li Li are also completely without achievements in government.⁵⁹

Moreover, Ho Cho (1661-1722) has pointed out problems with sources:

In the section on Tzu-ch'an, the Tso chuan materials were not used.⁶⁰

Feng Pan (1602-1671) argues along the lines of Burton Watson concerning the overall merit of these narratives as “biographies”:

The Grand Historian depicts Tzu-ch'an and Sun Shu-ao, two gentlemen with loyal service in governmental affairs, both of whom were famed prime ministers. They should be included with the biographies of Kuan Chung and Yen Ying. Here he is describing them as “reasonable officials,” not writing biographies for these two gentlemen.⁶¹

Although on first glance all of this seems to support the argument that “The Reasonable Officials” is a forgery, we should recall that the close textual relations between the ending of “The Harsh Officials” and the opening of “The Reasonable Officials” limned above argues against such a conclusion. Besides, there is a more logical explanation to the problems of this text.

Let us recall, too, that Ssu-ma Ch'ien spent much of his adult life preparing for and compiling the Shih chi. According to conservative estimations, the compilation alone took over ten years. He visited vast parts of the Han empire, interviewed local people, and collected as many oral and written traditions as he could. In the Shih chi itself he mentions eighty-eight titles actually used in his work.⁶² Moreover, as Grand Historian, Ssu-ma Ch'ien had access to the Han royal archives.

But, as Ho Cho suggested, despite a great deal of material on Tzu-ch'an in the Tso chuan (not to mention a similar corpus in the Kuo-yü), Ssu-ma Ch'ien used none of it in “The Reasonable Officials.” And, as Feng Pan claimed, the Grand Historian “is not writing a biography” for Tzu-ch'an. Although the material on Sun Shu-ao in pre-Han sources is not as voluminous, it is almost equally ignored in the account of Sun in “The Reasonable Officials.”

Therefore, if “The Reasonable Officials” was written by Ssu-ma Ch'ien, and if he didn't use the standard sources such as the Tso chuan, Kuo-yü, and other pre-Han sources, how was the work compiled? I would like to suggest that this biography was put together almost entirely from existing texts Ssu-ma Ch'ien found in the Han royal archives, possibly in materials classified as hsün-li or “reasonable officials.” Although there is no way to prove this hypothesis, there are two reasons for entertaining it. First, we know that the Hsin-hsü and the Shuo-yüan were compiled by the imperial librarian Liu Hsiang (c. 79-c. 6 b.c.), along with numerous other works, using archival materials. Both the Hsin-hsü and the Shuo-yüan tend to arrange their anecdotes by topics, such as Chieh-shih, “Virtuous Officers,” suggesting the possibility that the archives themselves may have had similar classifications. This possibility is enhanced by the fact, accented above, that two of our biographies, those on Shih She and Li Li, parallel contiguous anecdotes found in the Hsin-hsü.⁶³

Second, this hypothesis resolves almost all the problems that have been raised concerning the text of “The Reasonable Officials,” problems which previously could only be explained by accepting the theory that the text was forged. For example, the factual contradictions—such as Tzu-ch'an serving a ruler who lived centuries before him—between this chapter and other sources or between this chapter and other chapters in the Shih chi can be attributed to Ssu-ma Ch'ien's use of anecdotes that were already in a nearly finished form in the archives. Although it could be argued that he should have verified all the facts in the archival sources against other parallel accounts, it seems to me that the same demand could be made of those who support the forgery theory, especially because a forger could have checked such matters at his leisure and would not have been working under the extreme pressures of time that belabored the Grand Historian in his final years. This hypothesis would also explain the lack of narrative coherence and the uneven and unfinished qualities of the five biographies. It would also explain why Ssu-ma Ch'ien offers no clues as to his sources here. And, finally, it suggests how Ssu-ma Ch'ien is able to record the only two anecdotes on Sun Shu-ao not found elsewhere in extant texts—they existed only in the imperial archives.⁶⁴

This scenario of Ssu-ma Ch'ien using archival texts as the basis for “The Reasonable Officials,” linked through the commentary he wrote for “The Harsh Officials” and the preface for this chapter, is consistent with the idea that the two chapters are intended to be read as foils. It also fits with the general situation of “texts” during the Han dynasty. Chu Tzu-ch'ing (1898-1948) in his Ching-tien ch'ang-t'an reminds us that:

