1 All the dates are Before Common Era unless otherwise indicated.

2 The identification of the Shanghai Museum texts is based on the similarity of their orthography to that of the texts from Guodian 郭店 Tomb No 1, which is tentatively dated to c. 300 bce; radiocarbon tests confirm this assessment. The majority view holds that the date of Qin's 秦 occupation of the ancient Chu heartland in 278 should serve as a terminus ante quem for the tombs in which the texts were found. Since it is highly unlikely that the texts were composed on the eve of their interment in the tomb, they can be plausibly dated to the fourth century bce. As I discuss below in the text, it is highly probable that Rong Cheng shi was composed prior to the rise of anti-abdication views in the late fourth century bce (see also Pines, , “Disputers of abdication: Zhanguo egalitarianism and the sovereign's power”, T'oung Pao 91/4–5, 2005, 243–300CrossRefGoogle Scholar).

3 Yūichi, Asano 淺野裕一, “Rong Cheng shi de shanrang yu fangfa”《容成氏》的禪讓與放伐, in Zhanguo Chujian yanjiu 戰國楚簡研究, trans. Masayuki, Sato 佐藤將之 (Taibei: Wanjuan lou, 2004), 85–112.Google Scholar Many studies have dealt with the views of abdication in Rong Cheng shi; see, e.g., Xinhui, Luo 羅新慧, “Rong Cheng shi, Tang Yu zhi Dao yu Zhanguo shiqi shanrang xueshuo 《容成氏》、《唐虞之道》與戰國時期禪讓學説”, Qilu xuekan 齊魯學刊 6, 2003, 104–07;Google Scholar Wu Genyou 吳根友, “Shangbo jian Rong Cheng shi zhengzhi zhexue sixiang tanxi 上博簡《容成氏》政治哲學思想探析” and Weihua, Sun 孫衛華, “Rong Cheng shi ‘shang xian’ sixiang bianxi 《容成氏》”尚賢”思想辨析”, Chu di jianbo sixiang yanjiu (2) 楚地簡帛思想研究（二）, ed Sixin, Ding 丁四新 (Wuhan: Hubei jiaoyu chubanshe, 2005), 8–18 and 19–30.Google Scholar Studies of the ideological content of the Rong Cheng shi overwhelmingly suffer from a preoccupation with its putative affiliation with one of the so-called “schools of thought” of the Warring States period; for a recent example of these, see, e.g., Qing, Wang 王青, “Lun Shangbo jian Rong Cheng shi pian de xingzhi yu xuepai guishu wenti” 論上博簡《容成氏》篇的性質與學派歸屬問題, Hebei xuekan 河北學刊 3, 2007, 102–06.Google Scholar In the near future a new, comprehensive study of the text is due to be published by Sarah Allan in her forthcoming book, Written on Bamboo: Advocating Abdication in Warring States Bamboo-Slip Manuscripts.

4 In previous work I have focused on portions of Rong Cheng shi dedicated to both abdication and righteous rebellion. See Pines, Yuri, “Disputers of abdication”; idem, “Subversion unearthed: criticism of hereditary succession in the newly discovered manuscripts”, Oriens Extremus 45, 2005–2006, 159–78;Google Scholar and most recently “To rebel is justified? The image of Zhouxin and legitimacy of rebellion in Chinese political tradition”, Oriens Extremus 47, 2008, 1–24.

5 The text is named after the first of the legendary rulers who might have been mentioned in the first missing slip, the content of which was tentatively reconstructed by Li Ling 李零 from parallels in the received texts. The title of the text is written on the verso of slip 53 as 訟成是, but there is a scholarly consensus that these characters stand for a legendary ancient ruler 容成氏. For a discussion of the text's naming see Bing Shangbai 邴尚白, “Rong Cheng shi de pianti ji xiangguan wenti” 《容成氏》的篇題及相關問題, in Shangbo guan cang Zhanguo Chu zhushu yanjiu xubian 上博舘藏戰國楚竹書研究續編, ed. Shanghai daxue gudai wenming yanjiu zhongxin 上海大學古代文明研究中心 and Qinghua daxue sixiang wenhua yanjiu suo 清華大學思想文化研究所 (Shanghai: Shanghai shudian, 2004, hereafter Shangbo xubian), 327–34.

