The Heguanzi (鶡冠
Heguanzi | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 鶡冠 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 鹖冠 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Korean name | |||||||||||||||||||||
Hangul | 갈관자 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Hanja | 鶡冠 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Japanese name | |||||||||||||||||||||
Kanji | 鶡冠 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Hiragana | かつかんし | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Textual history
editThe emerging consensus is that, although the Heguanzi text may be a composite of the writings of multiple authors representing various schools of thought, much if not all of it belongs to the late Warring States (475–221 BCE) to Han (202 BCE-220 CE) periods.[1]
Han dynasty scholars first recorded the Heguanzi two thousand years ago. The librarian Liu Xin's 8 BCE Qilüe (
While the Book of Han bibliographic catalog specifies that the Heguanzi book has 1 pian ("chapter"), later historical bibliographies (e.g., 636 Book of Sui, 945 Old Book of Tang, and 1060 New Book of Tang) list it as a work of 3 juan (
Several Heguanzi chapters (esp. 1 and 2) follow the strict naming taboo on writing a Chinese emperor's given name. During the Qin dynasty (221–206 BCE), it was forbidden to write Qin Shi Huang's personal name zhēng (
Subsequent to the 1st century CE Book of Han reference to the Heguanzi, there is a four-century gap until the next reliable sources. The lost Zichao (
Some early versions of the Master Pheasant Cap were arranged differently. Between the Tang (618–907) and Song (960–1279) dynasties, the number of chapters is given as 15, 16, or 19; but since the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), only 19-chapter editions have circulated.[7] Han Yu saw a 16-chapter Heguanzi version with scribal errors and lacunae. Chao Gongwu (
Five printed complete Heguanzi editions are all based on Lu Dian's commentary version: the 1445 Daozang (Daoist Canon); 1805 Xuejin taoyuan (
In December 1973, archaeologists working on the Mawangdui site, near Changsha, Hunan discovered a hoard of manuscripts written on silk scrolls in Mawangdui Tomb No. 3, which had been sealed up in 168 BCE. These now-famous "Mawangdui Silk Texts" included the earliest attested copies of Chinese classics such as the Yijing and two versions of the Daodejing, as well as previously unknown books on subjects including philosophy, astronomy, medicine, and military strategy. The scroll with one of the Daodejing versions also included four manuscripts that strongly resembled the Heguanzi in thought and language. These were originally identified as the Huangdi Sijing (
Author
editLittle is known about Master Pheasant Cap's anonymous author or compiler, or according to some, authors or compilers. Since its reevaluation after the 1973 Mawangdui discovery, a considerable part of Heguanzi scholarship has focused on the provenance and dates of the person Heguanzi, with the current consensus that he was from the southern state of Chu and lived circa the second half of the 3rd century BCE. Internal evidence from the Heguanzi confirms the early Han view that Master Pheasant Cap came from Chu, such as a chapter 9 list of official titles typically used in Chu, for example, lingyin (
The author's eponym héguān (鶡冠, "pheasant[-feather] cap") is a Classical Chinese trope for a warrior. The namesake Chinese pheasant hé (鶡) is identified as: "Brown-eared pheasant or Manchurian snow-pheasant (Crossoptilon mantchuricum), dark brown with white-tipped tailfeathers, the tailfeathers often being used as decoration for caps".[14] Guan (
The 5th century Book of the Later Han describes the heguan cap as a badge of military valor that was introduced by King Wuling of Zhao, whom Pang Xuan instructs in Heguanzi chapter 19, and who was famous for military reforms beginning in 307 BCE, notably replacing traditional Zhou dynasty warfare involving chariots and armored infantry with nomadic cavalry style "barbarian clothing and mounted archery" (hufu qishe
Content
editThe received text of Heguanzi or Pheasant Cap Master comprises 19 piān (
Chapter (pian |
Title | Translation[17] |
---|---|---|
1 | Boxuan ( |
Wide Selection |
2 | Zhuxi ( |
Manifest Hope |
3 | Yexing ( |
The Night Walker |
4 | Tianze ( |
Heaven's Model |
5 | Hualiu ( |
Circular Flow |
6 | Daoduan ( |
The Way's Governance |
7 | Jinyi ( |
Impending Collapse |
8 | Duwan ( |
Fathoming Myriads |
9 | Wangfu ( |
Royal Axe |
10 | Taihong ( |
Grand Galaxy |
11 | Tailu ( |
Grand Record |
12 | Shibing ( |
Generations of Arms |
13 | Beizhi (備知) | Prepared Knowledge |
14 | Bingzheng ( |
Armed Campaigns |
15 | Xuewen ( |
Study Problems |
16 | Shixian ( |
Generations of Worthies |
17 | Tianquan ( |
Heaven's Authority |
18 | Nengtian ( |
Enabling Heaven |
19 | Wulingwang ( |
King Wuling |
The Heguanzi text is usually differentiated between its seven dialog chapters and twelve essay chapters. Five of the dialog chapters (7–9 and 14–15) consist of discussions in which Heguanzi answers questions about war or government from his disciple Pangzi (龐子, Master Pang). Pangzi is generally identified as General Pang Xuan (龐煖; c. 295-c. 240 BCE) from the state of Zhao (403–222 BCE), who defeated Yan in 242 BCE and led the failed campaign of the six allied states against Qin in the next year. General or Master Pang is the common link between the above five dialog chapters that mention Heguanzi and the two remaining ones that do not; in chapter 16, Pang Xuan gives advice to King Daoxiang of Zhao (r. 244–236), and in chapter 19, Pang Huan (龐煥), who Lu Dian identifies as Pang Xuan, reading huan (煥, "shine; glow") as a scribal error for xuan (煖, "warm"), instructs King Wuling of Zhao (r. 325–299).[16]
