Mǎwángduī Hànmù Bóshū Lǎozǐ Jiǎběn 馬王堆漢墓帛書老子甲本
Mawangdui Han Tomb Silk Manuscript Laozi, Text A
About the work
The silk-manuscript version of the Lǎozǐ 老子 (Dàodé jīng 道德經) designated Text A (甲本, Jiǎběn), one of two copies of the work recovered from Mǎwángduī 馬王堆 Han Tomb No. 3 (Chángshā 長沙, Húnán 湖南), excavated December 1973. The tomb was sealed in 168 BCE (12th year of Emperor Wén of Hàn 漢文帝). Text A is the older of the two copies, written before 195 BCE on the evidence that it avoids the personal taboo character of Emperors Gāozǔ 高祖 (r. 206–195 BCE), using 邦 bāng freely. Both the Dé-jīng 德經 (“Book of Virtue,” received chs. 38–81) and the Dào-jīng 道經 (“Book of the Way,” received chs. 1–37) are present in the single file, with the Dé-jīng preceding the Dào-jīng — the reverse of the order canonised in the received Wáng Bì 王弼 edition. The text carries no chapter divisions; the wordcount colophon for the Dào section was added in the Han. The manuscript is written on half a silk cloth (bó 帛); the other portion of the same cloth bears the texts now digitised as KR5c0388. The original is held at the Húnán Provincial Museum 湖南省博物館.
Prefaces
No prefaces or paratexts survive on this silk scroll before or after the Lǎozǐ text itself. The scroll continues directly into the texts now in KR5c0388.
Abstract
Discovery and physical context. Mǎwángduī Tomb No. 3 was excavated December 1973–January 1974 by the Húnán Provincial Museum and the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The tomb owner is identified as the son of Lǐ Cāng 利蒼, Marquis of Dàichéng 軑侯, and it was sealed in 168 BCE. A lacquered wooden box in the eastern compartment yielded the silk manuscripts. Text A (甲本) was written in small-seal-derived script, Text B (乙本, KR5c0390) in a more mature clerical hand; both were copied onto different silk cloths. The physical manuscript for Text A is written together with a set of “ancient lost texts” (古佚書) continuing after the Lǎozǐ on the same cloth; these are now digitised separately as KR5c0388 (the Wǔxíng 五行 text) and KR5c0389 (the Huángdì sìjīng 黃帝四經).
Textual structure and ordering. The defining characteristic of both Mǎwángduī manuscripts is the Dé-jīng-first ordering: the text opens with what became received ch. 38 (上德不德，是以有德 / shàng dé bù dé, shì yǐ yǒu dé) and closes with the end of received ch. 37 (天地將自正 / tiāndì jiāng zì zhèng). The Mǎwángduī manuscripts lack the chapter-number divisions found in later transmitted editions; these were apparently added between the Mǎwángduī period and the received Hé-shàng Gōng 河上公 or Wáng Bì editions. Scholarship has debated whether the 德-first order represents the earlier tradition: the Mǎwángduī manuscripts are the principal evidence that the Dào + Dé ordering of the received text was not original.
Textual variants. Scholars have catalogued approximately 300 lexical variants between the Mǎwángduī Text A and the received Wáng Bì text, including graphic, synonymous, and phonetic substitutions. Key variants include archaic or loan characters (e.g., 𢡺 for 化, 楃 for 樸, 情 for 靜). These variants are of major importance for reconstructing the early textual history of the Lǎozǐ.
Dating of the composition. The composition bracket for the Lǎozǐ is extensively debated (see 老子 for full discussion). The Guōdiàn 郭店 bamboo slips (KR5c0392) provide a version datable to ca. 300 BCE, establishing that a substantial portion of the text existed by that date. The received text as it appears in the Mǎwángduī copies seems to represent a compiled recension of the late Warring States, roughly 350–250 BCE. Text A was copied before 195 BCE; the bracket notBefore: -350, notAfter: -195 covers the range from likely completion of the main recension to the latest possible copying date.
Relationship to other Kanripo entries. The standard received Dàodé zhēn jīng 道德真經 is KR5c0045; the Fù Yì 傅奕 commented edition is KR5c0046. Mǎwángduī Text B is KR5c0390; the Guōdiàn bamboo version is KR5c0392. The Wilkinson manual (§29.4.2.1) provides a concise survey of the three main excavated recensions.
Translations and research
- Henricks, Robert G. 1989. Lao-Tzu: Te-Tao Ching — A New Translation Based on the Recently Discovered Ma-wang-tui Texts. Ballantine Books. (Bilingual; includes both Text A and B.)
- Lau, D. C. 1989. Tao Te Ching. 2nd ed. Chinese University of Hong Kong Press. (Uses Mǎwángduī evidence throughout.)
- Mair, Victor H. 1990. Tao Te Ching: The Classic Book of Integrity and the Way. Bantam. (Based on Mǎwángduī Text A as primary witness.)
- Yīn Zhènhuán 尹振環. 2007. Bóshū Lǎozǐ zài shūyì 帛書老子再疏義. Shāngwù. (Takes Mǎwángduī A as the base text and supplements it with B, Guōdiàn A–C, and the Fù Yì edition.)
- Richter, Matthias. Studies on the palaeography and textual variants of the Mǎwángduī Lǎozǐ: see especially articles in Asiatische Studien/Études Asiatiques (2005–) and Early China (various years).
- Shaughnessy, Edward. 2005. “The Guodian Manuscripts and Their Place in the Twentieth-Century Historiography on the Laozi.” HJAS 65.2: 417–57. (Broad survey of excavated recensions.)
Other points of interest
The Dé-first ordering of the Mǎwángduī manuscripts has been used to argue that the original work was organised around the concept of dé 德 (virtue, power) rather than the abstract dào 道 (the Way), with implications for how early Daoist philosophy understood the relationship between metaphysical principle and ethical practice.