POETRY, “THE METAL-BOUND COFFER,” AND THE DUKE OF ZHOU

Abstract

Abstract The two parts of this study concern the three extant versions of “The Metal-bound Coffer” (“Jin teng”): the two received texts in the Book of Documents and the Grand Scribe's Records and the newly recovered Warring States manuscript now at Tsinghua University in Beijing. The first part considers an uncontroversial detail shared by all three versions: the reference to a poem composed by the Duke of Zhou called “The Owl” (“Chixiao”). Cross-referencing “The Metal-bound Coffer” with a poem of the same title, now found in the Book of Odes, it is possible to explain not only the place of this poem in the overall narrative of “The Metal-bound Coffer,” but also the considerations of the poem's two ancient commentators, Mao and Zheng Xuan. In the second part of the study, the discussion turns to the three versions of “The Metal-bound Coffer,” looking in turn at three different passages. By positing a greater number of testimonies than the ones that happen to survive, I argue that a comparison of the extant versions reveals an effort by transmitters, commentators, and the re-teller Sima Qian to teach a single lesson: the Duke of Zhou occupied a subordinate place vis-à-vis the ruler, and must never undermine him in any way. 提要 現存三種《金縢》文本存在細微差異，關係重大。這些文本差異都涉及周公是忠是奸的問題，源自其亦臣亦君的微妙身分，具體表現有二：一是武王病危，周公以君王的身分為之禱祠﹔二是成王年幼，周公攝政，最終篡位或反政的抉擇。時代背景是商、周之際，周人的統治尚未穩固、禮儀規範尚未完備的交接，而這也構成王國維《殷周制度論》的討論對象。本論文著重討論戰國秦漢作者對周公的想像，通過三本《金縢》與當時關於周公的眾多傳聞軼事，探討周公的形象如何通過傳承、注釋與再述而逐漸被塑造 。