UNDERSTANDING EARLY CHINESE SCRIPTURES

This chapter proposes a new interpretation of ancient Chinese foundational texts known as the shū 書, which I translate as “scriptures.” These texts were understood as textual bequests created by the sage rulers of antiquity for future rulers. Despite being generically diverse, they were believed to have emanated from the same authority and therefore were treated with the same reverential attitude, a point that makes them comparable to the scriptures in Western religious traditions. After the establishment of centralized empires, the shū came to be seen increasingly as counterparts of the documents publicly disseminated by emperors; this role obscured their