What is the Tsinghua <i>*Rui Liangfu Bi</i> 芮良夫毖? Genre, Prosody, Theme, and Form in a Warring States Verse-album

Abstract The *Rui Liangfu bi , a previously unattested Warring States manuscript held by Tsinghua University, purports to record two admonitory songs that Rui Liangfu (fl. ninth century bce ) presented to King Li (r. 853/57–841 bce ) and his derelict ministers at court. The genre identity of the manuscript text is contested, owing in part to two similar texts, a shi -poem preserved in the Odes and a shu -document in the Yi Zhou shu, also traditionally interpreted as Rui Liangfu’s speech at the same event. Although none of the three texts share anything literatim with one another, they all rhyme and cleave closely to a well-known legend. Proceeding from complete translation of the manuscript text, I show that it diverges significantly from the canonical categories thus far used to classify it, with regard to both prosody and theme. Moreover, a structural analysis reveals that the manuscript’s paratextual encapsulation demonstrates an early precedent for the explicit, historical contextualization of songs that became pervasive in the Mao Odes . On the basis of structure, the manuscript can also be classed with a set of verse collections known only in manuscript form, save for one “forgery” preserved in the ancient-script Documents .