1 The manuscript as a whole is titled by the editors as Zhuangwang ji Cheng – Shengong Chen Lingwang 莊王既成·紳（申）公臣靈王, see Shanghai Bowuguan Cang Chuzhushu 6 上海博物館藏楚竹書（6）, ed. Ma Chengyuan 馬承源 (Shanghai: Shanghai Guji, 2007) 61–74 (images), 237–52 (transcription). As noted by Chen Wei 陳偉, “Shangbo Liu Tiaoji” 上博六條記, Jianbo Wang 簡帛網 2007.07.09, http://www.bsm.org.cn/show_article.php?id=597, the title of the second anecdote should read chen 陳 for shen 紳, and Chengong 陳公 refers to Chuanfeng Xu 穿封戌. The translation “Deputy” for yin here follows Stephen Durrant, Li Wai-Yee, and David Schaberg (tr.), Zuo Tradition [Zuozhuan 左傳]: Commentary on the ‘Spring and Autumn Annals,’ 3 vols. (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2016), e.g., 646–647. In this article we refer to the manuscript as a whole by the title given on the manuscript, i.e. Zhuangwang ji Cheng.

2 For scholarship on early anecdotes see especially Schaberg, David, “Chinese history and philosophy”, in The Oxford History of Historical Writing, vol. I: Beginnings to AD 600, ed. Feldherr, Andrew and Hardy, Grant (Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2011), 394–414Google Scholar, and the studies in van Els, Paul and Queen, Sarah (eds), Between History and Philosophy: Anecdotes in Early China (New York: State University of New York Press, 2017)Google Scholar and Chen, Jack and Schaberg, David (eds), Idle Talk: Gossip and Anecdote in Early China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013)Google Scholar. Reign dates in this article follow Du Jianmin 杜建民, Zhongguo lidai diwang shixi nianbiao 中國歷代帝王世系年表 (Jinan: Qi Lu shushe, 1995).

3 Volume 4 of the Shanghai Museum manuscripts features two anecdotes on King Zhao 昭 of Chu (r. 515–489 bce), *Zhaowang huishi – Zhaowang yu Gong zhi Zhui 昭王毀室 · 昭王與龔之脽 on a single manuscript, and volume 6 contains yet two more anecdotes on King Ping 平 of Chu (r. 528–516 bce), *Pingwang wen Zhengshou 平王問鄭夀, *Pingwang yu Wangzi Mu 平王與王子木, also on a single manuscript. Please note here that titles marked with an asterisk were given by the editors of the manuscript. We are currently preparing a study on these materials as a set. Fukuda Tetuyuki 福田哲之, “Biebi he pianti – Shangbo liu suo shou Chuwang gushi si zhang de biancheng” 別筆和篇題—上博（六）所收楚王故事四章的編成, Jianbo Wang 簡帛網 2008.11.15, http://www.bsm.org.cn/show_article.php?id=896, is one of the few authors to discuss the phenomenon explicitly and calls them, perhaps deliberately vaguely, “a text group in two sections” (二章一組文獻 ),which can be taken to mean a multi-text manuscript or a composite text. All other discussions we have seen assume that the manuscripts contain two distinct texts.

4 Note for example the care with which similar distinctions were made in the Qin bureaucracy for reasons of legibility, economy and controlling the spread of documents. See Thies Staack, “Single- and multi-piece manuscripts in early Imperial China: on the background and significance of a terminological distinction”, Early China 41, 2018, 1–51. Following this line of argument, it could therefore quite simply be reasons of economy that prompted the writing out of two short texts on a single roll.

5 On the continuum between these two modes of engaging the past, see Grethlein, Jonas, Experience and Teleology in Ancient Historiography: “Futures Past” from Herodotus to Augustine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), esp. 1–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Carr, David, Experience and History: Phenomenological Perspectives on the Historical World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 55–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 Li Songru 李松儒, Zhanguo Jianbo Ziji Yanjiu – yi Shangbojian wei Zhongxin 戰國簡帛字跡研究—以上博簡為中心 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji, 2015), 283.

