Lu Jia's New Discourses: A Political Manifesto from the Early Han Dynasty

143 Pages·2020·3.65 MB·English

by  Lu Jia, Paul Goldin (translator), Elisa Levi Sabattini (translator)

LuJia’sNewDiscourses

Lu Jia’s New Discourses
APoliticalManifestofromtheEarlyHanDynasty
Translatedby
PaulR.Goldin
ElisaLeviSabattini
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Coverillustration:Paintedfigureofacavalryman.WesternHanDynasty(206B.C.–A.D.8),excavatedat
Xianyang,ShaanxiProvince,1965.Source:WikimediaCommons,EditoratLarge.Thisimageislicensed
undertheCreativeCommonsAttribution-ShareAlike2.5Generichttps://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by‑sa/2.5/deed.en
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Lu,Jia,approximately216B.C.-approximately172B.C.|Goldin,PaulRakita,
1972-translator.|LeviSabattini,Elisa,translator.
Title:LuJia'sNewDiscourses:aPoliticalManifestofromtheEarlyHanDynasty/
translatedbyPaulR.Goldin,ElisaLeviSabattini.
Othertitles:Xinyu.English|PoliticalManifestofromtheEarlyHanDynasty
Description:Leiden;Boston:Brill,[2020]|Includesbibliographicalreferences
andindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2019051625(print)|LCCN2019051626(ebook)|
ISBN9789004419599(hardback)|ISBN9789004419889(ebook)
Subjects:LCSH:Politicalscience–Philosophy–Earlyworksto1800.
Classification:LCCJC47.L82020(print)|LCCJC47(ebook)|
DDC320.01–dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2019051625
LCebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2019051626
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ISBN978-90-04-41959-9(hardback)
ISBN978-90-04-41988-9(e-book)
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Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
1 HistoricalandIntellectualContext 1
2 LuJiaandtheNewDiscourses 4
3 XinyuanditsEditions 13
4 OurPrinciplesofTranslationandAnnotation 16
5 TranslationsintoWesternlanguages 17
NewDiscourses 19
1 TheFoundationoftheWay 20
2 Recounting[Past]Events 36
3 AssistinginGovernment 44
4 Non-Action 50
5 ResolvingDelusion 56
6 AttentiontotheSubtle 66
7 AidesofQuality 76
8 UtmostVirtue 84
9 Embracing[Consistent]Thoughts 92
10 Actingonthe[Right]Basis 100
11 PerceptibleWarnings 106
12 ThinkingofOne’sResponsibilities 114
Bibliography 123
IndexLocorum 130
GeneralIndex 132

Acknowledgments
ThetranslatorswouldliketothankMartinKern,YuriPines,andCharlesSanft
forhelpfulcommentswhilewewerepreparingthisvolume.Theinfelicitiesthat
remainareourownresponsibility.

Introduction
1 HistoricalandIntellectualContext
ThefoundationoftheQin秦empire(221–207BCE)broughtanendtotheeraof
socialandpoliticalchangeknownastheWarringStates(Zhanguo戰國,453–
221BCE).1Thegenerations-longwarofallagainstallendedin221BCEwiththe
victoryofQin,whereafterthisdynastyapplieditseconomicandpoliticalsys-
temtoitsnewlyconqueredterritories.Itwouldlaterbeaccusedofnothaving
reformedthissystem,withdisastrousconsequences.2
AcommonviewintheearlyHan漢dynasty(202BCE–220CE)wasthatthe
Qinhadfallenbecauseof theFirstEmperor’s(r.221–210BCE)failuretosolid-
ifythenewpoliticalsystemthathehadusheredin,aswellashislackof care
forhispeople:heweakenedhisownempirebyabusingmilitarypower,devot-
inghimselftoluxury,andkillingthetalentedandbrave.3IntheWarringStates
period,politicaldiscussionshadfocusedonhowtogovern—literally“tobring
order to” (zhi 治)—the chaotic world. By unifying tianxia 天下 (literally “All
underHeaven”),theQinempirepromisedtobringtranquilitytothevarious
territories, yet continued to control them by brute force. Han literature thus
frequentlyaccusestheQinof havingabrogatedthemoralWayof theFormer
Kings(feixianwangzhidao廢先王之道).4
The First Emperor’s heir was his incompetent son Huhai 胡亥 (r. 210–
207BCE),whoreignedastheSecondEmperorbutwasforcedbythescheming
1 Thename“WarringStates,”whichreferstothehistoricalperiodroughlyfromtheendofthe
SpringsandAutumnstotheQinconquest,appearstohavefirstbeenusedbyJiaYi賈誼
(200–168BCE)inXinshujiaozhu1.14(“GuoQinlunxia”過秦論下).Bylabelingtheprevious
period“WarringStates,”JiaYiannouncedhisintentiontodepartfromthatperiodofinde-
pendentandbelligerentkingdoms,andbuildanempirethatepitomizedtranquilitythrough
monarchiccontrol.Cf.LeviSabattini,“HowtoSurpasstheQin.”
2 E.g.,Xinshujiaozhu1.14(“GuoQinlunxia”):“AlthoughtheQinleftbehindtheWarringStates
andruledovertheworld,itneitherchangeditswaysnorreformeditsmodesofgovernance”
秦雖離戰國而王天下，其道不易，其政不改.OtherprominentearlycriticsoftheQin
includedJiaShan賈山(fl.175BCE;norelationtoJiaYi)andDongZhongshu董仲舒(ca.198–
ca.107BCE).FortwoofthefewseriousstudiesofJiaShan,seeEmmerich,“Präliminarienzu
JiaShanunddessenWerk,”andOsamu,ShinKanshisōshikenkyū,316–322.DongZhongshu’s
criticismofQinlawisdiscussedincisivelyinQueen,FromChronicletoCanon,127–130;see
alsoZhangTao, JingxueyuHandaishehui,190–204.
3 Cf.HouXudong,“Zhuluhuotianming,”esp.181–184,andLoewe,Divination,Mythologyand
MonarchyinHanChina,131–133.
4 E.g.,Xinshujiaozhu1.2(“GuoQinlunshang”).
© koninklijkebrillnv,leiden,2020 | doi:10.1163/9789004419889_002