Seventy-Five, Fifty-Nine, Thirty-Three: Shang Reigns in a Zhou Speech

Four numbers, two books. In the Shangshu's Wuyi the Duke of Zhou names three Shang kings and one Zhou king: 中宗 held his state 七十有五年, 高宗 五十有九年, 祖甲 三十有三年, and King Wen 五十年. The Shiji's Hereditary House of Lu quotes the same piece: seventy-five, thirty-three and fifty stand unchanged, and only Gaozong becomes 五十五年. The Wuyi then adds a run of short numbers: 或十年，或七八年，或五六年，或四三年 — ten years, seven or eight, five or six, three or four. Long numbers and short ones side by side are the piece's own arithmetic.

It matters who is speaking. Every paragraph of the Wuyi opens 周公曰; the page files it under the Zhou documents with the author given as 姬旦. The Shiji states the occasion plainly: 周公歸，恐成王壯，治有所淫佚，乃作多士，作毋逸……作此以誡成王 — the Duke of Zhou, fearing that King Cheng would grow up and govern with excess, composed these pieces to warn him. So this is a harangue. The Shang kings are examples, not a Shang archive; the dynasty label says whose reigns are being counted, not when the text was written.

One: one speech, four examples

Three Shang kings, each with a reason and a number. 昔在殷王中宗，嚴恭寅畏，天命自度，治民祗懼，不敢荒寧。肆中宗之享國，七十有五年 — Zhongzong was grave and reverent, measured himself by Heaven's command, governed in fear, and did not dare to idle; therefore seventy-five years. 其在高宗，時舊勞于外，爰暨小人。作其即位，乃或亮陰，三年不言；其惟不言，言乃雍。不敢荒寧，嘉靖殷邦……肆高宗之享國，五十有九年 — Gaozong had long laboured outside and lived among the common people; when he took the throne he kept silence three years, and when he spoke there was harmony; he did not dare to idle, and the Yin state was well ordered; therefore fifty-nine years. 其在祖甲，不義惟王，舊爲小人……能保惠于庶民，不敢侮鰥寡。肆祖甲之享國，三十有三年.

The fourth example is the Zhou audience's own ancestor: 文王卑服，即康功田功。徽柔懿恭，懷保小民，惠鮮于鰥寡。自朝至于日中昃，不遑暇食……文王不敢盤于遊田……文王受命惟中身，厥享國五十年 — King Wen wore humble clothes and worked at fields and dwellings, was gentle and respectful, protected the small people, and from morning to past noon could not find time to eat; he did not dare to take his ease in hunting. Fifty years. Three Shang kings and then a Zhou king: four different reasons, and every number falls at the end of the same kind of sentence.

Two: long and short, the piece's own argument

After the four long numbers comes the short list: 自時厥後，立王生則逸；生則逸，不知稼穡之艱難，不聞小人之勞，惟耽樂之從。自時厥後，亦罔或克壽，或十年，或七八年，或五六年，或四三年 — from then on, the kings who came to the throne were born to ease; born to ease, they did not know the hardship of field work nor hear of the common people's toil, and followed only their pleasures; from then on none reached old age — ten years, seven or eight, five or six, three or four. This is the piece's own line of argument: the men who would not idle lived long, the men born to ease died young. It is written out here as the text writes it, and not turned into a theory of diligent government.

The close gathers the four: 自殷王中宗，及高宗，及祖甲，及我周文王，兹四人迪哲 — Zhongzong, Gaozong, Zujia and our King Wen, these four were wise. That is the conclusion, and it is where the four numbers belong: not a king-list but the signature on four examples. The piece has other lines too — know the hardship of farming, the gentleman does not idle, do not be like the Yin king Shou who drowned in wine — and none of them is about the numbers; this article follows the numbers only.

