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 AnEdo period (1603–1868) edition | |
| Author | Lü Buwei |
|---|---|
| Original title | 呂氏春秋 |
| Language | Chinese |
| Genre | Chinese classics |
| Publication place | China |
| Lüshi chunqiu | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 呂氏春秋 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 吕氏春秋 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | "Mr. Lü's Spring and Autumn [Annals]" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TheLüshi Chunqiu (simplified Chinese:吕氏春秋;traditional Chinese:呂氏春秋;lit. 'Lü's Spring and Autumn'), also known inEnglish asMaster Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals,[1][2] is an encyclopedicChinese classic text compiled around 239 BC under the patronage of late pre-imperialQinChancellorLü Buwei. In the evaluation ofMichael Loewe, "TheLü shih ch'un ch'iu is unique among early works in that it is well organized and comprehensive, containing extensive passages on such subjects as music and agriculture, unknown elsewhere." One of the longest early texts, it extends to over 100,000 words.[3]
Combining ideas from many different 'schools', the work is traditionally classified as 'Syncretist', although there was no school that called itself Syncretist.[4]
TheShiji (chap. 85, p. 2510) biography of Lü Buwei has the earliest information about theLüshi Chunqiu. Lü was a successful merchant fromHandan who befriendedKing Zhuangxiang of Qin. The king's son Zheng, who theShiji suggests was actually Lü's son, eventually became the first emperorQin Shi Huang in 221 BC. When Zhuangxiang died in 247 BC, Lü was maderegent for the 13-year-old Zheng. In order to establishQin as the intellectual center of China, Lü "recruited scholars, treating them generously so that his retainers came to number three thousand".[5] In 239 BC, he, in the words of theShiji:[6]
... ordered that his retainers write down all that they had learned and assemble their theses into a work consisting of eight "Examinations", six "Discourses", and twelve "Almanacs", totaling more than 200,000 words.
According to theShiji, Lü exhibited the completed text at the city gate ofXianyang, capital of Qin, and above it a notice offering a thousand measures of gold to any traveling scholar who could add or subtract even a single word.
TheHanshu Yiwenzhi lists theLüshi Chunqiu as belonging to theZajia (杂家;雜家; 'mixed school'), within the philosophers' domain (諸子略), orHundred Schools of Thought. Although this text is frequently characterized as "syncretic", "eclectic", or "miscellaneous", it was a cohesive summary of contemporary philosophical thought, includingLegalism,Confucianism,Mohism, andDaoism.
The title useschunqiu (春秋;spring and autumn) to mean 'annals; chronicle' in a reference to the ConfucianistSpring and Autumn Annals, which chronicles theState of Lu history from 722–481 BC.
The text comprises 26juan (卷; 'scrolls', 'books') in 160pian (篇; 'sections'), and is divided into three major parts.
The composition's features, measure of completeness (i.e. the veracity of theShiji account) and possible corruption of the originalAnnals have been subjects of scholarly attention. It has been mentioned that theAlmanacs have much greater integrity and thematic organization than the other two parts of the text.
TheYuda (諭大) chapter of the Examinations, for example, contains text almost identical to theWuda (務大) chapter of the Discourses, though in the first case it is ascribed toJizi (季子), and in the second toConfucius.
Admitting the difficulties of summarizing theLüshi Chunqiu,John Knoblock andJeffrey Riegel list 18 major points:
TheLüshi chunqiu is an invaluable compendium of early Chinese thought and civilization.
TheShiji tells that after Lü Buwei presented the finishedLüshi Chunqiu for the public at the gate of Xianyang and announced that anyone could correct the book's content would be awarded 1000taels of gold for every corrected word. This event lead to the Chinese idiom "One word [is worth] a thousand gold" (一字千金).
None of the contemporary scholars pointed out any mistakes in the work, although later scholars managed to detect a number of them. It is believed that Lü's contemporaries were able to detect the book's inaccuracies, but none dared to openly criticize a powerful figure like him.
ScholarLiang Qichao (1873–1929) stated: "This book, through the course of two thousand years, has had no deletions nor corruptions. Moreover, it has the excellent commentary ofGao You. Truly it is the most perfect and easily read work among the ancient books."[8] Liang's position, mildly criticized afterwards,[by whom?] was dictated by the lack of canonical status ascribed to the book.