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In Search of the Historical Kuan Chung

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Sydney Rosen
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Extract

In any anthology of Chinese politicalor Kuan Chung or Kuan Tzu scattered in the works of most,writing, one is likely to find the namesif not all, periods fromKuan the Spring and Autumn to the present. According to a widely accepted tradition, it was due to Kuan Chung's political and financial policies when he was prime minister that Duke Huan of Ch'i was able to seize the leadership of the Chinese states in the seventh century B.C. Duke Huan thus became the first of a series of hegemons who dominated the Eastern Chou empire.

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , May 1976 , pp. 431 - 440
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1976

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References

1 All dates in this paper are B.C.

2 Rickett, W. Allyn, Kuan Tzu: A Repository of Early Chinese Thought (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1965), I, pp. 12–13. For a full discussion of the problem, see pp. 4–27.Google Scholar

3 See Tso Chuan, Chuang 8. Legge, James, The Chinese Classics, V: The Ch'un Ts'ew with the Tso Chuan (reprint ed., Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1960), pp. 81/16–17, 83/7–17Google Scholar. All references will be to the Chinese text in the Legge edition. I have collated this text with that of the Ch'un-ch'iu Tso-Chuan cheng-i in the Ssu-pu pei-yao edition. The texts are identical unless otherwise noted. The translation is my own. Western dates accord with the chronology of Tchang's, P. M.Synchronismes chinois (reprint ed., Taipei: Ch'eng Wen Publishing Co., 1967)Google Scholar. References to the Tso Chuan hereafter will be abbreviated to Tso.

4 Passages on Duke Huan are too numerous to cite.

5 Tso, Min 1, p. 123/2–5.

6 Ch'un-ch'iu (Ch'un Ts'ew), Chuang 11, p. 87/7–8; Tso, Chuang 11, p. 87/14; Chuang 14, pp. 91/1, 92/15–16.

7 Tso, Min 1, p. 123/2–5.

8 Tso, Hsi 4, p. 139/1–9.

9 See Tso, Hsi 7, p. 148/18; Hsi 8, p. 150/1–3; Hsi 9, p. 152/3–9; Hsi 12, p. 159/8–18.

10 Tso, Hsi 7, p. 148/8–17.

9 Tso, Hsi 12, p. 159/8–18.

12 See, for examples, Tso, Chuang 22, p. 102/1–5; Min 1, p. 123/9–14; Hsi 3, p. 137/13–17.

13 Kuo Yü, SPPY ed. (hereafter KY), 6/ia/3–4a/10.

14 KY, 6/4a/10–4b/5.

15 KY, 6/73/7–12.

16 For example, KY, 6/33/7–36/13. While this is presented as a proposal, the entire chapter implies that Kuan Chung's proposals were implemented.

17 KY, 6/5a/1-5b/1.

18 KY, 6/5b/11-6b/6.

19 KY, 6/3a/7–3b/1; 3b/5–8.

20 For example, KY, 6/Sb/11–9a/6; 8a/2–7; 8a/7–11; 11a/1–7; 11b/3–5.

21 For example, Tso, Chuang 32, p. 119/1; Hsi 4, p. 139/10–12; Ch'eng 2, p. 340/15–16; Hsiang 23, pp. 499/18–500/1–7; Hsiang 28, p. 539/2–5; Chao 25, p. 706/8; Chao 29, pp. 728/17–729/1; Ting 9, p. 772/11; See also Chao 3, pp. 585/18–586/3; Chao 10, pp. 627/12–628/1 (for full context, pp. 627/5–628/1).

22 References are too numerous to cite.

23 Karlgren, Bernhard, “The Authenticity and Nature of the Tso Chuan,” Göteborgs Högskolas Ärsskrifl, XXXII (1926), pp. 60, 64–65Google Scholar. For a study confirming, by comparison of different data, the conclusion that the two books could not have come from the same author, see Bodde, Derk, “Tso Chuan yü Kuo Yü (The Tso-chuan and the Kuo-yü), in the Yen-ching Hsueh-pao, XVI (1934), pp. 160–67Google Scholar. For further confirmation based on an extensive study of the phraseology in the two books, see Yi-jen, Chang, “Lun Kuo Yü yü Tso Chuan ti kuan hsi (Discussion of the relationship of the Kuo Yü and the Tso Chuan),“ in the Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, XXXIII (1962), pp. 233–85Google Scholar.

24 For example, Tso, Hsi 17, p. 172/10–11.

25 For example, Tso, Min 1, p. 123/9–14.

26 Tso, Chuang 22, p. 102/1–6.

27 For example, KY, 8/6a/5–6b/4. This story also appears in the Tso-chuan, Hsi 9, p. 152/10–14. The phraseology is similar in the two works, indicating that the two accounts may have been drawn from the same source.

28 All terms designating administrative units and all titles of office in the “Ch'i-yü” chapter of the Kuo-yü and in the Ch'i passages of the Tso-chuan were checked in the whole of the two works and in the Lun-yü, Mo-tzu, Meng-tzu, Hsün-tzu, HanFeitzu, Chan-kuo ts'e, and the Chou-li. For references to the li, see KY 6/53/5–13. While shih households are not specified in this passage, they are the only households not mentioned in the other administrative units. Therefore it is assumed that these were the shih household. The coterminous military organization further supports this assumption. References to li in the other literature are too numerous to cite.

29 Tso, Hsi 24, p. 188/6–10; Hsi 33, p. 223/6–8; Chao 11, p. 632/16.

30 Lun-yü 14.17. See Lun-yü chu-shu, SPPY ed., 14/53/10–11.

31 Lun-yü 14.18. See Lun-yü chu-shu, 14/5b/8–10.

32 Meng-tzu chu-shu, SPPY ed. (hereafter Meng-tsu), 43/33/4.

33 Meng-tsu, 33/1b/7–8.

34 Meng-tsu, I2b/1a/11-1b/1.

35 For example, Lun-yü 3.22, Lun-yü chu-sbu, 3/7b/4–6.

36 Meng-tsu, 12b/1a/3.

37 Meng-tsu, 3a/1b/3–12.

38 Hsu'n-tzu, SPPY ed., 7/nb/5–8.

39 Hsu'n-tzu, 19/83/7–9.

40 Han-fei-tzu, SPPY ed. (hereafter Han-fei), 12/4b/7–5a/1.

41 Han-fei, 5/7b/6.

42 Han-fei, 16/73/3. The Chan-kuo ts'e also refers to Kuan Tzu. It has not been determined which of these works preceded the other.

43 For example, Han-fei, 3/7b/12–8b/10; 11/7a/10–7b/14; 8/4a/10-b/2.