Shu originally meant to record, and probably at that time (i.e., the pre-Ch'in era) what were called shu merely referred to those ancient archives that had still been preserved. These archives were probably still separate texts and hadn't yet been compiled into books. The compiling of books was probably done by the hands of the Han scholars.⁶⁵

Based on the existing evidence, it is my conclusion that “The Reasonable Officials” underwent a similar process in its compilation from archival records to part of a book, and that arguments claiming it to be a forgery are unfounded. My opinion has been formed based both on the text of the Shih chi itself and on its cultural and literary contexts. Although I believe this theory provides the only means logically to resolve many of the questions surrounding the text, a thorough linguistic comparison of the language of this chapter to that of other sections of the Shih chi would strengthen it.

Notes

1. I should like to thank the Pacific Cultural Foundation, the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin, and the Council on Academic Planning and Development, Executive Yuan (Taiwan) for financial support of the research which led to this paper. I first read a draft of this paper at an Early China Conference at the University of Chicago in October 1989, and am grateful to Professor Edward L. Shaughnessy, who organized that gathering, and the other participants for their numerous and useful suggestions. As a result of these comments and those by two anonymous readers for Early China, I decided to take a slightly different tack with the material. The paper in its present form was first given in Chinese at the Institute of Literature and Philosophy, Academia Sinica, in May 1991. I owe a debt to Professor Wu Hung-i and his staff for the chance to read the paper there and for their enthusiastic response. Professor Tsai Fa Cheng and Mr. Robert Reynolds of the University of Wisconsin and Mr. Cho-ying Li of National Taiwan University also provided me sound counsel.

2. Shih chi t'an-yüan (1910; rpt. Peking: Chung-hua, 1986), 212.

3. Shih Han lun-kao (Nanking: Chiang-su ku-chi, 1984), 189.

4. “The Biographies of the Confucian Scholars” (“Ju-lin lieh-chuan”, ch. 121) contains more than 3,000 characters, “The Biographies of the Money-makers” (“Huo-chih lieh-chuan”, ch. 129) about 6,000, and that of “The Biographies of Turtle and Rod (Diviners)” (“Kuei-ts'e lieh-chuan”) about 7000.

5. This echoes the language describing Shun in the “Yao tien” of the Shang-shu. Thus despite the malice that his step-mother and half-brother had for him, “Shun was able by means of his filial piety to control himself to the point that none of them would again come to any evil”; Shang-shu cheng-i (SPPY [Ssu-pu pai-yao] ed.), 2.14b.

6. I have generally translated official titles as given in Charles Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985).

7. The names of these laws may have been unwieldy, but their intention was clear: to encourage officials to keep an eye on, and report on, each other; see Takigawa Kametarō, Shiki kaichū kōshō, (1932-34; rpt. Taipei: Hung-shih, 1982), 1969c (commentary).

8. The translations of this passage and other Shih chi excerpts throughout the paper are my own. They are heavily indebted where applicable to Burton Watson's Records of the Grand Historian of China, 2 vols. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1961). The chapter on the harsh officials can be found in vol. 2, pp. 419-51.

9. Some of these terms—k'o-shen, for example—appear elsewhere in the Shih chi especially to depict the legal system in the Ch'in period (cf. Shih chi [Peking: Chung-hua, 1959], 6.269 and 6.284, both depicting the enforcement of the law during the time of the Second Emperor). In fact, chapters 119 and 122 should probably be understood as referring to “officials who reasonably applied the law” and those “who harshly applied the law.” The applicability of following written legal codes too closely, rather than interpreting them with regard to each situation, has always been suspect in China.

10. Burton Watson follows the “Chi-chieh” commentary here (Shih chi, 122.3147) and translates “I Tsung governed like a hawk spreading its wings and swooping down on its prey.” But the original says ying-chi mao-chih, “falcon attacking wings held,” and the commentary's reading of chang for chih cannot be substantiated.

11. Shih chi, 122.3131-3155.

12. Li uses hsiao, “to follow the example of,” but the original passage (Shih chi, 122.3144) has k'o, “harsher.”

13. Li Ching-hsing, Shih chi p'ing-i, in Li-tai ming-chia p'ing Shih chi, ed. Yang Yen-ch'i et al. (Peking: Pei-ching Shih-fan ta-hsüeh ch'u-pan-she, 1986), 708-9.

