Selected Prose of the Pre-Qin Period

Author: Qi Faren
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1997-10-01
Features: The term "pre-Qin" here refers to the late Spring and Autumn period to the Warring States period, approximately from the mid-5th century BC to the mid-3rd century BC. Before this time, it would be inaccurate to say there were no prose works, but apart from naive divination inscriptions, the only texts appearing in that era were applied oaths, and extremely simple narrative and historical records. By this time, not only did historical records leap forward to a remarkably high level of perfection, becoming models for later generations, but more importantly, a new type of political and philosophical miscellaneous writing—namely theoretical essays—also developed to a high degree of perfection and became models for later generations. The reason for such unique development was due to the special social stage and historical period, which provided the special conditions for this.
As everyone knows, this special social stage and historical period were the transitional period from the early feudal society to the centralized feudal society. What propelled and advanced this transition was, of course, the working class—especially the peasants. In the early feudal society, there were both small and large lords who ruled the serfs on one side, and serfs who were ruled by the lords on the other. Culture was in the hands of the literati of the lord class—i.e., the "officials of the state." Like Xunzi, who pointed out the "functionaries," they merely "followed the rules, measures, punishments, and records," and "did not understand their meaning, carefully adhering to their numbers, and dared not add or subtract" (Xunzi's "On Honor and Shame"). Therefore, there was little innovation and development. By the late Spring and Autumn period, due to the disintegration and collapse of the lord class, literati of the lord class were forced to serve non-lord classes for survival. The Annals of the Records of the Grand Historian that "descendants of diviners" were "scattered" among the "Four Seas" or "barbarians." Even Confucius, revered as a sage, as he himself said, could not help but "teach without discrimination" (Analects, "Guardian of the Spirit of the Marquis of Wei"), regardless of class background, as long as one "brought a bundle of dried meat as a token of respect," paid tuition, he "never failed to teach them" (same as above). Thus, culture gradually shifted to other classes outside the lords.