Chronology 2
This table is a more realistic version of the simple Chronology 1 overview. It moves a step closer to Warring States reality, though it is still much simpler than the whole of that reality. Here, the Mwodz is represented by two of its four strands: the ethical chapters (MZ 1-39) and the Lu anecdotal chapters (MZ 46-50). The later Mencius is also separated into its two strands: the older southern school (MC 1-3), which emphasized statecraft, and the offshoot, the more theoretical northern school (MC 4-7), which is the one that modern philosophers like. Some additional texts or parts of texts are shown in the Miscellaneous column. They are: the Bamboo Annals (BA), Dzwo Jwan (DJ), Gwo Yw (GY), Gwandz (GZ), Han Feidz (HFZ), Jwangdz (JZ), Lw-shr Chun/Chyou (LSCC), and Sywndz (SZ). A few Han texts, and Han continuations of earlier texts, are added for balance. Real world events which left traces in one or more of the texts are shown as cutting across all the text formation columns. It should be noted that dates of text chapters are mostly approximate; for more precise results (though most of them are still circa dates), see the Journal.
Year
Analects
Mwodz
Lu Mwodz
Miscellaneous
Dau/Dv Jing
N Mencius
S Mencius
0479
Death of Confucius
0479
LY 4
0470
LY 5
0460
LY 6
0455
Dzvngdz becomes head of Confucian school in Lu; gives it markedly different character
0450
LY 7
0436
Death of Dzvngdz
0436
LY 8
0435
Dzvngdz's son Dzvng Ywaen becomes head of Confucian school in Lu; politically successful
0420
0410
LY 9
0400
Dz-sz and Kung family take over Confucian school in Lu; character of Analects changes
0390
MZ 17
DJ Layer 1 (Lu)
0380
LY 10
MZ 14, 20
DJ Layer 2 (Lu)
0370
MZ 11, 21
0360
New and vigorous ruler begins reign in Chi
0360
LY 11
MZ 18
GZ 1D, 7D (Chi)
0360 DJ Layer 3 (Lu) 0350
MZ 26
DDJ 14
0342
Chi ruler assumes title of King following victory over Ngwei in 0343
0340 GZ 1C, 2D, 3D, 7C DDJ 15-17 0335
MZ 15, 8
0330 DJ Layer 4 (Lu) DDJ 19-23, 11 0330 MZ 25 DDJ 10-9, 23-24 0326 LY 12 MZ 19 0322
LY 13
DDJ 8-7
0321
Mencius leaves Confucian school of Lu for independent career; goes to Ngwei
0320
MZ 32, 12
MZ 46
GZ 1B, 2B, 3E, 7B
MC 1A1
0319 MZ 35 MC 1A6 0318 MC 1B1 0317 LY 2 MZ 9 DJ Layer 5 (Chi) MC 1B16 0314 MC 1B9 0313
Yen Incident ends with expulsion of Chi; Mencius, disgraced, leaves Chi
0312 DJ finished (Chi) MC 1B10, 12 0310
LY 14
MZ 16
MZ 47:1
DDJ 30-37
MC 1B13-15
0305 LY 15 MZ 47:8-9 Gwo Yw (Jin) 0303 MZ 27 MZ 47:15 0300 DDJ 39-47 MC 4A MC 2A 0299
MZ 31
BA (Ngwei)
0296 Ngwei Syang-wang's tomb contains Bamboo Annals, Mu Tyendz Jwan, Shr Chun 0295 DDJ 48-52 0294 LY 1 0290 MZ 37 MC 4B 0287
MZ 39
DDJ 66
0286 Chi conquers Sung; it is later expelled by several other states. 0285 LY 16 MZ 48:1 0282
Approximate date of Gwodyen Tomb 1; implies a DDJ containing only DDJ 1-66)
0282 MZ 28 MZ 48:4-5 MC 5A 0280
MZ 36
MZ 48:6-7
DDJ 70
MC 2B
0275 MZ 48:8 JZ 9:2 DDJ 72 0274 MZ 10 MC 5B 0272 MZ 13 MZ 48:12 JZ: 4:5-6 DDJ 73A 0270
LY 17
MZ 7
MZ 48:22
SZ 23, JZ 9:1
DDJ 73B
MC 6A
0265 MZ 6 DDJ 74-75 0262 LY 18 MZ 5 MZ 49:2-5 JZ 4:4-7 DDJ 76 MC 6B 0260
MZ 4
JZ 9, 12, 25
DDJ 77
0257 MZ 3 DDJ 78-79 MC 7A 0254
Chu conquers part of Lu; Sywndz is made governor of newly conquered territory
0253 LY 19 MZ 2 MZ 49:13 DDJ 80 MC 7B MC 3A 0250
LY 20
MZ 1
MZ 50
JZ 4:1-3
DDJ 81
MC 3B
0249
Chu conquers rest of Lu; Confucian and Dauist texts in that area cease operation