14. For more on these deaths, see chapter 122. For a thorough discussion of capital punishment during the Ch'in (which has proved useful in my translation), see A. F. P. Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch'in Law (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1985), 14-15. Hulsewé also argues (p. 5) that the Han legal system was in large part adopted from that of the Ch'in.

15. Shih chi, 130.3318.

16. Shih chi, 122.3154.

17. Shih chi, 119.3099.

18. This passage refers to a statement Confucius made in the Lun-yü 6.18: “The Master said, ‘When there is a preponderance of native substance over acquired refinement, the result will be churlishness. When there is a preponderance of acquired refinement over native substance, the result will be pedantry. Only a well-balanced admixture of these two will result in gentlemanliness”; translation by D. C. Lau, Confucius, The Analects (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979), 83. Here, however wen is juxtaposed to wu and its meaning is therefore emended from the original to mean “civil, cultural.” But Ssu-ma Ch'ien certainly intends praise for these men through his allusion to one of Confucius’ definition of a “gentleman.”

19. Shih chi, 122.3154.

20. Records of the Grand Historian of China, vol. 2, 413, n. 1.

21. The subject of Sun Shu-ao's names is complicated, since nomenclature in the Spring and Autumn era was complex and not always understood by the Han dynasty. Sung Kung-wen has the best discussion of the problems surrounding these names; Ch'u-shih hsin-t'an (Kaifeng: Honan University Press, 1988), 46-7. The following comments are based in large part upon Sung.

    The controversy surrounding Sun Shu-ao's names involves three ways in which the author of the Tso-chuan chooses to refer to him within a two-year period: as Chief Minister (ling-yin) Wei Ai-lüeh (Hsüan 11; 598 b.c.), as Chief Minister Wei Ao, and as Chief Minister Sun-shu Ao (both Hsüan 12; 597 b.c.). Various explanations equate Sun Shu-ao and Wei Ao and claim Wei Ai-lüeh was an elder brother, but since there is no explanation of why King Chuang changed chief ministers in 597 b.c., this sibling theory is not tenable.

    If one follows the lead of two of the earliest commentators to the Tso-chuan, Fu Ch'ien (d. c. 190 a.d.) and Tu Yü (222-284), however, and assumes that Wei Ai-lüeh is Wei Ao, this problem is resolved. Moreover, since in 597 b.c. the Chin general Shih Hui praised the strengthening of the state of Ch'u under Wei Ao's tenure as chief minister, it is probable that Wei had served more than a few months. Finally, we note that the author of the Tso-chuan seems to have consciously varied his manner of referring to other political figures so that the reader could be exposed to all of their names (cf., for example, the following names used to identify Tzu-yüeh who was chief minister of Ch'u from 611-605 b.c.: Tzu-yüeh, Tzu-yüeh Shu, Tou Shu, Po-fen, and Shu.

    Thus Wei is Wei Ao's surname (shih), Ao the praenomen (ming), and both Sun-shu and Ai-lüeh were nomen (tzu) [cf. also Hsüan 12, where Wu Ts'an refers to Wei Ao as “Sun-shu,” which must therefore be his tzu]. In all early texts other than the Tso, however, Wei Ao is known as Sun Shu-ao.

22. Sun Shu-ao's [i.e., Wei Ao's] father, Wei Chia, opposed the powerful clans in Ch'u for years. In 605 b.c. he was imprisoned and killed by his enemies. Thus it is possible that Sun Shu-ao returned to Ch'i-ssu at this time for his own safety and thereby became “a retired scholar of Ch'u.”

23. Meng-tzu 6B/15; trans. by D. C. Lau, Mencius (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970), 181.

24. Shih Tz'u-yün notes that the Huai River region—Sun's home area—was at that time referred to as the “Hai” region; Meng-tzu chin-chu chin-i (rpt. Taipei: Shang-wu, 1981), 342-3, n. 6.

