1. My full translation of these two treatises is presented below. Quotations from my translation are referred to by the book, chapter, paragraph, and sub-paragraph in which they occur. For example, the quote which opens this paper is found at 10/2.4.B (i.e., Book 10, chapter 2, paragraph 4, sub-paragraph B). Citations of other chapters in Lüshi chunqiu are to Chen Qiyou 陳奇猷, Lüshi chunqiu jiaoshi 呂氏春秋校釋(Shanghai: Xinhua shudian, 1984)Google Scholar. Citations of the Thirteen Classics of the “Confucian Canon” are to the edition prepared under the supervision of Ruan Yuan 阮元 (1764-1849) and printed in Nanchang, Jiangxi, in 1816. (For the Meng 孟子 and Lunyu 論語, however, I use the chapter and paragraph numbers given in the indices of the Harvard-Yenching Sinologicai Index series.) Unless indicated otherwise, the editions of other primary sources are those of the Sibu beiyao 四部備要.

2. All dates are B.C., unless otherwise stated.

3. Shiji (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1959), 2510Google ScholarPubMed.

4. The Lüshi chunqiu treatises which discuss the need for moderation in nurturing a long life are studied by Graham, A. C., “The Background of the Mencian Theory of Human Nature,” Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies 6 (1967), 215–74Google Scholar.

5. Lüshi chunqiu, 1.21.

6. Lüshi chunqiu, 21.1425-26 tells how officials of Wei 魏 feared that the burial of King Hui 惠王 (d. 319) in the winter would deplete the official budget (guan fei 官費) and provoke the resentment of the common people whose labor was required.

7. Chuci buzhu 楚辭補注 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1983), 203Google ScholarPubMed. Hawkes, David, The Songs of the South (London: Penguin Books, 1985), 226Google Scholar. Wang Yi 王逸 says that the “quiet and reposeful home” was built “to imitate the old home” (法像舊盧), presumably where the deceased had lived.

8. These four quotes are found at Chuci buzhu, 204–205, 207, 209, 211. The translations are from Hawkes, Songs of the South, 226-229, though I have modified the last. My rendering of ji Chu zhi jie 楚之結 as “‘ Excite-the-Chu’ hairknots” follows the explanations of Wang Yi. He explains that such hairknots worn by the singing-girls of Zheng and Wei were found to be especially beguiling by their southern audience.

9. See 10/2.3.B, 10/2.4.D, 10/3.1. A and my discussion below, in section IILG.

10. I discuss this saying below, in section IILA.

11. Lunyu, 6/22.

12. For a discussion of this important religious transition, see Hung, Wu, “From Temple to Tomb: Ancient Chinese Art and Religion in Transition,” Early China 13 (1988), 90–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13. Archaeology provides the example of the late fourth century B.C. funerary park built for the kings of Zhongshan 中山, a find especially impressive because of the relative smallness of the state. See Xinian, Fu 傅熹牟, “Zhanguo Zhongshanwang Cuo mu chutu Zhaoyutu jiqi lingyuan guizhi de yanjiu” 戰國中山王墓出土兆域圖及其陵園規制的硏究, Kaogu xuebao 1980.1, 97–119Google Scholar and Wu, , “From Temple to Tomb,” 90Google Scholar.

14. In pursuing this purpose I have benefitted from the erudition of Takaharu, Kawasaki 河崎孝治, “Ryoshi shunjū ‘Setsusō hen׳ to ‘Anshi hen’ to ni tsuite 呂氏春秋 ,” Nihon chugoku gakkai ho 日本中國學會報 31 (1979), 31–42Google Scholar.

15. For a more general survey of pre-Han literature on death and burial, see Poo, Mu-chou, “Ideas concerning death and burial in Pre-Han and Han China” Asia Major [3rd series] 3.2 (1990), 25–62Google Scholar. This seems to be a summary of Poo's longer treatment in Chinese which was published as Muzhou, Pu 蒲慕州, Muzang yu Shengsi 墓葬與生死 (Taibei: Lianjing, 1993)Google Scholar. Two other studies which I have found useful: Dien, Albert, “Chinese Beliefs in the Afterworld,” in Kuvvayama, George, editor, The Quest for Eternity (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1987), 1–15Google Scholar; Seidel, Anna, “Post-mortem Immortality or the Taoist Resurrection of the Body,” in Shaked, S.et. al., editors, Gilgul (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1987), 223–237Google Scholar.

