Introduction
The fifth volume of the Tsinghua (Qinghua 清華) University Warring States bamboo strips has just been published, with six new manuscripts.Footnote 1 As with the first four volumes of this corpus, these new manuscripts can only be described as of startling significance. They are, in the order in which they are presented in the volume: Houfu 厚父, which includes a passage quoted in the Mencius as coming from the Documents (shu 書),Footnote 2 and which has therefore been identified as a lost chapter of the Shang shu 尚書 or Venerated Documents; Feng Xu zhi ming 封許之命 or The command establishing Xu, which is an example of the ming 命 or “command” genre that is also represented in the Shang shu; *Ming xun 命訓 or The instruction on commands, which corresponds closely with the chapter by that title in the Yi Zhou shu 逸周書 or Leftover Zhou documents;Footnote 3 *Tang chu yu Tang Qiu 湯處於湯丘 or Tang resided at Tang Mound, and *Tang zai Di Men 湯在啻門 or Tang was at the Di Gate, both of which share formal features and both of which purport to be conversations between Tang 湯 (i.e., 唐), the founder of the Shang dynasty, and Yi Yin 伊尹, his counselor; and Yin Gao Zong wen yu San Shou 殷高宗問於三壽 or Yin Gao Zong asked the Three Elders, which purports to be a conversation between the Shang king Gao Zong 高宗 (i.e., Wu Ding 武丁) and three aged advisers, especially Peng Zu 彭祖.Footnote 4 Each one of these texts merits detailed study, and will surely be the topic of much discussion in the years to come.
In the present article, I propose to study just one of these manuscripts: the *Ming xun or The instruction on commands. The manuscript is not titled, but the Tsinghua editors have given it the title because, as noted above, it corresponds quite closely with a chapter by that title in the received text of the Yi Zhou shu. The manuscript is written on fifteen bamboo strips, a complete strip being about 49 cm long by .6 cm wide, and originally bound with three binding straps. The text is virtually complete, and very clearly written in the script of the state of Chu 楚. Strips 1, 2, 3, 7, 9, 14, and 15 are all broken at the top, with the loss of one or two characters each; strip 12 is broken at the bottom with the loss of probably three characters; and strip 14 is also broken in the middle with the loss of one other character. Other than the final strip (#15), the strips are numbered on the back, though the number on strip 4 is missing and the number on strip 12 would have come at the point at which the strip is broken and is thus missing. As are all of the Tsinghua manuscripts, the *Ming xun is beautifully published, first with full-size color photographs, then with enlarged color photographs, followed by transcriptions and notes, and finally with a complete index of character shapes (wenzi bian 文字編). The Tsinghua editor of this manuscript is Liu Guozhong 劉國忠, a member of the editorial team assembled by the Center for the Study and Preservation of Excavated Manuscripts (Chutu wenxian yanjiu yu baohu zhongxin 出土文獻研究與保護中心) of Tsinghua University.
The “Ming xun” chapter is the second text in the received text of the Yi Zhou shu, following immediately after “Du xun” 度訓 or “The instruction on degrees” and preceding “Chang xun” 常訓 or “The instruction on constancies.” As Liu Guozhong points out in his prefatory remarks to the Tsinghua *Ming xun, these three chapters of the Yi Zhou shu all share similar formats, wording, and philosophy. All three discuss heaven's giving birth to the people and the creation of “degrees” (du 度), primarily by “enlightened kings” (ming wang 明王). The texts are marked by explicit parallel structures, both in their overall argumentation and also at the level of the sentence, discussing how good order should be developed to the full (ji 極), but not made absolute, being flexible within certain constancies. As Liu Guozhong notes, all three texts are very much of a piece, and must have been composed at the same time. In the past, these three chapters were relatively neglected, and even suspected of being Han or later compositions. With the discovery of the Qinghua text of *Ming xun, it is now clear that this one text, at least, dates no later than the fourth century b.c.e. It stands to reason that the other two texts should also date to the same period.
The three chapters “Du xun,” “Ming xun” and “Chang xun” are not the only portion of the Yi Zhou shu that has been relatively neglected in Chinese textual scholarship. Indeed, the entire text has received less attention than it is due. Tradition holds that the Yi Zhou shu was originally a collection of seventy Zhou dynasty texts that Confucius left out (yi 逸) of his collection of the Shang shu, which is supposed to have originally included exactly one hundred chapters. In the “Yiwen zhi” 藝文志 or “Record of arts and letters” chapter of the Han shu 漢書, the Yi Zhou shu (referred to as simply Zhou shu 周書) is listed together with the Shang shu. However, beginning with the “Jingji zhi” 經籍志 or “Record of classics and texts” bibliography of the Sui shu 隋書, the title was relegated to the category “Miscellaneous Histories” (za shi 雜史). The oldest extant edition is a Yuan-dynasty edition of 1354, but this has rarely been seen in subsequent centuries. In the preface to the earliest critical edition, Lu Wenchao 盧文弨 (1717–1795) cites seven different editions that he consulted, his base text being a Jiajing 嘉靖 era (1507–1567) text of a Zhang Nie 章蘖, which is reproduced in the Sibu congkan 四部叢刊 edition of the Yi Zhou shu. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Yi Zhou shu attracted attention from such notable scholars as Wang Niansun 王念孫 (1744–1832), Ding Zongluo 丁宗洛 (1771–1841), Chen Fengheng 陳逢衡 (1778–1855), Tang Dapei 唐大沛 (fl. 1836), Zhu Youzeng 朱右曾 (1838 jinshi), Sun Yirang 孫詒讓 (1848–1908), and Liu Shipei 劉師培 (1884–1919), all of whom authored commentaries or critical textual studies.Footnote 5 Throughout most of the twentieth century, however, the text lapsed into obscurity again, with only certain chapters attracting attention.Footnote 6 More recently, Huang Huaixin 黃懷信 has produced both a modern translation and also a collected-commentaries edition that has now become a standard edition, at least in mainland China.Footnote 7
The *Ming xun text, whether of the Tsinghua manuscript or as a chapter of the Yi Zhou shu, is a very tightly structured essay, discussing the methods and aims of governance. It can be divided into three major sections. The first section enumerates six general methods or tools of governance: “commands” (ming 命), “good fortune” (fu 福), “misfortune” (huo 禍), “shame” (chi 恥) or “disgrace” (chou 醜),Footnote 8 “rewards” (shang 賞), and “punishments” (fa 罰). According to the text, if these six tools are correctly implemented then “the degrees of good order will reach to the limit” (du zhi yu ji 度至于極). However, the second section introduces a complication: deliberately pushing these methods to their limit produces a counter-effect, which results in disorder. The third section then provides a still more detailed list of twelve ways in which the ruler interacts with the people: “soothing” (fu 撫), “harmonizing” (he 和), “gathering” (lian 斂), “entertaining” (yu 娛), “instructing” (xun 訓), “teaching” (jiao 教), “governing” (zheng 正), “mobilizing” (dong 動), “encouraging” (quan 勸), “terrifying” (wei 畏), “looking upon” (lin 臨), and “putting in motion” (xing 行), as well as the means that he uses to do so: “generosity” (hui 惠), “equality” (jun 均), “sorrow” (ai 哀), “joy” (le 樂), “ritual” (li 禮), “government” (zheng 政), “tasks” (shi 事), “awards” (shang 賞), “punishments” (fa 罰), “centeredness” (zhong 中), and “balance” (quan 權), working forward and backwards and then forward again through these lists, counseling their implementation, but always in moderation. Much of the advice to avoid extremes will be familiar from other Warring States philosophical works. For instance, the superior is advised “to harmonize them (i.e., the people) with equality” (he zhi yi jun 和之以均), but “equality is not identical” (jun bu yi 均不一), for “if equality is identical then it is not harmonious” (jun yi bu he 均一不和). This is similar to the dictum in the Analects of Confucius “to harmonize but not to treat as the same” (he er bu tong 和而不同). Being “centered” (zhong) and being “balanced” (quan) are particularly emphasized as the most important of these means.
