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Chinese Literature
Tianqiuzi 田俅子 "Master Tian Qiu"


The Tianqiuzi 田俅子 "Master Tian Qiu" is a Mohist treatise written by the Warring States period 戰國 (5th cent.-221 BCE) philosopher Tian Qiu 田俅 (ca. 360-300) or Tian Jiu 田鳩, a native of the state of Qi 齊. The imperial bibliography Yiwenzhi 藝文志 in the official dynastic history Hanshu 漢書 says that the Tianqiuzi included 3 chapters that were compiled earlier than the legalist book Hanfeizi 韓非子. The Tianqiuzi was already lost during the Tang 唐 (618-907). The Qing period 清 (1644-1911) scholar Sun Yirang 孫詒讓 contradicted the categorization of the Tianqiuzi as a Mohist book because the author believed in omina and portents, which the more "scientific" Mohists basically renounced. Ma Guohan 馬國翰 has collected surviving fragments of the Tianqiuzi and published these in his reprint series Yuhan shanfang yiji shu 玉函山房輯佚書.

Source: Li Xueqin 李學勤, Lü Wenyu 呂文鬰 (1996). Siku da cidian 四庫大辭典, vol. 2, p. 1876. Changchun: Jilin daxue chubanshe.

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September 1, 2012 © Ulrich Theobald · Mail