Classical Chinese Texts

Sywndz strove to become the dominant Confucian voice of the early and middle 03c, in rivalry with the Analects school, which was then in decline, and the Mencian school, which was still vigorous. He did much to define the Confucian canon and the ways of studying it, and is a major architect of Han Confucianism. He is also probably the first figure on the Chinese intellectual scene to make his pronouncements in the style of a philosopher, having absorbed from his earliest years the concept of ideas forming a coherent system, a concept which was new at that time.

Title. Given in HS 30 (4/1725, directly following the Mencius) as Sun Chingdz, and there said to consist of 33 pyen (presumably the collation note of Lyou Syang was counted separately). The title Sun Chingdz (which provides a contrast with the "Sundz," otherwise the Art of War) is also found in the Swei Shu bibliography and in the catalogue of Fujiwara Sukeyo. The alternation Sun ~ Sywn is apparently dialectal; it occurs within the text itself and may betoken the presence of different amanuenses. Yang Lyang (Tang; see below) notes that he changed the title to Sywn Chingdz.

Text. The Shr Ji describes the Sywndz writings as containing "several myriad words," which perhaps implies a smaller whole than the present text (76,000 words). The 01c completers of the Shr Ji seem to have drawn upon separate Sywndz essays (notably parts of the present SZ 15 and 19, for SJ 21, but not in their present text order: a section of what is now SZ 15 has been interpolated into material now in SZ 19). This implies a differently ordered, or even an unordered, set of writings. Lyou Syang by his own account winnowed 322 duplicate chapters and established a bibliographically standard 32-chapter text in c019. The archetype of all modern versions is the edition of Yang Lyang (Tang dynasty), which also established the present chapter order. Superior readings are sometimes available from parallel early versions in the Da Dai Li Ji, the Kungdz Jya-yw, and the Shr Ji, and from the abridged extracts in the early Tang anthology Chywn-shu Jr-yau. Quotations in the Han dynasty Han Shr Wai-jwan are highly Mencianized (the most notorious case is the omission of Mencius and Dz-sz from the list of philosophers opposed by Sywndz in SZ 6), and are not to be preferred to alternative early versions.

Size. The HK concordance count for the 32-chapter text is 75,815 words. The total vocabulary is 2,726 words, a ratio of 27.8 to 1.

Form. The Yang Lyang arrangement better brings out the different classes of material. It begins with 2 overview chapters on the nature of learning, and continues with 22 substantive chapters. These are followed by (a) presumed literary works of Sywndz, SZ 25-26; (b) an announced miscellany which on the precedent of Scaliger might be styled Sywndziana, SZ 27; (c) material largely in common with the Kungdz Jya-yw, which we might call Common (if not indeed vulgar) Confucian, SZ 28-29 and 31; and (d) a final chapter containing longer anecdotes of uncertain origin, SZ 32. For the differences between the chapter arrangements of Lyou Syang and Yang Lyang, see the separate page. The Sywndz contains the first Chinese examples of extended expository prose, though not all the chapters in the present work were composed as units; some are merely accumulations of shorter pronouncements on the same general topic. About two dozen of these smaller units have their own titles, and some of them (notably the Syw Gwan, SZ 9:17, which is referred to by name in SZ 20) may originally have been separate texts.

Content. The central 22 chapters (SZ 3-24) consist of disputes with philosophers of Sywndz's time or earlier, expositions of doctrine or of ritual and musical performance, and bits of information about such matters as bureaucratic structure (an example is the separately titled Order of Officialdom or Syw Gwan which is now SZ 9:17).

Type. Accumulated, representing Sywndz's personal file of position papers and interview transcripts, the output of his organized school at Lan-ling, and further material probably collected by that organization after Sywndz's death. The last group depart from Sywndz's otherwise fairly consistent doctrinal boundaries, and represent a broadening of scope. Some chapters, if representing Sywndz's own additions to a topical unit, may be accretional.

Author. Sywn Kwang, also known as Sywn Ching (c0310-c0235; for some persistent confusions, see the separate Career page) is the author, and when not the direct author, probably the presiding figure, for most of the contents. SZ 27-32 are from unknown and probably miscellaneous sources.

Proprietors. Sywndz is known to have had pupils only in his Lan-ling period (from 0254 on), when he held a governorship position under Chu. His office staff in this period probably had some role in the gathering of his work, and perhaps in the production of some of it. The continuance of this proprietary structure after 0238, when Sywndz lost his governorship position but remained in Lan-ling, is the simplest explanation that will account for the added material, but it is not strictly necessary. In any case, the Sywndz writings as we now know them seem not to have existed as a single text in early Han.

