What is the Tsinghua *Rui Liangfu bi 芮良夫毖? Genre, prosody, theme, and form in a Warring States verse-album

Abstract

The *Rui Liangfu bi, a previously unattested Warring States manuscript held by Tsinghua University, purports to record two admonitory songs that Rui Liangfu (fl. ninth century bce) presented to King Li (r. 853/57–841 bce) and his derelict ministers at court. The genre identity of the manuscript text is contested, owing in part to two similar texts, a shi-poem preserved in the Odes and a shu-document in the Yi Zhou shu, also traditionally interpreted as Rui Liangfu’s speech at the same event. Although none of the three texts share anything literatim with one another, they all rhyme and cleave closely to a well-known legend. Proceeding from complete translation of the manuscript text, I show that it diverges significantly from the canonical categories thus far used to classify it, with regard to both prosody and theme. Moreover, a structural analysis reveals that the manuscript’s paratextual encapsulation demonstrates an early precedent for the explicit, historical contextualization of songs that became pervasive in the Mao Odes. On the basis of structure, the manuscript can also be classed with a set of verse collections known only in manuscript form, save for one “forgery” preserved in the ancient-script Documents. 清華大學收藏的⟪芮良夫毖⟫戰國寫本記錄者兩篇前所未見的韻文著作。據寫本所載的序文， 兩篇是西周大臣芮良夫（公元前9世紀）在朝廷上向周厲王（公元前853/57–841年在位）及其敗臣進獻的兩首勸諫歌。⟪詩經⟫和⟪逸周書⟫兩部傳世經書中，各保留著相似的一篇文本，而且此兩篇傳統歸功給芮良夫，被視為他在同一個場所所進獻的詩歌。儘管這三篇文本之間沒有任何逐字相同之處，但它們都押韻，並且緊密依附於一個眾所周知的傳說故事。本文從⟪芮良夫毖⟫整篇的翻譯出發，展示它在韻律、形式和主題上，與迄今用來分類寫作的經典類別有顯著的不同。此外，寫本被副文本（paratext）所包裝的結構，可以對⟪毛詩⟫普遍歷史化現象提供一個早期的先例。基於文本——副文本（text-paratext）結構分析，⟪芮良夫毖⟫還可以與一組韻文集歸類在一起，而這類文本，除了保存在古文⟪尚書⟫中的一篇「偽作」除外，只有兩篇在清華簡中的實例。