Zoushizi 鄒奭子

Zoushizi 鄒奭子 "The book of Zou Shi" was a treatise of the Yin-Yang school written by the Warring-States-period 戰國 (5th cent.-221 BCE) master Zou Shi 鄒奭, also written 騶奭, who was known by the name Diaolong Shi 雕龍奭 "Dragon Carver Shi" because of the beauty of his writings. This name was probably an influential factor for the name of Liu Xie's 劉勰 (c. 465-c. 532) literary critique Wenxin diaolong 文心雕龍.

Zou Shi came from the state of Qi 齊 and was one of the "three masters Zou" (san Zouzi 三鄒子), the others being the philosopher Zou Yan 鄒衍 (c. 305-240 BCE) and the politician Zou Ji 鄒忌 (d. 345 or 341 BCE). The biographical chapter on Meng Ke 孟軻 (Mengzi 孟子, 385-304 or 372-289 BCE) and Xun Kuang 荀況 (Xunzi 荀子, 313-238 BCE) in the history Shiji 史記 says that Zou Shi was influenced by the teachings of the much more famous Zou Yan, a great Yin-Yang thinker.

The king of Qin highly admired Zou Shi and his colleague Chunyu Kun 淳于髡, and gave both the title and rank of grand masters (dafu 大夫). It is known that Zou Shi was somewhat younger than Lu Zhonglian 魯仲連.

The bibliographical chapter Yiwen zhi 藝文志 in the official dynastic history Hanshu 漢書 says the book Zoushizi had a length of 12 chapters. Of his book unfortunately nothing has survived.