Abstract
This paper explains the relationship between chronologically early and late texts related to the early-Western Zhou rulers in the corpus of early Chinese scriptures（shu 書） assembled in Yi Zhou Shu逸周書（Neglected Zhou Scriptures） and Shang shu 尚書 (Venerated Scriptures). Taking inspiration from Hindy Najman's study of the Mosaic discourse in Second Temple Judaism, it focuses on chronologically late scriptures, regarding them as a normative discourse that took shape in the wake of a transition from“ritual to textual continuity”(Jan Assmann's notion) and developed over multiple generations. This development transformed the operation of cultural memory in early China: it changed the vision of its foundational past into one in which the authority of rulers was balanced by that of wise advisers.
Keywords
Yi Zhou shu, Shang shu, shu-type texts, cultural memory, Western Zhou sage-ruler discourse, Mosaic discourse, ritual continuity to textual continuity
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