語叢

Yǔ Cóng 語叢

Language Clusters (modern editorial title; four separate bundles were excavated, distinguished as 語叢一–四)

(anonymous; excavated bamboo manuscript, no attributable author)

About the work

Yǔ Cóng 語叢 designates a group of four separate bamboo-strip bundles excavated from Guōdiàn tomb 1 (郭店一號楚墓) at Jǐngmén 荊門, Húběi, in October 1993, and published in 荊門市博物館 ed., 《郭店楚墓竹簡》, Wénwù chūbǎnshè, 1998 (texts nos. 15–18 in the volume). The Kanripo source (KR2p0028) represents what the Jīngmén Museum edition distinguishes as 語叢一 (Yǔ Cóng Yī, the first and longest cluster), comprising approximately 67–88 bamboo strips and about 770–800 graphs in the standard reconstruction. The title 語叢 is a modern editorial name given by the editio princeps editors to four physically distinct bundles containing short, formally independent aphorisms that do not cohere into a single continuous argument. The strips open with the phrase fán wù yóu wú shēng 凡物由亡生 (“all things come forth from non-being”), which has Daoist cosmological resonances, but the bulk of the text is Confucian in content.

Abstract

Physical character. Unlike the continuous discourses of Wǔxíng 五行 KR2p0021, Chéng zhī wén zhī 成之聞之 KR2p0024, or Xìng Zì Mìng Chū 性自命出 KR2p0026, the Yǔ Cóng bundles consist of short freestanding maxims, definitions, and categorical lists — some only two or three graphs long. There is no sustained argument across the strips; instead each strip or pair of strips articulates an independent proposition. The style resembles the lexicographical fragments of pre-Qín masters’ collections (zǐ shū 子書) and has been compared to the aphoristic components of the Lǐjì 禮記 and the Dàxué 大學.

Content of the first cluster (the text in KR2p0028). The 67 sections of the Kanripo source cover a wide range of topics: cosmological categories (yǒu tiān yǒu mìng, yǒu dì yǒu xíng 有天有命，有地有形 — “there is Heaven and Mandate; there is Earth and Form”; tiān shēng bǎi wù, rén wéi guì 天生百物，人為貴 — “Heaven engenders the ten thousand things; humans are the most honoured”); virtue definitions (ài shàn zhī wèi rén 愛善之謂仁 — “loving the good is what is called benevolence”; sàng, rén zhī duān yě 喪，仁之端也 — “mourning is the sprout of benevolence”); the inner/outer moral distinction (yóu zhōng chū zhě: rén zhōng xìn; yóu wài rù zhě: lǐ yuè xíng 由中出者：仁忠信。由外入者：禮樂刑 — virtue such as benevolence, loyalty, and faithfulness comes from within; ritual propriety, music, and punishments enter from without); cognitive chains (zhī jǐ ér hòu zhī rén, zhī rén ér hòu zhī lǐ, zhī lǐ ér hòu zhī xíng 知己而後知人，知人而後知禮，知禮而後知行 — “knowing yourself, then knowing others, then knowing ritual, then knowing action”); an enumeration of the Six Classics and their functions (shī suǒ yǐ huì gǔjīn zhī zhì yě; shū suǒ yǐ huì …; lǐ, jiāo zhī xíng shù yě; yuè, huò shēng huò jiào zhě yě; yì, suǒ yǐ huì tiāndào réndào yě; chūnqiū, suǒ yǐ huì gǔjīn zhī shì yě 詩所以會古今之志也…書…禮…樂…易…春秋 — Odes, Documents, Ritual, Music, Changes, Spring and Autumn, each with its function); sense-organ mappings (róng sè mù sī yě; shēng ěr sī yě; xiù bí sī yě; wèi kǒu sī yě 容色目司也；聲耳司也；嗅鼻司也；味口司也 — appearance-and-colour is governed by the eye; sound by the ear; smell by the nose; taste by the mouth); social-relational definitions (fù zǐ, shí shàngxià yě; xiōngdì, shí xiānhòu yě 父子，識上下也；兄弟，識先後也 — “the father-son bond is the recognition of above and below; the brother bond is the recognition of before and after”); and the origins of virtue (rén shēng yú rén, yì shēng yú dào 仁生於人，義生於道 — “benevolence comes from persons; rightness comes from the Way”; closing with a version of xìng shēng rén … xìn … dé … lǐ … yuè 性生仁… — the virtue-generation chain from nature to ritual and music).

The four Yǔ Cóng bundles compared. The Jīngmén Museum edition distinguishes four physically separate bundles:

• 語叢一 (c. 88 strips): the longest; broad categories of knowledge, virtue, social relations, and the Six Classics — our Kanripo text.
• 語叢二 (c. 27 strips): focuses on the five virtues (仁義禮智聖 or 仁義禮智信), their interrelations, and the inner/outer binary.
• 語叢三 (c. 14 strips): covers the Yì 易 hexagram-change categories in an abbreviated mantic framework.
• 語叢四 (c. 9 strips): brief aphorisms on rulership.

All four bundles share the aphoristic format but are physically distinct; they were presumably independent note-collections rather than chapters of a single work.

Relation to received texts. Several propositions in Yǔ Cóng Yī have near-parallels in received texts: the Six Classics enumeration overlaps with passages in the Zhuāngzǐ 莊子 (Tiānyùn 天運) and in a Guōdiàn Liù dé 六德 section (published as a separate text in the editio princeps). The virtue-generation chain xìng shēng rén… in the final section (§67) parallels the opening of the Zhōngyōng 中庸 and links to the argument of Xìng Zì Mìng Chū KR2p0026. These overlaps have been used to reconstruct the pre-Hàn process by which aphoristic deposits were incorporated into the continuous ethical treatises that became canonical.

The opening formula fán wù yóu wú shēng 凡物由亡生 — “all things come forth from nothing (wú 亡 written as 望, a loan character)” — has a distinctly Daoist resonance and may indicate that the compiler of the bundle drew on both Confucian and Daoist traditions, consistent with the mixed-tradition character of the Guōdiàn cache as a whole.

Translations and research

• 荊門市博物館 ed., 《郭店楚墓竹簡》, Wénwù chūbǎnshè 文物出版社, 1998 — editio princeps; 語叢 is texts no. 15–18, with photographs, transcription, and annotations.
• Liú Zhāo 劉釗, 《郭店楚簡校釋》, Fújiàn rénmín chūbǎnshè 福建人民出版社, 2003 — standard Chinese critical apparatus.
• Lǐ Líng 李零, 《郭店楚簡校讀記》 (zēngdìng běn), Zhōngguó rénmín dàxué chūbǎnshè 2007.
• Scott Cook, The Bamboo Texts of Guodian: A Study and Complete Translation, 2 vols., Cornell East Asia Series, Cornell University / East Asia Program, 2012 — translations of all four Yǔ Cóng bundles in vol. 2.
• Dīng Sìxīn 丁四新, 《郭店楚墓竹簡思想研究》, Dōngfāng chūbǎnshè 東方出版社, 2000.
• Kenneth W. Holloway, Guodian: The Newly Discovered Seeds of Chinese Religious and Political Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 2009.
• Shirley Chan, ed., Dao Companion to the Excavated Guodian Bamboo Manuscripts, Springer, 2019.

Links

• Wikipedia (Guōdiàn Chǔ bamboo slips): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guodian_Chu_Slips
• Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3120270