0245 0240
LSCC 1-12 (Chin)
0235 0230
HFZ 3 (Chin)
0221
Chin unifies other states into Chinese Empire
0220
LSCC 13-20
0210
First Emperor dies; is succeeded by Chin Second Emperor
0209
LSCC 21-26
0206
Chin empire breaks up; several years of war lead to founding of Han dynasty
0200 HFZ 4-13 0190 HFZ 14-19 0180 Han Wvn-di and Han court vogue for Dauism 0180 HFZ 20-21 Laudz 0170 HFZ 22-32 0160 HFZ 35 HNZ 1-9 0150 HFZ 51-52 HNZ 10-20 Han Wu-di takes charge of Han intellectual as well as political policy; end of Han court Dauism 0140 Shr Ji begun HFZ 53-55 HNZ 21 0130 0120 0110 Szma Tan dies 0100 090 Szma Chyen dies Later
Shr Ji completed
To take some examples mentioned in the Summary page, it should now be clear:
- . . . why Dzvngdz (whose death, in 0436, is described in LY 8) is mentioned by the respectful term Dzvngdz "Master Dzvng" (but only in later chapters). He was one of the heads of the school after Confucius, and is remembered as such by still later members of the school. This does make the whole Analects a late text; parts of it are older than Dzvngdz, and probably go back to Confucius.
- . . . why the middle Analects and the early Gwandz share whole sentences, and discuss the same issues. They are 04c contemporaries, engaged in a debate on the nature of society. Confucius never heard of those issues, but they were important to his later school.
- . . . how the Analects (LY 17) and the Mwodz (MZ 48) can be in a seeming two-way dialogue; those strata too were contemporary, and each text recorded its half of the exchange. We can recover the whole exchange only by putting the pieces together in a single inclusive structure. The above chart is that structure.
- . . . how the Analects (LY 18) and the Jwangdz (JZ 4) can share material. The Analects is copying an anti-Confucian story from the Jwangdz, but with a twist which makes Confucius the winner. The later passages in JZ 4 actually accept the Analects verdict, by agreeing that public service is important (even if dangerous), and by making Confucius their teacher in that dangerous situation.
- . . . where the Gwodyen tomb (c0282) containing the Chu DDJ text comes, in the large chronological scheme of things, and why that text contains nothing higher than DDJ 66.
To say what else becomes clear would outrun the desirable length of this page. Everything becomes clear. The accretion pattern for each text is reasonable (addition at either the head or tail of the previous manuscript, or both), any dialogue relations between two texts appear when they should, with the relevant text segments being contemporary. The chart as a whole gives a developmentally plausible historical picture. The tests for a successful chronological construct are met.
That being so, we might eventually hope for an entirely new history of Chinese literature, based on philologically examined texts and on the sounder of the traditions about them and their authors, and illustrating the flow of historical time behind the texts, as well as clarifying the specific character of each text. While we wait, our current picture of that history, prepared in 2007 at the request of Christoph Harbsmeier for the Heidelberg-based Thesaurus Linguae Sinicae, and slightly updated in 2013, may be seen on the following Overview page:
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