6 For Li Ling's study, see Rong Cheng shi 容成氏, transcribed and annotated by Ling, Li, in Shanghai bowuguan cang Zhanguo Chu zhushu 上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書, ed. Chengyuan, Ma 馬承源, vol. 2 (Shanghai: Guji chubanshe, 2002), 247–92;Google Scholar Chen Jian's alternative rearrangement (“Shangbo jian Rong Cheng shi de zhujian pinhe yu pianlian wenti xiaoyi 上博簡《容成氏》的竹簡拼合與編連問題小議”) was published on the internet (http://www.jianbo.org/Wssf/2003/chenjian02.htm) and later entered the Shangbo xubian volume (pp. 327–34); for a similar, albeit less comprehensive, effort to improve the arrangement of the slips, see also Chen Ligui 陳麗桂, “Tan Rong Cheng shi de liejian cuozhi wenti 談《容成氏》的列簡錯置問題”, Shangbo xubian, 335–42. Later attempts to rearrange the text or portions thereof are critically summarized by Yu, Wang 王瑜, “Rong Cheng shi de zhujian bianlian ji xiangguan wenti – jian yu Huang Ren'er deng shangque” 《容成氏》的竹簡編連及相關問題—兼與黃人二等商榷, Shehui kexue pinglun 社會科學評論 2, 2008, 41–7.Google Scholar

7 See Jianzhou, Su 蘇建洲, “Rong Cheng shi yishi” 〈容成氏〉譯釋, in Xusheng, Ji 季旭昇 (ed.), “Shanghai Bowuguan cang Zhanguo Chu zhushu (er)” du ben 《上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書（二）》讀本 (Taibei: Wanjuan lou, 2003), 103–80 (hereafter “Yishi”);Google Scholar Qiu Dexiu 邱德修, Shangbo Chu jian ‘Rong Cheng shi’ zhuyi kaozheng 上博楚簡《容成氏》注譯考證 (Chutu sixiang wenwu yu wenxian yanjiu congshu 出土思想文物與文獻研究叢書 15, Taibei: Taiwan Guji, 2003, hereafter Kaozheng). Qiu Dexiu's study is the most detailed, but as he unfortunately ignored Chen Jian's rearrangement and relied heavily on Li Ling's initial publication alone, much of his discussion appears to be significantly flawed.

8 In what follows, the characters are written in their modern form according to the editors' or later scholars' suggestions; I leave images only of a few characters, the deciphering of which has caused significant disagreements. The numbers in bold square brackets in the Chinese text and in scrolled brackets in the English translation indicate the slip number according to the sequence proposed by Li Ling. ⍁ stands for a broken slip; □ for an illegible character. The division into sections is purely for heuristic purposes, as there are no signs of internal divisions in the manuscript.

9 Li Ling postulated that the first extant slip is preceded by another, which begins with 昔者，容成氏…. (“In the past, Rong Cheng shi…”) and then adds the names of legendary rulers of remote antiquity. Efforts were made to reconstruct the list of those rulers and to decipher the names of the eight rulers enlisted on slip 1 before 之有天下也; since these reconstructions are all conjectures based on the lists of ancient rulers in received texts, I do not deal with them here. See, e.g., Qiu Dexiu, Kaozheng, 133–49.

10 Reading 酋 as 瀏 (Su Jianzhou, “Yishi”, 108 n. 9).

11 In translating 俾 as “unfit and incapable” I follow Yulan, Bai 白於蘭, “Shanghai bowuguan cang zhujian Rong Cheng shi ‘fan min bibi zhe’ kao 上海博物館藏竹簡《容成氏》“凡民俾者”考”, Wenwu 11, 2005, 88–90, 96.Google Scholar