16. I use the following abbreviations in the apparatus accompanying the Chinese text:[ ]=enclosed Chinese graphs are to be deleted; () = enclosed graphs are to be added; (> = enclosed graph should be emended to the graph that follows; GE = a character is a graphic error for another. The opinions which serve as the basis of the emendations are cited in full in the Chen Qiyou edition of the Lüshi chunqiu mentioned in note 1 above.

17. Reading ji 極as a loan for ji 亟, because of the parallel with yao 要in the preceding sentence. See also Karlgren, Bernhard, Grammata Serica Recensa (Stockholm: Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, 1957), 910eGoogle Scholar.

18. An allusion to Mengzi 3A5.

19. This definition also occurs in Liji, “Tan Gong,” 8.16a. There it is attributed to Guo Zigao國子高(who is identified by Zheng Xuan as a Qi nobleman): “Burying means hiding away. Hiding away means that you desire not to have others see it. Hence the clothes are sufficient to adorn the body, a coffin encloses the clothes, a vault encloses the coffin, and earth encloses the vault. But we now on the contrary build a mound and plant it with trees!”

20. In this sentence and the following, Liu Shipei 劉師培 would add to the text the negative fei 非. The text would then read: “‘Being careful about if means not using the feelings of those who are living to take precautions for the dead. When not using the feelings of those who are living to take precautions for the dead, nothing is more important…”

21. Gao You 高誘 gives as an example Yang Wangsun 楊王孫 (i.e., Yang Gui 楊貴) whose naked burial is mentioned in his biography at Hanshu 漢書 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1962), 2907Google Scholar.

22. Foxes are traditional habitués of burials.

23. The text says simply lin ski 鱗施 “fish-scale covering,” My translation is based upon Gao You's elaboration on the phrase. The phrase lin shi also occurs in the Huai-nanzi, but the only one in a pre-Han text of which I am aware, and hence the only pre-Han reference to the use of jade burial shrouds, is in this Ltishi chuncjiu passage.

24. Chen Qiyou explains that these documents are contracts that the living place in the tomb to accompany the dead.

25. The Lüshi chunqiu is the locus classicus of the term ticou 題湊 which means literally a stack (cou) of wood ends (ti). The term also occurs in the biography of Huo Guang 霍光 (Hanshu, 2948), where Yan Shigu quotes the explanation of the term which serves as the basis of my translation. The wood used is the yellow center of cypress and is called huang chang 黄腸 in the Hanshu.

26. Gao You says: “The stones are for added strength and the charcoal keeps out moisture. I note that the charcoal not only keeps out moisture but also prevents tree roots from penetrating.”

27. The ruination of Qi refers to the near destruction of the country by King Min (r. 300-284 B.C.) when General Yue Yi of Yan nearly conquered the country. That of Chu refers to General Bo Qi of Qin conquering all the old heartland of Chu in 278, including its old capitals and the sites of the tombs of the kings of Chu. That of Yan refers to the complete conquest of the country by King Xuan (r. 319-301 B.C.) following the abdication of King Kuai in favor of his prime minister Zizhi in 314.

28. The elimination of Song occurred at the hands of King Min of Qi in 286 and that of Zhongshan at the hands of Zhao in 295.

29. The ancient lands of Han, Zhao and Wei were conquered by Qin between 267256, leaving the states only tiny fragments of their former glory.

30. That is, the entire population of the village.

31. The eastern burial mound of Song was that of Duke Wen (r. 610-589). According to the Zuo zhuan (Cheng 2), 25.17b-18b, “Duke Wen was the first duke accorded an extravagant interment, using plaster made of frogs for the walls, with more than the usual numbers of carriages and horses, and for the first time men were interred with the corpse. The number of funerary articles prepared was increased, the outer coffin was made with four pillars, and the inner one was ornamented above and on the sides.” Duke Zhuang of Qi enjoyed one of the longest reigns in Chinese history, some sixty-four years from 794-731.

