In fact, it has taken some considerable time for Chinese and twentieth-century Western sinologists to define the problématique of the two texts that have passed as the ancient history of China for so long. Moreover, although modern research has produced valuable data in historical linguistics and textual criticism, it is the question of hermeneutics, or the science of interpretation that represents the problématique of these two texts. Karlgren, “Glosses on the Book of Documents”, Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern (.)ĢIn any cultural tradition, credal works such as the Shangshu are resistant to critical analysis and scholarly investigation. 4 Henri Maspero, “Légendes mythologiques dans le Chou King” [ Shujing (Classic of Historical Document (.).The subject of my present investigation is the Shangshu, and specifically its first two texts (sometimes read as one text), the “Yao dian 堯典” (Canon of Yao), and the “Shun dian 舜典” (Canon of Shun).

Although they purport to relate events and pronouncements of the earliest times, and have been accepted as an accurate account of ancient history, their authenticity has been disproved and they are now categorized as pseudohistorical texts. The texts include the Shangshu 尚書 (Historical Documents of Antiquity), also entitled Shujing 書經 (Classic of Historical Documents), Guoyu 國語 (Discourses of the States), and works narrating aspects of the Zhou 周 dynasty in the first millennium B.C. Modern scholars are applying the methodologies of historical linguistics, political science, political philosophy, and new theories of history to these texts.

More recently, they have been the subject of academic inquiry in modern China and now also in Western sinology. Although such texts early on became fixed in their orthodox status, they were reinterpreted and revitalized through critical exegesis by medieval and late imperial scholars. They belong to the second phase of classical philosophy, later than the Shijing 詩經 (Classic of Poetry), Lunyu 論語 (Analects), Mencius 孟子, and Zhuang zi 莊子, and they were composed as a response to fundamental social change, when China was in the process of transformation from an aristocratic to an imperial socio-political system, culminating in the Qin-Han 秦漢 empire of the late third century B.C. Emblematized as canonical scripture, they have transmitted the moral, political, and the credal verities of the Chinese people for over two millennia. 2 See the entries entitled “ Chou li”, “ I Chou shu”, “ I li”, and “ Kuo yü”, by various authors, and “ S (.)ġGreat status is accorded to central texts in the Chinese cultural tradition which embody revered doctrine and are endowed with mythic potency.

1 For a comprehensive history of the period, see Li Xueqin, Eastern Zhou and Qin Civilizations, tran (.).

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