While the Tsinghua *Ming xun manuscript and the Yi Zhou shu “Ming xun” chapter are extremely similar, such that there can be no doubt that they are simply two versions of a single text, a comparison of the two texts reveals numerous variant readings. Liu Guozhong argues that the variants show the received text to be decidedly corrupt, and it is hard to disagree with this appraisal. I am well aware that much recent scholarship argues that it is misguided to prefer one variant to another.Footnote 9 However, not all variants are created equal. It is clear that over the course of the two or more millennia of the text's transmission, one or probably more than one copyist or scribe did not fully understand the fine points of the text, and introduced any number of errors into it. Indeed, it is not altogether surprising that the received text of the “Ming xun” text should have been relatively neglected throughout history; it simply does not read as well as it should. However, the Tsinghua manuscript shows that the text was once quite precise and quite subtle.
To demonstrate the advantages of the manuscript probably requires a complete translation of the text, preferably also comparing it with the received text. I will do this, providing complete translations of both versions of the text (as well as a separate “structured” translation that I hope will reveal some of the internal structure of the text). However, in the hope of drawing some more general conclusions concerning the process of textual transmission in traditional China, I will precede these translations with a consideration of the varieties of variants found in the two texts.
Some problems in the received text had already been identified by earlier scholars (though some of their suggestions have also proven to be wrong). But many others have come to light only with the appearance of the Tsinghua manuscript. In addition to shedding important light on this one text, the differences between the Tsinghua *Ming xun and the received “Ming xun” provide excellent illustrations of the many different varieties of textual variants found in all received Chinese texts, and thus can have a more general significance as well. In this article, I propose to examine five different types of variants found in the Tsinghua *Ming xun and the received “Ming xun” text. I will give two examples of each: simple writing or copying errors; classifier variation; phonetic loans; variants caused by graphic similarity; and the addition or deletion of words, sometimes apparently for the purpose of making an intended reading more explicit. I will also include one pseudo-variant, which may be even more illustrative of editorial practices, both traditional and modern. In most cases (though not necessarily in all), it seems certain, as suggested by Liu Guozhong, that the reading of the Tsinghua manuscript is preferable to that of the received text in the Yi Zhou shu.Footnote 10 Most of these variants were doubtless caused simply by the vagaries of traditional textual transmission, exacerbated in the case of the Yi Zhou shu by its non-canonical status and relative neglect by serious editors. However, some seem to have been deliberate attempts to “improve” the text.
Between the Tsinghua *Ming xun and the received text of the “Ming xun” chapter of the Yi Zhou shu, there are of course numerous more or less incidental variants for which a systematic critical edition would need to account, but which will have to pass more or less undiscussed here. These include the systematic variation between the manuscript's cai 才 and the received text's zai 在 in the sense of “in” or “at,” between the manuscript's ru 如 and the received text's ruo 若 in the sense of “if,” or the manuscript's wang 亡 and the received text's wu 無 in the sense of “there is none.”Footnote 11 Other occasional variants that do not seem to affect the sense of the text are between the manuscript's nai 乃 and the received text's ze 則 in the sense of “then” (as seen on strip #8), or between the manuscript's jue 氒 “their; those” and the received text's ci 此 “these” (strip #10). The difference between the manuscript's negative fu 弗 and the received text's bu 不 on strip #8 might be more important, but this variation is extremely common in excavated manuscripts and the present example does not shed any additional light on the usage of the two negatives. I will also not discuss cases of the presence or absence of the pronoun qi 其 (e.g., on strips ##7 and 8) or of the particles yi 矣 (strip #8) or ye 也 (e.g., in the received text corresponding to strip #8). Nor will I discuss the systematic variation between the manuscript's chi 恥 “ashamed” and the received text's chou 醜 “disgraced,”Footnote 12 or between such synonymous locutions as the manuscript's tong sang 痛喪 “to be pained by mourning” and the received text's wu si 惡死 “to hate death” (strip #4). Instead, I hope that the variations I propose to examine will have more general implications.
In the examples examined below, “T” represents the “Tsinghua” manuscript, while “Y” represents the “Yi Zhou shu” received text. For the manuscript, I provide two transcriptions, the first, “T1,” a direct transcription that attempts to reflect exactly what is written, and the second, “T2,” an interpretive “exploded” reading, which is that which the Tsinghua editor adds in parentheses. I include the punctuation given by the editor. I indicate in parentheses the number of the strip on which the text in question is found. Below these two transcriptions, I give the corresponding text in the Yi Zhou shu, as found in the Sibu congkan edition of the text. I provide punctuation for this text as well, to make the reading easier to follow, though it was not originally punctuated. I also provide English translations of both the manuscript and received text. I highlight the variation in question with underlining in the Chinese and by italics in the English. I have strived to render the variants explicit in both translations. For the complete context of both versions of the text, see the complete translations given in the Appendices to this article.
Variety 1: Mis-Writing or Mis-Copying
The first example seems to be a case of simple mis-writing or mis-copying on the part of the manuscript scribe. The second example seems to be a simple case of transposition, in which the received text has copied a passage from another portion of the text and inserted it in place of an original passage.
EXAMPLE 1
T1: 天古卲命以命力曰 【10】
T2: 天故昭命以命力（之）曰
Y: 明王是故昭命以命之曰：
T: Heaven therefore made radiant the mandate in order to command power saying:
Y: Enlightened kings for this reason made radiant the mandate in order to command them saying:
“To command power” (ming li 命力) makes no sense in the context. For this reason, the Tsinghua editor places the pronoun zhi 之 “them” in parentheses after li 力 in his transcription, indicating that he understands the graph to be mis-written. Of course, his understanding is doubtless influenced by the received text, which does indeed have a zhi 之 after the verb ming 命. The editor adds a note in which he remarks simply enough that he suspects that li is an error. In the manuscript, li is written 
, which is not particularly graphically similar to zhi, written on the same strip as 
. Nevertheless, although the stroke order is certainly different, perhaps the two characters are similar enough in shape to cause them to be mistaken. Of course, it is also possible that this was just a slip of the brush. In any event, the reading of the received text certainly seems preferable here.
EXAMPLE 2
T1: 福录才人=
能居女不居而
義則厇至于亟 【2】
T2: 福祿在人，人能居，如不居而重義，則度至于極。
Y: 福祿在人。能無懲乎？若懲而悔過，則度至于極。
T: Good fortune and riches depend on men. Can men reside in them (i.e., can men be content with them)? If they do not reside in them and yet take seriously propriety, then degrees will reach to the limit.
Y: Good fortune and riches depend on men. Can they be without warning? If they are warned and regret mistakes, then degrees will reach to the limit.
The sentence immediately after this in the manuscript text reads (again marking variants vis-à-vis the received text):
T1: 或司不義而
之𥛔
=
在人=囗母
女
而𢘓
則厇至于亟
【2–3】
T2: 或司不義而降之禍。禍過在人。人囗毋懲乎？如懲而悔過，則度至于極。
Y: 夫或司不義而降之禍，在人。能無懲乎？若懲而悔過，則度至于極。
T: [The Overseer of Virtue] also oversees impropriety and sends down on it misfortune. Misfortune and mistakes depend on men. [Can] men be without chastisement? If they are chastised and regret mistakes, then degrees will reach to the limit.