7 The slips measure 33.1 to 33.9 cm long, 0.6 cm wide, and 0.12 cm thick and have straight-cut ends. They were originally bound together horizontally with two strings, spaced at intervals of 8.9–9.5|15|9.2–9.5 cm respectively.

8 Gao Youren (Kao You-ren) 高佑仁, “Shanghai Chujian Zhuang, Ling, Ping San Wang Yanjiu” 上博楚簡莊、靈、平三王研究 (PhD Thesis, National Cheng Kung University, 2011), 351–2.

9 Including Kings Zhuang 莊 (r. 613–591 bce, Zhuangwang ji Cheng, *Zhengzi Jia Sang 鄭子家喪), Ling 靈 (r. 540–529, *Chengong Chen Lingwang, *Lingwang Sui Shen 靈王遂申), Ping 平 (r. 528–516, *Pingwang Wen Zhengshou, *Pingwang yu Wangzi Mu, *Chengong Zhi Bing 陳公治兵), Zhao 昭 (r. 515–489, *Zhaowang Hui Shi – Zhaowang yu Gong zhi Zhui, *Jun Ren zhe he bi An zai 君人者何必安哉, *Wang Ju 王居), Hui 惠 (r. 488–432, *Ming 命, *Wang Ju), Jian 簡 (r. 431–408, *Jianda Wang Bo Han 簡大王泊旱), see Gao Youren, “Shanghai Chujian San Wang Yanjiu”, 9 for a tabulation.

10 Note also possible similarities either in content and form or in terms of physical characteristics that have been noted for the *Neili 內禮 and *Xizhe Junlao 昔者君老, See Li Songru, Zhanguo Jianbo Ziji Yanjiu, 292–9, in particular 297–9. She suggests that the script style (書體) and the physical characteristics of the manuscripts are very close, to form something of a house style. See also Gao Youren, “Shanghai Chujian San Wang Yanjiu”, 43–4.

11 For an overview see Li Songru, Zhanguo Jianbo Ziji Yanjiu, 382–8.

12 For an extensive discussion of these latter manuscripts and their reorganization and handwriting, see Li Songru, Zhanguo Jianbo Ziji Yanjiu, 379–90, and Gao Youren, “Shanghai Chujian San Wang Yanjiu”, 28–44. In short, one hand wrote Zhuangwang ji Cheng and *Pingwang Wen Zhengshou; the latter manuscript roll continues with *Pingwang yu Wangzi Mu, written in a different hand; and a third hand wrote *Wang Ju and *Ming, likely appearing together on a separate roll with similar physical characteristics to the roll with the King Ping stories.

13 Kunihiro Yuasa 湯淺邦弘, “Taizi de ‘Zhi’ – Shangbo Chujian Pingwang yu Wangzi Mu” 太子的“知”—上博楚 簡平王與王子木, Bulletin of Chinese Studies 中國研究集刊 45, 2007, 57–65. Trans. in Kunihiro Yuasa 湯淺邦弘, Bai Yutian 白雨田, Zhujian Xue: Zhongguo Gudai Sixiang Tanjiu 竹簡學:中國古代思想探究 (Shanghai: Dongfang chubanshe, 2017), 2.3.

14 For example, the scribe responsible for the long-slipped manuscript *Zhengzi Jia Sang B was also responsible for the shorter-slipped set including Zhuangwang ji Cheng. Similar crossovers occur throughout the set.

15 Ling, Li 李零, Jianbo Gushu yu Xueshu Yuanliu 簡帛古書與學術源流 (Beijing: Sanlian shushe, 2004), 274Google Scholar.

16 For a rearrangement of these materials according to the physical characteristics of the manuscript, see Wei, Chen 陳偉, Guodian Zhushu Bieshi 郭店竹書別釋 (Wuhan: Hubei jiaoyu chubanshe, 2003), 83–207Google Scholar. For an early discussion, see Allan, Sarah and Williams, Crispin (eds), The Guodian Laozi: Proceedings of the International Conference, Dartmouth College, May 1998 (Berkeley: The Society for the Study of Early China, 2000), 123–5Google Scholar. For an understanding of the materials as reflecting the ideas of Zisi 子思, see Tao, Liang 梁濤, Guodian Zhujian yu Simeng Xuepai 郭店竹簡與思孟學派 (Beijing: Zhongguo renmin daxue chubanshe, 2008)Google Scholar and the critical discussion of such views in Csikszentmihalyi, Mark, Material Virtue: Ethics and the Body in Early China (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 86–103Google Scholar.