32. The long passage at the end of paragraph 10/3.3 appears to be an interpolation. Chen Qiyou surmises that it belongs to “Buer” 不二 (17/7), another Lüshi chunqiu treatise found in the Lun section.

33. The death in the Jisun family probably refers to the death of Viscount Ping in 505. The Ji, Meng and Shu families, collectively known as the Three Huan, after the Duke of Lu from whom they descended, had seized power in Lu from the main ducal line. Viscount Ping had driven Duke Zhao of Lu from his state in 517 and taken over power. But on his death, one of his officers, Yang Hu, imprisoned his son and seized power which he retained until 502. Kongzi was himself compromised in the affair.

34. The Yufan jade was a sumptuary token worn by the Dukes of Lu. It was going to be put into the coffin of the Viscount who had taken it from the Duke when he forced him into exile.

35. Putting the jade in the coffin would have been a gross and insulting usurpation of privilege of the kind which Kongzi particularly abhorred (cf. Lunyu, 3/1). Kongzi's statement was merely a ruse intended to stop the transgression. He viewed his breach of etiquette by using the eastern stairs, normally reserved for the host, as less serious than wearing a sumptuary token to which one was not entitled. An alternate version of this story appears in the Zuo zhuan (Ding 5), 55.1b-2a, where Yang Hu 陽虎 is prevented from placing the jade in the tomb by Zhong Lianghuai 仲梁懷, not Kongzi.

36. Shiji, 2510. Hanshu, 1741. Ban Gu 班固 notes that the text was “written by clever scholars gathered by the Qin Minister Lü Buwei.”

37. Shiji, 2510, mentions Lü Buwei's sponsorship of the project. Bodde, Derk, “The Biography of Lü Pu-wei,” Statesman, Patriot, and General in Ancient China: Three Shih Chi Biographies of the Ch'in Dynasty (255-206 B.c.) (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1940), 6Google Scholar, n. 24, gives 240 B.c. as the date of the Lüshi chuncfiu's compilation, following the arguments presented in Mu, Qian 錢穆, Xian-Qin zhuzi xinian 先秦諸子繁年 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1985)Google Scholar, section 126. 239 B.c. is based on the date given in Lü Bu-wei's “postscript” (Xu yi 序意),Lüshi chunqiu, 648, which is discussed by Chavannes, Edouard, Les memoires historiques de Se-ma Ts'ien (Paris: E. Leroux, 1895–1905), vol. III, 659–660Google Scholar. This postscript occurs at the end of the twelve Ji “Annals” which in all extant editions is the first of the three sections of the text—the other two sections are the Lan 覽 and the Lun 論. We would expect to find the “postscript” at the very end of the text which suggests that the Ji were originally the last section or that they circulated independently of the other two before the text assumed its present contents and order.

38. Both Kongzi and Mozi are cited and held up, often together, as embodiments of qualities the text applauds. The Lüshi chunqiu also recounts the lineage of both schools of thought giving the names of the major disciples of each and how they are connected.

39. Graham, A.C., Later Mohist Logic, Ethics and Science (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press: 1978), 5Google Scholar. While we know that all ten essays existed originally in three different recensions — perhaps to be associated with the three different schools of Mohist disciples referred to at Zhuangzi 莊子, 10.15a-16a; Han Feizi, 19.9a. —the “Jiezang” survives in only one version, the third (or xia 下).Because the surviving recension, like the third recension of other chapters, seems more concerned with terminology than argumentation, it is highly doubtful that we can gain from it a complete picture of the early Mohist view on burials. The surviving version is mostly concerned with distinguishing between the terms zang 葬 “burial” and sang 喪 “mourning.” Similarly, the third recension of “Jian ai” 兼愛 distinguishes between;ian 兼 “universal” and bie 別 “particular” and the third recension of “Fei gong” 非攻 distinguishes between gong 攻 “attack” and zhu 誅 “chastise.”

40. Mozi, 6.5aff. Watson, Burton, Mo Tzu: Basic Writings (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963), 65 ffGoogle Scholar.