Y: [The Overseer of Virtue] also oversees impropriety and sends down on it misfortune, which depends on men. Can men be without chastisement? If they are chastised and regret mistakes, then degrees will reach to the limit.
Whereas in this subsequent sentence, “chastisement” (cheng 懲) and “regretting mistakes” (hui guo 悔過) are directly related to the “misfortune and mistakes” (huo guo 禍過) that “depend on men” (zai ren 在人), they have nothing to do with “good fortune and riches” (fu lu 福祿), the topic of the former sentence. For this reason, Tang Dapei 唐大培 (fl. 1836) had already suggested in his Yi Zhou shu fenbian jushi 逸周書分編句釋 that the two phrases highlighted above were corrupt, having been copied from the following sentence. The manuscript confirms that he was quite right in his intuition, and presents us with a better reading of this passage.Footnote 13
Variety 2: Classifier Variation
The next examples are both simple cases of the addition or not of a classifier, in this case a distinction between zhong 中 “centered” and zhong 忠 “loyal,” the latter differentiated by the addition of a “heart” signific. A similar case perhaps of classifier variation is discussed below as a case of a pseudo-variant in Example 11.
EXAMPLE 3
T1:
之以中 【12】
T2: 臨之以中
Y: 臨之以忠
T: look upon them with centeredness
Y: look upon them with loyalty
EXAMPLE 4
T1: 中不忠 【12】
T2: 中不忠
Y: 忠不忠
T: centeredness is not loyal
Y: loyalty is not loyal
Although in the first of these two cases either reading is perfectly possible grammatically, either “look upon them (i.e., the people) with centeredness” or “look upon them with loyalty,” conceptually the manuscript reading would seem to be preferable. Much of the discussion in this chapter, and especially that in the section immediately preceding that in which these examples are found, revolves around the desirability of not going to excess. Being “centered” would seem to be consistent with this. Moreover, zhong 忠 “loyalty” is a desired attribute of the people, but not of the superior who here “looks upon” (lin 臨) the people. The logic of this seems to be confirmed in the second case: “loyalty is not loyal” seems to be nonsensical, whereas “centeredness is not loyal” is not only a striking sort of wordplay (one might be tempted to translate “centeredness is not self-centered,” but English “self-centered” has a different sense from zhong 忠), but also constitutes a philosophically interesting statement.
Variety 3: Phonetic Loans
The next two examples are both cases of phonetic loans, one of the more common sorts of variation in Chinese texts of all periods. The first example comes from the same strip as the two examples examined above, and would seem to illustrate the same sort of wordplay on the part of the *Ming xun author.
EXAMPLE 5
T1: 正之以政 【12】
T2: 正之以政
Y: 震之以政
T: govern them with government
Y: shake them with government
Although “govern them with government” sounds almost tautological in English, in Chinese the expression sounds quite eloquent. Moreover, the author of the *Ming xun seems to be using the language here in the same way he used the phrase “centeredness is not loyal” (zhong bu zhong 中不忠) above. The variant in the received text, zhen 震, apparently a phonetic loan for zheng 正 (zheng 正 had an archaic pronunciation of something like *teŋh, while zhen 震 had an archaic pronunciation something like *(m-dənFootnote 14 ), has such meanings as “to shake; to rattle (both literally and figuratively); to bestir; to inspire.” In English, many of these meanings sound like they would be appropriate functions for “government.” However, while I would not want to be categorical about this, in Chinese texts of this period zhen as a transitive verb is not usually attributed to government.
EXAMPLE 6
T1: 𨓮祭皮
【9】
T2: 淫祭皮家
Y: 淫祭則罷家
T: sacrificing excessively will ruin their households
Y: sacrificing excessively then will quit their households
This phrase comes in the context of doing various activities to excess. The fuller context reads as follows:
T1: 亟𥛔則民=
=民
則𨓮=祭=
皮
【8–9】
T2: 極禍則民畏，民畏則淫祭，淫祭 罷家。
Y: 極禍則民鬼，民鬼則淫祭, 淫祭則罷家。
T: If misfortune is pressed to the limit, then the people will be terrified, and if the people are terrified then they will sacrifice excessively, and sacrificing excessively will ruin their households.
Y: If misfortune is pressed to the limit, then the people will turn to ghosts, and if the people turn to ghosts then they will sacrifice excessively, and sacrificing excessively then will quit their households.
Kong Chao 孔晁 (fl. c. c.e. 265), the earliest commentator on the Yi Zhou shu, commented on the line yin ji ze ba jia 淫祭則罷家 “sacrificing excessively then will quit their households”:
罷弊其財且無禍也。
Exhaust their resources hoping not to have misfortune.Footnote 15
Clearly, this is more or less what the sentence means. 罷, normally read ba and meaning “to quit, to stop” or bi “to scatter,” also has a reading of pi meaning “tired, worn-out; weak; defeated,” and it is this latter reading that later editors of the Yi Zhou shu have generally adopted, both in Kong Chao's commentary and in the main text. It is also the reading that Liu Guozhong adopts for the 皮 of the manuscript. This is a reasonable, but not a necessary, reading. Perhaps an easier reading of the manuscript character would be as the protograph of po 破 “to smash, to ruin” or of pi 披 “to split; to break off”: i.e., “ruin their households,” as I translate it.
Variety 4: Graphic Similarity
The fourth type of variant that I propose to discuss involves differences that develop from graphic similarity between two characters. Again, I will give two examples of this type of variant. I would suggest that both of them derive from serious misinterpretations of the underlying text.
EXAMPLE 7
T1: 夫民生而佴不明
以明之能亡佴
【3】
T2: 夫民生而恥不明，上以明之，能亡恥乎？
Y: 夫民生而醜不明，無以明之，能無醜乎？
T: When the people from birth are ashamed of not being enlightened, and superiors because of this enlighten them, can they be without shame?
Y: When people from birth are disgraced by not being enlightened, and there is nothing with which to enlighten them, can they be without disgrace?
Although this passage includes three important lexical variants—chi 恥 “ashamed” vs. chou 醜 “disgraced,” shang 上 “superior” vs. wu 無 “there is nothing,” and wang 亡 “there is none” vs. wu “there is none”—I will focus here only on the variation between shang 上 “superior” vs. wu 無 “there is nothing.” The focus of the *Ming xun manuscript, just as it is the focus of the “Ming xun” chapter of the Yi Zhou shu, and also the related “Du xun” and “Chang xun” chapters, is the methods by which government can bring about good order. Elsewhere in the text, shang 上 is used several times in the sense of political “superiors” (e.g., on strips 4, 8 and 9), and the passage here would seem to make it the responsibility of these superiors to enlighten the unenlightened people. The reading of the received text misses this sense entirely. Moreover, not only is it not consistent with this overall philosophical position, but it is also not very interesting philosophically; after all, if the people are disgraced from birth by not being enlightened, and if there is truly no means to enlighten them, then how indeed could they be without disgrace!
It would seem that the commentary of Kong Chao was based on a text that read more or less as does the manuscript:
不謂醜者，若道上為君。
It does not put this in terms of the disgraced ones, but seems to speak of the superior being the lord.
The only apparent explanation for Kong Chao's mention of a “superior” (shang 上) in his comment is that this word was in the text on which he was commenting.
While of course there is no graphic similarity between shang 上 and wu 無, this variant masks what must have been a different variant earlier in the transmission of the text. Shang 上, whether written as 
(transcribed by the Tsinghua editors as
) as here,Footnote
16
or as 
as elsewhere in Warring States manuscripts,Footnote
17
is strikingly similar to wang 亡, written as 
in Warring States manuscripts. As noted above (n. 11), Chinese readers routinely read 亡 as wu and often simply write the character as 無. Some copyist at some point in time must have seen and understood it as , and sometime later some other copyist transposed this wang 亡 into the wu 無 of the received text.
