The Bamboo Texts of Guodian (Chinese:郭店楚簡;pinyin:Guōdiàn Chǔjiǎn) were unearthed in October 1993 in Tomb no. 1 of the Guodian tombs in Jingmen, Hubei Province and dated to the latter half of the Warring States period. Scott Cook completed a study and translation of all the manuscript of this corpus.

Background

Tomb no. 1 is located in Jishan District's Guodian tomb complex, near Jingmen City in the village of Guodian. It is located just nine kilometers north of Ying, which was the ancient Chu capital from about 676 BC until 278 BC, before the State of Chu was overrun by Qin. Studies of the tomb's contents revealed its occupant to be an elderly noble scholar, and teacher to a royal prince. The prince has been identified as Crown Prince Heng, who later became King Qingxiang of Chu. Since King Qingxiang was the Chu king when Qin sacked their old capital Ying in 278 BC, the texts are dated to around 300 BC.

Content

There are in total about 804 bamboo slips in this cache, including 702 strips and 27 broken strips. The bamboo slip texts consist of three major categories, which include the earliest manuscripts of the received text of the Tao Te Ching, one chapter from the Classic of Rites, content from the Classic of History and other writings. After restoration, these texts were divided into eighteen sections, transcribed into standard Chinese and published under the title Chu Bamboo Slips from Guodian in May 1998.

The slip-texts include both Taoist and Confucian works, many previously unknown, contributing fresh information for scholars studying the history of philosophical thought in ancient China. According to Gao Zheng from the Institute of Philosophy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the main part could have been teaching material used by the Confucianist Si Meng scholars of the Jixia Academy in the State of Qi. Qu Yuan, who was sent as an envoy to Qi, might have taken them back to Chu.

Recent scholarship has questioned the value of categorizing works that date prior to pre-Han as strictly Confucian or Taoist. These categories only appeared during the Han and do not relate in any meaningful way to Guodian. The diversity of views represented in the tomb is a perfect example of the blurring of these lines.

Texts

NumberChineseEnglish
1–3老子甲、乙、丙Laozi A, B & C
4太一生水The Great One Generates Water
5緇衣Black Robes
6魯穆公問子思Duke Mu of Lu Asked Zisi
7窮達以時Failure and Success Depend on the Age
8唐虞之道The Way of Tang and Yu
9五行The Five Conducts
10忠信之道The Way of Loyalty and Good Faith
11成之聞之Completing it Informs it
12尊德義Revering Virtue and Propriety
13性自命出Human Nature is Brought Forth by Decree
14六德The Six Virtues
15–18語叢一、二、三、四Thicket of Sayings Part 1, 2, 3 & 4

Tao Te Ching

There are three bundles of Guodian bamboo slips containing Tao Te Ching texts, namely bundles A, B, and C. Each bundle can be divided into three to five units. Below, corresponding chapter numbers in the received text of the Tao Te Ching are given for each of the Guodian bundles.

  • Bundle A (甲) (39 slips) Unit 1: 19, 66, 46 (end), 30, 15, 64 (end), 37, 63 (beginning & end), 2, 32 Unit 2: 25, 5 (middle) Unit 3: 16 (beginning) Unit 4: 64 (beginning), 56, 57 Unit 5: 55, 44, 40, 9
  • Bundle B (乙) (18 slips) Unit 1: 59, 48 (beginning), 20 (beginning), 13 Unit 2: 41 Unit 3: 52 (middle), 45, 54
  • Bundle C (丙) (28 slips) Units 1: 17, 18 Unit 2: 35 Unit 3: 31 (end) Unit 4: 64 (end / part 2) Unit 5: Taiyi Shengshui

The Guodian texts correspond to 31 of the chapters (ranging from chapters 2–66) in the received text. Chapters 70–81 in the received text of the Tao Te Ching were possibly not yet composed at the time the Guodian slips were copied.

Murphy (2006) suggests that the Guodian Tao Te Ching texts were selectively copied and thematically organized for the ruling class, perhaps as teaching materials. The Guodian texts focus more on politics and virtue. In contrast, the Mawangdui Tao Te Ching texts focus more on cosmology and metaphysics.

The Guodian texts contain many grammatical particles, such as 也 (yě), that are not present in the received text.

See also

  • Jiang Guanghui (姜广辉) (2000). [The Guodian Chu Slips and Early Confucianism]. Contemporary Chinese Thought. 32 (2). Archived from the original on 2018-11-11.
  • Jingmen City Museum (荊門市博物館) (1998). 郭店楚墓竹簡 [Chu Bamboo Slips from Guodian]. Beijing: 文物出版社 (Wenwu Chubanshe). ISBN7-5010-1000-5.
  • Xing Wen (2000). "The Guodian Chu Slips: The Paleographical Issues and Their Significances". Contemporary Chinese Thought. 32 (1). Taylor Francis: 7–17. doi:. S2CID.
  • Zhang Guangyu; etal. (1999). A Study on the Chu Bamboo Manuscripts of Guodian. Taipei: Yee Wen Publishing Co. ISBN7-5010-1000-5.
  • Hu Zhihong (胡治洪) (1999). . Hubei Chubanshe. Archived from the original on 2018-11-11.
  • Zhou Jianzhong (周建忠) (2000). . Historical Studies Bimonthly 历史研究 (5). 南通师范学院中文系: 12–23.
  • Goldin, Paul Rakita (2000). (PDF). Early China. 25. Cambridge University Press: 113–136. doi:. JSTOR. S2CID.
  • Holloway, Kenneth (2009). Guodian The Newly Discovered Seeds of Chinese Religious and Political Philosophy. Oxford University Press. doi:. ISBN978-0195371451.
  • Holloway, Kenneth (2013). The Quest for Ecstatic Morality in Early China. Oxford University Press. doi:. ISBN9780199979400.

External links

  • , with original bamboo slip images
  • , Harvard University Gazette
  • Russell Kirkland. (PDF). Archived from (PDF 91.1KB) on 2016-03-03.
  • , Matthias Richter
  • (in Chinese) , BambooSilk.Org website for research on the Guodian texts