Cheng Xiang

AnonymousBashu Publishing House · ChinaJun 2024

4.1

Word count: 1.7K words
Chapters: 2

Summary

Pray, perform the chengxiang: the world's calamity—foolishness and darkness, foolishness and darkness, casting down the worthy and good. If the ruler has no worthy men, he is like a blind man without a guide—how lost and helpless!

Editor's review

"Chengxiang" is a distinctive rhymed chapter in the Xunzi. Opening with the words "Please, the chengxiang," it sets forth the art of governing through a folk performance style. Compact and rhythmic, it repeatedly laments that "the world's calamity" lies in the foolish and benighted holding power while the worthy and good are cast aside, warning rulers with the image that "a ruler without the worthy is like a blind man without a guide." This 2024 Bashu Press edition offers a cleanly collated text suited to recitation and serves as an accessible introduction to pre-Qin rhymed verse and political thought. Its value lies not in systematic argument but in its strongly rhythmic, allusive, chant-like mode of expression—easy on the tongue and significant both as literature and as intellectual history. It is best read in the context of Xunzi's thought as a whole, and can also be appreciated as a rare specimen of the pre-Qin chengxiang performance form. Suited to repeated quiet recitation, it can also be read alongside other chapters of the Xunzi to appreciate its advisory tone and rhetorical strategy.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers of history and literature interested in pre-Qin philosophical prose and rhymed verse
General readers seeking an entry to Xunzi's thought through a short rhymed text
Scholars and students of pre-Qin performance forms and advisory literature

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting to read the whole Xunzi systematically or lengthy political treatises
Readers impatient with classical rhymed verse who prefer vernacular narrative

Reading tips

Read through once to feel the rhyme and rhythm, then work through the meaning and allusions line by line.
Compare with relevant chapters of the Xunzi to understand where the advocacy of honoring the worthy fits in the whole work.
Read aloud several times to appreciate the repetitive, chant-like advisory tone of the chengxiang form.

About the publisher

Bashu Publishing House China · Founded in 1983

Bashu Publishing House is a publisher centered on collating and publishing classical Chinese cultural texts, with its main publishing areas covering classical literature, Eastern philosophy, ancient poetry, and educational classics. Its library currently holds 1,075 titles, including representative works such as Dream of the Red Chamber, the Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Gathering, Renjian Cihua, and Out to the Frontier, involving authors such as Cao Xueqin, Wang Xizhi, Wang Guowei, Wang Changling, Liu Xie, and Yan Yu. These reflect the publisher's focus on literary classics, poetry criticism, and philosophical readings. Its publishing character lies in working around ancient texts and canonical works, with attention to textual collation and presentation. Public information on its more detailed publishing background and series plans is limited; this introduction is based only on the library's book information.

版权信息
成相第二十五

FAQ

What does chengxiang mean?

Chengxiang was a pre-Qin performance form, typically one person singing while beating time, setting forth ideas in rhymed language. This piece uses the form for political advice; the lines are regular and clearly rhymed, combining literary performance with intellectual content.

Is this 2024 Bashu Press edition suitable for beginners?

It is short and the rhymed verse is easy to recite, making it good introductory material for Xunzi's thought. But the allusions and archaic language still require some grounding in classical Chinese; beginners may read with annotations or translations and need not aim to master it in one pass.

How does reading "Chengxiang" help in understanding Xunzi?

It concentrates Xunzi's political concerns—honoring the worthy and condemning the benighted—in a more direct, satirical advisory tone than his thematic essays, and serves as supplementary material for understanding how his thought was conveyed and the diversity of his styles.

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About the author

Anonymous Author

Anonymous is not a real personal name but a general Chinese designation for authors whose names are unknown, lost, or unsigned. Neither nationality nor dates of birth and death can be verified, and available public information is limited, so the works attributed to this name are the only basis for description. The collection holds 2,078 works under Anonymous, spanning medicine, classics, historical readings, ancient poetry, classical literature, and philosophy. Representative works include The Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon: Lingshu, Mencius, The Book of Documents, Nineteen Old Poems, Complete Song Ci, and The Peacock Flies Southeast. Most of these works took shape through long transmission and editing, emerging either from collective folk creation or from authors whose names were lost over time. In ancient China, the Book of Songs, the Great Learning, and many popular storybooks and plays were signed Anonymous because their authors could not be traced. Anonymous works cross the classics, histories, philosophical writings, medical texts, and poetry; their subjects are broad, and their styles vary from archaic simplicity to clear naturalness, making them important and influential sources for understanding ancient Chinese thought, medicine, and literature.