EXAMPLE 8
A sentence found on strip #8 includes several variants of various kinds. One of these seems to be based on an underlying graphic similarity between yi 弋, read by the Tsinghua editor as the protograph of dai 代 “to substitute,” and jie 誡 “to warn.”
T1: 亟命則民
乏乃
命以弋亓上
於
矣 【8】
T2: 極命則民墮乏， 乃曠命 以弋其上， 殆於亂矣。
Y: 極命則民墮，民墮則曠命，曠命以誡其上，則殆於亂。
T: If commands are pressed to the limit, then the people will let them fall away and then lay waste to the commands in order to replace their superiors, and will be endangered by chaos indeed.
Y: If commands are pressed to the limit, then the people will let them fall, and if the people let them fall then they will lay waste to the commands, and laying waste to the commands will warn their superiors, then they will be endangered by chaos.
Yi 弋 is written in the manuscript as 
. This could easily have been read by any copyist as ge 戈 “dagger-axe,” regularly written as 
in Warring States manuscripts, and interpreted as the protograph for either jie 戒 “to put on guard” (written in Warring States manuscripts as 
), or that in turn as the protograph for the jie 誡 “to warn” of the received text.Footnote
18
Once again we have a case of graphic similarity leading to an almost nonsensical received reading. Whereas it is easy to see why the people “replacing” (dai 代) their superiors would be perceived to run the danger of chaos, it is very hard indeed to see why their “warning” (jie 誡) their superiors should do so. The difference between and is tiny, but the significance for the text is great. We have here a classic demonstration of the Chinese proverb cha zhi hao li, shi zhi qian li 差之毫厘，失之千里 “missing it by an inch and losing it by a thousand miles.”
Variety 5: Added or Deleted Text
The final variety of variants that I propose to discuss involves additional material found in the received text vis-à-vis the manuscript. While of course there is no way to be sure of what the underlying cause of such additions may have been, context may allow some explanation to be divined.
EXAMPLE 9
T1: 女又佴而亙行則厇至于亟 【三】
T2: 如有恥而恆行， 則度至于極。
Y: 若有醜而競行不醜，則度至于極。
T: If they have shame and constantly behave, then degrees will reach to the limit.
Y: If they have disgrace and insistently practice not being disgraced, then degrees will reach to the limit.
T1: 福莫大於行 【10】
T2: 福莫大於行
Y: 福莫大於行義
T: Of good fortune there is nothing greater than behaving.
Y: Of good fortune there is nothing greater than practicing propriety.
These two passages, from different portions of the text, both feature the word xing 行, and the parallels between them—both in the manuscript and in the received text—show that the writer or editor was intending an emphatic sense for the word. Xing is, of course, a very common verb, with both intransitive and transitive uses, in addition to several nominal uses as well. The normal intransitive use of xing is “to walk” and many related senses, while the transitive use normally means “to put into motion, to put into practice” as well as many related senses. In the first passage of the manuscript above, xing is an intransitive verb, but it surely does not mean just “to walk.” Instead, it must mean something like “to behave,” i.e., “to behave properly,” an unusual but not wholly unattested meaning.Footnote 19 In the second example, this verbal sense has been nominalized into “behaving” or “good behavior.” In the received text, however, both cases of xing have been turned into transitive verbs (“to practice, to put into practice”) by the addition of direct objects (bu chou 不醜 “not being disgraced” and yi 義 “propriety”). It would seem that some editor of the received “Ming xun” chapter of the Yi Zhou shu regarded the intransitive usage of xing as incorrect or incomplete. The meaning is essentially the same as “to behave oneself,” but in these passages the received text has taken an interesting idiosyncrasy of the text and transformed it into a fairly pedestrian platitude.
It would seem that the intransitive usage of xing in the sense of “to behave oneself” was usually a characteristic of the author of the *Ming xun text. It appears also in two other sentences of the text, one of which is preserved essentially without change in the received text, and one of which is completely changed.
T1: 正人亡亟則不=𠲳=則不行 【6】
T2: 正人亡極則不𠲳，不𠲳則不行。
Y: 正人無極則不信，不信則不行。
T: If in governing men there are not limits, then they will not be sincere, and if they are not sincere then they will not behave.
Y: If in governing men there are not limits, then they will not be sincere, and if they are not sincere then they will not behave.
T1: 弗智則不行 【8】
T2: 弗知則不行
Y: 不知則不存
T: If they do not know it, then they will not behave.
Y: If ignorant, then they will not survive.
On the other hand, there is another occurrence of the verb xing that comes just two sentences after this last example. In this case, it is the manuscript that adds a word causing xing to have a transitive use in the sense “to put into effect,” though this sense is masked to some extent by a preposing of the object wei 韋 “disobedience.”
T1: 亟福則民=祿=迀=善= 韋則不行 【8】
T2: 極福則民祿，民祿 迀善，迀善 韋則不行。
Y: 極福則民祿，民祿則干善, 干善 則不行。
T: If good fortune is pressed to the limit, then the people will be enriched; if the people being enriched strive for goodness, then in striving for goodness disobedience will not be put into practice.
Y: If good fortune is taken to the limit, then the people will be enriched, and if the people being enriched then strive for goodness, then in strivingFootnote 20 for goodness will not behave.
As can be seen here, the received text does not include the word wei 韋, doubtless to be understood as wei 違 “to disobey; disobedience.” If this sentence were viewed in isolation, the reading of the manuscript would doubtless be preferable; it would serve as an exhortation toward goodness: good fortune enriches the people, which encourages them to improve themselves and not to disobey their superiors. However, this conclusion is out of place in the immediate context of the text, which presents a series of counter-effects that are not desirable. The sentences immediately before and after read as follows:
T1: 亟命則民
乏乃
命以弋亓上
於
矣 【8】
T2: 極命則民墮乏，乃曠命以代其上，殆於亂矣。
Y: 極命則民墮，民墮則曠命，曠命以誡其上，則殆於亂。
T: If commands are pressed to the limit, then the people will let them fall away and then lay waste to the commands in order to replace their superiors, and will be endangered by chaos indeed.
Y: If commands are pressed to the limit, then the people will let them fall, and if the people let them fall then they will lay waste to the commands, and laying waste to the commands will warn their superiors, then they will be endangered by chaos.
T1: 亟𥛔則民=
=則𨓮=祭=
皮
【8–9】
T2: 極禍則民鬼，民鬼則淫祭，淫祭則罷家。
Y: 極禍則民鬼，民鬼則淫祭，淫祭則罷家。
T: If misfortune is pressed to the limit, then the people will be terrified, and if the people are terrified then they will sacrifice excessively, and sacrificing excessively will ruin their households.
Y: If misfortune is pressed to the limit, then the people will turn to ghosts, and if the people turn to ghosts then they will sacrifice excessively, and sacrificing excessively then will quit their households.
It can be seen from these sentences that the conclusions to the sentences are all negative, and so should be as well in the sentence in question here. This is indeed the reading of the received text, which does not include the word wei “disobedience,” and so the verb xing has to be intransitive, meaning “to behave”: “in striving for goodness (the people) will not behave.” It is curious that the manuscript mistakes this usage, but it is a clear mistake.
EXAMPLE 10
T1: 賞莫大於壤 【11】
T2: 賞莫大於讓
Y: 賞莫大於信義，讓莫大於賈上
T: Of awards there is nothing greater than yielding;
Y: Of awards there is nothing greater than trust and propriety. Of yielding there is nothing greater than buying superiors.
