Questions on Carriages and Horses
Tags
Summary
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers interested in the survival and loss of chapters in ancient texts and the phenomenon of textual transmission
- Students and researchers studying the chapter structure and bibliographic conventions of the Book of Rites
- Those engaged in the collation of ancient texts and work on editions and bibliography
- General readers who wish to understand the concept of "lost text" and the incompleteness of the classics
Not a good fit for
- Readers hoping to read specific content on the chariot-horse system or chariot and horse ritual
- Learners expecting complete chapter explanations and sentence-by-sentence commentary
- Researchers who need directly quotable textual content
Reading tips
- First understand what "lost" means in the collation of ancient texts, then look through this chapter, so as not to mistake the missing content for a printing or binding error.
- Combine the table of contents of the Book of Rites with related bibliographic knowledge to observe the convention of a surviving title with a lost main text.
- Compare it with other complete chapters of the Book of Rites to appreciate how completeness and incompleteness coexist in the transmission of the classics.
- If studying chariot and horse ritual, consult other transmitted texts and excavated materials; do not use this chapter as a basis for content.
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
- 问乘马第七十
FAQ
Why does "Wen Cheng Ma" have only a title and no main text?
Can this book be used to study the ancient chariot-horse system?
What is the practical significance of reading this chapter?
Comments
Find this book
This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.
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.
