Edicts and Decrees

AnonymousBashu Publishing House · ChinaJul 2024

4.1

Word count: 1.2K words
Chapters: 6

Summary

"Zhaoce" is the nineteenth chapter of The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons, devoted chiefly to the edicts and proclamations of emperors.

Editor's review

"Zhaoce" is the nineteenth chapter of The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons, devoted exclusively to the origins, formal norms, and compositional principles of the genre of imperial edicts and proclamations. In this chapter Liu Xie traces the historical evolution of such genres as zhao, ce, zhi, and chi, distinguishes their functions and stylistic requirements, and evaluates them within the dual framework of Confucian political ethics and literary scholarship. The work combines concrete appraisal of edicts from the pre-Qin period through the Qi and Liang dynasties with the principle that the zhaoce genre should unite authority with mildness, decisiveness with prudence; it is an important text for understanding ancient Chinese official document forms and political rhetoric. This Bashu Press edition gives readers access to the original text and serves as an introductory resource for stylistic research and the study of classical works. Readers should approach it in light of the overall structure of The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons, note the logic of genre classification linking chapter to chapter, and consult relevant annotations to clarify the meaning. For readers interested in ancient official document writing, genre classification, and the history of literary criticism, this chapter offers a concentrated body of theoretical material.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars and graduate students researching ancient Chinese stylistics and the history of literary criticism
Readers interested in ancient official documents, edict systems, and political rhetoric
Classical literature enthusiasts reading the entire Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons who need close study of individual chapters
University teachers engaged in ancient prose studies or writing instruction

Not a good fit for

General readers seeking popular stories or light historical fare
Beginners without Classical Chinese who do not intend to read the original with annotations
Readers concerned only with modern official document practice and not interested in ancient genres

Reading tips

First read through the genre chapters of The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons to clarify the place of zhaoce in the overall classification, then study this chapter closely.
Compare the edict examples cited in the chapter with the original passages in relevant histories to appreciate the focus and precision of Liu Xie's judgments.
Use the annotations to work through the differences among zhao, ce, zhi, and chi paragraph by paragraph, keeping brief comparative notes on the genres.
After reading, compare with adjacent chapters such as "Xi Yi" and "Zhang Biao" to understand the division of labor and stylistic differences among official document forms.

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
正文一
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正文三
正文四
正文五

FAQ

To which part of The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons does "Zhaoce" belong?

"Zhaoce" is the nineteenth chapter of The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons and belongs to the genre-discussion section of the work. The chapters in this section separately treat the origins, forms, and compositional requirements of different genres; "Zhaoce" deals specifically with imperial edicts and proclamations and, together with chapters such as "Xi Yi," "Zhang Biao," and "Zou Qi," forms a systematic discussion of official document genres.

Can someone without a Classical Chinese background read this chapter?

This chapter is written in parallel prose, and reading it directly poses some difficulty. Readers are advised to choose an edition with annotations or translation, first clarifying the words and sentences and then grasping the overall meaning. Understanding the chapter will be smoother if combined with introductory works on The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons that explain the structure of the whole book. Those with no Classical Chinese background at all should begin with a heavily annotated selected edition.

How does reading "Zhaoce" help in understanding ancient official documents?

This chapter traces the historical evolution and functional division of such genres as zhao, ce, zhi, and chi and sets out corresponding compositional principles, making it an important theoretical text for understanding ancient official document forms and political rhetoric. Readers can thereby grasp how the ancients handled the relationship between authoritative expression and measured wording within generic norms.

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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.