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THE PERFORMANCE OF SILENCE IN EARLY CHINA: THE YANZI CHUNQIU AND BEYOND

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2021

Ai Yuan
Ai Yuan*
Affiliation:
Ai Yuan 袁艾, Philosophy Department, School of Humanities, Tsinghua University; e-mail: [email protected].
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Abstract

This article looks beyond the dichotomy between silence (mo 默) and speech (yan 言) and discusses the functions of and attitudes toward silence in the Yanzi chunqiu 晏子春秋 as a case representing the variety of ideas of silence in early China. In the West, silence has been widely explored in fields such as religion and theology, linguistic studies, and communication and literary studies. The consensus has moved away from viewing silence as abstaining from speech and utterance—and therefore absence of meaning and intention, toward seeing it as a culturally dependent and significant aspect of communication. However, beyond a number of studies discussing unspoken teachings in relation to early Daoism, silence has received little attention in early China studies. This article approaches the functions of silence by pursuing questions regarding its rhetorical, emotive, political, and ethical aspects. Instead of searching for the nature of silence and asking what silence is, this article poses alternative questions: How do ancient Chinese thinkers understand the act of silence? What are the attitudes toward silence in early China? How does silence foster morality? How does silence function as performative remonstrance? How is it used for political persuasion? How does silence draw the attention of and communicate with readers and audiences? How does silence allow time for contemplation, reflection, and agreement among participants? How is silence related to various intense emotional states? These questions lead us to reflect on previous scholarship which regarded silence in early China as the most spontaneous and natural way to grasp the highest truth, which is unpresentable and inexpressible through articulated speech and artificial language. In this sense, the notion of the unspoken teaching is not only understood in opposition to speech, but also as a means to reveal the deficiency of language and the limits of speech. However, through a survey of dialogues, stories, and arguments in Yanzi chunqiu, I show that silence is explicitly marked and explained within the text, and is used actively, purposefully, and meaningfully, to persuade, inform, and motivate audiences. In other words, silence is anything but natural and spontaneous. Rather, it is intentionally adopted, carefully crafted, and publicly performed to communicate, remonstrate, criticize, reveal, and target certain ideas. That is to say, silence is as argumentative as speech and as arbitrary as language. Finally, an awareness of and sensitivity to silence provides a new perspective to engage with other early Chinese texts.

提要

提要

本文試圖突破“默”、“言”二分的範式，重新探討“沉默” (silence) 在古代中國的作用及其踐行。從《晏子春秋》出發，本文旨在論述“沉默”的功能及對待”沉默”的態度。西方學界已經逐步認識到“沉默”並不意味著缺乏意圖與思想內涵。相反，“沉默”的修辭和交流作用已經被廣泛揭示，並應用於不同領域。反觀學界對古代中國“沉默”的研究，學者的興趣大量集中在道家哲學對“不言之教”的討論，將“沉默”視為對道最直接、最自然的把握方式，認為沉默的體證方式擺脫了描述性和分析性言語的局限。從這一意義上説，沉默被理解為與言說對立。也因此，“沉默”的修辭作用和踐行尚未受到學界的關注。本文通過探討“沉默”在修辭、情感、政治和道德方面的作用，揭示“沉默”的功能及其踐行。本文追問的問題包括：中國古代思想家如何理解”沉默”的行為？古代中國對“沉默”的態度是怎樣？“沉默”如何成為一種道德行為？“沉默”如何在勸諫中發揮作用？又如何用於政治話語？“沉默”如何吸引讀者與聽者的注意並與之溝通？“沉默”如何讓参與者有時間進行沉思、反省並達成一致？“沉默”與情感狀態是如何相關的？通過對《晏子春秋》的對話、敘述和争論的考察，筆者指出，“沉默”在文本中具有明確的標識性與解釋性，而且是有目的、有意義地用於説服、傳達意義，並帶動聽者。換句話說，“沉默”絕不是自然的和自發的；相反，是有意踐行、精心設計並公開表現而用以溝通、批評、揭示和面對某些想法的。也就是説，“沉默”和言語一樣具有辯論性，與語言一樣具有主觀性。最後，對“沉默”的認知與關注能够為解讀《墨子》、《管子》、《論語》等其他早期中國文本提供一個新的視角。

Keywords

silencerhetoricYanzi Chunqiuearly China沉默修辭《晏子春秋》古代中國
Type
Research Article
Information
Early China , Volume 44 , September 2021 , pp. 321 - 350
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Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Study of Early China and Cambridge University Press 2021