17 Ling, Li 李零, Shangbo Chujian San Pian Jiaodu Ji 上博楚簡三篇校讀記 (Beijing: Zhongguo renmin daxue chubanshe, 2007), 5–9Google Scholar.

18 Richter, Matthias, The Embodied Text: Establishing Textual Identity in Early Chinese Manuscripts (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 11–12CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 For the problem of delineating textual identity see Richter, The Embodied Text, and Meyer, Dirk, Philosophy on Bamboo: Text and the Production of Meaning in Early China (Leiden: Brill, 2011), 209–26Google Scholar. On the problem of working with unprovenanced manuscripts, such as those under discussion, from an ethical and methodological standpoint see Goldin, Paul R., “Heng Xian and the problem of studying looted artifacts”, Dao 12, 2013, 153–60Google Scholar; Foster, Christopher J., “Introduction to the Peking University Han bamboo strips: on the authentication and study of purchased manuscripts”, Early China 40, 2017, 232–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20 For the question of multi-text manuscripts see the studies in Friedrich, Michael and Schwarke, Cosima (eds), One-Volume Libraries: Composite and Multi-Text Manuscripts (Berlin: DeGruyter, 2016)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. In Chinese-language discussions multi-text manuscripts are often referred to as “miscellanies” (雜抄). On composite texts see Boltz, William G., “The composite nature of early Chinese texts”, in Kern, Martin (ed.), Text and Ritual in Early China (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2005), 50–78Google Scholar; Schwermann, Christian, “Collage-Technik als Kompositionsprinzip klassischer chinesischer Prosa: Der Aufbau des Kapitels ‘Tāng wèn’ (Die Fragen des Tāng) im Liè zǐ”, in Behr, Wolfgang and Gentz, Joachim (eds), Komposition und Konnotation: Figuren des Kunstprosa im alten China (Bochum: Bochumer Jahrbuch zur Ostasienforschung 2005), 125–60Google Scholar.

21 Pines, Both Yuri, “Zhou history and historiography: introducing the bamboo manuscript Xinian”, T'oung Pao 100, 4–5, 2014, 287–324CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Milburn, Olivia, “The Xinian: an ancient historical text from the Qinghua University collection of bamboo books”, Early China 39, 2016, 53–109CrossRefGoogle Scholar, have argued for the composite nature of the *Xinian, integrating different source texts to form a composite of, among others, Chu and Jin perspectives on events in Chunqiu and Warring States history.

22 Qinghua Daxue Cang Zhanguo Zhujian (2) 清華大學藏戰國竹簡(貳), ed. Li Xueqin 李學勤 (Shanghai: Zhongxi shuju, 2011), 135.

23 Shanghai Bowuguan Cang Zhanguo Chuzhushu 9 上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書(久), ed. Ma Chengyuan 馬承源 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji, 2012), 59–96 (images), 189–235 (transcription).

24 Such similarities become clearer when a larger group of manuscripts from the Shanghai Museum slips, each of which combines two anecdotes on the Chu royal house, are examined together; this will be the subject of a larger study and lies outside the scope of the current article.

25 For the state of the field in rishu scholarship, see Donald Harper and Marc Kalinowski (eds), Books of Fate and Popular Culture in Early China: The Daybook Manuscripts of the Warring States, Qin, and Han (Leiden: Brill, 2017), see especially Liu Lexian's contribution therein for a discussion of the nature of miscellanies (pp. 57–90).

26 Compare for example the inclusion of different Jianchu systems in the Shuihudi rishu, one Qin and one Chu system, see Marc Kalinowski, “Hemerology and prediction in the daybooks: ideas and practice”, in Books of Fate and Popular Culture in Early China, 139.

