Yi Zhou shu translations

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.