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Concept
Wenzi
Summary
The Wenzi () is a Daoist classic allegedly written by a disciple of Laozi. The text was widely read and highly revered in the centuries following its creation, and even canonized as Tongxuan zhenjing () in the year 742 CE. However, soon afterwards scholars started questioning its authenticity and dismissing it as a forgery that was created between the Han dynasty and the Tang dynasty. The text's fate changed in 1973, when archeologists excavated a 55 BCE tomb and discovered remnants of a Wenzi copied on bamboo strips, which offer us a glimpse of what the text looked like prior to its drastic revision into the current text.
The title Wenzi 文子 "Master Wen", suffixed with -zi 子 "child; person; master (title of respect)", is analogous with other Hundred Schools of Thought texts like Mozi, Zhuangzi, Guiguzi, and Baopuzi. Wen 文 "written character; literature; refinement; culture" is an infrequent Chinese surname, and hence Wenzi is interpretable as "Master Wen." Wen is also frequently used in given names, posthumous names, et cetera, due to its positive connotations. For example, King Wen of Zhou 周文王 or Kong Wenzi 孔文子 (Analects 5.15). Hence, Wenzi is also interpretable as a nom de plume denoting "Master of Literature/Culture." Nothing can be said for certain about Wenzi, no matter how this name is interpreted. Although we do not know his true identity, various hypotheses have been proposed.
The bibliographical section of the 1st century CE Book of Han says Wenzi was a student of Laozi, a contemporary of Confucius 孔子 (551-479 BCE), and an adviser to King Ping of Zhou 周平王 (r. 770-720 BCE). This cannot be true, as King Ping and Confucius lived two centuries apart, and it fueled suspicion of the text's forged status in later centuries. To solve the chronological inconsistency, some commentators suggest a mistake for King Ping of Chu 楚平王 (r. 528-516 BCE), whose reign does coincide with Confucius' lifetime.
The early Wenzi commentary by Li Xian 李暹 (fl. 516 CE) records that Wenzi's surname was Xin 辛 and his sobriquet (hao 號) was Jiran 計然, he served under Fan Li 范蠡 (fl.
Official source
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