On the Meaning of shi 事 in Han Historiography
On the Meaning of shi 事 in Han Historiography
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论汉代史学中“是”的意义
DOI：
10.1163/15685322-10701005
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发表时间：
2021
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Paul Fahr
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Paul Fahr
This research note addresses the meaning of a highly familiar word: shi 事. This word, as a noun, is commonly translated as “matter,”“affair,” and the like. As such it is amply attested in early imperial sources, especially in the context of bureaucratic procedure. In Shiji 史記 or Hanshu 漢書, eg, we frequently read that some official “handed a matter upwards”(shang shi 上事) or “memorialized a matter”(zou shi 奏事), as we generally translate these phrases. According to this interpretation, shi refers to something immaterial, like the word “affair” in English: you may be “in charge of” them (cf. zhi shi 執事), but you certainly cannot “touch” or “smell” some shi or store it on a shelf. There is one usage of shi, however, which is well known but seemingly defies such understanding, namely, shi as part of the compound gushi 故事, commonly translated as “precedent.” Scholars have already pointed out that this expression not only denotes certain well-established conventions in early imperial government but could refer to official documents as well. 1 These documents recorded cases of precedent and functioned as reference material in certain offices. In other words, the expression gushi seems to have undergone a semantic change from “affairs considered as precedent” to “texts documenting affairs considered as precedent.” Given this evidence, we may wonder: which component of gushi causes this conceptual extension? And what exactly do we mean by “text”: A certain wording? A material artifact? Or something else? It is in light of these questions that we need to take a closer look at the meaning of shi.