Lüshi Chunqiu

Dating

Terminologies in the text still supported a traditional late pre-imperial Warring States period compilation in 2021, with earlier scholarship considering the listed date of circa 239 BCE satisfactory without disagreement.

The earliest and "most instructive" direct reference to the Lushi Chunqiu is in the early Han Shiji; the abbreviated title Lülan also derives from the Shiji (ch.130). But the early Han text Huainanzi also makes extensive use of the Lushi Chunqiu. The much later Han Gao You is the Lushi Chunqiu's earliest and most well known commentator.

Early linguistic investigations were performed by Richard Wilhelm and Naitō Torajirō, with Michael F. Carson (1980) discussing "some characteristic features of grammar and style in a third century b.c. text".

Translations

Before John Knoblock and Jeffrey Riegel's translation (2001), Michael Loewe (1993) states that the only complete translation (into a European language) was Richard Wilhelm's (German) translation, "Frühling und Herbst des Lü Bu we; aus dem Chinesischen verdeutscht und erläutert; Jena: Eugen Diederichs, 1928; reprinted, with a new preface by Hellmut Wilhelm, 1971."

There were also several Japanese translations; "Kokuyaku kambun taisei, no. 20, 1924, edited by Fujita Toyohachi; Kambun sōsho, 1928, edited by Okada Masayuki; Chūgoku koten shinsho, 1976, edited by Uchino Kumaichirō and Nakamura Shōhachi.'

Background

The Shiji (chap. 85, p. 2510) biography of Lü Buwei has the earliest information about the Lüshi Chunqiu. Lü was a successful merchant from Handan who befriended King Zhuangxiang of Qin. The king's son Zheng, who the Shiji suggests was actually Lü's son, eventually became the first emperor Qin Shi Huang in 221BC. When Zhuangxiang died in 247BC, Lü was made regent for the 13-year-old Zheng. In order to establish Qin as the intellectual center of China, Lü "recruited scholars, treating them generously so that his retainers came to number three thousand". In 239BC, he, in the words of the Shiji:

According to the Shiji, Lü exhibited the completed text at the city gate of Xianyang, capital of Qin, and above it a notice offering a thousand measures of gold to any traveling scholar who could add or subtract even a single word.

The Hanshu Yiwenzhi listed the Lüshi Chunqiu as belonging to the Zajia (; 'mixed school'), within the philosophers' domain (諸子略), or Hundred Schools of Thought. Although this text is frequently characterized as "syncretic", "eclectic", or "miscellaneous", it was a cohesive summary of contemporary philosophical thought, including Legalism, Confucianism, Mohism, and Daoism.

Contents

The title uses chunqiu () to mean 'annals; chronicle' in a reference to the Confucianist Spring and Autumn Annals, which chronicles the State of Lu history from 722–481 BC.

The text comprises 26 juan () in 160 pian (), and is divided into three major parts.

1. The Ji () comprises books 112, which corresponds to the months of the year, and lists appropriate seasonal activities to ensure that the state runs smoothly. This part, which was copied as the Liji chapter Yueling, takes many passages from other texts, often without attribution.
2. The Lan () comprises books 1320, which each have 8 sections. This is the longest and most eclectic part, giving quotations from many early texts, some no longer extant.
3. The Lun () comprises books 2126, which mostly deal with rulership, except for the final four sections about agriculture. This part resembles the Lan in composition.

Integrity of the text

The composition's features, measure of completeness (i.e. the veracity of the Shiji account) and possible corruption of the original Annals have been subjects of scholarly attention. It has been mentioned that the Almanacs have much greater integrity and thematic organization than the other two parts of the text.

The Yuda (諭大) chapter of the Examinations, for example, contains text almost identical to the Wuda (務大) chapter of the Discourses, though in the first case it is ascribed to Jizi (季子), and in the second to Confucius.

Major positions

Admitting the difficulties of summarizing the Lüshi Chunqiu, John Knoblock and Jeffrey Riegel list 18 major points:

1. Affirmation of self-cultivation and impartiality
2. Rejection of hereditary ruler over the empire
3. Stupidity as the cause of hereditary rule
4. Need for government to honor the concerns of the people
5. The central importance of learning and teachers
6. Support and admiration for learning as the basis of rule
7. Non-assertion on the part of the ruler
8. Primary task for a ruler is to select his ministers
9. Need for a ruler to trust the expertise of his advisers
10. Need for a ruler to practice quiescence
11. The attack on Qin practices
12. Just warfare
13. Respect for civil arts
14. Emphasis on agriculture
15. Facilitating trade and commerce
16. Encouraging economy and conservation
17. Lightening of taxes and duties
18. Emphasis on filial piety and loyalty. The Lüshi chunqiu is an invaluable compendium of early Chinese thought and civilization.

