Authorship

There has been much speculation about the identity of the writer of Guiguzi: the origin of his name (literally 'The Sage of Ghost Valley') and the authenticity of the work as a whole. While there has been no final outcome to this discussion, Chinese scholars believe that the compilation reflects a genuine corpus of Warring States period writings on political lobbying. While most writers doubt the assertion that the Guiguzi was written by a single personality, the Records of the Grand Historian do refer to a Guigu Xiansheng (鬼谷先生, i.e., Mr. Guigu) who taught persuaders Su Qin and Zhang Yi. Thus, this Guigu is traditionally considered the founder of the School of Diplomacy (縱橫家; ), a school of thought which was particularly interested in rhetoric. Guigu Xiansheng is also said to have taught famous Warring States generals Sun Bin and Pang Juan. The association of the name Wang Xu (王詡) is not generally held to be supported. Whereas books I and II are attributed to the same author, Book III is likely an addition by a later author. There is no material in the text to support the view held by some that Guiguzi is a book on military tactics.

Contents

Guiguzi comprises three books, with chapters on different strategies of observation and persuasion.

Translations

There have been translations of Guiguzi into modern Chinese, German, English, and Russian (see below). Almost all modern annotated texts and western translations rely heavily on the explanations of the texts attributed to the Eastern Jin scholar Tao Hongjing.

考證

《鬼谷子》長期被疑為偽作。《漢書·藝文志》中有《蘇子》三十一篇而不錄著《鬼谷子》。《鬼谷子》一書始著錄於《隋書》，並稱為周代鬼谷先生撰。最早懷疑《鬼谷子》是偽作的是唐代柳宗元的說法：「無鬼谷子，鬼谷子後出。」但《太史公自序》有「故曰：聖人不朽，時變之守」之語，出自《鬼谷子》，可知是書存于西漢之前。司馬遷本人可能曾經見到《揣》、《摩》兩篇。梁劉勰《文心雕龍》有提及《轉丸》、《飛鉗》之說。《鬼谷子》這書學界有兩派觀點，一種觀點認為此書為戰國鬼谷子所著，另一種觀點認為此書是先秦諸子所著。一說《鬼谷子》為蘇秦所做，新舊《唐書》皆以為蘇秦撰，《鬼谷子》乃蘇秦作偽的說法由來已久，最早見於唐司馬貞《史記索隱》注引隋人樂壹的觀點。《史記‧蘇秦列傳》「習之於鬼谷先生」樂壹注《鬼谷子》云：「蘇秦欲神秘其道，故假名鬼谷。」宋代王應麟、清代姚振宗、孫淵如認為《鬼谷子》是蘇秦所作。

皇甫謐是為《鬼谷子》作注的第一人。陶弘景與尹知章等人亦曾為此書作注。目前流行有《鬼谷子集校集注》，許富宏撰，北京中華書局，2008年12月。

註釋