41. While the Lunyu refers to san nian zhi sang 三年之喪, Xunzi, “Li lun” 禮論, 13.13a, explains that “the three-year mourning period ends in the twenty-fifth month.” See Knoblock, John, Xunzi: A Translation and Study of the Complete Works, Volume III (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994), 69Google Scholar. In his “ Fei Ru” 非儒, Mo Zi explicitly attacks the Confucians for the three-year mourning period. See Mozi, 9.11a; Watson, , Mo Tzu, 124 ffGoogle Scholar.

42. See Mozi, 9.12a-b; Watson, , Mo Tzu, 127Google Scholar.

43. Knoblock, John, “The Chronology of Xunzi's Works,” Early China 8 (1982–1983), 36Google Scholar.

44. Two other articles in this volume deal directly and far more extensively with what xiao meant for Kongzi: Lionel Jensen, “Wise Man of the Wilds: Fatherlessness, Fertility, and the Mythic Exemplar, Kongzi,” and Keith Knapp, “The Ru Reinterpretation of Xiao.”

45. Knoblock, , Xunzi, vol. III, 62Google Scholar.

46. Knoblock, , Xunzi, vol. III, 63Google Scholar.

47. Zuo zhuan (Ai 15), 59.21a.

48. Liji, 47.4b.

49. Knoblock, , Xunzi, vol. III, 73Google Scholar.

50. Liji, 52.17a.

51. Watson, , Mo Tzu, 72Google Scholar.

52. Wang Chong 王充 (A.D. 27-97?), a Han dynasty advocate of moderate funeral rites, would later complain that the Mohists are involved in a contradiction when they claim to believe in ghosts but advocate meagre treatment of them. See Hui, Huang 黄陣, ed, Lun heng jiaoshi 論衡校釋 (Taipei: 1964), 960Google Scholar; Forke, Alfred, Philosophical Essays of Wang Ch'ung (New York: Paragon, 1962), vol. II, 369Google Scholar.

53. Graham, , Later Mohist Logic, Ethics, and Science, 22–25Google Scholar.

54. Mozi, 11.2b. Graham, , Later Mohist Logic, Ethics, and Science, 255–256Google Scholar, punctuates differently. I follow Yirang, Sun 孫讓, Mozi jiangu 墨子間詰(Taibei: Shijie shuju, 1965), 245Google Scholar, and Takaru, Kawasaki, “Ryoshi shunjū ‘Setsusō hen’ to ‘Anshi hen’,” 40Google Scholar. For text critical symbols, see n. 15 above.

55. Lau, D.C, Mencius (London: Penguin books, 1970), 105Google Scholar. Slightly modified.

56. Lau, , Mencius, 82Google Scholar.

57. Riegel, Jeffrey, “Reflections on an Unmoved Mind: an Analysis of Mencius 2A2,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 47.3S (1979), 444Google Scholar.

58. Mengzi makes a similar attack on the Mohists at 3B9 and 7A26.

59. The term xing was not part of the early Mohist philosophical lexicon. The appearance of the graph at Mozi, 1.6a is an error, and we should read instead the graph for the verb sheng 生 as noted by the Sibu beiyao editors and demonstrated by the parallel at Lüshi chunqiu, 2.96. The only occurrence of the term is in the later logic chapter, “Da qu,” for which see Graham, A.C., Later Mohist Logic, 245–46Google Scholar.

60. Mozi, 6.6a-b; Watson, , Mo Tzu, 68Google Scholar: “We are told that [a mourner] must wail and cry in a sobbing voice at irregular intervals, wearing hemp mourning garments and with tears running down his face. He must live in a mourning hut, sleep on a straw mat, and use a clod of earth for a pillow. In addition he is urged not to eat so as to appear starved, to wear thin clothes so as to appear cold, to acquire a lean and sickly look and a dark complexion. … Now if the rulers and high officials are to adopt these practices, they cannot appear at court early and retire late, attend to the five ministries and six bureaus, encourage farming and forestry, and fill the granaries.”

