Dates uncertain · Literary Speaker

Lord No-such-person 亡是公

Wúshì gōng

Attested BC 179 - BC 117

Passages: 4
Chapters: 1
Histories: 1

Overview

Lord No-such-person was a Literary Speaker.

Life and dates

Attested activity

BC 179 to BC 117 composition context: Sima Xiangru's lifetime
Strongly inferred · Book of Han 66, passages 43, 49

Works and attributed material

Speech · Speaker · Direct quotation · Within Work 子虛賦
Directly stated · Book of Han 66, passages 116-188

Source notes

Historicity literary
Directly stated · Book of Han 66, passages 43-44

References in the histories

Book of Han, Chapter 66Volume 57a: Sima Xiangru · 4 passages

「亡是公」者，亡是人也，欲明天子之義。 and that “Lord No-such-person” signified no such man at all—figures meant to expound the Son of Heaven’s true standard.

田罷，子虛過奼烏有先生，亡是公存焉。 When the hunt broke up, Sir Vacuity called on Mr. Nonexistence—Lord No-such-person was there too. (The received text is damaged at one character.)

亡是公聽然而笑曰：「楚則失矣，而齊亦未為得也。 Lord No-such-person laughed aloud and said, “Chu was in the wrong—but Qi fares no better.

亡是公言上林廣大，山谷水泉萬物，及子虛言雲夢所有甚眾，侈靡多過其實，且非義理所止，故刪取其要，歸正道而論之。 Lord No-such-person’s description of Shanglin and Sir Vacuity’s catalogue of Cloud Dream swell beyond fact and stray from moral purpose; the historian has therefore trimmed them to essentials and set the discourse back on the proper path.