Autor: 黃甯 (Ning Huang)

在两册上博简中，《灵王遂申》（上博九）与《申公臣灵王》（上博六）分别记录了楚国霸业的两种运行逻辑：一篇在外——以掠夺构筑“共犯同盟”；一篇在内——以机锋化解“宫廷危局”。《灵王遂申》揭露了霸主如何命令附庸国“室出取器”，以制度化的分赃完成集体绑架；《申公臣灵王》则展现陈公如何以言辞为刃，在楚王的试探与权谋中化险为夷。两篇竹简隔册而呼应，形成一部楚式“权力学原典”：当力量成为唯一的秩序，智慧，便是唯一的生存。In two volumes of the Shanghai Museum bamboo manuscripts, Ling Wang Sui Shen (Vol. 9) and Shen Gong Chen Ling Wang (Vol. 6) record two distinct logics of Chu hegemony: one outward—building a “coalition of accomplices” through orchestrated plunder; the other inward—resolving palace crises through verbal finesse and political intelligence. Ling Wang Sui Shen exposes how the hegemon commanded vassal states to “send out each household to take spoils,” turning shared crime into institutional loyalty. Shen Gong Chen Ling Wang reveals how Lord Chen used language as his blade, turning the king’s tests and suspicion into an occasion for survival. Together they form an archetype of the “Chu-style order of power”: when might becomes the only order, wisdom becomes the only way to live.

在距今两千六百多年前的楚国，一场“招聘面试”决定了国家的命运。这篇出自上海博物馆藏战国楚简第九册的《成王為城濮之行》，记录了楚成王出征前选将的全过程： 一位是高压执行的“绩效狂人”，一位是宽柔治军的“团队教练”。成王看清了人性，却依然做出错误的选择。这场古代的“人事决策”，预言了城濮之败，也折射出千年未解的管理难题——制度与人性，理性与柔性，KPI与OKR，究竟谁能带领团队穿越险境？ 在竹简的光影之间，我们听见的不只是战争的前奏，更是文明对“判断”的试炼。Over 2,600 years ago in the State of Chu, a recruitment interview determined the fate of an empire. The bamboo manuscript Cheng-king’s March to Chengpu (Shanghai Museum Vol. IX) records how King Cheng faced a choice before war: one commander ruled by fear and performance metrics, another by trust and rhythm. The king saw human nature clearly, yet still chose wrong. This ancient HR dilemma foretold the defeat at Chengpu—and reveals a timeless question: Between system and humanity, control and compassion, KPI and OKR, which truly sustains a civilization? In the soft gleam of bamboo slips, war becomes a mirror for judgment itself.

这一篇记录了楚平王晚年的两场“失败对话”，资料来自上博六《平王与王子木》与《平王问郑寿》。一场发生在田埂之上，一场发生在朝堂之中。太子王子木不识五谷，揭开了教育失根的裂缝；大夫郑寿直言犯上，撞上了王权拒谏的冰墙。两场细微的语言事故，最终在竹简上成为楚国崩塌前的系统日志。This essay records two “failed dialogues” from the late years of King Ping of Chu, drawn from Shanghai Museum Chu Slips VI — Ping Wang and Prince Mu and Ping Wang Questions Zheng Shou. One took place on a field path, the other in the royal court. The crown prince’s inability to recognize a hemp plant exposed a fracture at the root of royal education; Minister Zheng Shou’s frank admonition collided with the icy wall of royal arrogance. These two seemingly minor linguistic incidents were inscribed on bamboo slips as the system log preceding the collapse of Chu.

公元前433年，楚国曾侯乙随葬的240枚竹简—记载车马、甲胄、弓矢与官员职责的精密系统—呈现出战国贵族用文字、编号与命名经营世界的方式。这不是遗物清单，而是一套活着的“王族操作系统”：207匹马的配置、三人一车的模块、楚甲与吴甲的分工、赗赠车马的往来，都在竹简上形成一条清晰的秩序脉络。与墓中震世的编钟青铜相比，这些沉默的竹简展现的是另一种深情——在理性中安放生活，在条理中守护王国。本文带你走入这套系统美学，理解一个战国王族未曾言说的温柔与责任。Dating to 433 BCE, the 240 bamboo slips buried with Marquis Yi of Zeng document not just lists of chariots, armor, and horses—but an entire “royal operating system” built on names, numbers, and protocols. With 207 horses named and assigned, three-man chariot modules configured, Chu and Wu armor categorized, and funerary transport detailed, these slips form a living blueprint of order. In contrast to the tomb’s stunning bronze bells, the bamboo slips whisper a quieter truth: that true nobility lies not only in grandeur, but in the tender logic of caring for a kingdom. This essay explores the system aesthetics behind a Warring States royal’s unspoken devotion.