27 Xiao Yunxiao 肖芸曉, “Shilun Qinghua Zhushu Yi Yin San Pian de Guanlian” 試論清華竹書伊尹三篇的關聯, Jianbo Wang 簡帛網 2013.03.07, http://www.bsm.org.cn/show_article.php?id=1834.

28 For similar observations on the Han dynasty Yinshu 引書 manuscript, see Krijgsman, Rens, “An inquiry into the formation of readership in early China: using and producing the *Yong yue 用曰 and Yinshu 引書 manuscripts”, T'oung Pao 104/1–2, 2018, 2–65CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

29 This saga is related in relatively pithy fashion in Shiji 史記, “Chu Shijia” 楚世家 25–47, esp. 46; see Qian, Sima 司馬遷, Shiji 史記 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1959), 1699–1712Google Scholar. Blakeley, Barry, “Chu society and state: image vs. reality”, in Constance Cook, C. and Major, John S. (eds), Defining Chu: Image and Reality in Ancient China (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999), 62–4Google Scholar, reviews some of the reasons to doubt this traditional image of King Zhuang's accomplishments. For understanding the anecdote in its context, however, the memory of King Zhuang as an accomplished ruler is more relevant than the historical reality of his political position. On the interpretation of Chu's succession difficulties in the Zuozhuan, see ibid., 54–5, as well as the anecdote from Zuozhuan 左傳, Zhao 昭 13, cited therein (see Bojun, Yang 楊伯峻, Chunqiu Zuozhuan zhu 春秋左傳注 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1981), 1350Google Scholar).

30 Shiji, “Chu Shijia”, 1714–8.

31 The set of Shanghai Museum anecdotes as a whole covers the period before this renewed dominance of Chu and therefore, in narrative terms, reads as the gradual decline of Chu power.

32 Reading this as a big bronze bell echoes with the offerings and visits of the lords mentioned in the next line; see Chen Wei, “Shangbo Liu Tiaoji” and Li Xueqin 李學勤, “Du Shangbo Jian Zhuangwang ji Cheng Liang Zhang Biji” 讀上博簡莊王既成兩章筆記, Kongzi 2000, 2007.7.16. For ease of presentation, our edition of the two texts on the manuscript directly incorporates the emendations suggested by Chen Wei and we only mark variants where we follow different readings.

33 Following Su Jianzhou 蘇建洲, “Chudu Shangbo (Liu)” 初讀上博（六）, Jianbo Wang 簡帛網, 2007.07.19, http://www.bsm.org.cn/show_article.php?id=636.

34 Following Su Jianzhou, “Chudu Shangbo (Liu)”.

35 Chen Wei, “Shangbo Liu Tiaoji”, reads as zhuan 專, meaning “full”, followed by Zhou Fengwu 周鳳五, “Shangbo Liu Zhuangwang ji Cheng, Shengong chen Lingwang, Pingwang wen Zhengshou, Pingwang yu Wangzi Mu Xintan” 上博六莊王既成、申公臣靈王、平王問鄭夀、平王與王子木新探, Chuantong Zhongguo Yanjiu Jikan 傳統中國研究集刊 3, 2007, 59 n. 5, who adds references to similar analogies of pushing a cart up a hill. We follow Dong Shan 董珊, “Du Shangbo liu zaji” 讀上博六雜記, Jianbo Wang 簡帛網, 2007.07.10, http://www.bsm.org.cn/show_article.php?id=603 in reading as zhuan 傳 “single” in contrast to the multiple boats below.

36 Following Zhou Fengwu, “Shangbo Liu Xintan”, 58.

37 Read as ke 軻 here and ke 舸 below by the editor; however, the graph is not composed differently. For this problematic graph see the overviews in Song Huaqiang 宋華強, “Shi Shangbo Liu Zhangwang ji Cheng de Chuan” 釋上博六•莊王既成的“船”, Jianghan Kaogu 江漢考古154/1, 2018, 112–4 (who reads as chuan 船) and Gao Youren, “Shanghai Chujian San Wang Yanjiu”, (who reads as hang 航). Our reading follows Zhou Fengwu “Shangbo Liu Xintan”, 59, who expands on the reading in Dong Shan, “Du Shangbo Liu zaji” of hang, meaning a group of boats tied together in a flotilla in contrast to the single cart above.

