The Great Declaration, Part II

AnonymousBashu Publishing House · ChinaJun 2024

3.9

Word count: 434 words
Chapters: 2

Summary

The "Great Declaration" belongs to Mei Ze's Old Text Shangshu and is divided into upper, middle, and lower sections; the New Text Shangshu does not contain this chapter.

Editor's review

The "Great Declaration, Part Two" is the middle of the three chapters of the "Great Declaration" in Mei Ze's Old Text Shangshu; the New Text Shangshu likewise does not contain this chapter, and this attribution determines its reading position: it is both part of the oath at the campaign against Zhou and a sample for examining the textual features of the Old Text Shangshu. In tone the middle chapter continues from the upper and opens into the lower, repeatedly asserting the relationship between the Mandate of Heaven and the people's hearts, embodying an argument that grounds legitimacy in "punishing the tyrant to relieve the people," which is of reference value for understanding later revolutionary narratives and political ethics. The 2024 Bashu Press edition provides a collated text convenient for study and suitable for reading alongside the upper and lower chapters. It should be noted that readers should not regard it directly as an original early Western Zhou document but should examine its language and ideas within the framework of the history of classical formation. It is not long, making it well suited as close-reading material: sort out its argumentative structure and rhetorical techniques sentence by sentence, and then reflect on how classic texts are constructed and interpreted in transmission.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers of classical learning history studying the textual layers and New Text/Old Text problems of the Shangshu
Researchers of pre-Qin political thought concerned with discourses of the Mandate of Heaven and the people's hearts
University teachers and students needing short Classical Chinese oath texts for classroom close reading
Classical enthusiasts with basic familiarity with Mei Ze's Old Text Shangshu system

Not a good fit for

Beginners with no Classical Chinese foundation who need word-by-word vernacular translation
Popular history readers who want to quickly understand the full historical event of King Wu's campaign against Zhou through a single chapter
Those expecting a self-contained complete plot and unwilling to read the three chapters as a whole

Reading tips

Read together with the upper and lower "Great Declaration" chapters, noting the middle chapter's transitional role in tone and argument.
Mark paragraph by paragraph the statements concerning the Mandate of Heaven and the people's hearts, and compare their similarities and differences with related New Text Shangshu chapters.
Read with an awareness of authenticity, informed by discussions of Mei Ze's presentation of the text in the history of classical learning, rather than accepting it wholesale.
Try restating in your own words the argumentative points of each oath paragraph to test whether you have truly understood it.

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
周书·泰誓中第二

FAQ

What is the relationship between the "Great Declaration, Part Two" and the upper and lower chapters?

According to the sources, the "Great Declaration" belongs to Mei Ze's Old Text Shangshu and is divided into upper, middle, and lower chapters, of which the "Great Declaration, Part Two" is the middle one. The three belong to the same textual system, unfold around the oath at the campaign against Zhou, and connect with one another in tone and content. Only by placing the middle chapter in the sequence of the three can one understand its position in the overall argument; reading it in isolation easily fragments the textual continuity.

How credible is this chapter, and can it be used as historical material?

The sources clearly state that the "Great Declaration" belongs to Mei Ze's Old Text Shangshu and that the New Text Shangshu does not contain this chapter, so it should not be used directly as original early Western Zhou historical material. A more prudent approach is to treat it as a text of the Old Text Shangshu system, used to examine the transmission of classical learning, textual construction, and the expression of later political ideas. For historical research, it must be carefully compared with the New Text Shangshu and related materials.

Where is the greatest difficulty for beginners reading this chapter?

There are mainly two difficulties: first, the Classical Chinese oath has a stern tone and compact sentences without narrative threads, so beginners easily read it in a fragmented way; second, the New Text/Old Text attribution problem requires background knowledge, otherwise the text's nature is easily misunderstood. It is recommended first to acquire basic knowledge of the New Text/Old Text distinction in the Shangshu, then read together with the upper and lower chapters, and use annotations to sort out sentence meanings; the difficulties will then be noticeably reduced.

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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.