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Footnotes

This article is an interim result of the 2021 Beijing Social Science Fund Project 北京市社會科學基金青年學術帶頭人項目, under the project name Moyan, kuawenhua shiye xia de zhongguo xiuci luoji 默言：跨文化視野下的中國修邏輯 (Project number 21DTR002). I am indebted Michael Schapers, Rens Krijgsman, Olivia Milburn, Yegor Grebnev, Fenrong Liu, Xing Taotao, Ding Sixin, Jeremy Siligman, Asher Jiang Yunpeng and Tsinghua SACO Colloquium, Richard King, and two reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this article.

References

1 The transmitted Yanzi chunqiu was compiled by Liu Xiang 劉向 (77–6 b.c.e.). The text consists of 215 stories about Yanzi. Each story is titled based on phrases or entire lines selected from the body of the tale. While there is not a single story within this transmitted text that contains a specific date, parallels have been found in the Western Han Yinqueshan 銀雀山 manuscripts. For studies of the textual history of the Yanzi chunqiu, see Olivia Milburn, The Spring and Autumn Annals of Master Yan (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 3–13.

2 For a discussion of silence in philosophical discourse, see Sim, Stuart, Manifesto for Silence: Confronting the Politics and Culture of Noise (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007), 86–100CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kristina Grob, “Moral Philosophy and the Art of Silence,” (PhD diss., Loyola University Chicago, 2014); Dauenhauer, Bernard, Silence, the Phenomenon and Its Ontological Significance (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980)Google Scholar; Picard, Max, The World of Silence (Chicago: H. Regnery, 1952)Google Scholar.

3 Jensen, Vernon J., “Communicative Functions of Silence,” A Review of General Semantics 30.3 (1973), 249–57Google Scholar.

4 Thomas J. Bruneau, “Communicative Silence: Forms and Functions,” The Journal of Communication 23 (1973), 17–46.

5 Adam Jaworski, The Power of Silence: Social and Pragmatic Perspectives (Newbury Park: SAGE, 1993), 98–139.

6 Michal Ephratt, “The Functions of Silence,” Journal of Pragmatics 40 (2008), 1090–938.

7 Swanson compares omission and silence as a result of coercion with the active omitting of an apology. He shows that the omissive implicature generated by an absence of apology can lead to claims that there are not sufficient reasons to apologize in the first place. Swanson further sharply points to the communicative functions of silence over a period of time. He shows that collective silence, such as the lack of collective objections towards X, will gradually turn X into justified common knowledge and finally make the silenced feel coerced. See Eric Swanson, “Omissive Implicature,” Philosophical Topics 45.2 (2017), 117–38.

8 Mary Beard discusses the exclusion of women’s voices in public in ancient Greece and Rome. See Mary Beard, Women and Power: A Manifesto (London: Profile Books, 2017).

9 Fernando Poyatos, “Language and Nonverbal Systems in the Structure of Face-to-Face Interaction,” Language & Communication 3.2 (1983), 129–40.

10 For multi-disciplinary approaches toward the study of silence, see Alice Borchard Greene, The Philosophy of Silence (New York: Richard R. Smith, 1952), and Adam Jaworski, ed., Silence: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter, 1997). For cross-cultural studies on silence, see Wong Ngan Ling, “Communicative Functions and Meanings of Silence: An Analysis of Cross-cultural Views,” Duoyuan wenhua (2003), 125–46, and Steven L. Binderman, Silence in Philosophy, Literature and Art (Leiden: Brill, 2017).

11 See Thomas N. Huckin, “Textual Silence and the Discourse of Homelessness,” Discourse and Society 13 (2002), 347–72; Allyson Julé, Gender, Participation and Silence in the Language Classroom: Sh-shushing the Girls (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004).

12 The terms “Daoism” and “Daoist” are problematic categories, as there was no self-identified school of thought or intellectual lineage by this name in pre-imperial China. For an early observation see Nathan Sivin, “On the Word ‘Taoist’ as a Source of Perplexity: With Special Reference to the Relations of Science and Religion in Traditional China,” History of Religions 17.3/4 (1978), 303–30. This is compounded when we consider the composite nature of early Chinese texts and how it disproves the idea of textual unity, identity, and coherence; see William Boltz, “The Composite Nature of Early Chinese Texts,” in Martin Kern, ed., Text and Ritual in Early China (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2005), 50–79. Furthermore, there is often no clear justification to assume that a text appearing under certain master’s name, such as Confucius, should have consistent and related ideas; see Mark Edward Lewis, Writing and Authority in Early China (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999) and the review by Michael Nylan, “Review of Writing and Authority in early China: Textual Authority in Pre-Han and Han,” Early China 25 (2000): 205–58.

