The Oath: One Sentence Written Down, Punished to the Great-Grandchildren

Of the covenant at Kuiqiu the Zuo Tradition keeps one sentence: 'In the autumn the lord of Qi covenanted the princes at Kuiqiu, saying: All of us in this covenant, once sworn, return to good relations' (秋，齊侯盟諸侯于葵丘，曰：凡我同盟之人，既盟之後，言歸于好). Barely a dozen characters. But the Mencius, in the Gaozi chapter, recalls the same meeting with five injunctions and a sentence about the rite. Two layers should be kept apart: the Zuo is year-by-year narrative, the Mencius is a Warring States retrospect and judgement; what the two books preserve is not the same, and they cannot be pieced into 'the text of the covenant'.

Kuiqiu: One Sentence

Duke Xi's ninth year: in summer they 'met at Kuiqiu, renewed the covenant and cultivated good relations — this was according to ritual' (會于葵丘，尋盟，且脩好，禮也); in autumn the covenant was sworn, with the sentence above. 尋盟 is generally taken as renewing an earlier covenant, marked here as the usual reading: a covenant was not sworn once and left, it was confirmed again. The same meeting has another scene: the royal envoy Zai Kong brings the lord of Qi sacrificial meat, with the king's words that 'since the elder uncle is aged, an extra grade of labour is granted: let him not bow'; the lord answers, 'Heaven's majesty is not a foot from your face — how dare I, Xiaobai, take the Son of Heaven's command and not bow?', and 'bowed below and received it above' (下拜登受). The covenant-master still bowed to the king's envoy.

The same meeting also preserved a contemporary's criticism. Zai Kong, leaving first, met the lord of Jin and said: 'You need not attend the meeting. The lord of Qi does not work at virtue but is busy with distant plans; that is why he campaigned north against the mountain Rong, south against Chu, and west to make this meeting' (齊侯不務德而勤遠略). That is Zai Kong's judgement of the meeting, not an institution.

What Mencius Adds: Five Injunctions

The Mencius gives one sentence of rite first: 'At the meeting of Kuiqiu the princes bound the victim and laid the written covenant on it, and did not smear blood' (葵丘之會，諸侯束牲載書而不歃血). 束牲載書 is generally understood as trussing the victim and laying the document on it; the page does not gloss it. That they did not smear blood is said specifically of Kuiqiu, and is presumably exceptional; only this one sentence is written here, and no cutting of ears, smearing of blood or burying of texts is added.

Then the five, as printed: the first injunction, 'punish the unfilial, do not change the heir, do not make a concubine a wife'; the second, 'honour the worthy, rear talent, to make bright the virtuous'; the third, 'respect the old, cherish the young, do not neglect guests and travellers'; the fourth, 'no hereditary office, no concurrent posts, choose men rightly, do not kill great officers at will'; the fifth, 'no crooked dykes, no blocking of grain, no enfeoffment without report'. Five fields of things: household and succession, honouring talent, the old and the young with passing guests, office and appointment and punishment, water and grain and grants of land. Mencius then gives the same closing sentence — 'all of us in this covenant, once sworn, return to good relations' — word for word as in the Zuo.

Jiantu: How a Curse Is Written

Duke Xi's twenty-eighth year. The duke of Wei 'asked for a covenant, and the men of Jin refused' — the refusal is recorded too. Then the covenant at the royal court: 'On the guihai day Prince Hu covenanted the princes at the royal court' (癸亥，王子虎盟諸侯于王庭) — presided over by Prince Hu, a son of the Zhou king, not by the lord of Jin. The substance is one sentence: 'all support the royal house, do no harm to one another' (皆獎王室，無相害也). Then the curse: 'Whoever breaks this covenant, may the bright spirits strike him! May his army be cast down, may he not enjoy his state, to the great-grandchildren, sparing neither old nor young!' (有渝此盟，明神殛之！俾隊其師，無克祚國，及其玄孫，無有老幼). Those are words inside the covenant, not a record of punishments that happened; the same passage adds that 'the gentleman called this covenant trustworthy, and said that Jin in this campaign could attack by virtue' — a historian's comment.

Wanpu has its own text, with a concrete setting: 'Ning Wuzi covenanted with the men of Wei at Wanpu' (甯武子與衛人盟于宛濮). The reason: 'Heaven has brought disaster on Wei, ruler and ministers were not in accord, and so came this trouble'; two questions: 'without those who stayed, who would guard the altars? without those who went, who would protect the pastures and stables?' Then the release and the curse: 'from today on, once sworn, those who went do not stake their strength, those who stayed do not fear blame. Whoever breaks this covenant, may it fall on him; the bright spirits and the former lords will correct and strike' (行者無保其力，居者無懼其罪……明神先君，是糾是殛) — the ancestors too are called as witnesses. The effect is one line: 'when the men of the state heard this covenant, they were no longer of two minds' (國人聞此盟也，而後不貳).

After the Breach: Who Acts

The oath calls on the spirits; the enforcement falls to men. The duke of Wei and Yuan Xuan 'went to law' — before the hegemon: 'Ning Wuzi acted as advocate, Zhen Zhuangzi as assessor, Shi Rong as chief judge. The duke did not win. Shi Rong was killed, Zhen Zhuangzi had his feet cut off, and Ning Yu was declared loyal and spared' (衛侯不勝。殺士榮，刖鍼莊子). Then: 'the duke was seized, taken back to the capital, and placed in the deep chamber' (執衛侯，歸之于京師，寘諸深室) — 深室 being presumably a place of confinement, since the page has no note. The men who acted were the men of Jin, not the bright spirits.

The sequence must be told in the text's own order and not compressed into 'the duke killed his brother'. The duke of Wei, hearing that the Chu army had been beaten, was afraid, fled to Chu and then to Chen, sending Yuan Xuan to support Shuwu in receiving the covenant; later 'someone brought a charge against Yuan Xuan to the duke of Wei: he has set up Shuwu'; his son Jiao was with the duke, and the duke had him killed; the duke then entered the city before the appointed time, Shuwu, about to wash his hair, 'caught up his hair and ran out', and was shot by the outriders; the duke 'laid the body on his thigh and wept over it', and had the killer She Quan executed; Yuan Xuan fled to Jin. So the order runs, and so it is printed.

What Neither Page Gives

No material form of a covenant document — size, material, jade tablets, burial — that belongs to another subject and is not used here. No counts of meetings or of participating states; no procedure of blood-smearing, ear-cutting or burying (the pages have only the one sentence that Kuiqiu did not smear blood); no conversion of Duke Xi's years into exact calendar dates; no modern framework of international law, treaty systems or hegemonic stability; no general account of a Spring and Autumn diplomatic order. The fighting at Chengpu belongs to another article; only the covenant after it is used.

One pairing should be kept: on Kuiqiu Zai Kong says the lord of Qi 'does not work at virtue but is busy with distant plans', while Mencius says 'the five lords are criminals against the three kings'; both are opinions, neither used as fact. What is written on the covenant is given to the spirits; when it comes to acting, a hegemon holds a court and the men of Jin make the arrest.

Related reading：One in Thirty: Land Tax in Han China · When Coins Ran Short: Small Coins and a Proposal to Abolish Money · The State's Bookshelf: Four Editors, Six Divisions, and a Grand Total