Title

An Interpretation of the Whole Argumentative Structure of “Xiangbang Zhi Dao" 相邦之道 (The Way of the Prime Minister) in the Shanghai Museum Bamboo Manuscripts

Author

Asano Yuichi

Genre

Article  

Pages

283-294

Download

PDF

Language

Chinese

Key words

Xiangbang Zhi Dao, Shanghai Museum bamboo strips, Chu bamboo manuscripts, Confucius

Abstract

   The interpretation of the whole argumentative structure of “Xiangbang Zhi Dao" 相邦之道 (The Way of the Prime Minister) in the Shanghai Museum

bamboo strips is largely predicated on an understanding of its last two characters: 女訶. Cheung Kwong-yue (Zhang Kuang-yu) reads these characters as "ru si" 如斯 (like this), but such an interpretation does not allow us to understand the meaning of Confucius' response to Lord Ai. Moreover, such a remark would probably not appear at the end of an argument. 

  Instead, I try to read these characters as “ru cha" 汝察(understand by yourself). On the basis of this textual reading, we can divide the whole argument into five stages: (1) the question by Lord Ai of the state of Lu on what “the way of the prime minister" is; (2) the answer by Confucius; (3) Lord Ai's question about the rule of his people; (4) the answer by Confucius; and (5) a dialogue between Confucius and his disciple Zi Gong after Confucius' return from Lord Ai's palace. Since these argumentative steps resemble that of “Lu bang da han" (The Long Drought of the State of Lu), which is included in the same Shanghai Museum bamboo strips, it is fairly probable that these two essays were written by the same author.