A Preliminary Study of the Kaogong Ji (The Book of Artificers)

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A Preliminary Study of the Kaogong Ji (The Book of Artificers) Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Master's Theses Graduate College 4-2005 A Preliminary Study of the Kaogong Ji (The Book of Artificers) Hanmo Zhang Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Zhang, Hanmo, "A Preliminary Study of the Kaogong Ji (The Book of Artificers)" (2005). Master's Theses. 4193. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/4193 This Masters Thesis-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF THE KAOGONGJI (THE BOOK OF ARTIFICERS) by HanmoZhang A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate College in partial fulfillmentof the requirements forthe Degree of Master of Arts Department of History ' WesternMichigan University Kalamazoo, Michigan April 2005 Copyright by Hanmo Zhang 2005 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to begin by thanking Dr. Victor C. Xiong, who introduced me to the fieldof pre-modem Chinese history and guided me through the whole process of this program. Thanks to his suggestion, I began the research of the Kaogongji soon after I enrolled in the program and have been constantly under his direction fromthen on. Without his guidance and encouragement, this project would not have been possible. I would like to thank Dr. Timothy Light for his solid support in my study and generous help in many other things. His deep insight and broad knowledge always brought inspiration, not only in this project, but also in the study of my fieldas a whole. I also owe great thanks to Dr. Takashi Yoshida, a member of my thesis committee, for providing invaluable advice on the thesis. I wish to thank Miss Robyn Page, who translated. a number of passages of the records fromFrench into English, and Miss Bethany Erhardt, who was able to check out those important referencebooks fromher university. I would also like to thank Dr. Myron D. Colber, who had voluntarily helped me with my English writing during the last years with great patience. Finally, I owe tremendous thanks to my wifefor her understanding and unconditional help and my expected son, who lent me support throughout the writing of the thesis in a special way-for as long as I thought about him, I did not get weary. Hanmo Zhang ii A PRELIMIMARY STUDY OF THE KAOGONGJI (THE BOOK OF ARTIFICERS) Han.moZhang, M.A. WesternMichigan University, 2005 The focusofthis paper is on the ancient Chinese text of the KaogongJi, which is now included in the Zhouli as one ofits chapters. Through a carefulcomparison between the KaogongJi and the rest of the Zhou/i and through a synthetic analysis ofacademic discussions of the completion date and authorship of the KaogongJi, thispaper attempts to show that the KaogongJi had been an independent text beforeits inclusion. It goes on to disprove the argument that the KaogongJi was forgedby the Han scholar Liu Xin as political propaganda. From the perspective of two aspects ofpower-"power over" and "power to," the paper offersa textual reading of the Kaogong Ji in its political and cultural contexts. It shows that not only did the manufacture recordedin the Kaogong Ji participate in the formationof ideology, but provided it a certain formas well. A distinct aspect ofthe KaogongJi is the ritual prescriptions it offersfor the planning and construction ofthe city. Through a study ofthese prescriptions, in conjunction with other textual sources and archaeological finds,this paper examines the characteristics, functions,and the development ofthe classical Chinese city with a view to interpreting its political and cultural meanings. Considering the factthat no English translation ofthe KaogongJi text (except fora fewshort passages) exists, a complete translation is appended to the paper, ofwhich a select number ofkey passages are also fullyannotated. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ... .. .. .. ... .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .... .. .. ... .. ........ 11 LIST OF TABLES .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ... .. .. .. .. ... .. ... .. .. ... 1v INTRODUCTION .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ... 1 CHAPTER I. THE KAOGONGJI AND THE MISSING CHAPTER OF THE ZHOULI . .. .. ... .. .. ... .. .. .. .. .. .. ... .. ... 11 II. THE AUTHORSHIP AND THE DATE OF THE KAOGONGJI .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 25 III. READING THE KAOGONGJI WITHIN ITS POLITICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT ........................ 38 IV. THE ANNOTATED TRANSLATION OF THE SELECTED PASSAGES IN THE KAOGONGJI . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 92 APPENDICES A. Tables . .. .. .. .. .. .. ... .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ... .