Here some editor of the received text has attempted to correct what he apparently perceived to be a flaw in the text, but in doing so shows that he did not understand the underlying logic of the text. Both the *Ming xun and “Ming xun” texts are organized in groups of six, and stress this enumeration, as also in the sentence immediately following this one, by referring to “these six things” (ci liu zhe 此六者). It is clear throughout the text that these six things are “commands” (ming 命), “good fortune” (fu 福), “misfortune” (huo 禍), “shame” (chi 恥) or “disgrace” (chou 醜), “rewards” (shang 賞), and “punishments” (fa 罰).Footnote 21 However, in this section of the text (text found on strips ##8–11), only five of these topics conclude with the formula “of X there is nothing greater than Y” (X mo da yu 莫大於 Y); the first sentence, dealing with “commands,” has a different structure. Some editor must have counted these five “of X there is nothing greater than Y” sentences, and thought that five cannot equal six. He must also have thought that a sentence such as “of awards there is nothing greater than yielding” does not make sense, and so added a different attribute to “awards” (shang 賞). But in doing this, he misunderstood the relationship between “awards” and “yielding.” Text on strip #9, essentially identical in the received text, shows this:
T1: 亟賞則民賈=亓=上=則亡 = 壤 =則不川 【9】
T2: 極賞則民賈其上，賈其上則 亡讓，亡讓則不順。
Y: 極賞則民賈其上，賈其上則民無讓，無讓則不順。
T: If awards are pressed to the limit, then the people will buy their superiors, and if they buy their superiors then there will be no yielding, and if there is no yielding then they will not be compliant.
Y: If awards are pressed to the limit, then the people will buy their superiors, and if they buy their superiors then the people will have no yielding, and if there is no yielding then they will not be compliant.
The reason that “yielding” is so important in relation to “awards” is because it is a counter-indication that can occur when “awards” are taken too far.
Whoever introduced this error into the received text then went on to compound his error by inventing a wholly new category to the set of six means of governance: “yielding” (rang 讓). In doing so, he made matters much worse by adding “of yielding there is nothing greater than buying superiors” (rang mo da yu gu shang 讓莫大於賈上), which of course would have been anathema to the author of the *Ming xun.
Variety 6: A Pseudo-Variant
EXAMPLE 11
The final example is a seemingly simple case of classifier variation, between dai 殆 “danger” and shi 始 “beginning,” both of which derive from the protograph tai 台. However, it reveals much about the editorial process. After listing six examples of excesses in government (excessive “commands” [ming 命], “wealth” [fu 福], “misfortune” [huo 禍], “shame” [chi 恥], “awards” [shang 賞], and “punishments” [fa 罰]), the text relates these to governance:
T1: 凡氒六者正之所
【10】
T1: 凡氒六者，正之所殆。
Y: 凡此六者，政之始也。
T: All of those six things are what endanger governance.
Y: All of these six things are the beginnings of government.
It is easy to see, especially in context, that these six excesses “endanger” government, and it is not easy to see how they could be the “beginnings” of government. Indeed, already in the late eighteenth century Lu Wenchao wordlessly emended the shi 始 “beginning” of his source text to read dai 殆 “danger,” and this emendation has been accepted by all subsequent editors, including now also the Tsinghua editor Liu Guozhong. In a note (n. 25), he says “Checked against the manuscript text, Lu's emendation is correct, and the manuscript text
should also be read as dai 殆.” Reasonable though this emendation seems at first reading, the evidence from the manuscript is by no means so conclusive. Elsewhere in the Tsinghua manuscripts,
is routinely used to write the word shi 始 “beginning,” and based on present evidence is never elsewhere used to write the word dai 殆 “danger.” What is more, on strip #8 of *Ming xun, there is what seems to be an unmistakable use of the word dai 殆 “danger,” and there the graph is written with a “heart” signific: 
, i.e.,
. This does not mean that
here could not also be read as dai “danger,” but any editor should be explicit about his reasoning for doing so. On the other hand, if the manuscript's
is in fact to be read as shi 始, and given that prior to Lu Wenchao's emendation all versions of the received text read shi 始, we might also ask whether these six excesses could be construed as having led to governance in the first place. I think it would not be too hard to develop a political philosophy in which the existence of these problems was viewed as the catalyst for the establishment of government. This is perhaps a chicken-and-egg type of question, and thus an excellent example of how variants can enter into a text.
Conclusion
The Yi Zhou shu has, truly, long been a “left-over” text, throughout the last two thousand or more years having been little read and even less esteemed. The publication in 2010 of the first volume of the Tsinghua University manuscripts provided evidence that at least some texts included in the received text of the Yi Zhou shu were already in circulation in the Warring States period, and may well have been regarded as having the same status as texts included in the Shang shu. That volume included three separate texts that can be identified with chapters in the Yi Zhou shu: *Huang men 皇門 or August Gate, which corresponds with the Yi Zhou shu chapter by that title; Zhai Gong zhi gu ming 祭公之顧命 or The Duke of Zhai's Retrospective Command, which corresponds with the “Zhai Gong” 祭公 or “Duke of Zhai” chapter; and *Cheng wu 程寤 or Cheng Awakening, only the title of which is preserved in the received Yi Zhou shu but for which there are numerous medieval quotations that correspond with the Tsinghua manuscript.Footnote 22 The *Ming xun manuscript included in Volume 5 of the Tsinghua manuscripts presents yet another indication of the importance of these texts. *Ming xun almost certainly cannot boast the sort of pedigree of either *Huang men or Zhai Gong zhi gu ming, both of which may well be authentic texts of the Western Zhou period,Footnote 23 and it does not provide any new historical information. However, it is not for those reasons uninteresting. The text as found in the manuscript is a very tightly argued essay, and will surely repay close reading for greater understanding of Warring States political philosophy. Its relationship with the received chapter “Ming xun” will also repay close reading, as I have attempted to demonstrate above, for the varieties of ways in which Chinese texts can be changed in the course of traditional transmission.
Appendix 1
The Complete Text of the Tsinghua University Manuscript *Ming xun 命訓, in Literal and Exploded Transcription, Together with the Received Text of the “Ming Xun” 命訓 Chapter of the Yi Zhou Shu 逸周書, with Complete Translations.
The following translation of the *Ming xun 命訓 text is presented according to the fifteen strips of the Tsinghua (Qinghua) University 清華大學 manuscript of the text.Footnote
24
The Tsinghua editor of this text is Liu Guozhong 劉國忠, and the presentation of the text follows his transcriptions, both the literal and the interpretive “exploded” transcriptions. The first line (T1, T standing for Tsinghua) provides a literal transcription, which seeks to present the text as it appears in the manuscript, without addition or deletion. The only punctuation in this line is that found in the manuscript itself, which consists of two types: , usually indicative of a sentence break, and 
, which serves as a sort of comma (there is also the standard ligature mark, =, used throughout Chinese manuscripts). These punctuation marks are not used systematically. The second line (T2) provides Liu Guozhong's interpretive transcription, whether I follow it explicitly or not. Liu punctuates his transcription, and I follow his punctuation for the most part. The third line (Y, standing for Yi Zhou shu), presented in a smaller typeface, provides the text of the “Ming xun” 命訓 chapter of the Yi Zhou shu 逸周書 as found in the Sibu congkan 四部叢刊 edition of the text (a photo reprint of the Ming Jiajing-era text of a Zhang Nie 章蘖). I provide modern punctuation for this text, which was originally unpunctuated. The fourth line provides a translation of the manuscript text (T), while the fifth line (again presented in a smaller typeface) provides a translation of the received text (Y). I should note that while my translations are very much informed first by Liu Guozhong's commentary and also by the various commentaries on the received “Ming xun,” I do not follow them in all respects. Thus, the translation does not invariably accord with the transcription. I should note too that in the translations, I have strived to reflect any differences between the two texts, even at the expense of a smooth reading. Appendix 2 reproduces just the English translation, arranged according to paragraphs. I hope this arrangement will render the structure of the text easier to follow.
