ABSTRACT
The recently published second volume of Shanghai bamboo slips contains many essays that concern the question of pre-Qin political philosophy. Five essays, Min Zhi Fu Mu (民之父母), Zi Gao (子羔), Lu Bang Da Han (鲁邦大旱), and two sections of Cong Zheng从政 all present Confucian political thought. There is only one essay, namely, Rong Cheng Shi (容成氏), whose tendency in political thought is very complicated; it is very difficult to tell at first glance whether it belongs to Confucianism, Mohism, or another school. From the facts that (1) it attaches high value to the worthies but not to blood relationship; (2) it does not advocate universal love (jian ai, 兼爱), and (3) it highly values the idealized description of government by the kings or emperors of remote antiquity, it might be a work of the pre-Qin Eclectic School (za jia, 杂家). This chapter discusses in five aspects the characteristics of political thought in Rong Cheng Shi and the problem of its attribution, namely, to which school it belongs.
