The Charge to Marquis Wen
Tags
Summary
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- University students studying pre-Qin history, especially those concerned with political change from the Western Zhou to the Spring and Autumn period
- Enthusiasts of ancient texts studying the text of the Book of Documents and the investiture system
- Readers of classical Chinese who need to read the Book of Documents against the Grand Scribe's Records
Not a good fit for
- General readers with no grounding in classical Chinese who hope for easy reading
- Readers expecting the complete Book of Documents or detailed vernacular translation and annotation
Reading tips
- First read through the original text once, marking unfamiliar characters and difficult sentence patterns, then consult commentaries.
- Read this chapter alongside the relevant passage in the Hereditary House of Jin in the Grand Scribe's Records, noting variant readings and differences in detail.
- Combine with the common format of Western Zhou bronze inscriptions on investiture to appreciate the formulaic structure of charge documents.
About the publisher
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.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 周书·文侯之命第三十
FAQ
Is this book the complete Book of Documents?
Why does the material say that the version in the Grand Scribe's Records is not complete?
Can I understand it without annotations?
Comments
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About the 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.
