Week 1: Peaceful Non-Dynastic Transitions (N) and A Violent Man Gets Culture (Q)

 Week 1 due 9/3/23

Day 1 (N) If the default pattern is for a (worthy) son to inherit from his imperial father, e.g., a simple succession through generations of the Xia dynasty (N37m), Sima Qian spills extra ink to explain any variations from this succession model. Setting aside for the moment violent overthrow, as in King Wu’s overthrow of wicked King Zhou of Yin (Shang) (N51b-52t), two peaceful variations stand out: the ancient Emperor Yao’s selection of Shun as his heir (N10b), and then Shun’s selection of Yu as his heir (N36t).

In both cases, the emperors passed over their own less capable sons in favor of extraordinarily talented ministers. Sima Qian notes that each emperor wisely chose ministers and set them to work on the greatest challenges facing the empire. Aged Emperor Yao sought an administrator to take over for him (N8). Shun, an obscure and virtuous commoner descended from Huang Di, obtained the role and ruled for 28 years in the emperor’s name. When Yao died, naming Shun his heir, the people and the lords preferred Shun; after ritual yielding, Shun ascended (N11t). Shun in turn sought someone to solve his biggest problem: water, water, everywhere, and the people in the drink! His choice, Yu, also an obscure descendant of Huang Di, abandoned all home life to focus only on serving the empire and taming the floods (N22t, continuing unbroken for pages), organizing, ordering, taxing, feeding the people, and otherwise serving the empire, until Sima Qian’s admiring text dwells on a lengthy list of the rivers flood-taming Yu channeled (N30, 31). Similarly, after ritual yielding, Yu ascended, founding the Xia dynasty.

New pattern? Not so much. Although Yu "gave the world" to his trusted minister Yi, the lords and people found his son Qi worthy, and knew too little of Yi’s solid achievements. After ritual yielding, Qi ascended the throne (N36m). The Mandate of Heaven shifts peacefully from the dynastic line only under extraordinary circumstances, where the designated non-dynastic heir has demonstrated his superior capabilities and focused on the people’s needs. Will Xi Jinping, having made himself his own successor, hold onto the Mandate of Heaven after sacrificing the villages to save Beijing from the floods?

Day 2 (Q) I failed in our discussion together to convince my conversation mates that Duke Mu was a wonderfully complex transitional figure between his violent and barbaric forebears (sketchily sorta kinda descended from Huang Di and some imperial great-grand-daughter impregnated by a swallow’s egg (Q1t)) and his descendants, the noble Lord of the West and his son the martial King Wu who overthrew the wicked last king of the Yin dynasty, Emperor Zhou. Was he dark, violent, passionate, and absolutely as bloodthirsty, power-hungry, and ruthless as his forebears (and descendants!)? Yes, yes, yes.

I’m not arguing away his darkness, but rather insisting on noticing, as Sima Qian does, his emerging specks of light and clumsy but intelligent and persistent embrace of useful aspects of “Chinese” culture, the culture of the Yin dynasty and other feudal dynasties. He married well, taking as his bride the elder sister of the heir to the powerful Jin state (Q9t). He assembled talented ministers, and after some failures to listen, adopted their strategies and advice. (Baili Xi (Q9m), Jian Shu (Q10t)). He acted with mercy and a long view with troublesome enemies, sparing his brother-in-law and returning him to Jin after capturing him (Q12b), sparing the lives of the 300 peasants after they ate his horse (Q12t), which redounded to his benefit when they saved him from certain capture by the Jin (Q12t), sending grain to Jin when the state faced famine (Q11m). He questioned You Yu, a bi-cultural (Rong/Jin) ambassador/spy from the Rong court, about cultural differences between the barbarians and the “Chinese,” and liked his advice and insight so much that he seduced/kidnapped him to come help build Qin (Q15-16).

Sima Qian notes his victories, “Duke Mu of Qin broadened his territory and increased his state, in the east humbling the powerful Jin, in the west making himself the overlord of the Rong barbarians” (Q17b). Respect. But our narrator also faults him, as we discussed, for carrying away into death 177 ministers, some of whom would have been useful to his people (Q18t). This policy, as we discussed, was prohibited centuries later by a much more enlightened and cultured descendant, Duke Xian (Q22m). I hear in Sima Qian’s stern judgment a belief that a leader should first and foremost serve the needs of his people, as Emperor Shun and Emperor Yu, the flood-tamer, did. But he liked Duke Mu. I do, too.