Corpse Notes

Author: Pei Ji
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-01-01
Features: The book Annotations on the Shi Zi combines the thoughts of Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism, and Legalism into one, offering rich and diverse content, pluralistic ideas, and unique characteristics, reflecting the academic spirit of the Warring States period. Shi Zi, named Ji Jiao, was a person from the Warring States period, living approximately from 390 to 330 BC. Due to the scarcity of historical records that have survived, later generations have little knowledge of his life and works, making modern research quite challenging. Regarding Shi Zi and his book, one can examine it from two perspectives: first, by studying his life, and second, by discussing his academic thoughts based on the text of Shi Zi. Let’s first discuss his life. According to Liu Xiang’s Bie Lu, it is said: “There was a person named Shi Zi in Chu, though some doubt if he was from Shu. According to the Shi Zi book, he was a Jin person named Jiao, a guest of Wei Yang, the minister of Qin. Wei Yang and Shang Jun often consulted Jiao when planning policies, formulating laws, and governing the people. When Shang Jun was executed, Jiao feared being implicated and fled to Shu. There, he wrote these twenty chapters, totaling over 60,000 words. After his death, he was buried in Shu.” This can be considered the earliest written account of Shi Zi. In the Book of Han by Ban Gu, under the (Miscellaneous) section for Shi Zi, there is a note: “Named Jiao, a Lu person, a teacher of Shang Jun of Qin. After Shang Jun’s death, Jiao fled to Shu.” Liu Xiang and Ban Gu were not far removed from the Warring States period, but these two Han Dynasty historians and great collators only mentioned three words or two about Shi Zi’s life and works. Even in Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji), the Grand Historian recorded Shang Jun’s life in great detail but never mentioned Shi Zi, which is undoubtedly a pity for those studying Shi Zi. Shi Zi lived during the Warring States period, a time of great transformation and upheaval in Chinese history, often referred to as the period of “the collapse of rites and the disintegration of music,” a major social transition. Shi Zi’s (Miscellaneous) thought had a certain influence both in his time and in later periods. The book Shi Zi combines the thoughts of Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism, and Legalism into one, offering rich and diverse content, pluralistic ideas, and unique characteristics, reflecting the academic spirit of the Warring States period. In the history of Chinese thought, it undoubtedly deserves a place, but due to its long existence as only a collated edition, modern people know little about it. Through this translation and introduction, we hope to bring it more attention.