12 For a detailed discussion of ancient Chinese social utopia, see, e.g., Jianshe, Jiang 姜建設, Zhou Qin shidai lixiang guo tansuo 周秦時代理想國探索 (Zhengzhou: Zhongzhou guji chubanshe, 1998);Google Scholar cf. Martynov, Aleksandr S., “Konfutsianskaia Utopiia v Drevnosti i Srednevekov'e”, in Deliusin, L. P. and Borokh, L. N. (eds), Kitajskie Sotsial'nye Utopii (Moscow: Nauka, 1987), 10–57.Google Scholar

13 Li Ling (Rong Cheng shi, 254–5) identified this monarch as Thearch Ku 帝嚳. Alternatively, Guo Yongbing 郭永秉 proposes that the pre-Yao monarch is Youyu Tong 有虞迵 (see his Di xi xin yan: Chu di chutu Zhanguo wenxian zhong de chuanshuo shidai gu diwang xitong yanjiu 帝係新研：楚地出土戰國文獻中的傳説時代古帝王系統研究 (Beijing: Beijing daxue, 2008), 43–79). While Guo's discussion contains many insights, his rearrangement and interpretation is based on too many problematic conjectures to be followed.

14 Following Su Jianzhou (“Yishi”, 120 n. 38), I read 貞 as 正.

15 Guo Yongbing (see note 13) suggests that “Youyu Tong” also assumed the throne in the wake of his predecessor's abdication.

16 In reading the character after 不 as 倦, I follow He Linyi 何琳儀, “Di er pi Hu jian xuan shi 第二批滬簡選釋”, Shangbo xubian, 444.

17 See the discussion in Guo Yongbing, Di xi xin yan, 62–5 for other versions of Yao's early life.

18 A vague reference to the idea of possible “popular election” of a ruler may be contained in the “Elevating uniformity” (or “Identifying with superiors”, Shang tong 尚同) chapters of the Mozi (e.g. Yujiang, Wu (annot.), Mozi jiaozhu 墨子校注 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1994)Google Scholar, “Shang tong shang” 尚同上, III.11: 109). For another important reference to the pivotal role of “public opinion” in fixing the ruler on the throne, see Bojun 楊伯峻, Yang, Mengzi yizhu 孟子譯注 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1992)Google Scholar, “Wan Zhang shang” 萬章上 9.5: 219. See more on “the people's” role as kingmakers in early Chinese thought in Pines, Yuri, Envisioning Eternal Empire: Chinese Political Thought of the Warring States Era (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2009), 191–210.Google Scholar

19 See Graham, Angus C., Disputers of the Tao: Philosophical Argument in Ancient China (La Salle: Open Court, 1989), 292Google Scholar.

20 The beginning of the slip is missing; the three characters 讓天下 before the word 賢 (i.e. yielded to worthies from All under Heaven) are tentatively reconstructed on the basis of Qiu's glosses (Kaozheng, 257).

21 Cf. Mengzi: “Treat my elders as elders, extending this to the others' elders; treat my young as young, extending this to the others' young” 老吾老，以及人之老；幼吾幼，以及人之幼 (Mengzi, “Liang Hui Wang shang” 梁惠王上 1.7: 16).

22 See Mozi, “Shang xian zhong” 尚賢中 9: 77; for the possibility that the Mozi is the earliest text which depicts Yao's yielding the throne to Shun, see Pines, “Disputers of abdication”, 248–52.

23 This version of Shun's elevation is referred to in the Zhanguo ce: “Yao met Shun among the reeds; they spread a mat on the embankment in the shadow of the sheltering mulberry tree. Before the shadow had moved, he delivered [to Shun] All under Heaven” (昔者堯見舜於草茅之中，席隴畝而廕庇桑，陰移而授天下傳. Jianzhang, He 何建章 (annot.), Zhanguo ce zhushi 戰國策注釋 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1991)Google Scholar, “Zhao ce 趙策 4” 21.12: 790–91). Liu Lexian 劉樂賢 has proposed that Yao's elevation of Shun was more gradual and that the details of the process appear on the missing slip(s) (see Liu Lexian, “Du Shangbo jian Rong Cheng shi xiao zha 讀上博簡《容成氏》小劄”, Shangbo xubian, 353–4).

