SQ Confucius

 

Sima Qian’s biography of Bo Yi and Shu Qi [Shiji 61] is interesting in that it is not actually about Bo Yi and Shu Qi.  It is a critique of Confucius, a commentary about Sima Qian’s own work compared to that of the sage, and the construction and transmission of knowledge.

In the historian’s biography [Shiji 130], Sima Qian says this about The Spring and Autumn Annals:  Confucius “made a critical judgment of the rights and wrongs of . . . 242 years in order to provide a standard … for the world,” and he did so by “illustrating them through the depth and clarity of actual events.” [50-51].  Were the sage’s methods in fact any different from what Sima Qian did in his history, though he modestly said his work were merely transmission, not sagely critical distillations, of past records [54].  And then he notes that why he wrote were not different from previous writers, including Confucius: they were all moved by the “rankling in their hearts” to write about past affairs in order to pass on their thoughts to future ages [54].  Sima Qian, with his own deep thoughts in the midst of his own misfortunes, did the same [55]. 

Sima Qian then offers up a critique of the Master’s work in the Bo Yi and Shu Qi chapter [Shiji 61].  Confucius said since the brothers acted virtuously, they had no rancor [12t].  Yet Bo Yi’s song struck Sima Qian as being filled with rancor, a lament that with no great men left to follow, they had reached the end with nothing left [13m].  If the “sage arises and all creation becomes clear”? [14b], but nevertheless his words are inaccurate, then were the words of the sage worth more than that of an ordinary scholar writing his life’s work?  Apparently yes, for Bo Yi and Shu Qi are remembered because Confucius transmitted their virtue, even if perhaps inaccurately, while generations of other worthies are not remembered [12t, 15t].  I think Sima Qian was thinking about himself when he lamented that as a humble man striving to perfect his work, it was unlikely his life and work would be handed down to posterity without the lucky intervention of a Confucius, a “man of the blue clouds.” [15]

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