Introduction
While allusions per se are, of course, legion in the text of the Shiji (“The Scribe’s Record”), a comprehensive historiographical work finalized around 86 bce, the case example to be adduced here seems to be of particular interest in the context of the focus on “rhetoric as a political tool.” As will be argued, the use of this allusion reveals much about the attitude of the Shiji’s two authors, or at least of one of them, towards Emperor Wu (r. 141-87), the emperor under which Sima Tan (?-110) and his son, Sima Qian (ca 145-ca 86), served successively in the position of “Director the Grand Scribe” (taishi ling).
All five passages where that allusion occurs have in common that they refer to one specific passage of the Gongyang zhuan, one of the three earliest transmitted texts commenting or, to put it more precisely, interpreting the “Spring and Autumn” Annals (Chunqiu), a terse chronicle of the state of Lu, spanning the years from 722 to 481, the so-called Spring and Autu...
