Fu Yue Explained

Fu Yue ("Mentor Yue"^[1]), also known as Hou Que (侯雀; Hóu Què, "Lord Sparrow"), was an official who served as minister from Fuyan (present-day Pinglu County, Shanxi) under the king Wu Ding 武丁 of the Shang 商 dynasty, who reigned around – BCE. He has also been defined anachronistically a "premier."

Life

Fu Yue was originally a labourer, skilled at making walls for defence.^[2] Being unable to subscribe towards the repair of certain roads, he then worked upon them himself. According to the Records of the Historian,^[3] Wu Ding dreamt he would obtain a sage person named Yue 說, and dispatched his officials throughout his reign to find him according to the features seen in the dream, Fu Yue was discovered in a workshed and received the appointment. The life is also narrated in the voice of minister Bai Gong Zi Chang (白公子張) in the Guoyu.^[4]

At his death, it is said that he became the constellation known as the Sieve (G Scorpii), one of the twenty-eight constellations of the zodiac, which forms a part of Sagittarius.^{[5] [6]}

Textual sources

The Shangshu chapter "Yue ming" 說命 represents a dialogue between Wu Ding and Fu Yue; Yan Ruoqu 閻若璩 demonstrated that this chapter is one of the 25 that he believed were created by Mei Ze (Fl. 4th CE).^[7] These are known as the guwen 古文 chapters, often labelled as "forgeries."^[8] In 2012, a bamboo manuscript divided in three sections titled "Fu Yue zhi ming 傅說之命" (or, one may say, three distinct manuscripts bearing the same title; the title appears on the verso side of the last strip in each section) has been published in the third volume of the Tsinghua manuscripts collection.^[9] While initial claims were made that this represents the "real" (zhenzheng 真正) chapter "Yue ming" originally belonging to the Shangshu and later replaced by Mei Ze,^{[10] [11]} this seems unlikely for several reasons, among which:

• All the existing evidence points at the fact that the Shangshu became a stable collection around the end of the Western Han dynasty,^[12] and there is no evidence that a chapter named "Yue ming" existed until later;
• The Liji contains a total of 5 quotations from the "Yue ming", only one of which is found in slightly different wording in the Tsinghua "Fu Yue zhi ming." This must be taken into account in arguments supporting the idea that the Tsinghua manuscript is the "real" chapter.
• There are redundancies and discrepancies among the three sections if one were to read them as a single continuous text.^[13]

Notes and References

1. Theobald, Ulrich (2012) "Fu Yue 傅說" for ChinaKnowledge.de - An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History, Literature and Art
2. Book: Peterson, Barbara Bennett. Notable Women of China: Shang Dynasty to the Early Twentieth Century. 10 June 2012. 2000. M.E. Sharpe. 978-0-7656-0504-7. 15–.
3. Book: Shiji 史記. Zhonghua shuju. 1959. Beijing. 3.102.
4. Book: Guoyu ji jie 國語集解. Zhonghua Shuju 中華書局. 2002. 17.503–4.
5. Book: The Sacred Books of China, The Texts of Confucianism. 3. Public domain. 1879. The Clarendon Press. 364.
6. Book: Giles, Herbert Allen. A Chinese Biographical Dictionary. Public domain. 1898. Chʻeng-Wen Publishing Company. 240.
7. Book: Liu Qiyu 劉起釘. Shangshu Yuanliu Ji Zhuanbenkao 尚書源流及傳本考. Liaoning daxue chubanshe. 1997. 98–99.
8. Web site: Shangshu 尚書 or Exalted Documents. Database of Religious History, University of British Columbia.
9. Book: Qinghua daxue cang Zhanguo zhujian san 清華大學藏戰國竹簡[參]. Li Xueqin 李學勤, ed.. Zhong Xi shuju. 2012. Shanghai. 27–51 enlarged photographs; 121–31 transcription and notes.
10. Li Xueqin 李學勤.. 新整理清華簡六種概述. Wenwu 文物. 8. 66–74, page 68.
11. Liao Mingchun 廖名春. 2010. 清華簡與《尚書》研究. Wen Shi Zhe 文史哲. 6. 120–25, page 125.
12. Book: Early Chinese texts : a bibliographical guide. 1993. Society for the Study of Early China. Loewe, Michael.. 1-55729-043-1. [Berkeley, Calif.]. 376–389. 29356935.
13. Li Rui 李銳. 2013. "清华简《傅说之命》研究.". Shenzhen Daxue Xuebao. Shehui Kexueban. 深圳大学学报(人文社会科学版) Journal of Shenzhen University (Humanities & Social Sciences). 30. 6. 68–72.