Other Laozi Parallels in the Hanfeizi - Sino-Platonic Papers

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1. Historicizing the text 1 Tae Hyun KIM, “Other Laozi Parallels in the Hanfeizi” Sino-Platonic Papers, 199 (March 2010) Before examining various questions concerning the textual history of the Laozi, I attempt to explain a tacitly assumed but too often carelessly ignored or insufficiently examined question in the study of early Chinese texts and history: that many early texts may have undergone multiple text formation processes before their establishment as the sole extant version, that there remains even in extant texts some convincing evidence to attest to this complexity, and that this complexity seriously asks to reconstruct how to read an early Chinese text. Beginning with a textual examination of three well-known cases, I attempt to formularize my intellectual concerns regarding the Laozi, and, eventually, early Chinese philosophical texts in general. 1.1 The cases of the Mengzi, Xunzi, and Zhuangzi Mengzi witnessed some of Kongzi’s sayings in the book named after him, Mengzi: Kongzi said, “Humanness cannot be regarded in the same way as other ordinary values. If the king of a state were in favor of humanness, there would be no more enemies under heaven.” 孔子曰: 仁, 不可爲衆也, 夫國君好仁, 天下無敵. (離婁上) 1 I would like to express my deep gratitude to Professor Mattias Ludwig Richter of the University of Colorado at Boulder, who has helped me to newly understand the question of the title of the Mawangdui texts and their physical and internal relatedness. Without many helpful discussions with Prof. Richter via dozens of emails, and his extremely kind intellectual explanations responding to my questions on the Guodian and the Mawangdui Laozi parallels, I would not have gained the insight necessary to explain the material characteristics in the Mawangdui PL, which have led me to offer this explanation of the text formation process of the Laozi in the early Han. I also sincerely and warmly thank Professor Victor H. Mair of the University of Pennsylvania. He has been the first reader and the important reviewer for all of the papers that I have written. Had it not been for his warm-hearted encouragement of my work, this paper as well as others could never have materialized and been published. Finally, I am grateful to Paula Roberts, Associate Director for the Center for East Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania, who carefully edited the drafts and added polish and consistency to the finished work, and to Mark Swofford, whose careful attention to technical details ensured that the appearance of this paper correctly presents my intentions. 4
Tae Hyun KIM, “Other Laozi Parallels in the Hanfeizi” Sino-Platonic Papers, 199 (March 2010) Kongzi said, “Young men, listen to this song. If it (the water of Canglang 滄浪之水) is clean, one tends to wash the string of his bamboo hat. If unclean, one washes his feet. The water itself brings about the circumstance.” 孔子曰: 小子聽之, 淸斯濯纓, 濁斯濯足矣, 自取之也. (離婁上) Kongzi said, “Would he who wrote this poem know Dao? If he could rightly govern the state and his family, who dares to insult him?” 孔子曰: 爲此詩者, 其知道乎. 能治其國家, 誰敢侮之. (公孫丑上) These quotations by Mengzi are not found in the extant Lunyu, which has been believed exclusively to deliver Kongzi’s authentic sayings. It is uncertain why these quotations of Mengzi were excluded in the establishment of the Lunyu. But the fact that Mengzi lived about 100–150 years after the time the historical Kongzi actually lived, could be justification for the premise that the quotations of Mengzi can also be valuable in studying Kongzi’s own thought as well as the thought interpreted and regarded as his by successors in the middle of Warring States. It is rarely denied that Mengzi set himself to defend Kongzi’s teachings and cause them to succeed, and based on such a conviction, that he had no hesitation in arguing and defeating other philosophical rivals. Nevertheless, some of Mengzi’s quotations of Kongzi actually are not found in the extant Lunyu; this point has been ignored and forgotten in the study of Kongzi’s thought. There is another similar example in the extant Xunzi. Xunzi critically mentions that Mengzi followed the idea of Wuxing 五行 in the “Fei Shi’erzi” 非十二子 chapter. Nowhere in the extant Mengzi, however, can one find the Wuxing chapter or any equivalent idea that Xunzi referred to. It was through two surprising archaeological finds at the end of last century, at Mawangdui and Guodian, that the chapter or the idea began to be recognized. Admittedly, scholars still argue over whether the document entitled “Wuxing” by contemporary Chinese scholars is actually related to Xunzi’s statement and, furthermore, the authentic thought of Mengzi. 2 Regardless of whether it in fact reflected the thought of Zisi 子思 and Mengzi or not, 2 The attempt to dissociate the text from Mengzi’s thought has been representatively made by Ikeda Tomohisa. See his Maōtai Kanbo hakusho gogyōhen kenkyū 馬王堆漢墓帛書五行篇硏究 (Tokyo: Kyuko shoin, 1993). 5
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