Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id OAA09081 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 27 Feb 2001 14:02:36 GMT Subject: Fwd: Ancient script rewrites history: Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 08:58:22 -0500 x-sender: wsmith1@camail2.harvard.edu x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0v3, Claritas Est Veritas From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: "memetics list" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Message-ID: <20010227135839.AAA16072@camailp.harvard.edu@[128.103.125.215]> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Personally, I've found the greatest rewards to my search for a
comfortable philosophy, in my studies, brief as they are, of Confucius
and confucianism. Now, if I can find a way to combine them with Socrates,
all will be revealed....
- Wade
******************
Ancient script rewrites history:
'This is like the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls'
By Andrea Shen
FAS Communications
Near a river in Guodian, China, not far from a farmhouse made of earth
and thatched with straw, Chinese archaeologists in 1993 discovered a tomb
dating back to the fourth century B.C.
The tomb was just slightly larger than the coffin and stone sarcophagus
within. Scattered on the floor were bamboo strips, wide as a pencil, and
up to twice as long. On closer scrutiny, scholars realized they had found
something remarkable.
"This is like the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls," says Tu Weiming,
director of the Harvard Yenching Institute (HYI), who has played a key
role in the preservation of, accessibility to, and research on the
Guodian materials since 1996.
The 800 bamboo strips bear roughly 10,000 Chinese characters;
approximately one-tenth of those characters comprise part of the oldest
extant version of the Tao Te Ching (also known as Daodejing), a
foundational text by the Taoist philosopher Laozi, who lived in the sixth
century B.C. and is generally considered the teacher of Confucius. The
remaining nine-tenths of the writings appear to be written by Confucian
disciples, including Confucius' grandson Zisi, in the first generation
after Confucius' death. (Confucius lived from 551 to 479 B.C.) These
texts amplify scholars' understanding of how the Confucian philosophical
tradition evolved between Confucius' time and that of Mencius, a key
Confucian thinker who lived in the third century B.C.
"With the discovery of these texts, I think you can say that the history
of Confucianism itself will have to be rewritten," says Tu. "And by
implication, the history of ancient Chinese philosophy in general will
have to be reconfigured."
Shortly after their rediscovery, the 2,000-year-old strips were immersed
in solvents to restore the faded writing. "They became so brilliant, as
if the characters were written yesterday," said Tu. The length of the
strips, their content, and special markings, like bands on a bird leg,
helped scholars sequence the strips.
With scholars such as Sarah Allen, a sinologist at Dartmouth College;
Harvard scholars Michael Puett, Susan Weld, and Feng Yu; and others at
Wuhan University and Beijing University, HYI began working in 1994 to
ensure the texts' accessibility to scholars and the widest possible
international exchange of ideas. The Institute helped sponsor an
international conference at Wuhan University in 1999, and has overseen
three Chinese publications devoted to the Guodian manuscripts. It has
also participated in the development of a Chinese language Web site,
http://www.bamboosilk.org, devoted to the Guodian texts. Professors Wang
Bo and Guo Yi, from Beijing University and the Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences, specialize in the Guodian manuscripts and are visiting scholars
at HYI this year.
Image of the human heart
What do the bamboo strips tell us?
These texts radically alter scholars' understanding of not just the
principles of, and relationship between, Taoism and Confucianism, two
major streams of Chinese thought; they affect our understanding of
Chinese philology, and reopen debate on the historical identities of
Confucius and Laozi.
Taoism was previously considered a critique of Confucianism, says Tu.
With the discovery of the Guodian texts, the two schools can now be seen
as more complementary than formerly imagined.
"From the Confucian point of view, human beings are sociological
animals," says Tu. "They are psychological, political, poetic - meaning
aesthetic - but also metaphysical." Confucians advocate "engagement in
the world, social service, critique of the political order, and the idea
of personal self-cultivation as the basis for social transformation."
Taoists, in contrast, "would like to reject the sociological, political
aspects of the human, focusing on the 'natural way,' following nature,
against any kind of human, artificial intervention in the natural
process." Taoists refer to the "way of heaven" as a guide for human
behavior.
The Guodian version of the Tao Te Ching reveals far more tolerant views
toward Confucian ideology than previously seen. Moreover, the Confucian
texts in the Guodian cache reveal a more complex worldview than
traditionally understood.
For years scholars believed that Confucians were little concerned with
human emotions. But in the Guodian texts, the element "xin," - a
pictographic image of the human heart - appears over and over again as
part of several Chinese characters. It's a startling display, both
philologically, in terms of understanding the evolution of Chinese
characters, and philosophically. "These texts conclusively show that
emotions or feelings as we understand them today were major philosophical
concerns," Tu says. The Guodian texts offer detailed descriptions of a
range of human emotions. They also extensively explore the relation
between heart, mind, and human nature; between the inner self and the
outer world; and whether human nature is good or evil - a cumulative
emphasis on the inner dimensions of man that most scholars formerly
believed came much later in Chinese intellectual history.
A cosmic shift
Simultaneously, Confucian views on man's relation to the polity require
reinterpretation in the wake of the Guodian discovery. These early
writings reveal a "spirit of protest," in Tu's words, a definition of a
loyal minister, for instance, as he who consistently criticizes his
emperor. This priority on the people's agenda, with the ruler's views
secondary to their concerns, has long been ascribed to the thinker
Mencius; now scholars see much earlier roots, in Zisi, for this notion of
government.
Indeed, a powerful school of thought in modern China, the "Doubting
Antiquity" school, has been seriously discredited in the wake of these
discoveries. "This is the most important school of interpreting Chinese
classics," Tu says. Its advocates have not only attempted to date as much
later, or even doubt the existence of, ideas we now know took root in
earlier times; they have called into question the role of Confucius and
his disciples in forming what we consider Confucian philosophy. The
Guodian texts, by providing evidence of regional Confucian thinkers close
to the time of the philosopher's presumed existence, help restore this
intellectual lineage.
The genealogy of Chinese intellectual thought is now undergoing revision
and Taoist and Confucian texts are being reinterpreted. And because
Taoism and Confucianism are very much "living traditions" in China, these
slender bamboo strips have the potential to transform daily living.
"These are not simply philosophical ideas; they have broad implications
for practical living, for the development of polity and society," says Tu.
Some of the Taoist Guodian texts offer a whole new cosmology - a view of
the creation of the universe with elements not even mentioned in later
versions of the Tao Te Ching: the creation of water, the existence of
four seasons, the birth of heaven and earth after other events have taken
place. The bamboo slips themselves are having a similar effect on the
Chinese intellectual universe.
Brave new world.
Contact Andrea Shen at andrea_shen@harvard.edu
Copyright 2000 President and Fellows of Harvard College
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