[I N T R O D U C T I O N:   CHAPTER IV:  The Text of the Book of Lord Shang]

1. History of the Text

p.131 Han Fei-tzu mentions the “Law of Kung -sun Yang” (515) or the “Law of Lord Shang” (516) and says that « in every house there are those who preserved the laws of Kuan Chung and Shang Yang (517).

This is the oldest reference to a book. Ssu-ma Ch’ien at the end of his Biography of Shang Yang says: « I have read the books K’ai -sai and Keng-chan by the Lord of Shang, which are in keeping with the deeds he did. There was indeed reason enough why he should have finally left a bad reputation in Ch’in.

The 7th paragraph of the present book is called K’ai -sai and the 3rd Nung-chan, which has the same meaning as Keng-chan. A section bearing that exact title does not now exist.

The Han Catalogue, under the heading “School of Law”, mentions “The Lord of Shang, in 29 sections”; under the heading “Militar y Treatises”, “Kung -sun Yang, in 27 sections”. This book is not heard of further, and is generally thought to have been a different one from the first (518); possibly paragraphs 10, 11 and 12 are reminiscent of it.

p.132 In the “Collected Writings of Chu-ko Liang” mention is made of “The Book of Lord Shang”, as a book worthy of study: “The ‘First Ruler’ gave on his deathbed the following recommendation to the ‘Later Ruler’ (519): ‘Read the Han books, the Li-chi, and, when you have leisure, glance over the various Philosophers and the Six Chapters on Strategy (520); the Book of Lord Shang benefits one’s knowledge.’”

The next reference to the book occurs in the catalogue of books in the History of the Sui dynasty (589-618), which mentions: “The Lord of Shang, in 5 chapters, written by the minister of Ch’in, Wei Yang”.

The chapter on literature of the Old T’ang History mentions “The Book of Lord Shang, in 5 chapters,” and the corr esponding chapter in the New T’ang History repeats this statement and adds: “written by Shang Yang, by some called Shang-tzu,” i.e. the Philosopher Shang.

According to the Ch’ün-shu-chih-yao (521), compiled by Wei p.133 Cheng in 631, chap. 36, there existed in Shang-chün-tzu a section called Liu fa-p’ien,  “The Six Laws”, which was placed before what is now the 14 th paragraph, the Hsiu-ch’üan-p’ien, “The C ultivation of the Right Standard”. A small part of that section is there reproduced (see p. 160). Ssu-ma Cheng, who in the eighth century wrote the Shih-chi-so-yin, “ Explanations of Obscure Passages in the Shih-chi”. mentions the book in connection with his explanation of the above-quoted sentence in Shih-chi and shows at the same time that he had probably never seen the work in question. For he says:

« In the Book of Lord Shang, k’ai means that, if penalties are severe, government measures may develop (k’ai ), and sai means that, if favours and rewards are distributed, government measures are obstructed (sai); the idea of it lay fundamentally in having severe penalties and few favours. Also in order to obtain new arable land he opened up the longitudinal and transversal paths, and he said that rank was awarded for cutting off an enemy’s head: this is the Book on Agriculture and War’ (Keng-chan-shu).

In the Sung dynasty the book is mentioned by the famous man of letters, Cheng Ch’iao (522), in the section “the School of Law” of the Compendium on Literature in his great work T’ung-chih (523). He repeats the statement of the Sui History and adds: “In the Han dynasty there were 29 sections; now three of these are lost”.

p.134 The same statement is repeated by his younger contemporary, the well-known bibliographer, Ch’ao Kung -wu, in his Ch’ün-chai-tu-shu-chih (1151) under the heading “The School of Law”. He also criticizes Ssu -ma Cheng’s explanation of the phrase in the Shih-chi and quotes some part of K’ai -sai-p’ien, the 7th paragraph of the Book of Shang-tzu, as he calls it. Ma Tuan-lin in his great Wen-hsien-t’ung-k’ao, in the section on Miscellaneous Authors, speaks of “Shang -tzu in 5 Chapters”; so does the Sung history.

It seems that during the Sung dynasty different copies of the book existed. For Ch’en Chen -sun, whose hao was Chih-chai, and who was promoted to chü-jen in the Tuan-p’ing period (1234 -1237) in his Catalogue of books from various family-libraries, called Chih-chai-shu-lu-chieh-t’i under the heading “Various Authors” mentions “ Shang-tzu in 5 Chapters, written by Wei Yang, the Chancellor of Ch’in; in the Han Catalogue 29 sections are mentioned, but now there are 28, of which again one section is lost”. This may have been a copy in which the section on “The Six Laws” still formed part.

In the “Extract of the table of contents of the Ssu-k’u-ch’üan-shu” (1782), ch. 101, the sections on philosophers, II, School of Law, the matter is discussed at some length. It is pointed out how the book was originally known under the p.135 title of “The Book of Lord Shang” and it is said that from the Sui History on, the name Shang-tzu had come into use. (This is not quite correct, as will be clear from the foregoing.) Whereas in the Sung dynasty two different copies are mentioned, one of 26 sections, and one of 28, at the time of writing only 24 sections were really extant, the 16th and 21st having also been lost, so it cannot be the same copy which, for example, Ch’ao Kung -wu had seen. It is further pointed out that in the T’an g dynasty the book cannot have been widely known, as Ssu-ma Cheng made the mistake, mentioned above, in his explanation of the words k’ai and sai in the Shih-chi and had therefore evidently never seen the actual work.

