This website contains work-in-progress translations of the chapters of the Yi Zhou shu discussed in my book Mediation of Legitimacy in Early China: A Study of the Neglected Zhou Scriptures and the Grand Duke Traditions (New York: Columbia University Press, 2022). These chapters record didactic dialogs involving the first Western Zhou 西周 kings who lived in the 11th–10th centuries BC, but their language and structure betray a much later composition date, perhaps around the fifth–third centuries BC. For this reason, they are usually regarded as imitative—or even “falsified”—records of limited historical value. In the book, I argue that they should rather be seen as artifacts of an esoteric practice of royal legitimation related to the scriptures of early medieval Daoism.
- Chapter 21 “Safeguarding at Feng” (Feng bao 酆保).
- Chapter 22 “Great instruction” (Da kai 大開).
- Chapter 23 “Lesser instruction” (Xiao kai 小開).
- Chapter 24 “King Wen’s distress” (Wen jing 文儆).
- Chapter 27 “Greater instruction of King Wu” (Da kai wu 大開武).
- Chapter 28 “Lesser instruction of King Wu” (Xiao kai wu 小開武).
- Chapter 31 “Distress at awakening” (Wù jing 寤儆).
- Chapter 47 “King Cheng’s instruction” (Cheng kai 成開).
I will keep updating these translations, and will be most grateful for suggestions and corrections: yegor@phoenixterrace.com.
Copyright 2022. Yegor Grebnev