Date. Sywndz seems to have begun producing text shortly after reaching maturity, about 0285. This is the immediately post-Sung period of the 03rd century. According to SJ 74, he continued to write or edit earlier writings in Lan-ling, after the 0238 loss of his Chu governorship (itself a consequence of the death of his patron Chun-shvn Jywn in a Chu succession dispute). The resulting span of fifty years (0285-0235) thus contains the composition dates for whatever in the Sywndz Sywn Ching actually wrote.

Related Texts. Sywndz carried on a more or less hostile dialogue with the thinkers of his time, most of whose works are not now extant. The other half of the human nature debate, however (SZ 23) is preserved in MC 6A, and there is perhaps a parallel also between the antiquity claims argued in SZ 18 and the antiquity disputes reflected in MC 5. The Mician positions which Sywndz opposed in SZ 19 and 20 are articulated in the extant Mwodz corpus. In his early years, Sywndz shows a steady awareness of both the mature DDJ and the emerging Jwangdz, and theories of those texts need to take account of what fractions of them seemingly were and were not available to Sywndz during in his lifetime. The overlap of the post-Sywndz material with the present Kungdz Jya-yw has already been noted.

Transmission. There is no evidence for a book before Lyou Syang put together the materials available to him at the end of Han. This version remained standard until the chapters were rearranged by Yang Lyang in Tang. For details of later editions, see Loewe.

Importance. Sywndz is not an amiable figure, but he is undeniably important as a philosopher in his own time, and as marking a stage in the formation of the Confucian canon and in the use made of it in the Confucian tradition. For his intellectual influence in Han, see Karlgren. His position in the transmission genealogies of several of the classical texts needs revaluation; many such claims may be based on his later prestige rather than on any role Sywndz actually played.

Commentaries. Yang Lyang is sensitive and helpful. The modern standard commentary is the one by Wang Syen-chyen (1891), which includes some of Yang's notes. Knoblock adds useful information and a balanced appreciation of the tendency and value of Sywndz's position.

Translations. Dubs (1928) omits SZ 3, 12-14, and 24-32, and abridges several chapters which he includes. He also excises the anti-Mencian conclusion of SZ 6. The exclusion of the literary and miscellaneous material is defensible, but removing 3 and 12-14 is a flaw; it lets Dubs treat Sywndz purely as a philosopher (he offers Sywndz as China's answer to Aristotle; this was from Sinology's inferiority complex period) rather than as a social engineer. The result is a distortion of Sywndz, and of the character of early Chinese thought in general. Watson (1963) gives a selection of chapters (SZ 1-2, 9, 15, 17, and 19-23) in his usual fluid and unannotated style, observing the Dubs exclusions and going them one or two better. Knoblock translates everything, though with minimal commentary for SZ 25-32. Also notable is the Japanese translation by Kanaya Osamu (1961-1962).

Citation Convention. By SJ chapter number, and usefully also by the within-chapter section numbering of Knoblock. This differs, not always advantageously, from the paragraph divisions in the HK concordance, but it will be soonest superseded by something better if it is subjected to regular and serious use. The reference for what one of the separate segments now comprising SZ 19 would then be:

Groundplan. The Yang Lyang arrangement is probably the best one that can be made of the extant material; the points at which Lyou Syang differed from it thus deserve special attention. Sywndz himself probably kept his own papers arranged by topic, and added new material to the topic rather than to the accumulation at large; that is, he is likelier to have followed the Mwodz model than the Gwandz model.

Interpolations. There are none of consequence that may not be explained as artifacts of assembly on Lyou Syang's part. Knoblock was wrong to follow the Shr Ji order of material in SZ 19.

Literary Character. Sywndz is sometimes irate (in which cases he can get himself into an awkward argumentative hole), sometimes merely expository (as in much of the ritual material), and sometimes rises to heights of eloquence that are clearly intentional; such moments are especially common at the ends of sections, and serve as a formal alternative to a concluding classical or other quotation or a summary finding, which are his other two ways of ending a piece. Study of Sywndz's conclusion formulas leads to the discovery that Sywndz's preferred statement was short rather than long; his extended essays such as the one on Heaven or against Mician ideas of music are thus exceptional. With allowances for his different modes of rhetoric, he shows reasonable stylistic consistency.

Chronology. For our ranking of the authorial Sywndzian philosophical writings in chronological order, see the separate page.

