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C O U R S E L E C T U R E The Guodian Laozi Notes taken on February 2, 2017 by Edward Tanguay |
some are versions of the Daodejing
texts that we have uncovered in their original written form
most written on bamboo with ink
Mawangdui, central China
manuscript on silk, 2nd century BC
some on paper where caves are particularly dry
typically these come from tombs
debate on what the relationship was between the text and the person who died, perhaps
used these texts professional
they were thought to be important to them in the after-life
archeologists like archeological texts because they are the best of both words in terms of reliability and accuracy
First Song of the Book of Odes
give you more information
don't know when they were written
don't know when they were copied
some bronze vessels have a date on them
not changed, direct communication
combine informational richness with historical reliability
are often everyday texts, not from the elite or studied class necessarily
don't give us too much information
since the beginning of the 20th century, we are finding more and more
they revolutionized our understanding of early China
a judge who was buried with his complete court cases
can be quite dry topics to read, e.g. some guy stole a chicken, what do we do
but for historians, it's gold
it gives you accurate and detailed information
both the legal system of early China
the daily lives of people
people trying to figure out why they are getting sick
a more accurate picture of everyday life on the ground
new philosophical and religious texts
unearthed in Guodian (Hubei) in 1993
near the former Chu capital
one of the southernmost Warring States
tomb was sealed in about 300 BCE
so we know these texts have not been changed since then
water had entered the tomb
strips covered with mud
the strings that held them together had degenerated
archeologists had to put them together
conceptually which go together
like a jigsaw and crossword puzzle
diversity of pre-standardization script styles
every state had their own script styles
philosophical and religious
copies of received texts
a chapter of the Liji, or Book of Rites
copies of texts that we know about, that were listed in bibliographies but were lost
Wu xing (Five Types of Conduct)
new texts we had never heard of
seem to represent a lost school of Confucianism
different handwriting and sizes
Laozi C, Taiyi Shengshui
doesn't correspond to anything in the received Daodejing
still debated who these documents relate to each other
the Daodejing was probably a kind of central text which people could mix and match
using different parts of text for different purposes
"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."
get rid of explicit morality and Confucianism
a clear anti-Confucian slant to this passage
"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 Confucianist terminology
there is no doubt that there were differences between Daoism and Confucianism in the Warring States period
the Daodejing is picking metaphors which are explicitly against metaphors in the Analects
the concepts are different
the concept of de is almost the opposite
this divide probably gets more pronounced later in Chinese history
a ramping up of these differences
clearly in place by this time was the Zhuangzi "primitivist", chapters 8-10
different from the inner chapters
represent a primitivist school that looks a lot like the Daodejing school
but were produced at the end of the Warring States
talk about utopias where there is no morality or technology
horrible things that Confucianism does to warp our nature
people who put horse shoes on horses
people who mutilate nature
echoes passages from the Daodejing
put them in an anti-Confucian context
Confucians as grave robbers
the anti-Confucian trope gets emphasized at the end of the Warring States