Different versions -- Dao De Jing (2)

A general Q & A forum

Moderator:Scott M. Rodell

Post Reply
athena
Posts:11
Joined:Sat Mar 03, 2007 10:16 am
Different versions -- Dao De Jing (2)

Post by athena » Sat Jun 02, 2007 11:09 am

The earliest editions of Daodejing


In 1993, the Bamboo-Slip Daodejing was discovered in a tomb in Guodian village, in Jingmen, Hubei province. According to the age of the grave, archaeologists determined that these slips could be dated prior to 278 BCE. The researchers divided these slips into three bundles based on their form and length. The three bundles of the Bamboo-Slip Daodejing amount to one third of today’s edition, and the sequence of its chapters is different. Most scholars consider the three bundles of bamboo-slips as extracts of the Daodejing. Some sentences of the bamboo-slip edition are dissimilar to the common edition. For example, the sentences "refuse sageliness and discard wisdom" and "refuse humanity and discard morality" in the common edition, are written as "refuse wisdom and discard debate" and "refuse fakeness and discard consideration" in the bamboo-slip edition.


The copy A and copy B of silk manuscripts Daodejing were discoverd in the Mawangdui tomb number three in Changsha, the capital of Hubei province in 1973. The copy A manuscript doesn't avoid the taboo character Bang 邦, present in the name of the first Han emperor Liu Bang

Post Reply