Impartialist militarism

While an invaluable compendium "accommodating diverse textual traditions", a militarist section of the work takes a "multiplicity of views" as dangerous to the Qin state if listened to too much, though it withholds judgment of Laozi, Confucius, Mozi, Yang Zhu, or Sun Bin, resorting to a "military model" comparable to the Art of War rather than an ideology. Likely not considering it useful as a comparative, in the early Han, Sima Tan didn't include militarism as a school. But militarism is a major viewpoint of the Qin, that is, its stratocracy.

To unify the ears [of one's troops], use metal drums. To unify their minds, make standards and commands the same. To unify their intelligence, keep the wise from being crafty and the stupid from being clumsy. To unify their strength, keep the brave from going ahead and the cowardly from lagging behind.}}

While the Lushi Chunqiu considers learning and teachers of central importance as if its fifth major point, as noted under Major Positions, John Knoblock includes filial piety as its last major point, and wu wei as its seventh. But "Affirmation of self-cultivation and impartiality" is its first position. While the work does encourage the ruler to listen to ministers, its own priorities consist of such mundane positions as facilitating agriculture, trade and commerce, thrift, and reducing taxes.

Although Qin's Shang Yang, the Han Feizi or Sima Qian's Li Si in the Shiji are less tolerant, Yuri Pines (Stanford Encyclopedia) analysis of them is similar to Smith, discussing some of the same material. The much earlier Shang Yang was anti-intellectual but did not actually care about the content of doctrines. Not "adoring" a martial spirit, he was concerned with recruiting farmers and soldiers, inculcating militarist regulations rather than values. Li Si isn't specifically anti-Confucian, so much as he is simply authoritarian. Opposing the "discourses of the former kings" in favor of teaching law in Chapter 49, the Han Feizi's Chapter 50 resorts to simply having the king promulgate and prohibit doctrines, whatever they may be. By comparison, they cared more about state control, but still not doctrinal unity. Despite the later term Chinese Legalism, they do not provide an ideological alternative.

Daoistic syncretism

While stratocracy represented in the Lush Chunqiu may not specifically favor Laozi, Hansen (Stanford Encyclopedia) argues China's officialdom as becoming more Huang-Lao "Daoistic", lacking in Zhuangzi influences. Though the Confucian archivists classify the Lushi Chunqiu as Zajia ("Syncretist") rather than Daojia ("Daoism") or Fajia ("Legalism"), in the terms of old scholarship, the work incorporates a "Daoist-Legalist" fusion comparable to Shen Buhai, Shen Dao, Han Fei, Guanzi and the Mawangdui Huangdi sijing. With an example from the chapter "Ren shu", the work demonstrates that a philosophy promoting the wu wei reduced activity of the ruler goes back to the Warring States period.

While the Lushi Chunqiu does incorporate a selection from Shen Buhai's doctrine, Shen Buhai or the Han Feizi by comparison do not literally promote the ruler's inactivity. Ren shu says:

Correction bounty

The Shiji tells that after Lü Buwei presented the finished Lüshi Chunqiu for the public at the gate of Xianyang and announced that anyone could correct the book's content would be awarded 1000 taels of gold for every corrected word. This event lead to the Chinese idiom "One word [is worth] a thousand gold" ().

None of the contemporary scholars pointed out any mistakes in the work, although later scholars managed to detect a number of them. It is believed that Lü's contemporaries were able to detect the book's inaccuracies, but none dared to openly criticize a powerful figure like him.

Reception

Scholar Liang Qichao (1873–1929) stated: "This book, through the course of two thousand years, has had no deletions nor corruptions. Moreover, it has the excellent commentary of Gao You. Truly it is the most perfect and easily read work among the ancient books." Liang's position, mildly criticized afterwards, was dictated by the lack of canonical status ascribed to the book.

References

;Footnotes

;Works cited

• Knoblock, John and Riegel, Jeffrey. 2000. The Annals of Lü Buwei: A Complete Translation and Study. Stanford: Stanford University Press. .
• Sellmann, James D. 2002. Timing and Rulership in Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals (Lüshi chunqiu). Albany: State University of New York Press.

References

1. Sellman, James D.. (2002). "Timing and Rulership in Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals". State University of New York Press.
2. Sellman, James D.. (1998). "Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy". Taylor & Francis.
3. Lundahl 1992. p130
4. Tao Jiang names [[Dao]][[De (Chinese). de]] 道德, Xingming 性命, and Jingshen 精神 as late Warring States terminologies, earlier discussed by Xiaogan Liu 1994: p14. In this case, Xingming is different from the [[Han Feizi]]'s "form and name" [[Xingming]], though it does have a related ming-shi "name and reality" doctrine: Goldin 2005. p185
5. Knoblock and Riegel (2000:13)
6. Knoblock and Riegel (2000:14)
7. Knoblock and Riegel (2000:46–54)
8. Knoblock and Riegel (2000:46–54)
9. Stephen W. Durrant, "The Cloudy Mirror", p.80