Sources. To be accounted for are Sywndz's familiarity with the Shr (and to a lesser extent the Shu), and his obviously close and performative knowledge of sacrificial practice, including the associated music and dance. The sources of his unattributed quotations are unknown and unlikely to be discovered, but their character nevertheless deserves investigation. Sywndz's Confucianism appears to be in part a sort of conservative country parson's Confucianism, reflecting the early or 05c portion of the Analects, but combined with an acquaintance with more recent home school developments (the 04c and early 03c part of the Analects). All this can seemingly be accounted for by assuming that Sywndz's early teacher was a master of the Shr who also had contacts with the ritual experts in the Lu capital. The name given to this person in one of the two extant transmission genealogies for the Shr is Gvn Moudz of Lu. Nothing is known of this Gvn Moudz, but the name will do to identify the teacher here inferred. If the lineage of the Shr had diverged from the Analects main line in the way that this transmission genealogy said it did, namely with Dzvngdz's second son Dzvng Shvn who went from Lu to Wei, then the notably early character of Sywndz's sense of Confucius is explained. His acquaintance with the later school, itself located in Lu, like his acquaintance with the northern Mencian successor school (he seems to have been less aware of the southern or Tvng school), is easily accounted for by simple contemporary contact.

Authenticity. Early modern judgements of authenticity are typically confused with judgements of orthodoxy or suitability; this is merely a waste of time. Such judgements also tend to assume that internal contradictions require separate authorship, overlooking the possibility of changes in Sywndz's position over 50 years. Hu Shr thought SZ 17 and 21-23 were the essential Sywndz, which is a fairly standard appreciation, though it leans toward the philosophical and scants the liturgical side of Sywndz. Gwo Mwo-rwo regarded SZ 9 and 20 as products of Sywndz's later school and SZ 7 and 14 as of Han date. And so on. The whole subject needs a singlemindedly stylistic approach, which it has not so far received.

Ritual. Sato (2003), like others before him, but in contrast to the Hu Shr tendency, takes ritual (li) as the only significant principle in Sywndz. This is a gross oversimplification: Sywndz is a philosopher of society, and in that philosophy, he makes much use of his acquaintance with ritual, which he elevates to the status of a constitutive principle.

Human Nature. Many have focused on Sywndz's position that "human nature is evil" (SZ 23), along with the denunciation of "Dz-sz and Mencius" (in SZ 6) as defining him, and also as damning him in the eyes of an increasingly pro-Mencian and pro-Dz-sz posterity (to Dz-sz are attributed some of the most popular of the short cultivation tracts, and Mencius invites the learned persons of later ages to construe themselves as they would like to be, namely, as morally superior beings. But the human nature detail is merely part of Sywndz's philosophy of personal becoming, which in turn is part of his philosophy of social becoming. If read more comprehensively, Sywndz shows a great deal of original common ground with the Mencians, which partly explains the irascibility with which he pursued his few but constitutive points of difference with them. As for his doctrine that human nature requires work, and in all but exceptional cases requires outside models to guide the work, no third-grade teacher of the present age will have the heart to disagree. All other opinions are armchair opinions.

Philosophy. Dubs (see above) sought to construe Sywndz as a philosopher who can be mapped onto the Greek-based Western conception of what a philosopher does. Sywndz is certainly the Chinese figure on whom that job may most readily be attempted, but it violates his character in context. Sywndz belongs to the tradition of Chinese social engineering, and is engaged with the social and political problems of his time; the contemplative character which Dubs invites us to attribute to him is not really present, and if we do accept it, we will find Sywndz's energy, and indeed his combativeness, simply unintelligible.

The above analysis invites a more broad and comprehensive understanding of Sywndz, part of which is an understanding of how his major topics were presented to him by the issues of his time, and also of the urgency which the wars of the time imparted to their correct solution. The School of Plato, in the forged propaganda document called the Seventh Epistle, sought to persuade the parents of future students that what the school taught was a good background for a career in practical politics. The tradition of Sywndz needed no Seventh Epistle to present him as the successful servant of a major power (Chu), and it is well known that among his students, Li Sz was the even more successful servant of a still more major power (Chin). Sywndz is not so much a failed Aristotle as he is the philosopher that Plato was trying to be: the one with the right of determination over a still emerging concept of social order. Let the Greeks, or at any rate the Hellenists, match this stature if they think they can.

Research. Attractive topics include the sources of Lyou Syang's arrangement of the Sywndz material, and the nature of Sywndz's now unidentifiable quotations. On the substantive side, the exact chronology and causes of Sywndz's departure from an initial position close to that of the Mencians. There are several unsolved single chapter questions, such as the relation of the material on Sung Kvng to the rest of SZ 18 (in which no opponents are openly identified). See also above, passim.