T1: 囗生民而成大命=司悳正以𥛔福立明王以
之曰大命有
少命日=成=則敬又尚則
=以敬命則厇【一】
T2: 囗生民而成大命，命司德正以禍福，立明王以訓之曰：大命有常，少命日成，日成則敬，有尚則廣，廣以敬命，則度
Y: 天生民而成大命，命司德正之以禍福，立明王以順之，曰：大命有常，小命日成，成則敬，有常則廣，廣以敬命，則度
T: [Heaven] gave birth to the people and completed the great mandate, commanding the Supervisor of Virtue to govern with misfortune and good fortune, and to establish enlightened kings to instruct them, saying: “The great mandate has constancy and the minor mandates are daily completed. Being daily completed, they are respected; having constancy, it is expansive. Being expansive and thereby respecting the mandates, then degrees
Y: Heaven gave birth to the people and completed the great mandate, commanding the Supervisor of Virtue to govern them with misfortune and good fortune, and to establish enlightened kings to make them compliant, saying: “The great mandate has constancy and the minor mandates are daily completed. Being completed they are respected; having constancy, it is expansive. Being expansive and thereby respecting the mandates, then degrees
T1: 囗囗亟夫司悳司義而易之福=祿在人=能居女不居而
義則厇至于亟或司不義而
之𥛔=
才人=
【二】
T2: 囗囗極。夫司德司義而賜之福。福祿在人，人能居？如不居而重義，則度至于極。或司不義而降之禍。禍過在人，人
Y: 至于極。夫司德司義而賜之福祿，福祿在人，能無懲乎？若懲而悔過，則度至于極。夫或司不義而降之禍，在人，
T: [will reach to] the limit. The Overseer of Virtue oversees propriety and awards it good fortune. Good fortune and riches depend on men. Can men reside in them (i.e., can men be content with them)? If they do not reside in them and yet take seriously propriety, then degrees will reach to the limit. [The Overseer of Virtue] also oversees impropriety and sends down on it misfortune. Misfortune and mistakes depend on men. [Can] men
Y: will reach to the limit. The Overseer of Virtue oversees propriety and awards it good fortune and riches. Good fortune and riches depend on men. Can they be without warning? If they are warned and regret mistakes, then degrees will reach to the limit. And then it oversees impropriety and sends down on it misfortune, which depends on men.
T1: 囗母
女
而𢘓
則厇至于亟夫民生而佴不明
以明之能亡佴
女又佴而亙行則厇至于【三】
T2: 囗毋懲乎？如懲而悔過，則度至于極。夫民生而恥不明，上以明之，能亡恥乎？如有恥而恆行，則度至于
Y: 能無懲乎？若懲而悔過，則度至于極。夫民生而醜不明，無以明之，能無醜乎？若有醜而競行不醜，則度至于
T: be without chastisement? If they are chastised and regret mistakes, then degrees will reach to the limit. When the people from birth are ashamed of not being enlightened, and superiors because of this enlighten them, can they be without shame? If they have shame and constantly behave, then degrees will reach to
Y: Can men be without chastisement? If they are chastised and regret mistakes, then degrees will reach to the limit. When people from birth are disgraced by not being enlightened, and there is nothing with which to enlighten them, can they be without disgrace? If they have disgrace and insistently practice not being disgraced, then degrees will reach to
T1: 亟夫民生而樂生㝅上以㝅之能母懽
女懽以忠
則厇至于亟夫民生而痌死喪上以
之能母𢖶【四】
T2: 極。夫民生而樂生穀，上以穀之，能毋勸乎？如勸以忠信，則度至于極。夫民生而痛死喪，上以畏之，能毋恐
Y: 極。夫民生而樂生，無以穀之，能無勸乎？若勸之以忠，則度至于極。夫民生而惡死，無以畏之，能無恐
T: the limit. When the people from birth enjoy fresh grain, and superiors use it to pay them, can they be without encouragement? If they are encouraged with loyalty and sincerity, then degrees will reach to the limit. When the people from birth are pained by death and mourning, and superiors use these to terrify them, can they be without fear?
Y: the limit. When the people from birth enjoy life, and there is nothing with which to pay them, can they be without encouragement? If they are encouraged with loyalty, then degrees will reach to the limit. When people from birth hate death, and there is nothing with which to terrify them, can they be without fear?
T1:
女𢖶而承𡥈則厇至于亟六亟既達九迀具𡨄達道=天以正=人=莫女又亟道天莫女亡亟道天又亟則不=
=
【五】
T2: 乎？如恐而承教，則度至于極。六極既達，九迀具塞，達道道天以正人。正人莫如有極，道天莫如亡極。道天有極，則不威，不威
Y: 乎？若恐而承教，則度至于極。六極既通，六間具塞，通道通天以正人。正人莫如有極，道天莫如無極。道天有極則不威，不威
T: If they are fearful and receive teaching, then degrees will reach to the limit. The six limits all being attained, and the nine strivings all being blocked, one attains the Way and follows heaven to govern men. In governing men, there is nothing as good as having limits; in following heaven, there is nothing as good as being without limit. If in following heaven there are limits, then it will not be terrifying, and if it is not terrifying
Y: If they are fearful and receive teaching, then degrees will reach to the limit. The six limits all being attained, and the six gaps all being blocked, one penetrates the Way and penetrates heaven in order to govern man. In governing men there is nothing as good as having limits; in following heaven there is nothing as good as being without limit. If in following heaven there are limits, then it will not be terrifying, and if it is not terrifying
T1: 則不卲正人亡亟則不=𠲳=則不行夫明王卲天
人以厇攻=
以利之事身=
天則厇至于亟夫天道三【六】
T2: 則不昭。正人亡極，則不𠲳，不𠲳則不行。夫明王昭天信人以度功，功地以利之，事身人畏天，則度至于極。夫天道三
Y: 則不昭。正人無極則不信，不信則不行。明王昭天信人以度功地以利之，使信人畏天，則度至于極。夫天道三，
T: then it will not be radiant. If in governing men there are not limits, then they will not be sincere, and if they are not sincere then they will not behave. If enlightened kings cause heaven to be radiant and man to be trustworthy to work by degrees, and to work the land to benefit them, causing sincere men to be terrified by heaven, then degrees will reach to the limit. The ways of heaven are three,
Y: then it will not be radiant. If in governing men there are not limits, then they will not be sincere, and if they are not sincere, then they will not behave. If the enlightened kings cause heaven to be radiant and man to be trustworthy to work the land by degrees to benefit them, causing sincere men to be terrified by heaven, then degrees will reach to the limit. The ways of heaven are three,
T1: 人道三天又命又福有𥛔人又佴又巿冒又
戉以人之佴尚天之命以亓巿冒尚天之福以亓
戉尚天之𥛔囗 【七】
T2: 人道三。天有命，有福、有禍。人有恥，有巿冕、有斧鉞。以人之恥尚天之命、以其巿冕尚天之福、以其斧鉞尚天之禍，囗
Y: 人道三。天有命，有禍、有福，人有醜，有紼絻、有斧鉞。以人之醜當天之命、以紼絻當天之福、以斧鉞當天之禍，六
T: and the ways of man are three. Heaven having a mandate, there is good fortune and there is misfortune. Men having shame, there are kneepads and caps and there are axes and halberds. Taking men's shame to match heaven's mandate, taking their kneepads and caps to match heaven's good fortune, and taking their axes and halberds to match heaven's misfortune, … [there are six]
Y: and the ways of man are three. Heaven having a mandate, there is misfortune and there is good fortune. Men having disgrace, there are kneepads and caps and there are axes and halberds. Taking men's disgrace to match heaven's mandate, taking kneepads and caps to match heaven's good fortune, and taking axes and halberds to match heaven's misfortune, there are six
T1: 方三述亓亟
弗智則不行亟命則民
乏乃
命以弋亓上
於
矣亟福則民=录=迀=善=韋則不行亟𥛔【八】
T2: 方三述，其極一。弗知則不行。極命則民墮乏，乃曠命以代其上，殆於亂矣。極福則民祿，民祿迀善，迀善韋則不行。極禍
Y: 方三述，其極一也。不知則不存。極命則民墮，民墮則曠命，曠命以誡其上，則殆於亂。極福則民祿，民祿則干善，干善則不行。極禍
T: recipes and three methods, but their limit is all [one:] the same. If they do not know it, then they will not behave. If commands are pressed to the limit, then the people will let them fall away and then lay waste to the commands in order to replace their superiors, and will be endangered by chaos indeed. If good fortune is pressed to the limit, then the people will be enriched, and if the people being enriched strive for goodness, then in striving for goodness disobedience will not be put into practice. If misfortune is pressed to the limit,