25. Chuang-tzu (SPPY ed.), 8.18a.

26. Huai-nan tzu (SPPY ed.), 9.3a.

27. Lieh-nü chuan (SPPY ed.), 6.2a.

28. Heather A. Peters (“The Role of the State of Chu in Eastern Zhou Period China,” Ph.D. diss.: Yale University, 1983, 59f) has described four types of Ch'u coins: (1) the square-shaped, gold Ying-yüan, (2) gold ping discs, (3) bronze cowries (also known as i-pi ch'ien [ant-proboscis money] or kuei-lien ch'ien [ghost-face money]), and (4) the shovel-shaped, silver pu. The gold coins seem to have been eventually used primarily for ceremonial and political purposes (pp. 305-10), while the bronze cowries, weighing about 3.5 grams each, were the commercial coin. But in this instance it would seem King Chuang decided to replace the cowries with gold Ying-yüan, which weighed about 270 grams. Since these plaques were not cast, but hammered into shape, they did not have standard weights and sizes. These larger coins, although quite functional on the political level, would naturally have been most inconvenient in the marketplace, where smaller purchases were the norm. It may well be that the failure to introduce gold coinage to the local economy of Ying led to its subsequent use as a monetary unit destined for commerce, political and economic, with other states or regions, commerce which would primarily call for larger-value coins.

    The modern scholar Ch'en Chih notes, “Nothing has been found to date on the weights and sizes of money from the state of Ch'u during the Spring and Autumn period”; Shih chi hsin-cheng (T'ien-chin: T'ien-chin jen-min, 1979), 185. Liu Tsung-yüan (773-819) has a passage in his “Fei Kuo-yü” that discusses using lighter coins in Ch'i; Liu Tsung-yüan chi (Peking: Chung-hua, 1979), 1290.

29. Tz'u-hang refers to the normal order and location of each merchant's stall or shop; see Takigawa Kametarō, Shiki kaichū kōshō, 1938a.

30. Mentioned, for example, in “The Harsh Officials” (Shih chi, 122.3140 and 122.3146).

31. Shih chi, 83.2475.

32. Kuo-yü, (Shanghai: Ku-chi ch'u-pan-she, 1978), vol. 2, p. 573: “Of old Tou Tzu-wen was dismissed from the position of Chief Minister three times before a single day [in office] had accumulated because of his sympathy for the people.” In the Lun-yü, Tzu-chang asks Confucius about Tzu-wen's three demotions; Lun-yü 5/19.

    Tzu-wen or Tou Ku-wu-t'u is a legendary figure. He was called “Ku-wu-t'u,” which means “suckled by a tiger” in the Ch'u dialect, because he was abandoned at birth and raised by tigers. He became ling-yin or prime minister of Ch'u in 664 b.c. and dominated the political scene there until he retired in 637. He was also patriarch of the clan that killed Sun's father.

33. There are two Western studies on Tzu-ch'an: E. R. Eichler, “The Life of Tsze-ch'an,” The China Review, 1886-87, 12-23 and 65-78, and V. A. Rubin, “Tzu-ch'an and the City-State of Ancient China,” T'oung Pao, 52 (1965-6), 8-34. I have not seen Cheng K'o-t'ang's Tzu-ch'an p'ing-chuan (Shanghai: Shang-wu, 1935). Burton Watson's The Tso chuan (New York: Columbia University Press, 1989), also has a section (“Tzu-ch'an's Government Policies,” pp. 154-63) which is relevant.

34. Shih chi, 119.3101.

35. Since the reigns of the dukes of Lu were more standard measures of chronology because of the Ch'un-ch'iu and because Tzu-ch'an had a number of dealings with Chin, it is likely that instead of Duke Chao of Cheng, Duke Chao of Lu (541-530 b.c.) or Duke Chao of Chin (531-526 b.c.) is meant here.

36. Wang Shu-min, Shih chi chiao-cheng (Taipei: Academia Sinica, 1982), vol. 9, 3230. Tzu-p'i was the tzu of Han Hu, who, according to the Tso-chuan, yielded the rule of Cheng to Tzu-ch'an (see Watson, Tso Chuan, 154-5).

37. This is a free translation. The “So-yin” (Shih chi, 119.3101) interprets this line as “When you are on the point of determining the value of something, you don't predetermine it(s value)” (lin shih p'ing ch'i kuei chien pu yü ting yeh). The “Cheng-i” (as reconstructed by Takigawa, Shiki kaichū kōshō, 1938c) explains that “It means the amount demanded is not arbitrarily increased beforehand” (ch'i shu pu hsü yü kuang so yeh). In other words, the bartering was done without either side (or at least the seller) having a preconceived price, certainly an ideal in Chinese society.