The twelve Heguanzi essay chapters also exhibit considerable variety. Chapters 1–6 share long passages with other early sources and have been studied in relation to them. Essays in chapters 10 and 11, "Supreme Flood" and "Supreme Indistinctness", are similar and may originally have constituted one chapter. The subsequent chapters 12 and 13 are also sometimes read together as promoting Daoist primitivism. Lastly, the enigmatic essay chapters 17 and 18, "Heaven's Authority" and "Enabling Heaven" are connected. Both are practically incomprehensible, perhaps due to "textual corruption or cryptic content", and set between two most problematic chapters 16 and 19 that do not mention the person Heguanzi.[18]
The Heguanzi's mixed content exemplifies the School of Syncretism or School of Miscellany, in terms of Ban Gu's Yiwenzhi classification of the Hundred Schools of Thought. Master Pheasant Cap has passages from many intellectual sources, particularly from the Schools of Huang-Lao (i.e., Yellow Emperor and Laozi), Daoism, Yin-Yang, Five Agents, Legalism, Confucianism, Mohism, School of Diplomacy, and the Military.[19] Moreover, textual comments and observations indicate the authors' expertise in Chinese astronomy, calendar and divination, meditation practices, and at least some knowledge of music, medicine, and various other technical matters.[20]
Themes
editDavid R. Knechtges says a major theme of the Heguanzi is the Daoist idea that nature moves cyclically, and the need for the ruler to harmonize his thought and action with the workings of heaven, which by its continual movement establishes the norms (fa
The sinologist Carine Defoort discusses three central themes as the core of Heguanzi's contribution to early Chinese philosophy. First, political frustration seems to have first captured the attention of intellectuals in the Tang dynasty, with the image of a frustrated advisor becoming a rough hermit. At the end of his life, the great Tang poet, Du Fu (712–770), compared himself to Master Pheasant Cap when expressing his political despair and loneliness: "My whole life I've been a Heguanzi. I sigh about the world and wear deerskin".[21] Second, veneration of the One (yi
Evaluations
editPrior to the 1973 discovery of the Mawangdui silk manuscripts, most scholarly assessments of the Heguanzi were negative, commonly finding faults with format and content inconsistencies, suspected plagiarism, textual corruption, and conflation of sources.
The Tang scholar Liu Zongyuan (773–819) disparaged the Heguanzi as a forgery because chapter 12 has a passage, "Rhapsody of the Hero",[23] virtually identical with the Han poet Jia Yi's famous c. 174 BCE "Owl Rhapsody"[24] Liu's Bian Heguanzi (
When I read Jia Yi's Owl Rhapsody I admired its verses. Yet scholars thought it was entirely taken from Heguanzi. In my comings and goings in the capital, I sought a copy of Heguanzi but did not find one. It was only when I arrived in Changsha that for the first time [805] I got ahold of this treatise. I read it. It consisted entirely of base and shallow statements. Only the bits (Jia) Yi had quoted were beautiful. Of the rest, nothing was acceptable. I think an amateur forged this treatise and he, instead, took the Owl Rhapsody to embellish it with literary style. It cannot be true that Yi took from it.[22]
Based on the Heguanzi chapter 12 context of a treatise on military tactics, the Owl Rhapsody passage is "very likely" a later addition to the text.[25] In addition to inserting Jia Yi's rhapsody, a previous part of chapter 12 is nearly identical with a 284 BCE letter that Lu Zhonglian (魯仲
Even academics who were impressed or fascinated by the Heguanzi could not deny its obviously flawed text with missing and miswritten characters. The Tang poet and Confucian scholar, Han Yu (768–824) said that "after reading its expressions three times, I felt sorry that its characters were deficient and corrupt". In the description of the primary Heguanzi commentator Lu Dian, "Often, it seems like one who, scattered and confused, has no home. But its strange expressions and mysterious meanings are also numerous. ... The instances where the wording is deficient, corrupt, and impossible to check are many.".[26]
Han Yu remarked that Heguanzi "mixes [the ideas of] Huang-Lao and [Legalist] Forms-and-names" and Lu Dian's preface to the book says Heguangzi's "way is eclectic. The text he wrote is first rooted in Huang-Lao and branches out into Forms-and-names." So, proceeding from non-action, responsiveness, and reliance (hence "rooted in Huang-Lao") and applied to politics and administration (hence "branching out to Forms-and-names").[27]
Joseph Needham, the historian of Chinese science and technology, became interested in the Heguanzi when researching ancient Chinese texts for concepts corresponding to "natural law" and juristic "laws of nature".[18][28] He found some "strangely interesting passages" that use fa (
Defoort concludes that despite the Heguanzi's inconsistent content, textual corruption, commentarial intrusions, and the likelihood of multiple authorship, there seems to be "one voice speaking" in the text, which "expresses a need for unification and stability, and a belief in the Heavenly power of the sage-ruler to bring this about".[30]
See also
editReferences
edit- Defoort, Carine (1997). The Pheasant Cap Master (He guan zi): a rhetorical reading. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-3074-X.
