Description
Book SynopsisThe cache of bamboo texts unearthed in the village of Guodian, Hubei Province, in 1993 is a rare and unique find in the history of Chinese philosophy and literature. This study renders the complex corpus of the Guodian texts into a more easily manageable form, incorporating the past several years of scholarly activity on these texts and providing them with a comprehensive introduction along with a complete and well-annotated translation into English. As the only archaeologically excavated corpus of philosophical manuscripts to emerge from a Warring States–period tomb, the Guodian texts provide us with a wealth of reliable information for gaining new insights into the textual and intellectual history of pre-imperial China. Given the prominence of Confucian works in the corpus, they serve to fill out much of the intellectual historical picture for the doctrines of roughly three generations of Confucian disciples who fell between the times of Confucius (551–479 BC) and Mencius (c. 390–305 BC). The manuscripts also hold great significance for the study of early Chinese paleography and phonology. Volume II offers introductions to and annotated translations of the manuscripts "Cheng zhi," "Zun deyi," "Xing zi ming chu," "Liu de," and "Yucong" 1-4, along with various appendixes. These include collation tables of witnesses to the Guodian "Laozi" passages and a running translation of all the Guodian texts.
Trade ReviewThe long-awaited publication of this magnum opus by Scott Cook, one of the leading scholars in the fields of early Chinese philosophy and the study of excavated manuscripts, is a major event in the study of early China and a cause for celebration. Cook, in Asia better known under his Chinese name Gu Shikao, which also appears on the book cover, presents us with a comprehensive study and translation of the entire corpus of the Guodianmanuscripts. The great significance of this work is owing not only to its scholarly quality but also to the special importance of its subject matter.
-- Matthias L. Richter * Journal of Chinese Religions *
This magnificent, 1,200-page, two-volume work is an essential reference for anyone interested in the Guodian texts.... Scott Cook has been comprehensive and inclusive, distilling scholarship from close to 1,000 secondary sources in his copiously annotated transcriptions of texts and in his discussion of the debates they have inspired.... Cook's aim in this work was to "provide a manageable basis for futher study" (p. 176) and, as he acknowledges, his translations naturally reflect his own informed understanding of the texts. Given the continuing debates over strip order and the identification of particular graphs, as well as differing views on the nature of certain texts, scholars of course have different interpretations of the materials. Future discoveries of palaeo-graphic materials, along with advances in the field of historical phonology, will allow scholars to reasses the identification of certain graphs, also affecting our understanding of the texts. But Cook's objective presentation clearly acknowledges these facts, and the reader is provided with many of the alternative analyses and made aware that the work will best be used in conjunction with new findings that solve or clarify remaining problems.
* Journal of Asian Studies *
