Consulting the Elder: Intertextuality in the “Lord Ai Asked” Confucian Dialogues

Abstract This article focuses on passages in which Confucius is portrayed in dialogue with Lord Ai of Lu (r. 494–468 bce ), found scattered throughout a range of early texts, most centrally in the Li ji , the Da Dai Li ji , and the Xunzi . Examining intertextual connections among these dialogues and related texts, both received and excavated, it seeks to adduce evidence to determine whether their particular shared narrative frame might be original and integral to the content of these texts, as well as to reveal their close links with other early Confucian texts that hold important implications for the dating of all these interrelated texts.