- Defoort, Carine (2015). "Pheasant Cap Master". In Xiaogan Liu (ed.). Dao Companion to Daoist Philosophy (PDF). Springer. pp. 281–306.
- Graham, A.C. (1989). "A Neglected Pre-Han Philosophical Text: 'Ho-kuan-tzu'". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 52 (3): 497–532. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00034583. S2CID 170600131.
- Knechtges, David R. (1993). "He kuan tzu 鶡冠
子 ". In Michael Loewe (ed.). Early Chinese Texts. A Bibliographical Guide. Society for the Study of Early China (SSEC). pp. 137–140. - Peerenboom, Randall P. (1993). Law and Morality in Ancient China: The Silk Manuscripts of Huang-Lao. Suny Press. ISBN 9780791412374.
- John Minford; Joseph S.M. Lau, eds. (2000). "Jia Yi (200-168 B.C.) The Owl". Classical Chinese Literature: An Anthology of Translations. Translated by Watson, Burton. Columbia University Press. pp. 278–281.
- Wells, Marnix (2013). The Pheasant Cap Master and the end of history: linking religion to philosophy in early China. Three Pines Press. ISBN 9781931483261.
Footnotes
- ^ Peerenboom 1993, p. 273.
- ^ a b c Knechtges 1993, p. 137.
- ^ Tr. Graham 1989, p. 500.
- ^ Knechtges 1993, pp. 137–8.
- ^ Defoort 1997, pp. 24–5; Wells 2013, p. 82.
- ^ Graham 1989, p. 499.
- ^ Schmidt, Hans-Hermann (2005), "Heguan zi 鶡冠
子 ", in Kristofer Schipper and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang, vol. 2, University of Chicago Press, p. 689. - ^ a b Knechtges 1993, p. 139.
- ^ Defoort 2015, p. 286.
- ^ Peerenboom 1993, p. 1.
- ^ Wells 2013, p. 2.
- ^ Graham 1989, p. 506.
- ^ Defoort 2015, p. 283.
- ^ Kroll, Paul K. (2017), A Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese, rev. ed., Brill. p. 158.
- ^ Defoort 1997, p. 16.
- ^ a b Defoort 2015, p. 284.
- ^ Wells 2013.
- ^ a b Defoort 2015, p. 285.
- ^ Peerenboom 1993, p. 274.
- ^ Defoort 2015, p. 288.
- ^ Defoort 2015, p. 281.
- ^ a b Defoort 2015, p. 282.
- ^ Tr. Wells 2013, pp. 176–81.
- ^ Funiao fu 鵩鳥
賦 , tr. Watson 2000, pp. 278–281, tr. Wells 2013, pp. 215–8. - ^ Knechtges 1993, p. 138.
- ^ Tr. Defoort 2015, p. 285.
- ^ Tr. Defoort 2015, p. 288.
- ^ Peerenboom, Randall P. (1990). "Natural Law in the Huang-Lao Boshu". Philosophy East and West. 40 (3): 309–329. doi:10.2307/1399426. JSTOR 1399426.
- ^ Tr. Needham, Joseph (1956). Science and Civilisation in China Volume 2. History of Scientific Thought. Cambridge University Press. p. 547. ISBN 978-0521058001.
- ^ Defoort 2015, p. 302.
Further reading
edit- Peerenboom, Randall P. (1991), "Heguanzi and Huang-Lao Thought, Early China 16: 169–186.
- Rand, Christopher C. (1980), "Chinese Military Thought and Philosophical Taoism," Monumenta Serica 34: 171–218.