Abstract
The Zhouli text has remained one of the most enigmatic yet important Chinese written works since its late-Western Han emergence. This study, instead of devoting attention to dating its individual components, basically analyzes it as a meticulously structured whole with remarkable internal coherence. Utilizing digital tools, I reveal its intricate combination of dichotomous and trichotomous frameworks, cross-referencing mechanisms, and use of repetition to create a tightly interwoven textual network. Zhouli presents an unprecedented degree of architectural design, making it probably one of the first Chinese works that can be called a "book." I argue that this sophistication points to compilation in the mid-to-late-Western Han, when written culture had matured enough to support such an ambitious textual design. Further-more, I contextualize it within the intellectual and political milieu of emperors Yuan and Cheng, a period marked by administrative and ritual reforms and the increasing integration of binary and ternary systems in philosophical thought. While Wang Mang and Liu Xin later appropriated Zhouli themes for their political agendas, I argue that the text is unlikely to have been their fabrication.
Keywords
Zhouli, textual structure, digital analysis, Western Han intellectual history, book culture
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