In 2008, Tsinghua University of Beijing acquired a corpus of manuscripts written on bamboo slips from China’s Warring States period (c. 300 BCE) and established the Research and Conservation Center for Unearthed Texts directed by renowned scholar Li Xueqin 李學勤(1933–2019) to edit and publish them. A panel of experts convened to evaluate the manuscripts said of them:

These Warring States bamboo slips are tremendously valuable historical artifacts, whose contents speak to the very core of traditional Chinese culture. This is an unprecedented discovery, one which will inevitably attract the attention of scholars both here and abroad. It promises to have a lasting impact in many different disciplines, including but not limited to Chinese history, archaeology, paleography and philology.

The series Tsinghua University Warring States Bamboo Manuscripts: Studies and Translations, brings together a group of international scholars to study and translate the texts. Volume 3 is devoted to texts related to Tang, the first king of the Shang dynasty, and his minister Yi Yin.

General Preface I Huang Dekuan 黄德寬...............................................1

General Preface II Edward L. Shaughnessy.............................................8

Conventions....................................................................................................22

Introduction to Volume Three....................................................................27

Chapter One Chi jiu zhi ji Tang zhi wu 赤鳩之集湯之屋A Red Pigeon’s Alighting on Tang’s Hut....................................43

Chapter Two *Yin zhi 尹至*Yin’s Arrival...........................................69

Chapter Three *Yin gao 尹誥*Yin’s Announcement............................87

Chapter Four *Tang zai Chimen湯在啻門*Tang at the Gate of the Thearch...................................................................104

Chapter Five *Tang chu yu Tangqiu 湯處於湯丘*Tang Resided at Tang Hill......................................................................142

Chapter Six Yin Gaozong wen yu San Shou 殷高宗問於三壽The High Ancestor of Yin Asked the Three Long-Lived Ones.......................................................................................175

Appendix A Lüshi Chunqiu “Shen da”(Being Careful When the State Is Large)..............................................................223

Appendix B Lüshi Chunqiu “Ben wei”(Root of Flavors).................226

Appendix C Mozi “Gui yi”(Valuing Propriety)..................................232

Works Cited..................................................................................................235

Index of Proper Names..............................................................................254

Index of Text Titles.....................................................................................257

Images of the Manuscripts.........................................................................262