13 The dichotomy between speech and silence is still a dominant view in scholarship on texts such as the Daode jing and Zhuangzi. For example, Christoph Harbsmeier argues that the importance of silence can be seen from the ideal of the unspoken teaching (bu yan zhi jiao 不言之教) which he sees as a spontaneous responsiveness unmediated by linguistic articulation in early Chinese texts, and a Zhuangzian reflection on the limitations of speech (yan 言). See Christoph Harbsmeier, “On the Very Notions of Language and of the Chinese Language,” Histoire Épistémologie Langage 31.2 (2009), 143–61, especially 157–59. Mark Csikszentmihalyi argues that Laozi, like other religious texts, uses the language of “unsaying” to convey the ineffable truth. See Mark Csikszentmihalyi, “Thematic Analyses of the Laozi,” 54, in Liu Xiaogan, ed., Dao Companion to Daoist Philosophy (New York: Springer, 2016), 47–70. Tang Junyi 唐君毅 draws attention to how silence is used to express ideas that cannot be fully delivered by words, not only in the Zhuangzi, but also in the Analects. See Tang Junyi 唐君毅, Zhongguo zhexue yuanlun: daolun pian 中國哲學原論.導論篇 (Taipei: Xuesheng, 1986), 230. Chad Hansen holds that only spontaneous skills that go beyond words can grasp the Dao. He argues that “there is a tao about which nothing can be said.” See Chad Hansen, “A Tao of Tao in Chuang-tzu,” in Victor H. Mair, ed., Experimental Essays on Chuang-tzu (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1983), 30–32. Yong Ren argues that silence offers a conscious effort to reach beyond language as it resembles the Dao which is shapeless and nameless. In Yong Ren’s argument, man can approach the Dao only by going back to the silent state of non-distinctions. Yong Ren, “Truth, Morality, Poetics: Language and Silence in Traditional Chinese Culture from Early Times to the Six Dynasties,” Tamkang Review 26.4 (1996), 91–126. Reading language in ancient China as existential-practical and tactical-contextual, Lik Kuen Tong emphasizes the importance of wang yan 忘言 (forgetting of words) in the Zhuangzi, while understanding silence as a means of transcending human language to reach the infinite silence of the Dao; see Lik Kuen Tong, “The Meaning of Philosophical Silence: Some Reflections on the Use of Language in Chinese Thought,” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 3.2 (1976), 169–83. Daniel Fried argues that since unstable and cyclic language in the Zhuangzi is considered idealized, the notion of wu yan 無言 (do not speak) is advocated to deal with language that leads to distance, division and distinction; see Daniel Fried, “A Never-Stable Word: Zhuangzi’s ‘zhiyan’ 卮言 as ‘Tipping-Vessel’ Irrigation,” Early China 31 (2007), 145–70.

14 The contradiction between silence and speech has been reconsidered in the field of Buddhism. For example. Wright breaks through the stereotype that silence either negates or transcends language in Chan Buddhism. See Dale S. Wright, “Rethinking Transcendence: The Role of Language in Zen Experience,” Philosophy East and West 42.1 (1992), 113–38. Recently, Wang has ventured beyond the boundaries of speech and silence, and shows how they interplay with one another. See Youru Wang, “Liberating Oneself from the Absolutized Boundary of Language: A Liminological Approach to the Interplay of Speech and Silence in Chan Buddhism,” Philosophy East and West 51 (2001), 83–99. Kwan’s translation of yu mo 語默 (articulation cum silence), and his discussions on how non-verbal laughter helps in dealing with tragedy, also indicate a way of breaking through the language–silence dichotomy. See Kwan Tze-wan 關子尹, Yumo wuchang: xunzhao dingxiang zhong de zhexue fansi 語默無常: 尋找定向中的哲學反 (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 2008), 321–68.

