DATING A PRE-IMPERIAL TEXT: The CASE STUDY of the BOOK of LORD SHANG

Yuri Pines

doi:10.1017/eac.2016.3

DATING A PRE-IMPERIAL TEXT: The CASE STUDY of the BOOK of LORD SHANG

Yuri Pines^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Asian Studies

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

This article explores the dating of the Book of Lord Shang (Shangjunshu 商君書). Despite the importance of this text as one of major ideological products of the Warring States period (453–221 B.C.E.), it remained largely ignored in mainstream Western Sinology, in part because of the confusion about the dates of its composition. The article analyzes different criteria employed by earlier scholars to ascertain the dates of individual chapters of the Book of Lord Shang and investigates the relative weight of each of these criteria. This results in a methodologically transparent discussion, which not only advances our understanding of the complex textual history of the Book of Lord Shang but also makes a step toward establishment of a commonly acceptable set of dating determinants which may be employed in investigating the dates of other pre-imperial (i.e. pre-221 B.C.E.) texts.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	145-184
Number of pages	40
Journal	Early China
Volume	39
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1017/eac.2016.3
State	Published - 8 Jun 2016

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Society for the Study of Early China and Cambridge University Press 2016.

Keywords

Book of Lord Shang
Shang Yang
Warring States
authenticity
dating

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10.1017/eac.2016.3

Cite this

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abstract = "This article explores the dating of the Book of Lord Shang (Shangjunshu 商君書). Despite the importance of this text as one of major ideological products of the Warring States period (453–221 B.C.E.), it remained largely ignored in mainstream Western Sinology, in part because of the confusion about the dates of its composition. The article analyzes different criteria employed by earlier scholars to ascertain the dates of individual chapters of the Book of Lord Shang and investigates the relative weight of each of these criteria. This results in a methodologically transparent discussion, which not only advances our understanding of the complex textual history of the Book of Lord Shang but also makes a step toward establishment of a commonly acceptable set of dating determinants which may be employed in investigating the dates of other pre-imperial (i.e. pre-221 B.C.E.) texts.",

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DATING A PRE-IMPERIAL TEXT: The CASE STUDY of the BOOK of LORD SHANG

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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