Y: recipes and three methods, but their limit is all [one:] the same. If ignorant, then they will not survive. If commands are pressed to the limit, then the people will let them fall, and if the people let them fall then they will lay waste to the commands, and laying waste to the commands will warn their superiors, then they will be endangered by chaos. If good fortune is pressed to the limit, then the people will be enriched, and if the people being enriched then strive for goodness, then in striving for goodness they will not behave. If misfortune is pressed to the limit,
T1: 則民=
=則𨓮=祭=皮
亟佴則民=
=則瘍=人=則不
亟賞則民賈=亓=上=則亡=壤=則不川亟罰則民多=
=則【九】
T2: 則民鬼，民鬼則淫祭，淫祭則罷家。極恥則民枳，民枳則傷人，傷人則不義。極賞則民賈其上，賈其上則民無讓，無讓則不順。極罰則民多詐，多詐則
Y: 則民鬼，民鬼則淫祭，淫祭則罷家。極醜則民叛，民叛則傷人，傷人則不義。極賞則民賈其上，賈其上則民無讓，無讓則不順。極罰則民多詐，多詐則
T: then the people will be terrified, and if the people are terrified then they will sacrifice excessively, and sacrificing excessively will ruin their households. If shame is pressed to the limit, then the people will revolt, and if the people revolt then they will harm others, and in harming others then they will not be proper. If awards are pressed to the limit, then the people will buy their superiors, and if they buy their superiors then there will be no yielding, and if there is no yielding then they will not be compliant. If punishments are pressed to the limit, then the people will have many wiles, and with many wiles then
Y: then the people will turn to ghosts, and if the people turn to ghosts then they will sacrifice excessively, and sacrificing excessively then will then quit their households. If disgrace is pressed to the limit, then the people will revolt, and if the people revolt then they will harm others, and in harming others then they will not be proper. If awards are pressed to the limit, then the people will buy their superiors, and if they buy their superiors then there will be no yielding, and if there is no yielding then they will not be compliant. If punishment is pressed to the limit, then the people will have many wiles, and with many wiles then
T1: 不=忠=則亡
凡氒六者正之所
天古卲命以命力曰大命殜罰少命=身福莫大於行𥛔莫大於𨓮祭佴莫大於【十】
T2: 不忠，不忠則亡復。凡氒六者，正之所殆。天古昭命以命力曰：大命世罰，小命命身。福莫大於行。禍莫大於淫祭。恥莫大於
Y: 不忠，不忠則無報。凡此六者，政之始也。明王是故昭命以命之曰：大命世罰，小命罰身。福莫大於行義。禍莫大於淫祭。醜莫大於
T: they will not be loyal, and not being loyal then they will be without returns. All of those six things are what begin governance. Heaven therefore made radiant the mandate in order to command them saying: The great mandate for generations punishes; the minor mandates command the person. Of good fortune there is nothing greater than behaving. Of misfortune there is nothing greater than excessive sacrifice. Of shame there is nothing greater than
Y: they will not be loyal, and not being loyal then they will be without repayment. All of these six things are the beginnings of governance. Enlightened kings therefore made radiant the mandate in order to command them saying: The great mandate for generations punishes; the minor mandates punish the person. Of good fortune there is nothing greater than practicing propriety. Of misfortune there is nothing greater than excessive sacrifice. Of disgrace there is nothing greater than
T1: 瘍人賞莫大於壤罰莫大於多
是古明王奉此六者以牧
民=甬不失
之以季和之以均
之以哀吴之以樂【十一】
T2: 傷人。賞莫大於壤。罰莫大於多詐。是古明王奉此六者以牧萬民，民用不失。撫之以季、和之以均、
之以哀、娛之以樂、
Y: 傷人。賞莫大於信義。讓莫大於賈上。罰莫大於貪詐。古之明王，奉此六者，以牧萬民，民用而不失。撫之以惠、和之以均、斂之以哀、娛之以樂、
T: harming others. Of awards there is nothing greater than yielding. Of punishments there is nothing greater than many wiles. This is why enlightened kings uphold these six things in order to shepherd the myriad people, and the people are thereby not lost. Soothe them with generosity, harmonize them with equality, gather them with sorrow, entertain them with joy,
Y: harming others. Of awards there is nothing greater than trust and propriety. Of yielding there is nothing greater than buying superiors. Of punishment there is nothing greater than coveting wiles. Antiquity's enlightened kings upheld these six things in order to shepherd the myriad people, and the people used them and were not lost. Soothe them with generosity, harmonize them with equality, gather them with sorrow, entertain them with joy,
T1: 㑞之以豊教之以
正之以政童之以事懽之以賞
之以罰
之以中行之以耑=不
中不忠罰囗囗囗【十二】
T2: 訓之以禮、教之以藝、正之以政、動之以事、勸之以賞、畏之以罰、
之以中、行之以耑。耑不法、中不忠、罰囗囗囗
Y: 慎之以禮、教之以藝、震之以政、動之以事、勸之以賞、畏之以罰、臨之以忠、行之以權。權不法、忠不忠、罰不服、賞
T: instruct them with ritual, teach them with the arts, govern them with government, move them with work, encourage them with awards, terrify them with punishments, look upon them with centeredness, and mobilize them with balance. Balance is not legalistic, centeredness is not loyal, punishments are .. .. .. [not submissive, awards]
Y: caution them with ritual, teach them with the arts, shake them with government, move them with work, encourage them with awards, terrify them with punishments, look upon them with loyalty, and mobilize them with balance. Balance is not legalistic, loyalty is not loyal, punishments are not submissive, awards
T1: 不從
事不
正不成
不𨓮豊又旹樂不
哀不至均不
季必仞=凡此勿氒耑之㯮也季而不仞=人不𠅞 【十三】
T2: 不從勞、事不
、正不成、藝不淫、禮有時、樂不
、哀不至、均不一、惠必忍人。凡此物氒耑之屬也。季而不忍人，人不𠅞
Y: 不從勞、事不震、政不成、藝不淫、禮有時、樂不滿、哀不至、均不壹、惠不忍人。凡此物攘之屬也。惠而不忍人，人不勝
T: are not loosely praised, work is not toilsome, governance is not complete, the arts are not excessive, the rites are timely, joy is not extended, sorrow is not pervasive, equality is not identical, and generosity must be tolerant of others. All of these belong to the category of the balance of things. Being generous but not being tolerant of others, others will not overcome
Y: are not loosely praised, work does not shake, governance is not complete, the arts are not excessive, the rites are timely, joy is not full, sorrow is not pervasive, equality is not identical, and generosity is not tolerant of others. All of these belong to the category of seizing things. Being generous but not being tolerant of others, others will not defeat
T1: 囗囗不智死均一不和哀至則匱樂
則亡豊囗囗則不貴
𨓮則割于材正成則不長事
則不攻以賞從
=而不至以【十四】
T2: 囗囗不智死、均一不和、哀至則匱、樂
則亡、禮囗囗則不貴、藝淫則害于才、正成則不長、事
則不攻。以賞從勞，勞而不至。以
Y: 害，害不如死，均一則不和，哀至則匱，樂滿則荒，禮無時則不貴，藝淫則害于才，政成則不長，事震則寡功。以賞從勞，勞而不至。以
T: .. .. will not know death. When equality is identical it is not harmonious. If sorrow is pervasive then it is lacking. If joy is extended then it is lost. If the rites .. .. then they are not honored. If the arts are excessive then they harm the talents. If governance is complete then it does not grow. If work is toilsome then it is not effective. Using awards to praise loosely, the praise will not be pervasive. Using
Y: harm, and harm is not as bad as death. If equality is identical, then it is not harmonious. If sorrow is pervasive then it is lacking. If joy is full then it is lost. If the rites do not have timeliness then they are not honored. If the arts are excessive then they harm the talents. If governance is complete then it does not grow. If work shakes then it is little effective. Using awards to praise loosely, the praise will not be pervasive. Using
T1: 囗囗備=而不釮以中從忠則尚=不
中以耑從
則行=不必
=以智耑=以智𢼸=以智
=以智夊
【十五】
T2: 囗囗備，備而不釮。以中從忠則尚，尚不必中。以耑從法則行，行不必法。法以智耑，耑以智微，微以智始，始以智終。
Y: 法從中則賞，賞不必中。以權從法則行，行不必以知權。權以知微，微以知始，始以知終。
T: .. .. submission, the submission will not be sharp. Using centeredness to loosen loyalty then there will be promotions, but the promotions will not necessarily be centered. Using balance to loosen the law then there will be good behavior, but the good behavior will not necessarily be lawful. Through the law know balance, through balance know the fine points, through the fine points know the beginning, and through the beginning know the end.
