Ep. 336 | Guiguzi, The Sage of Ghost Valley

Written into the ancient histories were the big-name Warring States characters Su Qin, Zhang Yi, Sun Bin, and Pang Juan. Sima Qian and others remarked that these four men were all students of Guiguzi 鬼谷子. He's like a lot of figures from Bronze Age China. Guiguzi's name is mentioned in a few important texts. But that's about it. Just his name and the barest of details. Over the centuries, scholars put some flesh on those bones, but the truth remains, there's not much to sink our teeth into as far as Guiguzi the person is concerned. But the stories associated with Guiguzi are good ones and worth a re-telling. Su Qin and Zhang Yi's Vertical and Horizontal Strategies, and the story of Sun Bin, Pang Juan and Sun Bin's Art of War. The Guiguzi is considered China's first work of rhetoric. It's interesting to see how rhetoric developed in Warring States China at the exact same time as Plato and Aristotle in Greece. Somewhere along the way though, The Guiguzi became better known as a military treatise. Thanks everyone for listening.

Hui Wu’s “Guiguzi, China’s First Treatise on Rhetoric, A Critical Translation and Commentary.” Find it here

谋圣鬼谷子 Check out the Holy Guiguzi video

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