Week 2

 

    Tuesday - Q165b. The grand scribe concludes the biography of Lu Buwei noting that Confucius might consider Lu Buwei a “man of fame,” someone who merely has a good reputation. How is this demonstrated in Sima Qian’s account? We see this at Q160b when Lu Buwei pretends to be wealthy to gain access to and persuade Lady Huayang to adopt Zichu and make him the crown prince. Part of this manipulation includes Lu Buwei’s work spreading (unfounded) rumors that Zichu is ‘virtuous and wise.’ Lu Buwei is maneuvering solely for his own enrichment, without concern on with whether Zichu really has the right qualities to become king. He also understands how to manipulate others who are, like him, concerned with reputation and appearances. His parlay is effective because Zichu and Lady Huayang are also interested in improving their own personal situations. He does indeed seem to have mastery over mere appearances. 

    And then there is the Lao Ai episode. It is striking how this scandal is rendered in The Biography of Lu Buwei than in The Basic Annals of the First Emperor of Qin. In the telling in the former (Q163b), the story is sordid, amounting to gossip that puts Lu Buwei in an unflattering light. In contrast, in the first emperor’s story, the story is flattened out, and doesn’t include the underlying intrigues that led to an attempted revolt (Q37m). Lu Buwei is called ‘unprincipled’, but we really do not know the extent of his lack of principles (Q39m). 

     Why does Sima Qian include so much sordid detail in Lu Buwei’s own story? It certainly leaves a historical record that is not flattering to Lu Buwei, which is ironic given Lu Buwei’s talent for tending to his reputation for most of his life. The account shows the extreme contradiction between the reputation that Lu Buwei hoped to cultivate and the truth of how he conducted his life. Perhaps Sima Qian accounts for his life this way to illustrate the importance of sincerity and cultivating true goodness in one’s self, rather than just trying to appear good? The truth will come out eventually.   


    Thursday - Q46t: In an odd moment, the first Qin emperor decided to enfeoff a tree. Why? What is Sima Qian saying by including this brief anecdote? Without knowing anything else about the first emperor, it stands alone as a humorous thing to do. A tree holding an official position in the realm of human politics is silly. But, is it silly because the tree can’t really do the job? Or because considering the tree’s existence highlights how ridiculous human power struggles are? 

     The tree enfeoffing occurs in the first emperor’s 28th year, while on one of his many tours of his empire. He seems to honor the tree with this as a reward for providing him protection during a storm. A tree as ruler of a fiefdom isn’t completely unreasonable, in a way. A tree can effectively mark a territory because it does not move. While it serves as an official, it can provide protection to those near to it, as it did for the emperor by protecting him from a storm. 

     This occurred roughly two years after he established himself as the ‘first emperor,’ not too long after he has set forth how the empire will be run. He has moved away from the feudal system that had been in place until his reign, and his empire is now organized into provinces with appointed governors rather than feudal states (Q44b). At the top of a mountain on his journey, is he nostalgic for the feudal system? Or is he noting that trees, unlike people, are of such a nature that they can be trusted as feudal leaders? 

     Or is this anecdote showing us the emperor’s emerging view of himself as the only being who really exists or counts? In Jai Yi’s account (Q77m), the first emperor “trusted his own judgment, never consulting others, and hence his errors were uncorrected.” For the emperor, is a tree the one counsellor who he can trust? In the stone inscriptions that the emperor erects in praise of himself, he repeatedly states he is the single will for all in the kingdom (Q47m; Q51t; Q61t). Since all should obey his one will, then they must give up their selfhood. Only a tree could be a loyal servant in this system!

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