Duke of Shao
| Shi, Duke of Shao | |
|---|---|
Hanyu Pinyin | Shào Gōng |
Shi, Duke of Shao (died c. 1000 BCE), born Ji Shi, posthumous name Kang (康), also known as Lord Shao or Duke of Shao,[a] was a high-ranking minister of the early Zhou dynasty. He was a member of the royal clan, the founding lineage head of the state of Yan, and elder of the minor polity Shao (召國). After King Wu of Zhou's death, Lord Shao supported the Duke of Zhou in his regency and helped suppress the Rebellion of the Three Guards. He remained a major figure at court for decades.
Royal kin
The earliest biography of Lord Shao, in
Early career
For his role in the
Two years after the conquest, before Zhou power had been completely consolidated, King Wu was dead. His son was considered too young to be fit to rule, and the Duke of Zhou unilaterally took power.
Traditionally, the Duke of Zhou is considered to have assumed regency rather than kingship.[9] In any case, the son of the vanquished Shang king and affiliated groups, possibly aided by Zhou royal brothers,[b] took the opportunity to rebel in an action called the Rebellion of the Three Guards. Lord Shao allied with the Duke of Zhou, and after three years the rebellion was suppressed.
Sharing power
With the violence quelled, King Wu's son, now three years less young, along with the victorious Lord Shao and Duke of Zhou, entered into a triple alliance, sharing power delicately between them. Lord Shao was given power over the lands to the west of the twin capitals Feng and Hao, on the Wei river in present-day Xi'an, Shaanxi. This included his lineage's power base near the predynastic Zhou capital of Xishan;[11] the Duke of Zhou was given control over the lands to the east. [1] It was during this timeframe Lord Shao went to survey the site of the new capital city Luoyi (present day Luoyang, Henan), which would control both the strategic ford which had facilitated the Zhou conquest in the first place, as well as the pass through the mountains to the Zhou homeland.[12] The portents were also auspicious, and Lord Shao had rammed earth city wall constructed in a month's time.[13]
Multiple episodes carried by the Shangshu relate to this period of time, and two in particular relate to each other and the power struggle at court. Jun Shi (君奭), a piece of persuasive writing from the Duke of Zhou to Lord Shao is one, and the other is Shao Gao (召誥), mostly by Lord Shao.
The language is archaic, and admits multiple readings. The traditional reading takes into account a cryptic statement that Lord Shao was unhappy at court to read Jun Shi as a plea from Lord Shao to remain in his position and help coadminister government affairs until the new king is ready. Shao Gao is then read as an exhortation to the new king to do a good job.[14]
An alternative reading pits the two chapters against one another, with Lord Shao highlighting how the Mandate of Heaven flows only to the eldest son, and the Duke of Zhou calling upon a panoply of worthy ministers of yore to support his platform of how crucial capable ministers are to good government, quoting Lord Shao's own words back at him about how the two of them would work together, asserting that heaven's mandate had come jointly to the Zhou as a group, and ending with an impassioned plea where he addresses Lord Shao as his brother.[15][c]
Although the two texts are clearly closely related, which is the response to the other is debated.[18] And whether they are read from a traditional or revisionist viewpoint, regardless of the personal, political, or philosophical motives behind either man's words, soon thereafter the young King Cheng stepped fully into his authority, and the Duke of Zhou disappeared from the political scene for the remainder of his life.
