Abstract: This article includes a line-by-line translation and textual analysis of theWarring States period Chu script bamboo slip manuscript, Zigao 子羔.It argues that the manuscript differs from the transmitted Confucian tradition,but would have been considered a ru 儒(“Confucian”) text.Unusual features include: (1) The disciple is Zigao, who is described negativelyin the Lun yu. (2) The term tian zi天子, “son-of-sky/heaven” is usedliterally, to refer to the divinely conceived progenitors of the three royallineages. (3) The term san wang, “three kings”, refers to these progenitorsrather than the founding rulers. (4) Confucius advocates abdication. (5)The progenitors of the dynastic lineages, rather than the founding rulers,are juxtaposed to Shun 舜, who received the rule from Yao because ofhis merit. A Chinese edition, with direct transcriptions and alternativereadings of the Chu script graphs, is appended.