Guodian Chu Slips
Encyclopedia
Jingmen
Jingmen is a prefecture-level city in Hubei province of the People's Republic of China. Jingmen is within an area where cotton and oil crops are planted. The population of the city is approximately 2,984,000 . The urban area of Jingmen City has a population of about 350,000...
. The archeological team suggested the tomb should be dated to the latter half of the Warring States period (mid 4th to early 3rd century BC). The texts would have been written on the bamboo slips before or close to the time of burial.
The tomb is located in the Jishan District's tomb complex, near the Jingmen City in the village of Guodian, and only 9 kilometers north of Ying, which was the ancient Chu capital from about 676 BC until 278 BC, before the State of Chu was over-run by the Qin. The tomb and its contents were studied to determine the identity of the occupant; an elderly noble scholar, and teacher to a royal prince. The prince had been identified as Crown Prince
Crown Prince
A crown prince or crown princess is the heir or heiress apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The wife of a crown prince is also titled crown princess....
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 Chu slips are dated to around 300 BC.
There are in total about 804 bamboo slips
Bamboo and wooden slips (writing material)
Bamboo and wooden slips were one of the main media for literacy in early China. The long, narrow strips of wood or bamboo typically carry a single column of brush-written text each, with space for several tens of Chinese characters. For longer texts, many slips may be bound together in sequence...
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
Tao Te Ching
The Tao Te Ching, Dao De Jing, or Daodejing , also simply referred to as the Laozi, whose authorship has been attributed to Laozi, is a Chinese classic text...
, one chapter from the Classic of Rites
Classic of Rites
The Classic of Rites , also known as the Book of Rites, Book of Customs, the Record of Rites, was one of the Chinese Five Classics of the Confucian canon. It described the social forms, governmental system, and ancient/ceremonial rites of the Zhou Dynasty...
, and anonymous writings. After restoration, these texts were divided into eighteen sections, and have been transcribed into standard Chinese and published under the title Chu Bamboo Slips from Guodian on May 1998. The slip-texts include both Daoist and Confucian 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 the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences , established in 1977, is the premier and highest academic research organization in the fields of philosophy and social sciences as well as a national center for comprehensive studies in the People's Republic of China. It was described by Foreign Policy...
, the main part could be teaching material used by the Confucianist Si Meng scholars of the Jixia Academy in the State of Qi. Qu Yuan
Qu Yuan
Qu Yuan was a Chinese poet who lived during the Warring States Period in ancient China. He is famous for his contributions to the poetry collection known as the Chu-ci...
, 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
Han Dynasty
The Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang...
as strictly Confucian or Daoist. 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.
Contents
| ## | Chinese | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| 01-03 | 老子甲、乙、丙 | Laozi Part A, B & C |
| 04 | 太一生水 | The Great One Generates Water |
| 05 | 緇衣 | Black Robes |
| 06 | 魯穆公問子思 | Duke Mu of Lu Question on Zisi |
| 07 | 窮達以時 | Misery and Success Depend on the Age |
| 08 | 五行 | The Five Conducts |
| 09 | 唐虞之道 | The Way of Tang and Yu |
| 10 | 忠信之道 | The Way of Loyalty and Good Faith |
| 11 | 成之聞之 | The Sage is of Heavenly Virtues |
| 12 | 尊德義 | Revering Virtue and Propriety |
| 13 | 性自命出 | Recipes for Nourishing Life |
| 14 | 六德 | The Six Virtues |
| 15-18 | 語叢一、二、三、四 | Thicket of Sayings Part 1, 2, 3 & 4 |
See also
- Mawangdui Silk TextsMawangdui Silk TextsThe Mawangdui Silk Texts are texts of Chinese philosophical and medical works written on silk and found at Mawangdui in China in 1973. They include some of the earliest attested manuscripts of existing texts such as the I Ching, two copies of the Tao Te Ching, one similar copy of Strategies of the...
- Chu Silk ManuscriptChu silk manuscriptThe Chu Silk Manuscript , also known as the Chu Silk Manuscript from Zidanku in Changsha , is a Chinese astrological and astronomical text. It was discovered in a Warring States period tomb from the southern Chinese state of Chu.-History:...
- ShuangguduiShuangguduiShuanggudui is an archeological site located near Fuyang in China's Anhui province. Shuanggudui grave no. 1, which belongs to Xiahou Zao , the second marquis of Ruyin , was sealed in 165 BCE in the early Han Dynasty and excavated in 1977...
- Shuihudi Qin bamboo textsShuihudi Qin bamboo textsThe Shuihudi Qin bamboo texts are early Chinese texts written on bamboo slips, and are also sometimes called the Yúnmèng Qin bamboo texts. They were excavated in December 1975 from Tomb #11 at Chéngguān Shuìhǔdì , Yunmeng County, Hubei Province, China. The tomb belonged to a Qin administrator....
- Tsinghua Slips
- Yinqueshan Han SlipsYinqueshan Han SlipsThe Yinqueshan Han Slips are ancient Chinese writing tablets, made of bamboo strips and were discovered in 1972. The tablets contain many important writings that were not previously known, and important copies of existing work....
- Zhangjiashan Han bamboo textsZhangjiashan Han bamboo textsThe Zhangjiashan Han bamboo texts are ancient Han Dynasty Chinese written works dated 196–186 BCE. They were discovered in 1983 by archaeologists excavating tomb no. 247 at Mount Zhangjia of Jiangling County, Hubei Province . The tomb was built for an early Western Han era official who had...
External links
- Ancient script rewrites history, Harvard University Gazette, Russell Kirkland
- Database of Selected Characters from Guodian and Mawangdui Manuscripts, Matthias Richter 欢迎您光临简帛研究网站, BambooSilk.Org website for research on the Guodian texts
- Guodian Slips - photos and definitions