Appendix 1 - The birth and death dates of Tung Chung-shu

Summary

In Chapter 1 I noted that historians have typically adopted the Ch'ing dynasty scholar Su Yü's dates (ca. 179–104 b.c.e.) for Tung's birth and death. In his Ch'un-ch'iu fan-lu i-cheng (Verification of the Meanings in the Luxuriant Gems of the Spring and Autumn), Su Yü begins the ‘Chronology of Tung Chung-shu’ in 179 b.c.e., during the reign of Emperor Wen (179–158 b.c.e.) and ends it in 104 b.c.e., during the reign of Emperor Wu (140–87 b.c.e.).1 In the past several decades Chinese scholars have challenged these dates. In an article devoted to correcting Su Yü's errors, Shih Chih-mien argued in 1945 that Tung Chung-shu must have been born between 194 and 180 b.c.e. (during the reigns of Emperor Hui and Empress Lü). Li Wei-hsiung, who published a monograph on Tung Chung-shu in 1978, narrowed Tung's date of birth to the years 187 to 180 b.c.e. (during the reign of Empress Lü). And in 1988 and 1989, respectively Yueh Ch'ing-p'ing and Chou Kueitien independently proposed that Tung Chung-shu was born even earlier, between the years 206 and 195 b.c.e. (during the reign of Emperor Kao). Yueh Ch'ing-p'ing, who analyzed seven Han references to Tung Chung-shu, argued the most comprehensively and persuasively for an earlier birth date. A summary of his views follows.