A Discussion of the Order of the Hexagrams and Symbols of the Shanghai Museum Chu Bamboo Manuscript of the Book of Changes--A Reflection on Pu Maozuo’s Research on the Chu Bamboo Manuscript of the Book of Changes
Resource
臺大中文學報, 30, 069-093
Journal
臺大中文學報
Journal Issue
30
Pages
069-093
Date Issued
2009-06
Date
2009-06
Author(s)
Ho, C.H.
Abstract
With the publication of the Warring States Chu Bamboo Manuscripts, Vol. 3 in December 2003, the earliest known edition of the Book of Changes has captured the attention and imagination of scholars. This manuscript consists of 58 bamboo slips containing parts of 34 hexagrams for a total of 1,806 characters (of which three are combinations of two characters, eight are marks indicating the repetition of the previous character, and 25 are representations of hexagrams). According to an analysis of the symbols used in the bamboo manuscripts by Pu Maozuo, the order of the hexagrams in this version is different from the one seen in the transmitted version of the Book of Changes. This argument is, to date, the most important research to be done based on the bamboo manuscript of the Book of Changes. And while there have been a number of divergent views put forward in the past several years, a review of Pu’s two volume work Research on the Chu Bamboo Manuscript of the Book of Changes published in 2006 shows that he has basically stuck to his original view, albeit with some revision and further elaboration. As such, it would appear that no consensus has been reached by scholars on this question as of the present. In this paper, we will point out that Pu’s assertion that the bamboo manuscript represents an alternative arrangement of the hexagrams depends on three assumptions, namely that hexagrams form pairs either based on a inversion of their order or on an reversal of all six lines of a particular hexagram (非覆即變), the idea that this text represents the incorporation of a theory of yin and yang into the philosophy Book of Changes (陰陽轉化), and that all of these bamboo slips originate from the same version (諸簡一體). However, as we shall show, given the evidence available to us today, each of these three assumptions is not without their problems. Therefore, based on the symbols used on these bamboo slips, we argue that it is impossible to determine whether they represent an ordering of the hexagrams different from the one used in the transmitted version of the Book of Changes.
Subjects
楚竹書周易
易學符號
卦序
非覆即變
陰陽轉化
Chu bamboo manuscript of the book of changes
Symbols
Order of hexagrams
Pairing of hexagrams
Yin-yang theory
Type
journal article
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
0030_200906_3.pdf
Size
14.07 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum
(MD5):0756e10c6f54409f87ba78e268b3ea96