24 These six characters out of the twenty or so from the missing part of the slip were proposed by Chen Jian as a parallel to the subsequent narrative related to Shun.

25 “In antiquity, the sages were capped at the age of twenty; at thirty they married, at fifty – ordered All under Heaven; and at seventy they handed over the rule. As their four limbs were exhausted, sharpness of hearing and clarity of sight weakened, they abdicated All under Heaven and delivered it to a worthy, retiring to nurture their lives.” 古者聖人二十而{25}冒，三十而有家，五十而治天下，七十而致政，四肢倦惰，耳目聰明衰，禪天下而{26} 授賢，退而養其生。{27} (Bowuguan, Jingmenshi 荊門市博物館 (ed.), Guodian Chumu zhujian 郭店楚墓竹簡 (Beijing: Wenwu, 1998), “Tang Yu zhi Dao”, 157–8Google Scholar). For studies of Tang Yu zhi Dao, see note 63.

26 See e.g. See Yingda, Kong 孔穎達 (annot.), “Shang shu” zhengyi 尚書正義; repr. Shisanjing zhushu 十三經注疏 ed. Ruan Yuan 阮元 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1991)Google Scholar, “Yao dian” 堯典 2: 122a. For the importance of this topos, see Allan, Sarah, The Heir and the Sage: Dynastic Legend in Early China (San Francisco: Chinese Materials Center, 1981), 33–4.Google Scholar

27 The last characters of the slip are barely legible, and the reconstruction is based on conjectures of Su Jianzhou, “Yishi”, p. 136, notes 28–9.

28 For Yu's self-sacrifice for the multitudes of “All-under-Heaven”, see e.g. Guying, Chen 陳鼓應 (annot.), Zhuangzi jinzhu jinyi 莊子今注今譯 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1994)Google Scholar, “Tianxia” 天下 33, 863.

29 See Dorofeeva-Lichtmann, Vera, “Ritual practices for constructing terrestrial space (Warring States–early Han)”, in Lagerwey, John and Kalinowski, Mark (eds), Early Chinese Religion: Part One: Shang through Han (1250 BC–220 AD) (Leiden: Brill, 2009), Volume 1, 595–644, on pp. 629–36;Google Scholar idem, “The Rong Cheng shi version of the ‘Nine Provinces’: some parallels with transmitted texts”, East Asian Science, Technology and Medicine (forthcoming).

30 For a tentative reconstruction of the location of the provinces on the modern map of Qin-period China, see Dorofeeva-Lichtmann, “Ritual practices”, 634.

31 Reading 李 as 理.

32 There are no parallels in the received texts to those emblems, especially to the centrality of the bear. Ding Sixin丁四新 in “Chu jian Rong Cheng shi ‘shanrang’ guannian lunxi” 楚簡《容成氏》”禪讓” 觀念論析 (http://www.bsm.org.cn/show_article.php?id=54) suggests that the bear may be a Chu totem; but I find this supposition too far-fetched. The story may be related to a legend in which Yu turns into a bear (and beats the drum, as appears later in the text); see the translation in Goldin, Paul R., The Culture of Sex in Ancient China (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2002), 15Google Scholar. I am grateful to Paul Goldin for highlighting this connection.

33 In translating the last sentence I rely heavily on Qiu Dexiu's glosses (Kaozheng, 381–4).

34 It is not at all clear whether or not slips 31 and 32 should come here, and even whether or not their topic is Yu; moreover, the word after “filiality” is unclear, and in choosing “paternal love” I follow the suggestion of Yan Changgui 晏昌貴, “Rong Cheng shi zhong de ‘Yu zheng’ 《容成氏》中的“禹政”, Shangbo xubian, 358–66 on p. 363.

