Lecture 8: New Insights from the Earth:
The Guodian Laozi
•typically on bamboo
•sometimes silk, paper (Mawangdui, Dunhuang) !
•typically from tombs
•sometimes religious sites (Dunhuang caves)•best of both worlds (received vs. archeological)
•esp. since middle of 20th century have been revolutionizing our understanding of early China
•law
•everyday life of common people
•medicine
•philosophy and religion
Guodian find •unearthed in 1993 in Guodian (Hubei), near former Chu capital
•
•unearthed in 1993 in
Guodian (Hubei), near
former Chu capital
•sealed by 300 B.C.E. or so Guodian find
•unearthed in 1993 in Guodian (Hubei), near former Chu capital •sealed by 300 B.C.E. or so
•
large cache of philosophical texts
Guodian find
•found jumbled in tomb
•use various clues to group into texts •length
•beveling
•string marks
•handwriting
•Chu script
•before the Qin standardization •copies of received texts
•non-received but known texts •completely new texts
•three “bundles”
!
•different handwriting, different sizes •Laozi A
•Laozi B
•Laozi C + Taiyi Shengshui
•order completely random vis-à-vis received version •sometime only half of received versions of chapters •one of many reasons why we think DDJ was “modular”
Guodian Daodejing •also revealing differences
in some passages from received text
Received version:
!
Cut off sageliness, abandon wisdom
and the people will benefit one hundred fold
!
Cut off benevolence, abandon righteousness, and the people will return to being filial and kind. !
Cut off cleverness, abandon profit,
and robbers and thieves will be no more.
red words: Confucian label
Received version:
!
Cut off sageliness, abandon wisdom
and the people will benefit one hundred fold
Cut off benevolence, abandon righteousness, and the people will return to being filial and kind. Cut off cleverness, abandon profit,
and robbers and thieves will be no more.
Received version:
!
Cut off sageliness, abandon wisdom and the people will benefit one hundred fold.
Cut off benevolence, abandon righteousness, & the people will return to being filial & kind. Cut off cleverness, abandon profit, and robbers & thieves will be no more.
!Guodian version (c. 300 B.C.E.): !
Cut off wisdom, abandon distinctions and the people will benefit one hundred fold.
Cut off cleverness, abandon profit, and the people will return to being filial and kind. Cut off artifice, abandon reflection, and
robbers and thieves will be no more.
no mention of
Confucianism specifically
•clear differences
•Daodejing metaphors seem precisely aimed at counteracting Analects metaphors
•but, some evidence that starkness of the divide is later exaggerated or reinforced
•clearly in place by time of Zhuangzi “primitivist” chapters (8-10)
•“Webbed Toes”: benevolence and righteousness portrayed as physical deformities perverting our original nature
•“Horses Hooves”: horse-trainer, potter and carpenter mutilating their raw material compared to Confucian sage
•“Robber Chih”: echoing passages from Daodejing, but then putting them in an explicitly anti-Confucian context。