38 While the chang offerings originally pointed to a particular sacrifice in the autumn, it later came to denote more generally the seasonal offerings in both spring and autumn; see Gao Youren, “Shanghai Chujian San Wang Yanjiu”, 67–8.

39 Chen Wei, “Shangbo Liu Tiaoji” reads this as referring to 4–5 people, while Fan Guodong 凡國棟, “Du Shangbo Chuzhushu Liu Ji” 讀上博楚竹书六記, Jianbo Wang 簡帛網, 2007.07.09, http://www.bsm.org.cn/show_article.php?id=599, takes it as generations, in both cases referring to the kings Ling through Zhao. Most readings understand it as a prophecy about the eventual sacking of the capital Ying. See also Zhou Fengwu, “Shangbo Liu Xintan”, 59. The reason it is “between” four and five is that both Jia'ao 郏敖 and Zi'ao 訾敖 were not incorporated into the royal ancestral line with the title of “king”, instead being referred to by their place of burial and the title “chief” or “mount” (ao 敖); see Yang Bojun, Chunqiu Zuozhuan zhu, 1223–4, Durrant, Li, and Schaberg (trans.), Zuo Tradition, 1332, n. 109 and 1494, n. 610.

40 The story of the bell of King Jing of Zhou 周景王 (r. 544–520 bce) can be found in Zuozhuan, Zhao 21 (Yang Bojun, Chunqiu Zuozhuan zhu, 1423–4), where the improper size of the bell is linked with the endurance of reign (note here that the royal house could no longer afford to cast its own ritual vessels at this point and had to ask them from other states). The size of the Wuyi bell proposed by King Jing is presented as overreaching, causing physical stress and imbalance, and as a result, the inability to prolong one's rule. See also the Guoyu 國語, “Zhouyu xia” 周語下 (Shanghai guji, 1978), 122, wherein the excess and ambition of King Jing is expressed by rendering him as casting a whole set of just wuyi bells (“周景王將鑄無射，而為之大林”) which lose their effectiveness and drain the resources of the state at the same time. Note that a Western Zhou bell 南宮乎鐘 carries the inscription: “Made a big set of harmonious bells; their name is Wuyi” 作大林協鐘，茲名曰無射. See Chen Wei 陳偉, “Shangbo Chuzhushu Zhuangwang ji Cheng Chudu” 上博楚竹書莊王既成初讀, Guwenzi Yanjiu 古文字研究 27, 2008, 485, who also notes this trope occurring for Duke Zhuang of Lu 鲁庄公 in a reference to a Shenzi 慎子 fragment in the Chuxue Ji 初學記 and in the Shanghai Museum Cao Mo zhi Zhen 曹沫之陳. In the latter story, he only casts a mould and has it destroyed later. In this light, the text's use of guo 果 (“managed to, indeed”) seems to highlight this aspect by pointing out that King Zhuang succeeded where others failed.

41 Zuozhuan, Xuan 3, Yang Bojun, Chunqiu Zuozhuan zhu, 669. Here, he also hears that it is not about the (size of) the ding-vessels but about “virtue” (de 德).

42 The Chief of Shen's reluctance perhaps also harks back to a famous anecdote about the beginning of King Zhuang's reign, when the King issued a mandate against criticism, prompting the minister Wu Ju 伍舉 to couch his critique in the form of a metaphor. See Shiji, “Chu shijia”, 1700.

43 Zhou Fengwu, “Shangbo Liu Xintan”, 59.

44 Chen Wei, “Shangbo Liu Tiaoji”, quotes the Huainanzi 淮南子 “Taizu” 泰族:“闔閭伐楚，五戰入郢，燒高府之粟，破九龍之鐘，鞭荊平王之墓，舍昭王之宮。”. Fan Guodong, “Du Shangbo Chuzhushu Liu Ji”, develops this line of argument from the perspective of four to five generations, also arriving at the sacking of Ying (506–505 bce) during the reign of King Zhao. He notes the similarity of this prophecy to others occurring in the Zuozhuan. Kunihiro Yuasa, “Zhuangwang ji Cheng de Yuyan” 莊王既成的預言, in Kunihiro Yuasa and Bai Yutian (trans.), Zhujian Xue: Zhongguo Gudai Sixiang Tanjiu, 89–100, esp. 99, tries in addition to pinpoint the moment of textual composition on the basis of this prophecy, suggesting that the authors of the text introduced ambiguity on purpose so as not to alert readers that the prophecy was contrived later (as opposed to being an accurate historical record of the events in question). As will be clear below, we interpret this ambiguity and the use of prophecy as a narrative device differently.