38. V. A. Rubin has a markedly different understanding of the text, which he translates in his “Tzu-ch'an and the City-State of Ancient China” (p. 22): “After one year of Tzu-ch'an's government, young people ceased to joke indecently, older people lifted (loads) no more, and slaves no more ploughed up the boundaries. After two years, prices on the markets rose no more. After three years, the doors at night were locked no more, and nobody lifted (the things) lost on the roads. After four years, agricultural tools could be left on the fields. After five years, the officials no more took census and at times of mourning they governed without orders.”

39. Shih chi chih-i (Peking: Chung-hua, 1981), vol. 3, 1432-3.

40. There is also a possibility that here again confusion exists because there were two, nearly contemporaneous Duke Ting's: one of Lu (whose twentieth year was 496 b.c.) and one of Cheng (whose twentieth year was 516 b.c.).

41. Ts'ui Shih, Shih chi t'an-yüan, 212.

42. Wang Shu-min, Shih chi chiao-cheng, 3230.

43. Wang Shu-ming, Shih chi chiao-cheng, 3230-1, provides a plethora of other accounts of the lamentations following Tzu-ch'an's death.

44. I here read ti.

45. Cited in Li-tai ming-chia p'ing Shih chi, 694.

46. Meng-tzu 6B/6; translation slightly revised from that of D. C. Lau, Mencius, 175.

47. In order to resolve the issue, a modern editor of the Shuo-yüan, Hsiang Tsung-lu (1895-1941), suggests that King Ch'eng may be an error for King Wei (r. 339-329 b.c.); Shuo-yüan chiao-cheng, ed. Hsiang Tsung-lu (Peking: Chung-hua, 1987), 334. However, King Wei did not take the throne until over forty years after Duke Mu and it hardly seems likely that Kung-i Hsiu would still be active on the political stage at that time. Moreover, the Shuo-yüan narrative involves Ch'u summoning the feudal lords for a meeting, something possible in the mid-seventh century b.c. when Ch'u was ascending in power, but highly unlikely over two centuries later.

48. See also Wang Shu-min's long note on whether po-shih was a position or just a general term for a “scholar” or “academician” at this time; Shih chi chiao-cheng, 3231.

49. As the commentator Lu Wen-chao (1717-1795) has pointed out, tzu-chi does not appear in some texts and the passage makes better sense without the term.

50. Han Fei tzu chi-chieh teng chiu-chung, ed. Wang Hsien-ch'ien (Rpt. Taipei: Shih-chieh, 1988), 14.255.

51. Huai-nan hung-lieh chi-chieh, ed. Liu Wen-tien (Peking: Chung-hua, 1989), 400.

52. Wang Shu-min, Shih chi chiao-cheng, 3232.

53. Shih chi chih-i, 1433.

54. Hsin-hsü chin-chu chin-i, ed. Lu Yüan-chün, (Rpt. Taipei: Shang-wu, 1984), 7.243-7.

55. Han-shih wai-chuan chin-chu chin-i, ed. Lai Yen-yüan (rpt. Taipei: Shang-wu, 1981), 2.65-6.

56. Shih chi chih-i, vol. 3, p. 1433.

57. I translate cheng here as “regularize,” based on its intrinsic meaning and the context. It might also be understood as “maintain the correctness of.”

58. See, for example, the material provided in his comments on the “Kuan [Chung], Yen [Ying] Biographies,” Shih chi, 62.2136. See also discussions of documentary sources of the Shih chi by Grant R. Hardy in his “Objectivity and Interpretation in the Shih chi” (Ph. D. diss.: Yale University, 1988), 115-26, and by Juan Chih-sheng in his fine study, “T'ai-shih kung tsen-yang sou-chi ho ch'u-li shih-liao,” Shu-mu chi-k'an, 7.4 (March 1974), 18-22.

59. Li-tai ming-chia p'ing Shih chi, 694.

60. His comments are cited in Takigawa, Shiki kaichū kōshō, 1938b.

61. Ibid.

62. Juan Chih-sheng, “Sou-chi ho ch'u-li,” 18-21.

63. See note 54 above.

64. On the dependence of the Shuo-yüan on archives and the subsequent loss of these materials, see the preface by Ch'ü Shou-yüan (Hsiang Tsung-lu's student) to Shuo-yüan chiao-cheng, 2.

65. Chu Tzu-ch'ing, Ching-tien ch'ang-t'an (rpt. Taipei: Hsüeh-hai, 1983), 19.