Yuzi shuo 鬻子說

Yuzi shuo 鬻子說 "Talks of Master Yu" was a collection of stories attributed to a person called Yu Xiong 鬻熊, who is also known as the philosopher Yuzi 鬻子 (see the book Yuzi 鬻子), who lived during the early Western Zhou period 西周 (11th cent.-770 BCE).

The story collection was quite probably compiled during the late Warring States period 戰國 (5th cent.-221 BCE). The bibliographical chapter Yiwen zhi 藝文志 of the official dynastic history Hanshu 漢書 lists it among the "storytellers" (xiaoshuojia 小說家), unlike the book Yuzi, which is found among the "miscellaneous treatises" (zajia 雜家). The book had a length of 19 chapters but was already lost during the Liang period 梁 (502-557). Some fragments survive that are quoted in other books, for instance, Li Shan's 李善 commentary on the anthology Wenxuan 文選, or the encyclopaedia Taiping yulan 太平御覽. They were collected in Yang Zhisen's 楊之森 Yangsuxuan conglu 養素軒叢錄, Yan Kejun's 嚴可均 (1762—1843) Quan shanggu sandai wen 全上古三代文 and Ye Dehui's 葉德輝 (1864-1927) Ziyuan Xiansheng quanshu 郋園先生全書.

The fragments show that the texts consisted of instructions of Master Yu to the early kings of the Zhou dynasty, mainly in the field of the art of war. The chapter Wuwang fa Zhou 武王伐紂, however, has the character of a novella.