45 Read as “to the death” 致死 by Chen Wei, “Shangbo Liu Tiaoji” (based on a phrase in Zuozhuan, Zhao 8, quoted below); read as “send” 送 by Li Xueqin, “Du Shangbo Jian Liang Zhang Biji”, in the sense of handing the prisoner over to him.

46 We follow He Youzu 何有祖, “Du Shangbo Liu Zhaji” 讀上博六札記, Jianbo Wang 簡帛網, 2007.07.09, http://www.bsm.org.cn/show_article.php?id=596.

47 Following He Youzu, “Du Shangbo Liu Zhaji”, both terms refer to forms of punishment (block and axe).

48 On Chuanfeng Xu's appointment as Duke of Chen, see Zuozhuan, Zhao 8, quoted below.

49 For this story see Zuozhuan, Xiang 26, Yang Bojun, Chunqiu Zuozhuan zhu, 1115.

50 Zuozhuan, Zhao 8, Yang Bojun, Chunqiu Zuozhuan zhu, 1304. This sequence is clearly related to the middle portion of the manuscript anecdote, and Chuanfeng Xu's answer here sheds some light on possible readings for the difficult term zhi 致 in the corresponding part of the manuscript.

51 Zuozhuan, Zhao 8, Yang Bojun, Chunqiu Zuozhuan zhu, 1304.

52 Rens Krijgsman, “Cultural memory and excavated anecdotes in ‘documentary’ narrative: mediating generic tensions in the Baoxun manuscript”, in van Els and Queen (eds), Between History and Philosophy, 301–29.

53 Schaberg, David, A Patterned Past: Form and Thought in Early Chinese Historiography (Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, 2001), 178CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

54 On the timeline of the Zuozhuan’s formulation, see Durrant, Li, and Schaberg, Zuo Tradition, xx, xxx–xxxi, xxxviii–lix.

55 On the Zuozhuan’s relationship to Warring States textual practices see also Durrant, Li, and Schaberg, Zuo Tradition, “Introduction”, xxxviii–liv.

56 This application of the term “teleology” follows Grethlein, Experience and Teleology in Ancient Historiography, 2.

57 Zuozhuan, Zhao 8; Yang Bojun, Chunqiu Zuozhuan zhu, 1305.

58 On hermeneutic coding, see Barthes, Roland, S/Z (tr. Miller, Richard) (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1974), 18–20Google Scholar.

59 The latter, Bakhtin argued, was the purpose of the peculiar construct of time (or “chronotope” in Bakhtin's terms) in classical Greek romances. See Bakhtin, “Forms of time and of the chronotope in the novel”, cited in Ballengee, Jennifer R., “Below the belt: looking into the matter of adventure-time”, in Branham, R. Bracht (ed.), The Bakhtin Circle and Ancient Narrative (Groningen: Barkhuis Publishing and Groningen University Library, 2005), 131–5Google Scholar.

60 Morson, Gary Saul, “Genre, aphorism, Herodotus”, in Branham, Bracht (ed.), The Bakhtin Circle and Ancient Narrative, 90, 97–100Google Scholar.

61 Grethlein, Experience and Teleology in Ancient Historiography, 1–19, esp. 2; see also Carr, Experience and History, 55–64 and passim. The “teleology” referred to below and throughout this work follows Grethlein's sense of an endpoint of historical perspective rather than a moral goal (p. 2).

62 See Grethlein, Experience and Teleology in Ancient Historiography, 4.

63 See e.g. Boltz, “The composite nature of early Chinese texts”.

64 On the common role of narrative in both historiography and human experience, see Carr, Experience and History, 4, 47–64, 207–9, 222–3.