35 No-one has thus far provided a satisfactory explanation of the term 俈; some scholars read it as 調 or 宮 and connect it (and the entire slip) with musical innovations initiated under Yu's rule; see the most systematic attempt to do so in Wang Zhiping 王志平, “Rong Cheng shi zhong zhiyue zhujian de xin chanshi” 《容成氏》中製樂諸簡的新闡釋, in Shangbo xubian, 397–412. In my view, this interpretation is unfeasible, first, because slip 31 does not appear to be connected to earlier discussions of music, and second, because the rest of the slip does not appear to deal with music at all. Su Jianzhou's proposal (“Yishi”, 157 n. 19) to read 俈 as related to 誥 or 告 (religious announcements) appears more convincing.

36 In reading 躗 as 越 I follow Sun Feiyan 孫飛燕, “Du Rong Cheng shi zhaji er ze” 讀《容成氏》札記二則 (http://www.gwz.fudan.edu.cn/SrcShow.asp?Src_ID=666).

37 Guo Yongbing (n. 13 above) proposes an alternative reading of slips 31, 32 and 5, which he treats as a coherent unit that deals with the pre-Yao monarch, Youyu Tong 有虞迵.

38 The first part of slip 33 is missing. In its reconstruction I relied heavily on a convincing explanation by Guo Yongbing according to which the slip narrates the details of Yu's death and frugal burial (then the character “springs” may refer to a shallow burial chamber which did not disturb underground springs; see “Cong Rong Cheng shi 33 hao jian kan Rong Cheng shi de xuepai guishu” 從《容成氏》33 號簡看《容成氏》的學派歸屬, http://www.bsm.org.cn/show_article.php?id=455). I think that Guo's supposition that Yu's death is narrated before the story of his unsuccessful attempt to abdicate is logically sound, because otherwise we should suppose that Qi's violent seizure of power, narrated in slip 34, took place before Yu's death.

39 Following Liu Jian 劉劍 (“Rong cheng shi shi du yi ze” 《容成氏》釋讀一則, Shangbo xubian, 351–2), I read the disputed character as 芸, which is a loan for 昏.

40 For demonization of the “evil rulers” of the Xia and the Shang since the early Warring States period, see Pines, “To rebel is justified”. Interestingly, in the earliest detailed account of the atrocities of Jie and Zhouxin, in the Mozi, the former also is depicted in much milder terms than the latter (see Mozi, “Fei gong xia” 非攻下 V.19: 220; “Ming gui xia” 明鬼下 VIII.31: 342).

41 For reading as 恃 and interpreting it as “arrogance,” see Su Jianzhou, “Yishi”, 167–8 n. 30. Qiu Dexiu, Kaozheng (pp. 559–60) proposes reading the disputed character as 側 (his virtue was kind and not partial).

42 Three of the characters in this sentence are hotly disputed. The first, , is read by Su Jianzhou (“Yishi”, 168 n. 31) as 積; Qiu Dexiu (Kaozheng, 561) proposes 務; the fourth character is often read as 仁, but Su Jianzhou convincingly argues for reading it as 年, which makes sense in terms of the lengthy period of Tang's accommodation under Jie's rule, much like King Wen's toleration of Zhouxin (see below in the text). The last character is usually read as 能, but Qiu Dexiu proposes to read it as 耐 (“to endure”) and the combination of Su and Qiu proposals makes the sentence sufficiently legible. Alternatively, it can be read as “[Tang] committed himself to thirty benevolent and able persons”; but in this case I do not understand the meaning of 之 after 能.

43 For possible identification of these locations, see Rui, Wu 吳銳, “Cong Rong Cheng shi suo ji Jie taowang luxian kan Xia wenhua yu Xibu de guanxi” 從《容成氏》所記桀逃亡路綫看夏文化與西部的關係, Renwen zazhi 人文雜誌 2, 2007, 159–64.Google Scholar

44 Following Qiu Dexiu (Kaozheng, 578–9), I read as 化, which is a loan for 伐.

45 The last part of the sentence allows even more violent reading: “[Tang's armies] devastated the multitudes, and [only] then those submitted”.

46 In translating this sentence I relied heavily on the discussion of Lin Wenhua 林文華, “Rong Cheng shi ‘qiang ruo bu zhi yang, zhong gua bu ting song’ xin jie”《容成氏》“強弱不治諹，眾寡不聽訟”新解 (http://www.bsm.org.cn/show_article.php?id=805). Lin suggests – correctly in my view – that the ruler (whom he identifies as Jie, but who I think more likely to be Tang) was not able to put an end to the oppression of the weak by the powerful and of the few by the many.

