Shizi 尸子

Shizi 尸子 "Master Shi" was a philosophical treatise attributed to a certain Shi Jiao 尸佼 (c. 390-330 BCE) from the state of Lu 魯 who lived during the early Warring States period 戰國 (5th cent.-221 BCE). He is said to have been a teacher to the legalist thinker and politician Shang Yang 商鞅 (390-338 BCE). After Shang Yang's death, Shi Jiao retired to Shu 蜀, the modern province of Sichuan.

The book attributed to him initially consisted of 20 chapters, of which 9 were already lost in the 3rd century CE, but experts managed to supplement the lost parts, although the content is supposably not identical to the original version. This makes the transmitted text less reliable. During the Song period 宋 (960-1279), only one single fascicle was left of the whole book. The collection Qunshu zhiyao 群書治要 contains 13 chapters of fragments. The versions available today include various thoughts that can be attributed to different "schools of thought". It is virtually impossible to tell which of the chapters contain original parts.

The philosophy of the Shizi was similar to that of the legalist master Li Kui 李悝 (455-395 BCE). Both masters renounced the idea to follow the "Way of the ancient kings" (of the Western Zhou period 西周, 11th cent.-770 BCE) and the ideas of Confucius. From the surviving fragments of the book Shizi, it can hardly be confirmed that the author was a legalist. The book discusses general terms of social philosophy, like the "Way" and its power of virtue (dao de 道德), and also the Confucian moral principles of benevolence and righteousness (ren yi 仁義).

During the Qing period 清 (1644-1911), several scholars studied the Shizi fragments. The following editions of Shizi collections are available: Ren Zhaolin's 任兆麟 (1780s) Xinzhai shi zhong 心齋十種 includes a collection by Hui Dong 惠棟 (1697-1758), with supplements by Ren Zhaolin; Pingjinguan congshu 平津館叢書 by Zhang Zongyuan 章宗源 (1751-1800), supplemented by Sun Xingyan 孫星衍 (1753-1818); the Wenjingtang congshu 問經堂叢書 edition, the Huhailou congshu 湖海樓叢書 by Wang Jipei 汪繼培 (b. 1775), and the version in the series Ershi'erzi 二十二子.