15 Jane Geaney argues against the idea that the language crisis in Early China resulted from a reliance on dualistic thinking between language and reality or content; see Jane Geaney, Language as Bodily Practice in Early China: A Chinese Grammatology (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2019), 13–18. She further reminds us that neither speech nor silence is singled out as a special target of criticism, instead the focus is something that has no discernible boundaries and eludes transmission (pp. 44–48) and that oft-cited stories to support these ideas such as the Wheelwright’s method in the chapter “The Way of Heaven” (Tian Dao 天道), while challenging teaching by means of speech or writing, is in fact not a criticism of language and speech in general.

16 See Mark Edward Lewis, Writing and Authority in Early China (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999), 178–80.

17 Lewis, Writing and Authority, 180.

18 Lewis, Writing and Authority, 91.

19 Daniel Fried, “What’s in a Dao?: Ontology and Semiotics in Laozi and Zhuangzi,” Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 11 (2012), 419–36.

20 See Romain Graziani, “Rhetoric that Kills, Rhetoric that Heals,” Extreme-Orient, Extreme-Occident 34 (2012), 41–77, especially 41–42.

21 Chad Hansen, “Zhuangzi,” in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/zhuangzi/, accessed June 18, 2021. Hansen agrees there is an anti-language trend visible in Yang Zhu and related primitivists’ advocating of “letting the natural paths of the world take over completely,” to Shen Dao, who argues for abandoning all linguistic distinctions of right and wrong to follow the great Dao.

22 See Eviatar Zerubavel, The Elephant in the Room: Silence and Denial in Everyday Life (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006); and Cheryl Glenn, Unspoken: A Rhetoric of Silence (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2004).

23 Adam Jaworski views silence “as a metaphor for communication,” so as to grasp its rich meaning beyond the absence of sound as a unifying concept for tackling diverse communicative phenomena. See Adam Jaworski, “Introduction: An Overview,” in Adam Jaworski, ed., Silence: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1997), 3.

24 David Schaberg, “Remonstrance in Eastern Zhou Historiography,” Early China 22 (1997), 133–79.

25 Schaberg, “Remonstrance in Eastern Zhou Historiography,” 175–77.

26 I thank Olivia Milburn for drawing my attention to this point.

27 Olivia Milburn, “The Blind Instructing the Sighted,” Monumenta Serica 66.2 (2018), 253–77.

28 Takie Sugiyawa Lebra, “The Cultural Significance of Silence in Japanese Communication,” Multilingua 6.4 (1986), 343–57.

29 Ryuko Kubota, “Japanese Culture Constructed by Discourses: Implications for Applied Linguistics Research and ELT,” TESOL Quarterly 33.1 (1999), 9–35.

30 Zhang Chunyi 張純一, ed., Yanzi chunqiu jiaozhu 晏子春秋校注 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 2016), 50.

31 Zhang, Yanzi chunqiu jiaozhu, 100.

32 Parallel texts are found in Zuo zhuan and the Shanghai museum manuscript “Jing gong nüe “ 景公瘧 wherein the silence of Yanzi is not part of the narrative, and the proposal of execution was brought up by Liang Qiuju instead of Lord Jing; see Yang Bojun 楊伯峻, Chunqiu Zuozhuan zhu 春秋左傳註, Zhao 20 (522 b.c.e.) (Beijing: Zhonghua, 1990),1415–18, and Liang Jing 梁靜, “Jing gong nüe yu Yanzi chunqiu de duibi yanjiu” 景公瘧與晏子春秋的對比研究, accessed on December 5, 2020. www.bsm.org.cn/show_article.php?id=675. The “Jing gong nüe “ is transcribed in Ma Chengyuan 馬承源, ed. Shanghai bowugan cang Zhanguo Chu zhushu (liu) 上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書六 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji, 2007), 131–260.

33 Zhang, Yanzi chunqiu jiaozhu, 30.

34 Olivia Milburn, The Spring and Autumn Annals of Master Yan (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 181–82.

35 Jaworski, The Power of Silence, 79.

36 Milburn, The Spring and Autumn Annals of Master Yan, 99.

37 Yuri Pines, “From Teachers to Subjects: Ministers Speaking to the Rulers, from Yan Ying to Li Si,” in Facing the Monarch: Modes of Advice in the Early Chinese Court, ed. Garret P. S. Olberding (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2013), 69–99.