Three: the other book's retelling

The Shiji's version begins with the occasion — 乃作多士，作毋逸 — and then quotes: 毋逸稱：『……昔在殷王中宗，嚴恭敬畏天命，自度治民，震懼不敢荒寧，故中宗饗國七十五年。其在高宗，久勞于外，爲與小人，作其即位，乃有亮闇，三年不言，言乃讙，不敢荒寧，密靖殷國，至于小大無怨，故高宗饗國五十五年。其在祖甲，不義惟王，久爲小人于外，知小人之依，能保施小民，不侮寡，故祖甲饗國三十三年。』 Then comes a 多士稱曰 passage, then 文王日中昃不暇食，饗國五十年, and then 作此以誡成王. Set the years side by side. Zhongzong seventy-five: the same in both. Zujia thirty-three: the same. King Wen fifty: the same. Gaozong alone differs — 五十有九年 in the Shangshu, 五十五年 in the Shiji, four years apart. Both are reported here and neither is chosen. The titles differ too: 無逸 in one book, 毋逸 in the other. And on the Shiji page the sentence about King Wen stands after 多士稱曰, so that page does not mark it as belonging to the 毋逸 quotation, while the Shangshu sets it in the Duke of Zhou's passage on the Zhou ancestors. Where the placing is unclear, this article leaves each page as it stands.

Four: small differences, and one word

Beyond the numbers, the wording differs: 嚴恭寅畏 against 嚴恭敬畏天命; 乃或亮陰 against 乃有亮闇; 言乃雍 against 言乃讙; 嘉靖殷邦 against 密靖殷國; 不敢侮鰥寡 against 不侮寡; 舊爲小人 against 久爲小人于外; 爰暨小人 against 爲與小人. On the character level the Shangshu page marks its 今古文 variants in brackets after the characters (依/隱, 否/丕, 或/有, 耽/湛, 卑/俾, 咸/諴, 正/政, 共/供, 迪/由); this article reports them and does not adjudicate.

Then there is the word itself. The two pages use 享國 and 饗國: 肆中宗之享國 in one, 故中宗饗國 in the other. It is a written phrase meaning that a man held his state for so many years; this article keeps 享國 as the text has it, does not rewrite it as the modern 'length of reign', and does not use it to compute anyone's age or dates. Whether these numbers are Western Zhou memory or later calculation is not said on either page, and this article does not judge.

Five: what the two pages give, and do not

• Not a Shang record. The Wuyi is a Zhou-period harangue by the Duke of Zhou to King Cheng, every paragraph opening 周公曰, filed among the Zhou documents with 姬旦 as author, and the Shiji states its purpose, 作此以誡成王. The Shang kings are examples; the dynasty label names the examples, not the date of the text.
• The years stand side by side without a verdict: seventy-five, thirty-three and fifty agree in both books; Gaozong is fifty-nine in the Shangshu and fifty-five in the Shiji, both reported, neither corrected, and no explanation invented for the gap.
• No judgement of reliability. Whether the numbers are Western Zhou memory or later reckoning, the pages do not say; the article writes only that this text says so, and compares the numbers with no other material at all.
• 享國 is kept as written (享國 in one book, 饗國 in the other) and glossed only as a written phrase; no conversion to modern reign lengths, no sums, and no dates for anyone.
• The argument is quoted as the piece makes it: those who did not dare to idle lived long, those born to ease died young. It is not turned into a theory of diligent rule, and not presented as what Shang people believed.
• Lines kept apart, and gaps left open: the succession disputes of the nine generations, the heavenly stems in royal names, and the ministers the Zhou remembered are other articles; this one counts years. Other kings' reigns, the identity of the ten- and seven-year kings, and where the numbers come from are not on either page.

What the pages leave is a set of numbers and one verdict: four men, four spans, and behind them a run of shorter and shorter figures; the two books differ in exactly one place — fifty-nine or fifty-five for Gaozong. The word is 享國, the tone is a warning, the examples are borrowed from Shang kings. That is what can be said; ask whether the numbers are true, and both pages fall silent.

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