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 112 B. The Translation of the Kaogong Ji ..................................... 129 C. Glossary of Chinese Characters ......................................... 177 BIBLIOGRAPHY .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ... 199 iii LIST OF TABLES 1. Six DifferentProportions of Bronze to Tin (1) 103 2. Six DifferentProportions of Bronze to Tin (2) 103 3. The Structure of the Extant Zhouli Text.................................... 112 4. The Structure of the Extant "Tianguan zongzai" Section................ 113 5. The Structure of the Extant Kaogong Ji Text.............................. 117 6. The Ages and Authorship of the36 sub-units of the Extant Kaogong Ji Text According to Wen Renjun ............................... 120 7. Word Counting of the Six Kinds of Artisans.............................. 122 8. Word Counting of the "Gongmu Zhi Gong".............................. 123 9. Word Counting of the "GongjinZhi Gong"............................... 124 10. Word Counting of the "Gongpi Zhi Gong"................................ 125 11. Word Counting of the "GuarnoZhi Gong". .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 126 12. Three Categories of All the Artisans Recorded in the Kaogong Ji .. ... 127 iv INTRODUCTION The Kaogongji �Igc (Book ofArtificers) is an old text substituted fora missing 1 chapter in the Zhoulim]ffl (Rites of the Zhou) • Not only does it offer instructions for craftsmanshipin wood, stone, jade and metal, and on tanning, dyeing and city planning, but also provides subtle informationabout Zhou (WesternZhou: ca. 1050-721 B.C.; EasternZhou: 721-256 B.C.) ritual, religion, and philosophy. The scholarship of the Kaogongji has long been intertwined with that of the Zhouli, which was alleged to have been penned by the Duke of Zhou (Zhougong m!0), even though it is now considered a late pre-Qin� (221-206 B.C.) text by most scholars. In this thesis, I will examine the authorship and completion date of the text and explore its content in its so�ial and cultural contexts. I will end the thesis with an annotated translation of some selected passages of the Kaogongji fromChinese into English.2 The Kao gong Ji has a history of over two thousand years of scholarship dating fromthe time of Liu De i'H!,the Prince Xian of Hejian iilJFa��.:E,who presented to the court the Zhouli mlffl(Rites of the Zhou), in which the Kaogongji was inserted as the substitute forthe missing chapter during the reign of Wudi of Han r:litW(r. 140-87 B.C.), according to a passage in the "Jingji zhi *�ffi�"chapter of the Suishu 15ifi 1 The Zhou/i was firstreferred to as Zhouguan flu'g (Officialsof the Zhou) in the "Feng shan shu Hffrfll�" of the Shiji!£:�c.(The Records of the Grand Historian) by Sima Qian J§J.�� (around 100 B.C.). When Ban Gu wrote the "Yiwen zhi l.i3'.C't" of the Han shu rl� (1st century B.C.), he listed the Zhouguan among the Li� books and called it Zhouguanjing flu'g*�- lnjuan � 99, "WangMang zhuan .:f.�1'," of the same book, it is referred to as Zhouli. According to Xun Yue lu''ltt(148-209), the change from"Zhouguan" (Historyof the Sui).3 In the early days of the Kaogongji's textual history, the Eastern Han commentator Ma Rong ,�fM!provided another version. It seems that Ma did not contest the date when the Zhouli was allegedly presented to the court. But controversy arose as a result of his version in regard to the time when the Kaogongji was incorporated into the Zhou/i, suggesting that it was Liu Xin who substituted the Kaogong Ji in Chengdi's �'rff(r. 32-7 B.C.) time.4 Jia Gongyan W0�, the Tang JI- commentator to the Zhouli, supported Ma's view.5 The age-old question on whether The Kaogongji was incorporated into the Zhouli during the reign ofWudi or the reign of Chengdi remains unanswered. Nevertheless, what we can be sure about is that the Kaogongji became known as an ancient text only after its incorporation into the Zhouli. Furthermore, the Kaogongji has attracted much attention fromscholars since the Zhou/i became one of the Confucian classics.6 In other words, the fateof the Kaogongji has been intertwined with that of the Zhouli ever since its firstappearance, and the study of the two texts has been inseparable. One of the most common questions about the Kaogongji in relation to the Zhou/i is: Why was the Kaogongji chosen over other works to take the place of the missing chapter in the Zhouli? To answer that question and in response to the modem scholar Xia Weiying's contention that identifies the Kaogongji with the lost chapter of the Zhouli, I to "Zhouli" was the work of Liu Xin j!Jitt(46 B.C. -A.D.23), who had proposed to establish a scholarly oficial post fr the study of the book. See Boltz 1993, 25; Karlgren 1931, 2-3. 2 For the whole
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