The first printed edition seems to have been published by Cheng Ts’ai (524), who flourished in the Shun-yu (525) period of the Sung dynasty. The existence of a Yüan edition is assured by Yen Wan-li (526). There were several Ming editions: one by Feng Chin (527) in 1535; one in the collection Erh-shih-tzuch’üan- shu. “ The complete works of the 20 Philosophers”, published by Wu Mien-hsüeh (527a); one by Ch’eng Ju ng in the great collection Han-weits’ung- shu; one by the well-known p.136 historiographer Ch’en Jen -his (528).

Wang Shih-jun (529), who has consulted this last edition, says that it has 24 sections, beginning with that called “Reform of the Law”, and ending with “The fixing of rights and duties”; this is, he says, also the case with the edition of the Ch’ung -wen-chü (530). The well-known writer Kuei Yu-kuang (531), about the middle of the sixteenth century, in his Chu-tzu-huihan published an abbreviated text, in which he only gave what are now the second, the third, the sixth, the seventh, and the fifteenth paragraphs, omitting all corrupt and obscure places (532).

In the Ch’ing dynasty, several of the best scholars have worked on the text of Shang-tzu.

In 1793 Yen Wan-li published an edition of the Book of Lord Shang, which was reprinted in 1876 by the Chê-chiang-shu-chü, in the “Collection of the Twenty-two Philosophers”. This edition, which is the best known, I have taken as the basis of my translation. Yen recalls, in his introduction, how in the Sung dynasty there were copies of 26 and 27 paragraphs. He bases himself upon a p.137 printed copy of the Yuan dynasty, which had 26 paragraphs, of which the 16th and 21st were lacking, so in reality therefore it had only 24 paragraphs, just as was the case in the printed copy of Fan Ch’in (533), which was current in his time.

Later he obtained a very good MS. copy, which came from the hands of Ch’in Ssu -lin (534). Yen concludes that in the Sung dynasty there were evidently no printed copies, or that at any rate, if there were, they must have been rare (535). Many corrupt places were corrected by Yen (536).

After this we should mention the work done by Yü Yüeh; a chin-ship of the promotion of the year 1850, who reckoned to be of the school of the well-known Wang Nien-sun (537). Yü lived to the end of the Kuang-hsü period, to be 86 years of age. Among the numerous books of this distinguished p.138 scholar, collected as the Ch’un-tsai-t’ang-ch’üan-shu, containing more than 500 chapters, is the Chu-tzu-p’ing-I, “A Critical Discussion of the Minor Philosophers”, in 50 chapters, one of which treats of Shang Yang. For this he made use of the printed text of Cheng Ts’ai (538), of the Sung dynasty, and of an edition of Sun Hsing-yen (539). He also consulted the text of the Shih-shih-hsien-ch’in-chu-tzu (540),”The Minor Philosophers of the Pre-Ch’in period, by Shih”.

Sun I-jang (541), an excellent scholar and well known for his work on Mo-tzu, tried his hand at Shang Yang’s text after this. He had the benefit of a copy from the hands of Ch’ien Hsi -tsu, who lived about the middle of the nineteenth century and who published it in his big collection called Chih-hai; also of a copy which had been corrected by that brilliant scholar Yen K’o -chün (542). The results of Sun’s study have been incorporated in the Cha-i, a work of 12 chapters (543).

p.139 In the fourth year of the Republic, i.e. in 1915, an edition was published (544), which incorporated the critical results, to which these distinguished men of letters had arrived, and which gave a great number of new emendations. This was the work of Wang Shih-jun and was called the Shang-chün-shu-chiao-ch’üan, “A Critical Examination and Explanation of the Book of Lord Shang”. This book forms part of a series, the Wen-chihsien- ts’ung-shu, in which the author also intended to publish Yin Wen-tzu, Kung-sun Lung, Têng Hsi-tzu, and Kuei Ku-tzu (545). There is a complimentary preface by Ch’en Ch’ao -chüeh, and another by Liu Tzu-ho; from that of the latter it appears that the author has also studied abroad. It is a piece of careful work; the author states that for ten years he has been at intervals engaged on this study. Taking Yen’s text as his basis, he has made use of the critical work done by Yü and Sun and has also consulted the text as published by the Ch’ung-wen-chü (546) in Hupei, which gives the old reading, and therefore sometimes permits reconstruction of the original. Though his explanations are sometimes a little pedantic and certain emendations seem unnecessary, on the whole his judgment is sound and I have p.140 found it the best edition of the text. Unfortunately it is not free from printing errors.

Of another modern edition little good can be said. It is called Shang-ch¨n-shu-hsin-shih “A New Explanation of the Book of Lord Shang”, and is published in the collection Ch’i -sheng-chai-ts’ung-shu, in which also editions of the Lun-yü, Li-chi, Mo-tzu, Kuan-tzu, Han Fei-tzu, etc., have appeared. It has had the honour of two editions, the first in the seventh year of the Republic (1918), the second in the eleventh year (1922). It is capped with a preface by the author’s father and complimentary letters and verses from the author’s friends, one of whom is the former Prime Minister of the Republ ic, Hsiung Hsi-ling. The author is Yin T’ung -yang (547). He submitted the draft to his father Yin Ch’ien, who enriched it with his own remarks, and tells us in his preface that in his youth he himself had studied with the well-known Wang K’ai -yün (548). Yet the book is a poor production; the author, who has studied some modern law, tries to find everywhere modern conceptions of law; he has not made use of the excellent text-critical work of Yü Yüeh and Sun I-jang, nor did he know Wang Shih-jun’s edition, and in his own interpretations of the text he often goes hopelessly wrong. In some rare cases have I found a text-critical remark, which p.141 has been useful. If, however, from a philological point of view the book is rather a failure, it has a certain value on account of the references to similar works such as Han Fei-tzu, Kuan-tzu, etc., which it gives, although many of these also are absolutely useless. Generally I have passed over his interpretations in silence, only mentioning his views in some instances (549).