47 Here shi 事 probably refers to proper sacrificial activities.

48 For reading 虐 as a substitute for (chronic illness), I rely on Scott Cook, “A case of graphic misrepresentation: new possibilities for classical readings suggested by the Shanghai-Museum text ‘Lord Jing suffered a chronic illness’”, paper presented at the 2009 AAS conference, March 2009.

49 In translating this sentence I relied on the analysis of Sun Feiyan 孙飞燕, Rong Cheng shi ‘zhi bing qin bao, yang de yu min “shi jie” 《容成氏》”執兵欽，羕于民”試解, http://www.confucius2000.com/admin/list.asp?id=3256.

50 See Qiu Dexiu, Kaozheng, 517–43; Su Jianzhou, “ Yishi”, 163–4 n. 12; Lin Wenhua, “Rong Cheng shi”; Ding Kai, 丁凱, “Shang bo Chu jian Rong Cheng shi shuzha jiu ze” 上博楚簡《容成氏》疏劄九則, Shangbo xubian, 385.

51 It is worth mentioning an interesting internal contradiction in the text: its assertion that it was only under Tang's rule that “for the first time dumb, deaf, lame, □, goitres, □ and humpbacks arose” directly contradicts the statement on slips 2–3, according to which the impaired persons existed already under the blessed rule of the early kings, when they were properly treated and employed.

52 Maria Khayutina (personal communication) suggested that the oddity of the shape of the Shang period yu vessels might have fuelled the imagination of the Warring States observers causing them to suspect that the vessels represented something strange and evil.

53 See Pines, “To rebel is justified”; see also Jiegang, Gu 顧頡剛, “Zhou e qishi shi de fasheng cidi” 紂惡七十事的發生次第, reprinted in Gu Jiegang gushi lunwenji 顧頡剛古史論文集 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1988), Vol. 2, 211–21.Google Scholar

54 For a tentative identification of these localities, see Qiu Dexiu, Kaozheng, 612–9.

55 Following a well-known legend of King Wen's imprisonment by Zhouxin I translate here chu 出 as “to release”, although nowhere does the text indicate that King Wen was initially imprisoned by Zhouxin.

56 In translating 矜 as “distressful matters”, I follow Su Jianzhou, “Yishi”, 176 n. 19.

57 A similar notion of King Wen's support of Zhouxin is mentioned in the Lüshi chunqiu, (See Qiyou, Chen 陳奇猷, annot., Lüshi chunqiu jiaoshi 呂氏春秋校釋 (Shanghai: Xuelin, 1990)Google Scholar, “Xing lun” 行論 20.6: 1389–1390), where, however, it is interpreted as sophisticated propaganda aimed at gaining popularity rather than genuine support of the ruler's unequivocal legitimacy.

58 For reading 昏者 as loans for 泯拾, meaning “discard and destroy”, see Su Jianzhou, “Yishi”, 178–9 n. 4.

59 The mention of the ganzhi 干支 date (wuwu) without a month or a year may suggest that this section of the text was reproduced from an earlier and more detailed source. This usage resembles the style of some of the Shang shu 尚書 documents, which may also be derivative of earlier records.

60 Since the name of the text, Rong cheng shi, appears on the verso of the last extant slip (#53), it is unlikely that more than a few slips of the entire text are missing.

61 Asano, “Rong Cheng shi”, 97–100.

62 This radical meritocratic approach supports the observation of those who argue for intellectual links between the Rong Cheng shi and the Mozi, which was the earliest text to advocate unequivocally “promoting the worthy” and dispelling with hereditary principles of rule.

