Newly Discovered Texts and Historical Facts: A Rereading of ″Baoxun″ on Bamboo Strips in the Qinghua University Collection in the Context of Rulership Succession
When the first piece of the early Chinese texts written on bamboo strips in the Qinghua University collection was introduced to the world, ″Baoxun″ once attracted scholars' attention widely and is now the most studied piece of the Qinghua University collection. It is especially worth noting that the Chinese character zhong(中) appearing several times in this text was not only heavily researched at the time, but has also continued to be an academic hot topic to the present day, with new theories and interpretations put forward from time to time. These studies have undoubtedly enriched our understanding of this piece and the Qinghua University collection as a whole. Nevertheless, questions remain on the content, nature, and date of the ″Baoxun″ text as well as its connection with the Western Zhou history and other early Chinese texts. The consideration of ″Baoxun″ as King Wen's will to his successor is a reasonable assumption based on the contents of this piece of literature. Following this assumption, the exploration of the above issues is naturally situated in the context of rulership succession. Strangely, according to what is written in ″Baoxun,″ King Wen did not ask his crowned prince to follow the models of their own ancestors, like Hou Ji and Taiwang for instance, but instead to follow Shun and Shangjiawei, the previous kings of the Shang people. According to the sacrificial principles recorded in Guoyu and Liji, the Shang and Zhou people both presented sacrifices to their own ancestors, although they were put in the same sacrificial system centering on the Yellow Thearch. This only makes King Wen's will as recorded in ″Baoxun″ more interesting and confusing. In consulting related information scatted in Mozi as well as other transmitted texts and the oracle inscriptions discovered in Zhouyuan not long ago, which constitute important evidences showing that the first generations of the Zhou kings worshiped and presented sacrifices to deceased Shang kings in the early Western Zhou, we realize that what is written in ″Baoxun″ reflects to a large extent how the first Zhou kings inherited the Shang political culture and ritual practices. Viewed from this perspective, the sacrificial principle presented in Guoyu and Liji stating that people only presented sacrifices to their own ancestors was not created by King Wen or the Duke of Zhou right after the conquest of the Shang, as was traditionally believed. Rather, it is more likely a later construction by the Zhou people to distinguish the Zhou from its previous dynasty, and that could have occurred most probably after the middle or the late Western Zhou Ritual Reform, a phenomenon well observed through the analysis of the archaeological data available to us nowadays. Moreover, the construction of the two sacrificial systems of the Five Thearchs centering on the Yellow Thearch, known as the Zhou and Qin systems respectively, is identifiable in both transmitted and archaeological information, both dated to the Eastern Zhou Period. This kind of construction was probably related to what Lothar von Falkenhausen calls the Early to Middle Spring and Autumn Period Ritual Restructuring, representing the ambition to reconstruct the Zhou ritual resources so as to continue the efficient rule of the Zhou royal family in the crisis later labeled as the Zhou Ritual Collapse. What distinguishes the Zhou from the Qin system of the Five Thearchs is that the former borrowed more from the tradition in its construction of the sacrificial system, while the latter more willing to keep a distance from the Zhou tradition. If we understand the character zhong in this context, we find that it is surely connected with the rulership succession, denoting the source of legitimacy in this sort of succession, and a reflection of the early Western Zhou inheritance of the Shang political and ritual legacy. In the meantime, however, we should also be aware that the connotation of this character used in the ″Baoxun″ text is a reflection of the thinking of the Eastern Zhou people connected with the Eastern Zhou ritual reconstruction.
引用本文:
张瀚墨. 新出文本与历史真实:王位继承语境下清华简《保训》篇解读及相关问题讨论[J]. 浙江大学学报(人文社会科学版), 2019, 5(2): 129-.
Zhang Hanmo. Newly Discovered Texts and Historical Facts: A Rereading of ″Baoxun″ on Bamboo Strips in the Qinghua University Collection in the Context of Rulership Succession. JOURNAL OF ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY, 2019, 5(2): 129-.