The Comparative Analysis Between The Part Ji Of Liu’s Commentaries Of History And The Chapter Of The Book Of Rites

Liu’s Commentaries of History and the Book of Rites play an important role in Chinese Classical Philology, which also important to the research about the Prime Minister of the state Qin. Liu’s Commentaries of History has a well-infinited texture including three parts. The first chapter is named Ji, which almost consistent with the chapter Yue Ling of the Book of Rites. It seemed to originate from the same author and the same age. Liu’s Commentaries of History was an ancient classic book compiled in 241 BC, while the Book of Rites has no clear time record. Thus cause arguments on the relationship between them.There are two main perspectives as following: To consider Yangkuan as the representative for the point of view that the part Ji of Liu’s Commentaries of History was copy from the chapter Yue Ling. This paper supports this view. To consider Zhengxuan, Luzhi, Gaoyou as the representative for the opposite viewpoint of that the chapter Yue Ling was copy from the part Ji. They pointed the official position, current affairs and so on of the chapter Yue Ling were not consistent with the Zhou Dynasty rulers. The same to say the chapter Yue Ling was copy from the part Ji. But the scholars had only made a brief overview of the differences between them which had no detailed arguments. In my reference, I will analyze the relationship between them by comparing the official position, animals, climate, calendar and geographical concept on the basis of predecessors’.There consist main differences in official position, animals, climate, calendar and geographical concept between the part Ji and the chapter Yue Ling.Therefore this paper focuses on analysis these differences to demonstrate the relationship between the part Ji and the chapter Yue Ling. Both of them had written more than forty species of official positions and the most controversy one is the Grand Commander. However the Grand Commander in chapter Yue Ling was responsibility for selecting talented person while in Qin Dynasty it was in charge of military force. They were differ from their functions. By comparing with the literature of pre-Qin period, there were includemany official positions such as Yousi, Situ, Taishi, Yanyin and so on. But there were no Taibu and Yanyin which recorded in part Ji. In terms of animals and climates, the animals of Houyan, Houniao and cold wind in part Ji was instead of Hongyan,warm wind and blind wind in chapter Yue Ling. While Houyan and Houniao were the product of the development of biotemperature and solar terms. And the Late-Summer which include Slight heat and Great heat was hot. At that time Yang was stronger than Yin and the biotemperature was sweltering and the soil was moisture. So we can named warm wind in the Late-Summer but not cold wind. The Mid-Autumn which include White dews and Autumn Equinox was cold. At that time Yin was stronger than Yang and the wind should be more colder than the cold wind in Autumn Equinox.So named it blind wind. Also both of them were beginning with Early-Spring and used lunnar calendar. While the idea that the chapter Yue Ling used Qin calendar because in the Late-Autumn exist “next year” and the calendar of Qin Dynasty was begin with October was wrong, because when Qin Dynasty used the calendar which was start with October, Lu Buwei had been death for fifteen years. In terms of the differences between the concept of “country” and “state”, it relate to the social organization. From Xia Shang and Zhou Dynasties to Spring and Autumn period, the political ideology still in the stage of tribes and the word “state” can be seen everywhere. Untill the Warring States perid, the word “state” was instead of the word“country”. Therefore, the word “state” in the chapter Yue Ling was before the age of the word “country” in the part Ji and preserved more original information. These provided another evidence for the fact that the part Ji was based on the chapter Yue Ling.This paper tries to make a brief generalization on the differences between the part Ji and the chapter Yue Ling. Through the above arguments, we can reach a conclusion of that the part Ji written by Lu Buwei and his followers was based on the chapter Yue Ling, and divided them into twelve parts which attached its government decrees and current affaris.