1994年河南新蔡葛陵楚墓出土楚简一千五百余枚，以楚文字书写卜筮祷辞和谒神祭语，为研究楚国在淮河流域的礼制与信仰提供了珍贵资料。简文记录楚国封君平夜君成的疾病占卜与祈祷，涉及“背膺疾”“逾取禀”等贞问，兼具医卜、军事与祭祀内容。它揭示了楚国贵族在身体、家国与命运之间的纠缠，也呈现出一种以疾病为核心的权力逻辑——身体成为国家的缩影，卜筮成为政治的语言。Unearthed in 1994 from the Chu tomb of Geling in Xincai, Henan Province, more than 1,500 bamboo slips inscribed with Chu script preserve oracular texts and ritual invocations, offering vital evidence of Chu culture in the Huai River region. Among them are records of Lord Pingye’s divinations concerning illness and fate, featuring entries such as “back and chest ailments” and “crossing the border to fetch supplies.” These slips reveal how Chu aristocrats entwined the body with the state and destiny—transforming illness into a political metaphor and divination into the language of power.

《司岁》出自《清华大学藏战国竹简》第十辑，是战国楚系文献中关于时间制度最完整的篇章。它以“岁”为核心，记录岁首行令、祭祀节序与政务节拍，展示楚国如何以天象、节令与行政相互对应，建立自有的时间管理系统。在楚人的思想中，时间不是流逝，而是循环：星辰运转，节气递更，政令复始。这是楚文明的“时间算法”——当时间被立法，文明开始自我运转。Si Sui, included in the tenth volume of the Tsinghua University Collection of Warring States Bamboo Slips, is the most systematic Chu-state text on temporal governance. Centered on the concept of “sui” (the year), it records royal decrees, sacrificial schedules, and administrative rhythms that align politics with the heavens and seasons. For the Chu people, time was not linear but cyclic—the stars moved, the rites returned, and order renewed itself. This was the time algorithm of Chu civilization: once time became law, the world began to operate on its own rhythm.

上海博物馆藏战国楚竹书于1994年由香港文物市场购入，并经香港收藏人士捐赠入藏，全批约一千七百枚、三万五千余字。竹简以楚系文字书写，内容涵盖儒家、道家、兵家等八十余种先秦古籍。其中的《柬大王泊旱》记录了一位楚王在旱灾与不确定中思考治理的篇章。内容涉及卜筮、水利、政务与德性反思，展现出战国晚期理性与礼制并行的治国智慧。它们不是权力的遗物，而是文明在危机中学习如何抉择与秩序共存的文本。The Shanghai Museum’s collection of Warring States Chu bamboo slips, acquired in 1994 from the Hong Kong antiquities market and later donated by local collectors, contains about 1,700 slips with more than 35,000 characters. Written in the Chu script, they include over eighty pre-Qin texts from the Confucian, Daoist, and military traditions. Among them, King Jian’s Drought Crisis records a Chu ruler’s reflections on governance amid drought and uncertainty—covering divination, hydraulics, statecraft, and moral reasoning. These slips embody the coexistence of reason and ritual in the late Warring States, not relics of power but living documents of how a civilization learned to balance choice and order in times of crisis.

湖北荆门沙洋，一座无战争痕迹的墓室中，出土六百五十余枚竹简。 没有征伐的篇章，只有一位将军的身后记录：祭祷、问病、物品账目——皆以墨书朱印，静静封存。他是楚国大司马悼滑。这些竹简所写的，不是战功，而是一个人在职责、病痛与告别中的生命痕迹。它们不是遗物，而是秩序与人生交织过的证据。In a quiet tomb in Shayang, Jingmen, Hubei, over 650 bamboo slips were unearthed—no tales of war, but the final records of a high-ranking general: ritual petitions, medical inquiries, and personal inventories, inked and sealed in red. His name was Da Sima Dao Hua. These slips speak not of conquest, but of one man’s final journey through duty, illness, and departure. They are not relics, but the trace of how order and life once intertwined.