The Craft of a Chinese Commentator: Wang Bi on the Laozi

Notes

NOTES 301 301 Notes ntroduction 1. See R. Wagner, Die Fragen Hui-yuan’s an Kumarajiva, 156–216. 2. The “four chapters” are Xinshu shang/xia , Boxin and Neiye . See Röllicke, “Selbst-Erweisung.” Der Ursprung des ziran Gedankens, 164ff. See also Röllicke, “Hidden commentary in precanonical Chinese literature,” pp. 15–24. Dr. Röllicke is a member of the Heidelberg research group “Text and Commentary.” 3. “Wuxing,” from the Guodian find (ca. 310 BCE), reproduced in Guodian Chu mu zhujian, 29–36, and transcribed there, 147–54. A very similar text from the early Western Han but with an inserted commentary is in Mawangdui Han mu boshu zhengli xiaozu, Mawangdui Han mu boshu. Laozi chiaben ji juanhou gu yi shu (n.p.). 4. Hebei sheng wenwu yanjiusuo Dingzhou Han jian zhengli xiaozu, “Dingzhou Xi Han Zhongshan Huai wang mu zhujian Wenzi shiwen,” 27– 34, provides a transcription of the Western Han bamboo strips found in Dingzhou that overlap with the Wenzi chapter in the received text or have close similarity with the Wenzi. The discussion between Wenzi and Laozi as reported in the received text in this chapter is transferred here to a discussion between King Ping of Chu and Wenzi. The verbatim Laozi quotations often ending a segment in the received text of this chapter, are mostly not in the bamboo strips. There is one notable exeption, namely the quotation from Laozi 29 on strip 0870 on p. 29 of this edition, cf. Li Dingshen and Xu Huijun (eds.), Wenzi yaoquan, 106. This quotation indicates together with a number of terms taken from the Laozi that the Wenzi was using Laozi material as authority and expanded on it. The name of 302 NOTES Laozi, however, is not mentioned in the bamboo strips. For a comparison of the bamboo strips with the received text see “Dingzhou Xi Han Zhongshan Huai wang mu zhujian Wenzi jiaokan ji,” 35–37 and 40 from the same group that edited the text. 5. For a detailed study of the commentarial strategies of the Gongyang zhuan see the study by Joachim Gentz, University of Heidelberg, “Ritus und Praxis: Die Chunqiu Exegese des Gongyang zhuan von ihren Anfängen bis Dong Zhongshu.” Mr. Gentz is a member of Heidelberg research group “Text and Commentary.” 6. Wagner, “Twice Removed from the Truth: Fragment Collection in 18th and 19th Century China,” 48ff. 7. Liang Kai, “Liuzu po jing tu,” Ill. 37 in Suiboku bijutsu taisei vol. 4. 1. Wang Bi 1. Wang Bi never rose high enough in the official hierarchy to deserve a biography in the dynastic history. He Shao wrote a Wang Bi biezhuan , of which an excerpt survives in the commentary to Zhong Hui’s biography in the Sanguo zhi. A few more anecdotes are transmitted in the Shishuo xinyu. The relevant material is gathered in an appendix to Lou Yulie, Wang Bi ji jiaoshi, 639–48. The most systematic biographical study hitherto is Wang Xiaoyi, Wang Bi pingzhuan. 2. R. Miao, Early Medieval Chinese Poetry: The Life and Verse of Wang Ts’an (AD 177–217), has done some research on the family genealogy of Wang Can , but has not paid much attention to the family’s social status. Wang Xiaoyi, “Wang Bi guli xintan.” Kong Meng xuebao 75 (1998), gives much detail about the role and status of Shanyang during the Later Han. 3. Cf. the studies on this subject such as Nakamura Keiji, Rikuchō kizokusei kenkyū; D. Johnson, The Medieval Chinese Oligarchy; P. Ebrey, The Aristocratic Families of Early Imperial China: A Case Study of the Poling Ts’ui Family. 4. Hou Han shu, 46.1819.13. 5. Cf. He Changqun , Wei Jin qingtan sixiang chulun ; He Qimin , Wei Jin sixiang yu tanfeng . Some of the best information on Guo Tai is given by Ge Hong in a polemical chapter of the “external chapter”of his Baopu zi, “Strictures on Guo [Tai],” Zheng Guo , 186ff. 6. Sanguo zhi, Wei, 21.597.10ff. NOTES 303 7. Fan Ye, Hou Han shu, 60B.1979. Huang-Lao thought refers to a philosophical and political doctrine much in prevalence during the early Han dynasty that stressed the self-regulatory forces of society as opposed to strict control from the center. It claims its descent from the doctrines of Huangdi and Laozi. 8. Shishuo xinyu 17.1, 635; Mather, A New Account, 323. 9. Zhang Hua, Bowu zhi, quoted in Sanguo zhi...