63 See discussion in Pines, “Disputers of abdication” and “Subversion unearthed”; see also Defoort, Carine, “Mohist and Yangist blood in Confucian flesh: the middle position of the Guodian text ‘Tang Yu zhi Dao’”, Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities 76, 2004;Google ScholarAllan, Sarah, “The way of Tang Yao and Yu Shun: appointment by merit as a theory of succession in a Warring States bamboo slip text”, in Wen, Xing (ed.), Rethinking Confucianism: Selected Papers from the Third International Conference on Excavated Chinese Manuscripts, Mount Holyoke College, April 2004, Special Issue of International Research on Bamboo and Silk Documents: Newsletter, 5/2, 2006, 22–46Google Scholar; idem, “Not the Lun yu: The Chu script bamboo slip manuscript, Zigao, and the nature of early Confucianism”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 72/1, 2009, 115–51; see also studies cited in note 3 above.

64 See Pines, “To rebel is justified”.

65 For “people-oriented” thought of the Warring States period, see Pines, Envisioning Eternal Empire, 187–218.

66 Currently, there is no systematic English-language study of pre-imperial historiography in its entirety, but many useful observations are scattered in three recent monographs that focus primarily on the Zuo zhuan and related texts: see Schaberg, David C., A Patterned Past: Form and Thought in Early Chinese Historiography (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2001);CrossRefGoogle ScholarPines, Yuri, Foundations of Confucian Thought: Intellectual Life in the Chunqiu Period, 722–453 b.c.e. (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2002);Google ScholarWai-yee, Li, The Readability of the Past in Early Chinese Historiography (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2007)Google Scholar. While the dating of the Zuo zhuan and the nature of its component sources remains disputable, it is noteworthy that we have no evidence for any similar narrative histories produced during the Warring States period. An example of a detailed chronicle from that age is the Qin records (Qin ji 秦紀) – the only surviving “state history” from the Warring States period, which was incorporated in Sima Qian's (司馬遷, c. 145–90 bce) “Basic annals of Qin”, chapter 5 of the Shiji 史記 (see Katsuhisa, Fujita 滕田勝久, Shiki Sengoku shiryō no kenkyū 史記戰國史料の研究 (Tōkyō: Tōkyō University Press, 1997), 227–78Google Scholar). For more about the peculiarities of the historical tradition of the Warring States period, see Petersen, Jens Østergård, “Which books did the first emperor of Ch'in burn? On the meaning of Pai Chia in early Chinese sources”, Monumenta Serica 43, 1995, 1–52;CrossRefGoogle ScholarPines, Yuri, “Speeches and the question of authenticity in ancient Chinese historical records”, in Schmidt-Glintzer, Helwig, Mittag, Achim, and Rüsen, Jörn (eds), Historical Truth, Historical Criticism and Ideology: Chinese Historiography and Historical Culture from a New Comparative Perspective (Leiden: Brill, 2005), 195–224;Google ScholarGoldin, Paul R., “Appeals to history in early Chinese philosophy and rhetoric”, Journal of Chinese Philosophy 35/1, 2008, 79–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

67 The Shang shu in its current form is the result of early imperial editorial efforts; we cannot ascertain whether or not the documents contained therein, which start with those attributed to Yao and end with an oath by Lord Mu of Qin (秦穆公, r. 659–621) circulated independently or were assembled in a chronological framework already in the Warring States period. For the complexity of the Bamboo Annals and their reconstruction, see an excellent study by Shaughnessy, Edward L., Rewriting Early Chinese Texts (Albany: State University New York Press, 2006), 185–256Google Scholar; see also the recent publication by Nivison, David S., The Riddle of the Bamboo Annals (Taibei: Airiti Inc. Academic Publishing, 2009)Google Scholar.

68 Lewis, Mark E., Writing and Authority in Early China (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999), 310.Google Scholar

69 For the notion of political unity of “All-under-Heaven” as a unifying thread in thought of the Warring States period, see Pines, Yuri, “‘The One that pervades All’ in ancient Chinese political thought: origins of ‘The Great Unity’ paradigm”, T'oung Pao 86/4–5, 2000, 280–324;CrossRefGoogle Scholar for the relationship between the quest for unity and early Chinese historiography, see Pines, , “Imagining the empire? Concepts of ‘primeval unity’ in pre-imperial historiographic tradition”, in Mutschler, Fritz-Heiner and Mittag, Achim (eds), Conceiving the Empire: China and Rome compared (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 67–90.Google Scholar

70 For a discussion of the Yellow Thearch in the Chu and non-Chu manuscripts, see Guo Yongbing, Di xi xin yan, 150–63.

71 It should be mentioned that these legendary rulers might have appeared in a lengthy list of other primordial monarchs in the first slip, but they are not assigned with any specific world-ordering task as is common in many other texts from the Warring States period. See also Guo Yongbing, Di xi xin yan, for further details.

