“The Declaration of Zhougong”周公之告 in

The Four Declarations

四告 presents Zhougong’s political thought through a composite textual form， sharing the same ideological core with “Establishing Government”

立政 in

Book of Histony

尚书 but differi

ng in expressive mode. “The Declaration of Boqin”伯禽之告is a prayer offered by Boqin to the Divine Host overseeing guest rituals， after his enfeoffment in Lu鲁 but prior to his audience with King Cheng成王. In it， he prayed for dignified and measured conduct， harmonious and gracious demeanor， as well as virtuous inner qualities， serving as a personal expression of a nobleman’s self-cultivation and ritual practice. “The Declaration of Shaobo Hu”召伯虎之告 is a supplication addressed to the deities of the North at the beginning of Shaobo Hu’s tenure as the lineage head during a period of clan disorder. It possesses a clear pragmatic motivation， and the historical facts involved can be corroborated by transmitted and excavated texts. Meanwhile， it bears the characteristics of religious beliefs after the Spring and Autumn period， and the text was completed as an integrated work at a relatively late date. As a rare early compilation of a single literary genre，

The Four Declarations

collects four declarations of diverse textual natures and origins into one scroll. This indicates that by the Spring and Autumn period， not only had the generic concept of prayer and declaration texts been stably established in practice， but also scholarly compilation guided by distinct generic awareness had emerged.

The Four Declarations

likely resulted from the compiler’s personal interests. In the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods， a time of prolific writing， functional texts were transformed into vehicles for ideological expression through textual intervention. This represents the general trend in the formation of

Documents-

style 书 literature during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.