On The Spread Of The Ancient Books

The spread of the ancient books is one of the important parts for constructing the science of ancient historical data. The study of the spread of the ancient books began long ago. However, the restraint of the traditional methodology fail to promote the awareness of this issue and the production of concrete theories. Thanks to the academic transition, the study of the spread of the ancient books enters a new phase. At present, the study has been greatly promoted by the coming out of the ancient books written on bamboo and silk. Compared with the previous studies, the contemporary studies present many new features. Many issues have become independent objects to be studied, and related theories are developing. Still, there exist questions, especially those about the relationship between the spread and the formation of ancient books. This paper selects the spread of early ancient books as the study object, with a focus on the spread of early Shang Shu, Zi Yi(a representative chapter of early Li Ji), and early materials for Shuo Yuan, hoping to produce a new understanding of the traditional Chinese literature, to promote the theory of the formation of ancient books, thus deepen our understanding of the academic system and academic activities concerning early ancient books and.As ―early ancient books‖ is the research object of this paper, it is therefore important to understand the profile of the early ancient books. Most of the literatures coming from Pre-Qin period, most of them recorded in Yi Wen Zhi of Han Shu, are lost, and today we see only the title catalogues. In addition to the political reasons, two other reasons may also explain the loss of the ancient books: the survival of the fittest, and the establishment of intellectual authority.Bamboo and silk are the major carriers of the early ancient books. The peculiarity of the carrier results in the appearance of some peculiar textual units –Pian(article) and Juan(volume). To be more specific, Pian refers to a complete article with reasonable beginning and ending, and Juan is the measure unit which reveals the way the book materials are stored. Pian is either a text or a circulation unit, whereas Juan only serves as a circulation unit. Zhang, or Chapter, is the basic textual unit of the ancient books, and Juan, or volume, is the form the ancient books exist in and spread. The ancient books were spread orally or in written words. Both modes co-exist and interact with each other. Factors that influence the way the ancient books spread include teaching, transcribing and editing. Other possible factors are the regional differences in scribes and writers, and the dialects they spoke.Shang Shu gained its name in Han Dynasty. Literatures in Pri-Qin are called Shu. Early Shang Shu is what we call the literatures that might have influence on the formation of Shang Shu in modern edition. The content of the early Shang Shu is the major content of the Shu of Chinese ancient texts, which is also the major source of the modern Shang Shu. Liu Qiyu is one of the many scholars who has been studying the spread of Shu of Pre-Qin period. Many of his understandings are subject to confirmation by the unearthed silk and bamboo slips. Let‘s first take a look at Jin Teng on Tsinghua Bamboo Slips. Compared with the existing edition, the bamboo edition shows distinctively the characteristics of Chu. This means that in the age of Jin Teng of bamboo edition there was a lack of intellectual authority which was powerful enough to ensure the spread of a certain definitive edition. Major factors that led to a lack of definitive edition include the outlook on writing and the academic activities then. In addition to Jing Teng on Tsinghua Bamboo Slips, there are many other unearthed ancient books correspond to the modern edition of Shang Shu, especially the Guodian Bamboo Slips which contains a large number of quotations from Shu. All these will help promote our understanding of the spread and formation of early Shang Shu. With a comparison and contrast between the unearthed literatures and the modern editions of them, we come to realize that the spread of early Shang Shu is much more complicated than we expected. And the importance of the twenty nine chapters in Shang Shu of the modern edition in the spread of early Shang Shu deserves reconsidering.Zi Yi in both Guodian Bamboo Slips and Shanghai Museum Bamboo Slips presents a perfect illustration for the study on the spread of chapters like ancient Li Ji. The comparison between the two editions shows that they are basically the same, with minor differences in content, chapter order, and quotations from Shi Jing and Shu. The similarities suggests that the edition of Zi Yi is more fixed, while the differences offer us opportunities to unveil the reasons for the changes in the text during the spread of ancient books. With careful studies we realize that the spread of Zi Yi mirrors that ancient books are without definitive edition. Changes may also be witnessed in the spread of the text of some relatively fixed edition. This is probably partly due to the restraint of writing carriers, and partly due to the possibility that later editors would rewrite the text based on their own understandings. The spread of Zi Yi also reveals the profound effect of the academic activities on the formation of a text, and the importance of the political authority to the establishment of the intellectual authority.Compared with literatures like Shang Shu, though Shuo Yuan came into being much later, the materials based on which it was formed were materials from early period of time. That the spread of the early materials for Shuo Yuan is more complicated than expected is further proved by the unearthed ancient books. Based on the analysis of Ping Wang and Wang Zi Mu in Shanghai Museum Bamboo Slips is the study of the spread of Shuo Yuan, from which the author comes to a conclusion that the early materials were well preserved in Ping Wang and Wang Zi Mu, that the reorganization of the text by the Hans is crucial during the spread of it. The spread of this text, which takes on the characteristics of stability and diversity, is not the result of the fittest survival principle. Furthermore, as a sort of a collection of literatures, cross-references are common between Shuo Yuan and other literatures, suggesting the vitality of the materials on which they were formed. An analysis of the literatures about the story of Confucius being trapped in Chencai shows that elements of the early materials of Shuo Yuan are dynamic but with regularity of its own. The spread of the early materials of Shuo Yuan reveals the fact that the unearthed literatures are below the standards according to which books were formed. Fuyang Bamboo Slips in particular is only a compilation of some simple materials, which is far from being called a book. Based on these understandings, the author believes that an ancient Shuo Yuan of maturity didn‘t exist. Miscellaneous of Shuo Yuan, based on which Liu Xiang edited Shuo Yuan, is only a general term for materials, and the formation of Shuo Yuan can be viewed as an example of the formation of a non-classic book.With the above-mentioned thoughts, understandings and analysis, the author is able to reach a conclusion concerning the regularity of and standards for the spread of ancient books. When we are studying ancient books, it is important that we discard some stereotyped concepts that there exists a definitive edition, that we need to take into consideration of how diversified the formation and spread of the ancient books were, how influential the text was in its age, as well as how well they correspond to the modern edition.