Chen, the King, asked the Grand Master, saying: "May I hear the full details of the rites of military campaigns?" The answer was: When the Son of Heaven possesses the Way, ritual, music, and punitive expeditions all issue from the Son of Heaven. When they issue from the Son of Heaven, it must be in the first month of autumn that the military commanders and men of valor are rewarded at court, the outstanding and talented are selected and trained, and those who have rendered merit are appointed; generals are commissioned and soldiers chosen to punish the unrighteous. Then in the first month of winter, ranks are conferred upon the army, and the Minister of Education, holding a rod, faces north and administers the oath; the oath is sworn at the altar of the earth so that they may practice their duties. Five days beforehand, the Grand Historian divines at the ancestral temple, selects an auspicious day, and fasts; proclamation is made at the suburban altars, the altars of grain and earth, and the ancestral temple. After the divination, the omens are presented to the Son of Heaven, who sends an officer to announce them to the altar of the earth with a single sacrificial animal, proclaiming the matter of the expedition and receiving the mandate. They lodge and make offering at the imperial school to receive the completed charge; then they sacrifice to the Supreme God and burn offerings at the suburban altar before setting out. With the fasting chariot they move the tablets of the ancestral temple and the tablet of the earth altar; the Grand Minister of War holds office and carries them. If there are no ancestral temple tablets to move, they announce the matter to the ancestors with silk, skins, and jade tablets, which is called the "lord's mandate," and these too are carried on the fasting chariot. When they set out, the ancestral tablets, skins, jade, and silk are all offered at each lodging before they enter the guest house. The lord's chariot stops outside the middle gate and inside the outer gate; the ancestral tablets are placed on the left side of the road, the earth-altar tablet on the right. At every famous mountain and great river they pass, they sacrifice and make proclamation. When they reach the enemy's territory and are about to fight, the Grand Historian divines the day of battle and divines the right-hand charioteer. Three days beforehand, an officer clearly announces the enemy's crimes to the scribe; the scribe fixes the oath and the day of battle. The generals and officers array the chariots, armored soldiers, and troops before the army gate; an officer reads the proclamation and oath, causing them to be fully settled. After the three orders and five repetitions are completed, they pray for battle and beg victory from the Supreme God; then they advance against the enemy...
This chapter, in the form of a dialogue between King Chen and the Grand Master, systematically sets out the complete procedure of pre-Qin military ritual: from rewarding the army in the first month of autumn and commissioning generals and selecting soldiers, to conferring ranks on the army in the first month of winter and swearing oaths at the earth altar to practice duties; then divining an auspicious day and fasting, proclaiming at the temple and receiving the mandate, moving the tablets and carrying them on the journey, sacrificing and proclaiming at mountains and rivers, down to divining the day before battle, fixing the oath, the three orders and five repetitions, and praying for victory. Its value lies not in literary polish but in the preservation of ritual documents: it translates the political principle that "ritual, music, and punitive expeditions issue from the Son of Heaven" into operable ceremonial procedure, allowing readers to glimpse how ancient warfare was brought within the framework of ritual. This Bashu Publishing House edition is convenient for searching and citation and is suitable as a supplementary reader for the history of ritual, military history, and pre-Qin textual studies. When reading, it should be read alongside relevant chapters of the Rites of Zhou and the Book of Rites, paying attention to the ritual logic of divination, moving the tablets, and swearing in the army, rather than simply comparing it with modern military concepts. For general readers, the text is archaic and full of names and objects, and annotations are needed to follow it.
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.
What is the core content of this text?
Through a dialogue between King Chen and the Grand Master, it fully narrates the military ritual procedure before and after a pre-Qin campaign, including rewarding the army and commissioning generals, conferring ranks and swearing at the earth altar, divining auspicious days and proclaiming at the temple, moving and carrying the ancestral and earth-altar tablets, sacrificing and proclaiming at mountains and rivers, and divining the day, fixing the oath, and praying for victory before battle. Its core is to show that punitive expeditions must be brought onto the track of ritual.
Can it be read without a foundation in classical Chinese?
It can be read, but annotations and reference works are needed. The text is archaic and dense with names and institutions; it is advisable first to read a modern Chinese translation or an overview of the relevant ritual, then return to the original and compare paragraph by paragraph. One should not aim to read the whole text straight through at the outset.
How does reading this help in understanding ancient warfare?
It reveals that ancient warfare was not purely an act of force but was closely bound to sacrifices, divination, swearing in the army, and proclaiming at the temple. After reading, one can understand how "ritual, music, and punitive expeditions issue from the Son of Heaven" was put into concrete procedure, and how the ancients arranged the legitimacy and sacredness of war.
Is it suitable as a textbook or classroom material?
It is suitable as supplementary material for the history of Chinese ritual, pre-Qin military institutions, or historical textual studies, especially for close classroom reading of excerpts such as "commissioning generals," "swearing in the army," and "divining the battle." However, teachers need to provide annotations and background explanation; it should not be given directly to students without a foundation for self-study.
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.
