Lester Bilsky
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
The Validity of 6th Century BC Data in the Zuojuan
WSWG 9, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 11 October 1997

Introduction

The middle to late 6th century BC was the center point of a period of economic hardship which, by forcing the Chinese states to exercise greater control over economic output and revenue, had the overall effect of causing the Chinese states to change from members of a loosely-affiliated league, trying to maintain traditional standards, to a collection of autonomous, bureaucratically-governed kingdoms. The transforming events I will call attention to are cited in the Chunqiu (CQ), the Zuojuan (ZJ), and the Shiji (SJ), and are also attested by the archaeological record. Some of these events seem to be totally unrelated. Given the lack of analysis of the events' relationships by the authors of the above texts, it is extremely unlikely that those authors realized the significance of what they reported. With the benefit of hindsight, undistorted by Huang-Lao or Confucian ideological principles, I believe that a compelling case can be made for the coherence of the events to be discussed. If that is so, and if CQ data are considered to be authentic, as properly attested archaeological records certainly are, then it follows that the ZJ (and for that matter the SJ) also used records contemporary to the events described, that it was faithful to those records to the extent of including ideologically neutral data, and that it was not entirely filled with tendentious historical fiction.

Conclusion

I have presented above a collection of significant, linked events clustered in the mid-6th century BC. The ZJ is clearly unaware of the critical nature of these events. It presents no links between them. What explanations the ZJ provides are ad hoc and typically either involve Confucian concepts, such as the benevolence of rulers who distribute grain in famine times, or are specious, as are the claims that the creation of hunting parks was included in the CQ because it was the wrong time of year. Far from wanting to show growth in wealth and power on the part of 6th century BC state rulers, a late Zhou Confucian text like the ZJ would have been interested in demonstrating a rise in decadence and disorder during the waning years of the Zhou dynasty's ruling cycle. The events listed here were transmitted not for a didactic purpose but because the author or authors of the ZJ had access to 6th century BC records and recorded the information which was available. While we have good reason to discount ZJ explanations of recorded events, we should treat the recorded events themselves with respect.

 

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