Guodian Chu Slips

TheGuodian Chu Slips (Chinese:郭店楚簡;pinyin:Guōdiàn Chǔjiǎn) were unearthed in October 1993 in Tomb no. 1 of the Guodian tombs inJingmen,Hubei Province and dated to the latter half of theWarring States period. Scott Cook completed a study and translation of all the manuscript of this corpus.^[1]

Guodian Chu Slips
Part of the Guodian Chu Slips: "The Great One Generates Water," held at theHubei Provincial Museum
Material	Bamboo slips
Period/culture	Circa 300 BCE
Place	Jingmen,Hubei Province,China
Present location	Hubei Provincial Museum
Discovery

Background

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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 ofYing, which was the ancient Chu capital from about 676 BC until 278 BC, before theState of Chu was overrun byQin. 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 becameKing Qingxiang of Chu. Since King Qingxiang was the Chu king when Qin sacked their old capital Ying in 278 BC, the Chu slips are dated to around 300 BC.

Content

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There are in total about 804bamboo 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 theTao Te Ching, one chapter from theClassic of Rites, content from theClassic of History and other writings. After restoration, these texts were divided into eighteen sections, and have been transcribed into standard Chinese and published under the titleChu Bamboo Slips from Guodian in May 1998. The slip-texts include bothTaoist andConfucian works, many previously unknown, and the discovery of these texts in the same tomb has contributed fresh information for scholars studying the history of philosophical thought in ancient China. According to Gao Zheng from the Institute of Philosophy of theChinese Academy of Social Sciences, the main part could have been teaching material used by the Confucianist Si Meng scholars of theJixia Academy in theState 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.^[2]^[3]^: 316 These categories only appeared during the Han and do not relate in any meaningful way to Guodian.^[4] The diversity of views represented in the tomb is a perfect example of the blurring of these lines.

Texts

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Number	Chinese	English
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 AskedZisi
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

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There are three bundles of Guodian bamboo slips containingTao 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 theTao Te Ching are given for each of the Guodian bundles.^[5]

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 theTao Te Ching were possibly not yet composed at the time the Guodian slips were copied.^[5]

Murphy (2006) suggests that the GuodianTao 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, theMawangduiTao Te Ching texts focus more on cosmology and metaphysics.^[5]

The Guodian texts contain many grammatical particles, such as也 (yě), that are not present in the received text.^[5]

References

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^Cook, Scott Bradley (2012).The bamboo texts of Guodian: a study & complete translation. Cornell East Asia series. New York: Cornell University.ISBN 978-1-933947-84-6.
^Csikszentmihalyi, Mark;Nylan, Michael (2003). "Constructing Lineages and Inventing Traditions through Exemplary Figures in Early China".T'oung Pao. 2.89 (1/3). Brill:59–99.JSTOR 4528923.
^Pines, Yuri (2016). "Review of Zhao Dingxin,The Confucian-Legalist State: A New Theory of Chinese History".Early China.39. Cambridge University Press:311–320.JSTOR 44075765.
^Lewis, Mark Edward (1999).Writing and Authority in Early China. Albany: State University of New York Press. p. 295.ISBN 0-7914-4114-8.
^^a ^b ^c ^dMurphy, Dan (2006).A comparison of the Guodian and Mawangdui Laozi texts (M.A. thesis). Amherst: University of Massachusetts Amherst. pp. 1–5,18–19.doi:10.7275/6870785.

Jiang Guanghui (姜广辉) (2000).郭店楚简与早期儒学 [The Guodian Chu Slips and Early Confucianism].Contemporary Chinese Thought.32 (2). Archived from the original on 2018-11-11. Retrieved2008-05-03.
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).ISBN 7-5010-1000-5.
Xing Wen (2000). "The Guodian Chu Slips: The Paleographical Issues and Their Significances".Contemporary Chinese Thought.32 (1). Taylor Francis:7–17.doi:10.2753/CSP1097-146732017.S2CID 147562809.
Zhang Guangyu; et al. (1999).A Study on the Chu Bamboo Manuscripts of Guodian. Taipei: Yee Wen Publishing Co.ISBN 7-5010-1000-5.
Hu Zhihong (胡治洪) (1999)."Academic Studies on the Fusion of Confucianism and Daoism"学脉探源儒道合人文成化古今谐──“郭店楚简国际学术研讨会”综述. Hubei Chubanshe. Archived from the original on 2018-11-11. Retrieved2008-05-03.
Zhou Jianzhong (周建忠) (2000)."On the Owner of the No.1 Chu Grave in Guodian, Jingmen"荆门郭店一号楚墓墓主考论——兼论屈原生平研究.Historical Studies Bimonthly历史研究 (5). 南通师范学院中文系:12–23.
Goldin, Paul Rakita (2000)."Xunzi in the Light of the Guodian Manuscripts"(PDF).Early China.25. Cambridge University Press:113–136.doi:10.1017/S0362502800004284.JSTOR 23354275.S2CID 24411141.
Holloway, Kenneth (2009).Guodian The Newly Discovered Seeds of Chinese Religious and Political Philosophy. Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195371451.001.0001.ISBN 978-0195371451.
Holloway, Kenneth (2013).The Quest for Ecstatic Morality in Early China. Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199744824.001.0001.ISBN 9780199979400.