| Original title | 竹書紀年 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Language | Classical Chinese | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Subject | ancient Chinese history | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Publication date | before 296 BC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Publication place | State of Wei, ancient China | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 竹書紀年 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 竹书纪年 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | Bamboo Books Annals | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TheBamboo Annals (Chinese:竹書紀年;pinyin:Zhúshū Jìnián), also known as theJi Tomb Annals (Chinese:汲冢紀年;pinyin:Jí Zhǒng Jìnián), is achronicle of ancient China.It begins in the earliest legendary time (the age of theYellow Emperor) and extends to 299 BC, with the later centuries focusing on the history of theState of Wei in theWarring States period. It thus covers a similar period toSima Qian'sRecords of the Grand Historian (91 BC). The original may have been lost during the Song dynasty,[1] and the text is known today in two versions, a "current text" (or "modern text") of disputed authenticity and an incomplete "ancient text".
The original text was buried withKing Xiang of Wei (died 296 BC) and re-discovered nearly six centuries later in 281 AD (Western Jin dynasty) in theJizhong discovery. For this reason, the chronicle survived theburning of the books by EmperorQin Shi Huang. Other texts recovered from the same tomb includedGuoyu,I Ching, and theTale of King Mu. They were written onbamboo slips, the usual writing material of the Warring States period, and it is from this that the name of the text derives.[2] The strips were arranged in order and transcribed by court scholars. According toDu Yu, who saw the original strips, the text began with theXia dynasty. He also stated that it used the Zhou royal calendar until 784 BC, when it switched to the calendar of thestate of Jin and then that of its successor, thestate of Wei. Du noted that this implied that the book was the state chronicle of Wei. Pei Yin (裴駰, 5th century) states that the book began with the Yellow Emperor. This version, consisting of 13 scrolls, was lost during theSong dynasty.[2][3]A 3-scroll version of theAnnals is mentioned in theHistory of Song (1345), but its relationship to the other versions is not known.[4]
The "current text" (今本jīnběn) is a 2-scroll version of the text printed in the late 16th century.[5][6] The first scroll contains a sparse narrative of thepre-dynastic emperors (beginning with the Yellow Emperor), the Xia dynasty and theShang dynasty. The narrative is interspersed with longer passages on portents, which are identical to passages in the late 5th centuryBook of Song. The second scroll contains a more detailed account of the history of theWestern Zhou, the state of Jin and its successor state Wei, and has no portent passages.[7] This version gave years according to thesexagenary cycle, a practice that began in theHan dynasty.[3] Discrepancies between the text and quotations of the earlier text in older books led scholars such asQian Daxin andShinzō Shinjō to dismiss the "current" version as a forgery,[8] a view still widely held.[9][10] Other scholars, notablyDavid Nivison andEdward Shaughnessy, argue that substantial parts of it are faithful copies of the original text.[11]
The "ancient text" (古本gǔběn) is a partial version assembled through painstaking examination of quotations of the lost original in pre-Song works by Zhu Youzeng (late 19th century),Wang Guowei (1917) and Fan Xiangyong (1956). Fang Shiming and Wang Xiuling (1981) have systematically collated all the available quotations, instead of following earlier scholars in trying to merge variant forms of a passage into a single text.[12][13]The two works that provide the most quotations, theShui Jing Zhu (527) andSima Zhen'sShiji Suoyin (early 8th century), seem to be based on slightly different versions of the text.[14]This version includes two sexagenary year designations (for the first year ofEmperor Yao and for the Zhou attack on Shang), indicating some tampering with the text before it was quoted.[15]
