Guanzi Literature Review

The question of defining the origin and author of a massive philosophical work “Guanzi” has posed a problem for the researchers since ancient times and up to this day. It has been recognized for some time that “Guanzi” is likely to be attributed to the mythical scholar Guan Zhong (Ebrey, Walthall, & Palais, 2009) who lived during Chunqiu period (722 - 481 B.C.). However, recent discoveries prove that it is a compilation made by different authors during the Han dynasty (221–206 BC) almost two centuries later (Beck, 2007). Nowadays scholars have become increasingly interested in finding out the reason for creating this forgery.

Several studies, including recent ones have focused on the definition of a philosophical school the book of Guan Zhong belongs to (Rickett, 1985; Junjie, 2007). In

The aforementioned ancient philosophical book is traditionally attributed to the mythical scholar of Spring and Autumn period (722 - 481 B.C.) Guan Zhong (Maverick, 1954), and has been investigated by many researchers up to this day (Junjie, 2007; Malyavin, 2002; Spirin, 2006).

According to Loewe’s (2003) classification, the text can be defined as a “systematizing” work of pre-Han period (in contrast to “free” texts which usually contained more references to specific personalities and places). Throughout the recent literature (Spirin, 2006; Yingshi, 2014), it is now generally agreed that the author of the text can not be identified as legendary Guan Zhong himself, who lived in VIII-VII century B.C and was mentioned in many works of later period, such as “Lun yu” by Confucius and “Shi ji” by Sima Qian (Junjie, 2007; Goldin, 2011). However, in the vast body of related scholarship, an agreement regarding the time and circumstances of the creation of “Guanzi” has not been reached yet (Rickett,