61. Mozi, 6.5b; Watson, , Mo Tzu, 67Google Scholar: “If we follow the rules of those who advocate elaborate funerals … then the funeral of a king or high minister will require several inner and outer coffins, a deep grave, numerous grave clothes, a large amount of embroidery for decorating the coffins, and a large grave mound. If the family of the deceased happen to be humble commoners the wealth of the family will be exhausted, and if they are feudal lords their treasuries will be emptied.”

62. Mozi, 6.6b; Watson, Mo Tzu, 68.

63. Knoblock, , Xunzi, vol. II, 130Google Scholar.

64. Watson, Mo 72.

65. Xunzi, 12.9b-10a.

66. Mozi, 6.8b; Watson, Mo Tzu, 72.

67. Watson, , Nio Tzu, 73Google Scholar.

68. Han Feizi, 19, 9a; Zhuangzi, 10.15a.

69. Xunzi, 13.7b; Watson, Burton, Hsun Tzu: Basic Writings (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963), 98Google Scholar, n. 10, says of this passage: “Hsun Tzu's description of the burial of the disgraced criminal closely parallels what Mo Tzu advocated as the burial practices of the ancient kings and the ideal for all men.”

70. Lüshi chunqiu, 1247.

71. It is possible that we have in Mo Zi an early anticipation of the claim by Wang Chong that burying parents was tantamount to sending them to a prison from which they would have to liberate themselves. Hui, Huang, Lun heng jiaoshi, 961–962Google Scholar; Forke, , Philosophical Essays of Wang Ch'ung, vol. II, 372–373Google Scholar. In ”Traces of Han Religion,” Kan'ei, Akitsuki 秋月觀映, editor, Dōkyō to shükyō bunka 道敎宗教文化 (Tokyo: Hirakawa shuppan sha, 1987), 691Google Scholar, Anna Seidel observes: “The prison is also the simile that comes to Wang Ch'ung's mind when he argues against sumptuous burial rites:

For a sick parent, he says, a dutiful son should exert himself to the utmost, calling in physicians and diviners; this situation is like that of a parent in prison, whose case is still pending and whom the son should try to rescue from danger. However, once the parent is dead and buried below the Yellow Springs, Wang Ch'ung likens him to an imprisoned parent who is condemned to a fixed sentence and beyond any further appeal.”

72. Wu, , “From Temple to Tomb,” 90–96Google Scholar.

73. Xunzi, 12.10a-b.

74. See Mozi, 9.12a-b; Watson, , Mo Tzu, 127Google Scholar. For a discussion of Ru employment as funeral directors, see Chapter Two of Eno, Robert, The Confucian Creation of Heaven: Philosophy and the Defense of Ritual Mastery (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990)Google Scholar.

75. See Xunzi, “Bu gou,” 2.4a-5a; Knoblock, , Xunzi, vol. 1, 177–179Google Scholar.

76. Shiji, 265.

77. For an account of this discovery, see Dien, Albert, trans., “First Report on the Exploratory Excavation of the Ch'in Pit of Pottery Figures at Lin-t'ung Hsien,” Chinese Sociology and Anthropology 10.2 (Winter 1977–1978), 3–50Google Scholar.

78. See Changsha Mawangdui yihao Hanmu 長沙馬王堆一號漢墓 (Beijing: Wen wu chubanshe, 1973), 5–6Google Scholar, as well as Riegel, Jeffrey, “A Summary of Some Recent Wenwu and Kaogu Articles on Mawangdui Tombs Two and Three,” Early China 1 (1975), 10–15CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Riegel, Jeffrey, trans., “A Summary of the Excavation of Han Tombs Two and Three at Ma-Wang-Tui” Chinese Sociology and Anthropology 10.2 (Winter 1977–1978), 51–103Google Scholar, especially 54 and 56.

79. For a full account of the excavation, see the two-volume study, Mancheng Han-mu fajue baogao 滿城漢墓發掘報告 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1980)Google Scholar.

80. For details see Qi, Lu 魯琪, “Shitan Dabaotai Xi Han mu de ‘zigong,’ ‘bianfang,’ ‘huangchang ticou,’” 試談大葆台的‘梓宮’,便房’, ‘黄腸題湊’, Wenwu 1977.6, 30–33Google Scholar.