72 This peculiarity is mentioned by Wei, Chen 陳偉, “‘Zhao Wang hui shi’ deng san pian zhushu de guobie yu ticai” 《昭王毀室》等三篇竹書的國別與體裁, in Chu di jianbo sixiang yanjiu (3) 楚地簡帛思想研究（三）(Wuhan: Hubei jiaoyu chubanshe, 2007), 201–11, on pp. 201–202.Google Scholar It is worth mentioning that a similar trend is visible in the published samples from other collections of ideologically important Chu manuscripts, such as those discovered in Tomb No. 36, Shibancun 石板村village, Cili 慈利county, Hunan (see Zhang Chunlong 張春龍, “Cili Chu jian gaishu” 慈利楚簡概述, in Xin chu jianbo yanjiu 新出簡帛研究 (Proceedings of International Conference on Recently Discovered Chinese Manuscripts, August 2000, Beijing), edited by Sarah Allan [Ailan 艾蘭] and Xing Wen 邢文 (Beijing: Wenwu, 2004), 4–11), or another bundle of looted manuscripts purchased by Qinghua university (for which see Qinghua daxue chutu wenxian yanjiu yu baohu zhongxin 清華大學出土文獻研究與保護中心, “Qinghua daxue cang Zhanguo zhujian Baoxun shiwen” 清華大學藏戰國竹簡《保訓》釋文, and Li Xueqin 李學勤, “Lun Qinghua jian Baoxun de ji ge wenti” 論清華簡《保訓》的幾個問題, Wenwu 6, 2009, 73–5 and 76–8)). Yet it should be noted that while the majority of the known Qinghua slips deal with the affairs of the Zhou dynasty, at least one text (Chu ju 楚居) focuses on Chu history (see http://www.bsm.org.cn/show_news.php?id=244).

73 See for instance Chu slips from Xincai Geling tomb, where Chu deities and ancestors of the ruling clan predominate (Lianmin, Jia 賈連敏 (ed.), “Xincai Geling Chu mu chutu zhujian shiwen” 新蔡葛陵楚墓出土竹簡釋文, in Henan Sheng wenwu kaogu yanjiu suo 河南省文物考古研究所, ed., Xincai Geling Chu mu 新蔡葛陵楚墓 (Zhengzhou: Da xiang chubanshe, 2003), 186–231Google Scholar); see more in Guo Yongbing, Di xi xin yan, 173–80.

74 I explore this topic briefly in Pines, Yuri, “The question of interpretation: Qin history in light of new epigraphic sources”, Early China 29, 2004, 1–44 on pp. 35–44;CrossRefGoogle Scholar see also Pines, “Serving All-under-Heaven: cosmopolitan intellectuals of the Warring States as creators of the Chinese empire (fifth–third centuries B.C.E.),” unpublished paper presented at the conference “Cosmopolitanism Past & Present”, Dundee University, 6–8 June, 2007.

75 See Xianshen, Wang 王先慎 (comp.), Han Feizi jijie 韩非子集解 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1998)Google Scholar, “Zhong xiao” 忠孝 XX.52: 465–6. For Qin “biblioclasm”, see Petersen, “Which books”.

76 As I discuss elsewhere, in the aftermath of the disastrous attempt of King Kuai of Yan (燕王噲, r. 320–314) to yield the throne to his minister, Zizhi 子之 in 314 bce, and the resultant domestic turmoil in Yan, the popularity of abdication doctrine had markedly decreased. See Pines, “Disputers of abdication”, 268–71 ff.