Y: the law to loosen centeredness there will be awards, but the awards will not necessarily be centered. Using balance to loosen the law then there will be good behavior, but the good behavior will not necessarily be used to know balance. Through balance know the fine points, through the fine points know the beginning, and through the beginning know the end.
Appendix 2
Structured Translation of the Tsinghua University Manuscript *Ming Xun
[Heaven] gave birth to the people and completed the great mandate, commanding the Supervisor of Virtue to govern with misfortune and good fortune, and to establish enlightened kings to instruct them, saying:
The great mandate has constancy and the minor mandates are daily completed. Being daily completed, they are respected; having constancy, it is expansive. Being expansive and thereby respecting the mandates, then degrees 【1】 [will reach to] the limit.
The Overseer of Virtue oversees propriety and awards it good fortune. Good fortune and riches depend on men. Can men reside in them (i.e., can men be content with them)? If they do not reside in them and yet take seriously propriety, then degrees will reach to the limit.
[The Overseer of Virtue] also oversees impropriety and sends down on it misfortune. Misfortune and mistakes depend on mankind. [Can] men 【2】 be without chastisement? If they are chastised and regret mistakes, then degrees will reach to the limit.
When the people from birth are ashamed of not being enlightened, and superiors because of this enlighten them, can they be without shame? If they have shame and constantly behave, then degrees will reach to the limit.
When the people from birth enjoy fresh grain, and superiors use it to pay them, can they be without encouragement? If they are encouraged with loyalty and sincerity, then degrees will reach to 【3】 the limit.
When the people from birth are pained by death and mourning, and superiors use these to terrify them, can they be without fear? 【4】 If they are fearful and receive teaching, then degrees will reach to the limit.
The six limits all being attained, and the nine strivings all being blocked, one attains the Way and follows heaven to govern men. In governing men, there is nothing as good as having limits; in following heaven, there is nothing as good as being without limit. If in following heaven there are limits, then it will not be terrifying, and if it is not terrifying 【5】 then it will not be radiant. If in governing men there are not limits, then they will not be sincere, and if they are not sincere then they will not behave. If enlightened kings cause heaven to be radiant and man to be trustworthy to work by degrees, and to work the land to benefit them, causing sincere men to be terrified by heaven, then degrees will reach to the limit.
The ways of heaven are three, 【6】 and the ways of man are three. Heaven having a mandate, there is good fortune and there is misfortune. Men having shame, there are kneepads and caps and there are axes and halberds. Taking men's shame to match heaven's mandate, taking their kneepads and caps to match heaven's good fortune, and taking their axes and halberds to match heaven's misfortune, .. [there are six] 【7】 recipes and three methods, but their limit is all [one:] the same. If they do not know it, then they will not behave.
If commands are pressed to the limit, then the people will let them fall away and then lay waste to the commands in order to replace their superiors, and will be endangered by chaos indeed.
If good fortune is pressed to the limit, then the people will be enriched, and if the people being enriched strive for goodness, then in striving for goodness disobedience will not be put into practice.
If misfortune is pressed to the limit, 【8】 then the people will be terrified, and if the people are terrified then they will sacrifice excessively, and sacrificing excessively will ruin their households.
If shame is pressed to the limit, then the people will revolt, and if the people revolt then they will harm others, and in harming others then they will not be proper. If awards are pressed to the limit, then the people will buy their superiors, and if they buy their superiors then there will be no yielding, and if there is no yielding then they will not be compliant.
If punishments are pressed to the limit, then the people will have many wiles, and with many wiles then 【9】 they will not be loyal, and not being loyal then they will be without returns.
All of those six things are what begin governance. Heaven therefore made radiant the mandate in order to command them saying: The great mandate for generations punishes; the minor mandates command the person.
Of good fortune there is nothing greater than behaving; of misfortune there is nothing greater than excessive sacrifice.
Of shame there is nothing greater than 【10】 harming others. Of awards there is nothing greater than yielding. Of punishments there is nothing greater than many wiles.
This is why enlightened kings uphold these six things in order to shepherd the myriad people, and the people are thereby not lost. Soothe them with generosity, harmonize them with equality, gather them with sorrow, entertain them with joy, 【11】 instruct them with ritual, teach them with the arts, govern them with government, move them with work, encourage them with awards, terrify them with punishments, look upon them with centeredness, and mobilize them with balance.
Balance is not legalistic,
centeredness is not loyal,
punishments are .. .. .. [not submissive,
awards] 【12】are not loosely praised,
work is not toilsome,
governance is not complete,
the arts are not excessive,
the rites are timely,
joy is not extended,
sorrow is not pervasive,
equality is not identical,
and generosity must be tolerant of others.
All of these belong to the category of the balance of things.
Being generous but not being tolerant of others, others will not overcome 【13】 .. .. will not know death.
When equality is identical it is not harmonious.
If sorrow is pervasive then it is lacking.
If joy is extended then it is lost.
If the rites .. .. then they are not honored.
If the arts are excessive then they harm the talents.
If governance is complete then it does not grow.
If work is toilsome then it is not effective.
Using awards to praise loosely, the praise will not be pervasive.
Using 【14】 [the law to loosen] .. .. submission, the submission will not be sharp.
Using centeredness to loosen loyalty then there will be promotions, but the promotions will not necessarily be centered.
Using balance to loosen the law then there will be good behavior, but the good behavior will not necessarily be lawful.
Through the law know balance, through balance know the fine points, through the fine points know the beginning, and through the beginning know the end. 【15】
, i.e., 上. It is unclear to me whether the different orthography carries any semantic distinction.