38 Milburn, The Spring and Autumn Annals of Master Yan, 231.

39 Milburn, The Spring and Autumn Annals of Master Yan, 320.

40 Yanzi accuses Liangqiu Ju of cruelty because he rides horses in such a way that they end up either dead or at least severely injured. See Milburn, The Spring and Autumn Annals of Master Yan, 190. The corruption of Liangqiu Ju is also mentioned in Zuo zhuan where he is presented as taking bribes from the ministerial clans in Lu in order to prevent Lord Zhuang from returning. See Milburn, The Spring and Autumn Annals of Master Yan, 108. Liangqiu Ju’s bad influence is also seen in the case where he introduces a singer to Lord Jing which results in the latter’s absence in court. See Milburn, The Spring and Autumn Annals of Master Yan, 172.

41 Zhang, Yanzi chunqiu jiaozhu, 359–60.

42 Milburn, The Spring and Autumn Annals of Master Yan, 394–95.

43 Zhang, Yanzi chunqiu jiaozhu, 78–79.

44 Milburn, The Spring and Autumn Annals of Master Yan, 209.

45 Felix Adler, “The Moral Value of Silence,” International Journal of Ethics 8.2 (1898), 348.

46 Arabella Lyon, “Confucian Silence and Remonstration: A Basis for Deliberation?” in Rhetoric Before and Beyond the Greeks, ed. Carol S. Lipson and Roberta A. Binkley (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004), 131–45.

47 Cheng Shude 程樹德, Lunyu jishi 論語集釋 (Beijing: Zhonghua, [1990] 2008), 278–79.

48 Lik Kuen Tong, “The Meaning of Philosophical Silence: Some Reflections on the Use of Language in Chinese Thought,” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 3.2 (1976), 169–83.

49 For a detailed survey of silence and its pedogeological implications in different cultural traditions, see Li Lin, “Teaching Beyond Words: ‘Silence’ and its Pedagogical Implications Discoursed in the Early Classical Texts of Confucianism, Daoism and Zen Buddhism,” Educational Philosophy and Theory 52.7 (2020), 759–68. We are also reminded by Paul Goldin that the lack of universal principles, in writing and in speech, can be seen as one of the most important features in Confucian teaching which allows students to think for themselves and motivate them without following any rigid rules. See Paul Goldin, The Art of Chinese Philosophy: Eight Classical Texts and How to Read Them (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020), 45–48.

50 Cheng, Lunyu jishi, 1073.

51 Quoted from Harry O. Maier, “The Politics of the Silent Bishop: Silence and Persuasion in Ignatius of Antioch,” The Journal of Theological Studies 55.2 (2004), 503–19, especially 509.

52 Cheng, Lunyu jishi, 1073.

53 Cheng, Lunyu jishi, 1153–54.

54 孟子曰：「挾貴而問，挾賢而問，挾長而問，挾有勳勞而問，挾故而問，皆所不答也。」（《盡心上》）D. C. Lau, trans., Mencius (London: Penguin Books, 2004), 131; Yang Bojun 楊伯峻，Mengzi yizhu 孟子譯註 (Beijing: Zhonghua, [1960] 2008), 321.

55 Lau, Mencius, 52; Yang, Mengzi yizhu, 106–7.

56 John Knoblock, trans., Xunzi, 3 vols. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988), vol. 1, 225; Wang Xianqian 王先謙, ed., Xunzi jijie 荀子集解 (Beijing: Zhonghua, [1988] 2010), 97.

57 Romain Graziani, “Rhetoric that Kills, Rhetoric that Heals,” Extreme-Orient, Extreme-Occident 34 (2012), 41–77, especially 47.

58 Wang Xianqian 王先謙, ed., Han Feizi jijie 韓非子集解 (Beijing: Zhonghua, [1998] 2003), 181.

59 Paul van Els and Sarah A. Queen, “Anecdotes in Early China,” in Between History and Philosophy, Anecdotes in Early China, ed. Paul van Els and Sarah A. Queen (New York: State University of New York Press, 2017), 6–7.

60 Li Xiangfeng 黎翔鳳, Guanzi jiaozhu 管子校注 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 2004), 452, 513.

61 Allyn W. Rickett, trans., Guanzi, Political, Economic, and Philosophical Essays from Early China, 2 vols. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985), vol. 1, 349, 378.

