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Article
The Mician Ethical Chapters
Warring States Papers (2010)
  • A. Taeko Brooks, University of Massachusetts - Amherst
Abstract

The Mwo (MZ) consists of 71 numbered units, conventionally called chapters. The first 39 of these are on ethical or other doctrinal topics. Of them, 30 (MZ 8-37) are grouped in ten sets of three, which I will call triplets, each set having a collective title; 2 (MZ 38-39) form a duplet, also with a collective title; the other 7 (MZ 1-7) are individually titled singlets. Stylistic inconsistencies occur among and within triplets, in a pattern which suggests evolution over time. I here propose an order of composition of the triplets from this internal evidence, and extend that argument to the duplet and singlet chapters. I note the history of the Mician movement which this sequence implies, and compare it with contemporary evidence as a final test of the hypothesis, and as a way of providing the hypothesis with some approximate dates.

Disciplines
Publication Date
2010
Citation Information
A. Taeko Brooks. "The Mician Ethical Chapters" Warring States Papers Vol. 1 (2010)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/a_brooks/10/