Rites of Zhou
| Rites of Zhou | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 周禮 | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 周礼 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Zhōu Lǐ |
| Wade–Giles | Chou1 Li3 |
| Hakka | |
| Romanization | Ziu Li |
| Yue: Cantonese | |
| Yale Romanization | Jāu Láih |
| Southern Min | |
| Hokkien POJ | Tsiu Lé |
The Rites of Zhou (Chinese: 周禮; pinyin: Zhōu lǐ), originally known as "Officers of Zhou" (周官; Zhouguan) is actually a work on bureaucracy and organizational theory. It was renamed by Liu Xin to differentiate it from a chapter in the Book of History by the same name.
Such purely administrative texts are usually referred to as Legalist, but the text's governmental model is one of co-governance, with the ruler's family holding in hand a particularly aristocratic-bureaucratic state, as opposed to the absolutist administration of Han Fei. To replace a lost work, it was included along with the Book of Rites and the Etiquette and Ceremonial – becoming one of three ancient ritual texts (the "Three Rites") listed among the classics of Confucianism.
The book appeared in the middle of the 2nd century BC, when it was found and included in the collection of Old Texts in the library of Prince Liu De (劉德; d. 130 BC), a younger brother of the Han emperor Wu. Its first editor was Liu Xin (c. 50 BC – AD 23), who credited it to the Duke of Zhou. Tradition since at least the Song dynasty continued this attribution, with the claim that Liu Xin's edition was the final one.
In the 12th century, it was given special recognition by being placed among the Five Classics as a substitute for the long-lost sixth work, the Classic of Music.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, following Kang Youwei, the book was often seen as a forgery by Liu Xin. Currently, a few holdouts continue to insist on a Western Zhou date while the majority follow Qian Mu and Gu Jiegang in assigning the work to about the 3rd century BC. Yu Yingshi argues for a date in the late Warring States period based on a comparison of titles in the text with extant bronze inscriptions and calendrical knowledge implicit in the work In this view, the word "Zhou" in the title refers not to the Western Zhou but to the royal State of Zhou of the Warring States; the small area still directly under the king's control.
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