62 Rickett, Guanzi, vol. 1, 380, n. 24.

63 Rickett, Guanzi, vol. 1, 348–9, 378–9; Li, Guanzi jiaozhu, 452.

64 Rickett, Guanzi, vol. 1, 349; Li, Guanzi jiaozhu, 452.

65 Rickett, Guanzi, vol. 1, 378; Li, Guanzi jiaozhu, 513.

66 Rickett, Guanzi, vol. 1, 378; Li, Guanzi jiaozhu, 513.

67 Rickett, Guanzi, vol. 1, 380; Li, Guanzi jiaozhu, 513.

68 Tang, Zhongguo zhexue yuanlun, 132.

69 Sun Yirang 孫怡讓, Mozi jiangu 墨子間詁 (Beijing: Zhonghua, 2001), 298–99.

70 Ian Johnston, trans., The Mozi (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2010), 361.

71 Sun Yirang, Mozi jiangu, 486–87.

72 Johnston, The Mozi, 729.

73 Yang, Mengzi yizhu, 89.

74 “女不言外,” found in the “The Pattern of the Family” (Nei Ze 內則) chapter in the Liji 禮記; see Wang Wenjin 王文錦, Liji yijie 禮記譯解(Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2001), 369.

75 Rouzer, Paul, Articulated Ladies: Gender and the Male Community in Early Chinese Texts (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2001), 8Google Scholar.

76 Milburn, Olivia, “The Silent Beauty: Changing Portrayals of Xi Shi, from ‘Zhiguai’ and Poetry to Ming Fiction and Drama,” Asia Major 26.1 (2013), 23–53Google Scholar.

77 Li Xueqin 李學勤, ed., Qinghua daxue cang Zhanguo zhujian (yi) 清華大學藏戰國竹簡（壹）, 7 vols. (Shanghai: Zhongxi, 2010), vol. 1, 14–17. I follow Meyer’s transcription and translation of this story; see Dirk Meyer, “‘Shu’ Traditions and Text Recomposition: A Reevaluation of ‘Jinteng’ 金縢 and ‘Zhou Wu Wang you ji’ 周武王有疾,” in Origins of Chinese Political Philosophy, ed. Martin Kern and Dirk Meyer (Leiden: Brill, 2017), 224–48.

78 Scholars have studied this text in terms of the political legitimacy of the Duke of Zhou. They have also studied its narrative and persuasive strategy, its account of ritual, the power dynamic between the written manuscript and oral testimony revealed within, and how various versions of the text might have settled on a reading in response to one another. See Edward L. Shaughnessy, Before Confucius: Studies in the Creation of the Chinese Classics (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997) 118–25; Meyer, “‘Shu’ Traditions and Text Recomposition”; Magnus Ribbing Gren, “The Qinghua ‘Jinteng’ Manuscript: What it Does Not Tell Us about the Duke of Zhou,” T’oung Pao 102.4 (2016), 291–320; Rens Krijgsman, “A Self-reflexive Praxis: Changing Attitudes Towards Manuscript and Text in Early China,” Early China 42 (2019), 75–110. Huang Kuanyun, “Poetry, ‘The Metal-Bound Coffer’ and the Duke of Zhou,” Early China 41 (2018), 87–148.

79 The Shang shu “Metal-bound Coffer” chapter only describes the act of silencing later in the story through the mouth of the ritual aids, but not through the voice of Duke of Zhou himself. See Gu Jiegang 顧頡剛 and Liu Qiyu 劉起紆, eds., Shangshu jiaoshi yilun 尚書校釋譯論, 3 vols. (Beijing: Zhonghua, 2018), vol. 3, 1240.

80 See Meyer, “‘Shu’ Traditions and Text Recomposition,” 233.

81 This is not to say that all the uses of silence are for the sake of political manipulation. For example, we see how Gongzi Ying 公子郢 (the son by a concubine of Lord Ling of Wei 衛靈公) refuses the offer of being the successor of Lord Wei by means of silence. Not rejecting Lord Ling’s offer directly, he protects the grace of the ruler. Instead, with his silent rejection he gives Lord Ling the room to make a better choice, all the while protecting his own dignity by not accepting duties of which he is incapable. See Stephen Durrant, Wai-yee Li, and David Schaberg, trans., Zuo Tradition: Commentary on the “Spring and autumn annals” (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2016), 1840–41.

82 Yang, Chunqiu Zuozhuan zhu, 294.

83 Durrant, Zuo Tradition, 242.

84 Durrant, Zuo Tradition, 242, n. 39.

85 Durrant, Zuo Tradition, 1869; Yang, Chunqiu Zuozhuan zhu, 1828.

86 Yang, Chunqiu Zuozhuan zhu, 1828.

87 Durrant, Zuo Tradition, 1869.

88 Durrant, Zuo Tradition, 1871, n. 134.