Longevity
Lord Shao served four generations of Zhou kings: King Wen, King Wu, King Cheng, and King Kang.[1] He features prominently in the later Shangshu chapter Gu Ming, which describes the inauguration ritual of King Kang. In it, Lord Shao can be seen to command great respect at court. He is listed first in each enumeration of participants, gives orders to other functionaries to help prepare for the proceedings, performs ritual actions rivaled only by the new king and the Master Ritualist, and reads the command of accession to the king.[19]
Wang Chong's Lunheng claims that Lord Shao lived over a hundred years,[2] and epigraphic records securely dateable to the middle years of King Kang's reign tend to support rather than refute this claim.[20]
The Classic of Poetry ode "The Sweet Pears" (甘棠) is said to have been composed in his honour.[1]
References
Notes
- ^ also known as Duke Kang of Shao, Grand Protector Shi, and Lord Kang of Yan
- ^ All transmitted sources charge the brothers of King Wu who had been appointed to govern the Shang remnants with joining the rebellion. The excavated text Xinian states that the Zhou governors were killed by the rebel forces, but does not provide their identities.[10]
- ^ Shaughnessy's reading of the line in Jun Shi where the Duke of Zhou addresses Lord Shao as his brother rests on the assumption that the word "brother" as carried by the parallel passage in the Three Styles Stone Classic, inscribed in 241 CE, has been corrupted by scribal transmission error from its original form 兄 to 允 in the received literature.[16] Gassmann posited in 2012 that during the time period the Jun Shi was set in, the word translated as "brother" could also have referred to any elder male member of same generation in the kin group, suggesting that "cousin" could be a plausible reading.[17]
Citations
- ^ a b c d e Shiji, vol. 34.
- ^ a b Lunheng, vol. 1 pt. 4.
- ^ Shaughnessy (1989), p. 58.
- ^ a b c Shaughnessy (1989), p. 52.
- ^ Khayutina (2015), p. 269.
- ^ Milburn (2004), pp. 198–199.
- ^ Gren (2016), p. 317–318.
- ^ Gren (2016), p. 317.
- ^ Shiji, vol. 4.
- ^ Milburn (2016), p. 64.
- ^ Khayutina (2008).
- ^ Shaughnessy (1999), p. 311.
- ^ Legge (1865), p. 424.
- ^ Legge (1865), p. 433.
- ^ Shaughnessy (1993), pp. 58–59.
- ^ Shaughnessy (1993), p. 58.
- ^ Gassmann (2012), pp. 32–33.
- ^ Shaughnessy (1993), p. 59.
- ^ Shaughnessy (1989), pp. 54–55.
- ^ Shaughnessy (1989), p. 59.
Works cited
- Gassmann, Robert H. (2012). ""Fathers" Galore: Comments on a Suffix in Ancient Chinese Names". Extrême-Orient Extrême-Occident. Presses Universitaires de Vincennes: 31–49. JSTOR 42636046.
- Gren, Ribbing (2016). "The Qinghua "Jinteng" Manuscript: What it Does Not Tell Us about the Duke of Zhou". T'oung Pao. 102 (4/5). Leiden: Brill. JSTOR 44653783.
- Khayutina, Maria (2008). "Western "Capitals" of the Western Zhou Dynasty: Historical Reality and Its Reflections Until the Time of Sima Qian". Oriens Extremus. 47. Harrassowitz Verlag: 25–65. JSTOR 24048045.
- Khayutina, Maria (2015). "King Wen, a Settler of Disputes or Judge? The "Yu–Rui case" in the Historical Records and its Historical Background". Bochum Yearbook of East Asian Studies. 38. München: Ruhr-Universität Bochum: 261–276.
- Legge, James (1865). "12: 召誥". The Shoo King, book 5. Vol. 3.2. pp. 420–433.
- JSTOR 4528969.
- Milburn, Olivia (2016). "The Xinian: an ancient historical text from the Qinghua University collection of bamboo books". Early China. 39. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 53–109. JSTOR 44075753.
- JSTOR 4629387.
- Shaughnessy, Edward L. (1993). "The Duke of Zhou's Retirement in the East and the Beginnings of the Ministerial–Monarch Debate in Chinese Political Philosophy". Early China. 18. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 41–72. JSTOR 23351745.
- Shaughnessy, Edward L. (1999). "Western Zhou History". In ISBN 0-521-47030-7.
- Sima Qian; Sima Tan (1739) [90s BCE]. "34.4: 燕召公世家". Shiji 史記 [Records of the Grand Historian] (in Literary Chinese) (punctuated ed.). Beijing: Imperial Household Department.
- Wang Chong. "1.4: 氣壽篇". Lunheng 論衡. (80 CE).
