Shu 書 (Documents) Repertoire in Argument-Based Texts from Guodian: The Case of Cheng zhi 成之 (Things Brought to Completion)

Abstract

Cheng zhi 成之 (short for Cheng zhi wen zhi 成之聞之) from tomb no. 1, Guodian, has been widely understood as an early example of a text that sets out to explain the Shangshu. This claim is problematic because it relies on unfounded assumptions of canonicity. Going beyond this canon-centred, exegetical paradigm, this article provides a form analysis of argument construction in Cheng zhi, to demonstrate that conceptual communities during the Warring States draw on traditions of Shu 書 (Documents) as cultural capital to pursue their own socio-political and philosophical agendas. Rather than dominant interpretations that insist on Shu as an entity of stable and fixed texts, as well as on a singular engagement with the Shangshu 尚書 in Cheng zhi, I identify four textual voices in the Guodian text which in dialogic form articulate an integral position on good rule. They are what I call “explicit” and “silent authorial voices”, as well as two “external” voices. One is from the Shu traditions; the other is attributed to a constructed persona of moral integrity named “gentleman” (junzi). I show how the various voices consolidate the text’s argument by creating a reference structure that determines the way an argument is made in Cheng zhi. In this way, the Guodian text is shown to rework old cultural capital into new argument space to produce normative claims. This article concludes that while the Shu emerged as loosely textualised traditions during the Warring States period (ca. 453–222 bce), they nonetheless framed the expectations of conceptual text communities, casting light on these traditions as something dynamic, yet authoritative.