Cited by 1Chinese history and philosophyClassical Studies and PhilologyPhilosophy, History, and Historiography

The DOI matches its Crossref record, with a small difference in title or year; 3 of the 3 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 31 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.

What If Zhào Dùn Had Fled?: Border Crossing and Flight into Exile in Early China

Open access
Van Auken, Newell Ann·2021·Journal of the American Oriental Society

Abstract

According to the Zuǒ zhuàn, in 607 BCE Zhào Chuān murdered Lord Líng of Jìn, but the Spring and Autumn ascribes the assassination to Zhào Dùn, senior member of the Zhào lineage and chief minister of Jìn. Remarks attributed to Confucius defend the ascription to Zhào Dùn, stating that had he fled across the border, he would have avoided blame. That Zhào Dùn was assigned responsibility for a crime he did not commit has been a source of much discussion and has been described as “false” or “inaccurate.” An overview of flights into exile (bēn 奔) in Spring and Autumn-period China indicates that although flight sometimes provided a practical mechanism for escaping difficulties, crossing the border without official sanction had substantial political and religious ramifications, including loss of position in the ancestral temple. Confucius's remark may be understood as framing Zhào Dùn's failure to flee across the border in terms of ritual or legal rules, implying that crossing the border would have removed him from a position of responsibility. Later versions of the story do not mention border crossing, focusing instead on moral responsibility, and their explanations of why blame was assigned to Zhào Dùn were attempts to rationalize recording practices that were based on earlier, Spring and Autumn-period norms, which no longer made sense in later times.

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.7817/jameroriesoci.139.3.0569

Cites

3 of 3 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

72 Own interpretation · 38 No basis given · 30 Sources not found · 24 Own result · 7 Not checked yet

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 96
  • The quote only partly states this claim. 3
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 27
112 of 112
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    Similar recording rules applied to the Jìn records as to the Spring and Autumn.

    “Assuming that similar rules applied to the Jìn records”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Crossing the border without completing proper ceremonies or receiving official sanction caused loss of ministerial position and lineage position, and released Zhào Dùn from the obligation to punish the assassin.

    “Had Zhào Dùn fled across the border, that is, if he had violated formal ritual rules and had crossed the border without completing the proper ceremonies or receiving official sanction, he would have lost his ministerial position and would in turn have been absolved of the responsibilities associated with that position .”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The formal rules that led Dǒng Hú to identify Zhào Dùn as Lord Líng's assassin would not have applied to Zhào Dùn if he had crossed the border.

    “If Zhào Dùn had crossed the border, perhaps the formal rules that resulted in scribe Dǒng Hú identifying him as Lord Líng's assassin would not have applied to his case .”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    The link between crossing the border and loss of position belonged to a Spring and Autumn-period ritual system that was no longer fully understood when Gōngyáng and Gǔliáng were written down.

    “Presumably the connection between crossing the border and loss of position was part of a system of formal ritual practices that pertained to the multistate system of the Spring and Autumn period, but this system was no longer fully understood by the time Gōngyáng and Gǔliáng were written down .”
4 of 4

Citations

Cites

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Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. A Gǔliáng remark on a similar case (mentioned in n . 50 above) implies rejection but without explicitly mentioning going abroad, stating, "it does not say 'nobleman' because they loathed him" 不言「大夫」,惡之也; Gǔliáng, Xiāng 30, 16 .15b; citations of Gǔliáng refer to Chūnqiū Gǔliáng zhuàn Fàn shì jíjiě 春秋穀梁傳范氏集 解, comm . Fàn Níng 范甯 (339-401), SBBY . 53 . These five cases are CQ, Yǐn 4 .6, 35; Zhuāng 9 .6, 178; Xiāng 30 .7, 1169; and Āi 14 .14, 1681, plus Xiāng 23 .12, 1072 (translated above) . Zhuāng 9 .1, 177 also uses this pattern, but it is uncertain whether the victim had left the state . In a previous publication, I proposed a link between the omission of the phrase "their nobleman" and diachronic changes in Spring and Autumn recording practices, but I was wrong; Van Auken, "Could 'Subtle Words' Have Conveyed 'Praise and Blame'? The Implications of Formal Regularity and Variation in Spring and Autumn (Chūn qiū) Records," Early China 31 (2007): 102 .
  2. Zuǒ, Xuān 2, 663 also refers to Zhào Dùn's support in establishing Lord Líng's successor . 59 . Shǐ jì 39 .1675; for a different version, see Shǐ jì 43 .1782-83, which ascribes to the Gentleman (jūnzǐ 君子) words that are elsewhere spoken by the scribe, and omits Confucius's response, resulting in a tone more critical of Zhào Dùn . For a discussion comparing the Shǐ jì versions to the Zuǒ account, see Dorothee Schaab-Hanke, "The Junzi Prior to Confucius in the Shiji," paper presented at the 17th conference of the Warring States Group, Leiden, September 17-18, 2003; www .schaab-hanke .de/vortraege/Schaab-Hanke_WSWG17-paper .pdf, last accessed April 25, 2019;

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Metadata

Authors
Van Auken, N. A.
Venue
Journal of the American Oriental Society
Published
2021-09-19
Volume
139
Issue
3
ISSN
  • 0003-0279 (ISSN-L)
  • 2169-2289
OpenAlex
W2986761147
Cited by
1
References
3
Citations by year
2021: 1
FWCI
3.46
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
Journal of the American Oriental Society (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Chinese history and philosophy
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Classical Studies and Philology
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Philosophy, History, and Historiography
Keywords
Zuo Zhuan, Spring and Autumn period, Confucius, Ben, border crossing, ancestral temple, moral responsibility, textual transmission, Jin state

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