Long Live the King! 69 Chapter 3 Long Live the King! The Ideology of Power between Ritual and Morality in the Gongyang zhuan 公羊傳1 Joachim Gentz C’est à l’idéologie, à cette ténébreuse métaphysique qui, en recherchant avec subtilité les causes premières, veut sur ces bases fonder la législation des peuples, au lieu d’approprier les lois à la connaissance du cœur humain et aux leçons de l’histoire, qu’il faut attribuer tous les malheurs. Napoléon at the Conseil d’Etat in 1812 ⸪ Background: Origins and Early History of the Gongyang zhuan Along with the Zuo zhuan 左傳 and the Guliang zhuan 穀梁傳, the Gongyang zhuan 公羊傳 is one of the three canonical commentaries to the Chunqiu 春 秋 (Spring and Autumn Annals). The Chunqiu in turn belongs to the wider genre of annalistic chronicles that were kept at the courts of many states dur- ing the Zhou 周 period (ca. 1046–256 bce)2 and recorded events that were of significance for the state.3 The Chunqiu, which became one of the five core 1 Parts of this essay draw on my earlier German publication, Gentz 2001. I wish to thank the editors for their careful reading, constructive suggestions, and patience, Yuri Pines especially for his enormous input of expertise and effort (he surely is the god in the details of this essay), Elizabeth Leith for her attentive proofreading, and Pamela J. Burton for her meticulous and intelligent final polish. 2 Hereafter all the dates are bce (before the Common Era) unless indicated otherwise. 3 Mozi jiaozhu VIII.31: 337–339 (“Ming gui xia” 明鬼下); Guoyu jijie 17.1: 485 (“Chuyu 楚語 shang”) and 13.8: 415 (“Jinyu 晉語 7”); Zhuangzi jinzhu 2: 74 (“Qiwu lun” 齊物論); and Mengzi yizhu 8.21: 192 all refer to annalistic chronicles held at the courts of other states such as Zhou 周, Yan 燕, Song 宋, Qi 齊, Chu 楚, and Jin 晉. See Gentz 2001: 25–37. The “wooden planks for the yearly records” 記年之牒 mentioned in Han Feizi jijie VIII.29: 210 (“Dati” 大體) could also refer to similar works. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2015 | doi 10.1163/9789004299337_005 70 Gentz Confucian works in the fourth or third century bce, is a chronicle of the state of Lu 魯 covering the period from 722 to 481. In the view of the Gongyang zhuan it was compiled by Confucius4 from earlier versions of one or several unedited Chunqiu chronicle(s)5 (buxiu Chunqiu 不脩春秋),6 the historical substance of which it basically preserved. Yet the Gongyang zhuan believes that Confucius formulated the transmitted historical records in particular ways in order to indicate his judgments on the contents of the records as subtle moral messages to posterity. As these moral judgments made by Confucius seem to combine the deep wisdom of his historical knowledge with his sage- like moral sense, they are regarded as an invaluable resource for study. The Gongyang commentary endeavors to detect the hidden messages by analyzing in particular the wording of the Chunqiu records, especially where it deviates from the normal pattern of the historiographical rules according to which the main parts of the Chunqiu are written.7 This intellectual attempt to explain the text according to reasoned rules had a lasting impact on traditional Chinese historiography and its interpretation.8 Its new exegetical methodology also in- fluenced legal interpretation and contributed to a new style of communication in the political sphere. Dating of the Gongyang zhuan The place of origin of the Gongyang zhuan is unknown, as are the date and the authors and/or transmitters; therefore, highly controversial positions regard- ing the date and transmission of the Gongyang zhuan exist in the secondary literature.9 The earliest and thus official version of the Gongyang transmission 4 My assertion that this is an assumption of the Gongyang text itself is mainly based on the commentary in Zhao 12.1 where “zi yue” 子曰 clearly refers to Confucius as he refers to himself as “Qiu” 丘 at the end of the quote. In this quote he explicitly states that he is responsible for the wording of the Chunqiu (其詞則丘有罪焉耳) ! For a translation of this passage see n. 90 below. 5 The historical records on which the Chunqiu is allegedly based are often called shiji 史記 in the early literature; see Wang Liqi 1989: 107–109. 6 See Gongyang zhuan (hereafter GYZ), Zhuang 7.2 (Liu Shangci 2011 [hereafter Liu 2011]: 120, Shisanjing zhushu edition [hereafter SSJZS], 6: 2228). 7 For an analysis of the prescriptive rules governing which types of events could be recorded as well as the form of those records, see Van Auken 2007. Van Auken basically confirms the ob- servations of the Chunqiu commentaries. For a much more detailed analysis, see Duan Xizhong 2002: 151–404. 8 Durrant 1995: chap. 1 and pp. 59–68; Watson 1958: 85–100; Lei Jiaji 1990: 30–50. 9 Hama Hisao (1987: 76–78; 1992: first and second part of chap. 1) surveys the Chinese and Japanese positions..