Huang Sheng sung

Abstract

There are four major types of “fù” contained in “Zuo Zhuan”, “Guo Yu” and “Zhou Li”: The first type is weapons and military vehicles, and it is including military vehicles, weapons and equipment, horses, oxen, and bullock-carts (for heavy supplies).  In addition, it must be emphasized that weapons are not levied on civilians, but are uniformly produced and managed by the State.  According to “Zhou Li”, those who make weapons are officials such as “lún rén” and “yú rén”.  Their salaries are paid by the State with grains, and they have been worked for a long time and for generations to make weapons, so there is no such thing as private weapons.  The second type is the materials for producing weapons such as iron, bronze, tortoiseshells, pearls, ivories, animal skins, rhino skins, feathers, yak tails, and animal’s bones etc.  The third type is grain such as grass, hay and rice.  According to “Zhou Li”, there were officials managed grain, and the storage were always located beside the main roads in cities so that they could provide service for people to rest, eat and stay such as “lú”, “sù” and “shì”. Besides, according to the records in “Zuo Zhuan” and “Guo Yu”, it is known that there should be a large barn for storing grain.  The fourth type is personnel: it is including combatants and logistics personnel. There were three administrative systems- “xiāng”, “suì” and “cài dì” in “Zhou Li”. The systems “xiāng” and “suì” had the duty to send combatants and logistics personnel when the State launched a war.  Those high rank officials who had “cài dì” needed to provide “fù”; therefore, they sent their servants to the military of State as combatants and logistics personnel for dispatch.

Keywords: Zuo Zhuan, Guo Yu, Zhou Li, “fù”, Spring and Autumn Period