Abstract
This chapter focuses on the Guanzi, a complex collection of texts generally attributed to the Jixia Academy of the state of Qi around the late fourth century BCE. Among those texts, four—Neiye (Inward Training), Xinshu Shang, Xia (Techniques of the Mind, I and II), and Baixin (The Purified Mind)—are classified as Daoist or Huang-Lao. After introducing various theories about their dating, authors, and features, Roth presents a clear and seminal analysis of the four texts. He asserts that their theories are grounded in a concept of Dao as a transcendent yet immanent, imperceptible yet graspable, universal force that shares many features of Dao in the Laozi. This is a reminder that Daoist scholars should still pay attention to these less central texts.
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- 1.
It has become scholarly dogma in recent years to follow Nathan Sivin in doubting the existence of such an academy as myth. But a recent article by Andrew S. Meyer persuasively argues for the both the existence of such a “community of knights” and their decisive influence on Warring states intellectual history for a period of more than 130 years. For details see Sivin 1995: 28 and Meyer 2010–11.
- 2.
- 3.
For further details on the history of Jixia, see Chien 1985: 231–35, 540–74.
- 4.
Other scholars divide the text into different numbers of distinct verses. For example, Gustav Haloun finds 22 distinct verses (see Riegel 1978: 143–69); Ma Feibai (1990) sees fifteen. Allyn Rickett (1998: 39–55) finds 15 sections that he further subdivides into an additional 18 sections. For further details, see Roth 1999: 12–15.
- 5.
Roth (1999: 53–54).
- 6.
Roth 1999: 54–55.
- 7.
Roth 1999: 78–79.
- 8.
- 9.
Roth 1999: 76–77.
- 10.
Roth 1999: 70–71.
- 11.
13/1a5–8. All Guanzi references are to the Sibu congkan (SBCK) edition. Textual emendations are all taken from Guo et al. 1955: 633–49. For details on each of them see Guo et al. 1955, which collects the text critical comments of the major Qing and Republican scholars in addition to the author-editors. In subsequent notes I will only give the name of the scholar whose emendation I follow. All translations given here are my own.
- 12.
In texts of this period, li 理 is often translated as “patterns” or “inherent patterns.” This idea comes from its initial use to represent the faint patterns in jade.
- 13.
Deleting gu yue (therefore it says) at the start of the sentence, following many scholars.
- 14.
Moving this sentence here from a position in the comment section (just before the final line) to which it was erroneously displaced, following Guo Moruo.
- 15.
SBCK13/1a10–12.
- 16.
SBCK 13/2b7–10.
- 17.
Adding zhiyan (words) after buyan (unspoken), following Wang Niansun.
- 18.
SBCK 13/1b12–2a3.
- 19.
Deleting ying (respond) as an erroneous insertion, following Wang Yinzhi.
- 20.
Reading zhi (it, of, this) as ci (this), following many scholars.
- 21.
Responsiveness refers to the sage’s ability to spontaneously perceive things “just as they are” and to, without any forethought, react to them in a completely appropriate and harmonious manner. Adaptation refers to the sages’ ability to go along with other things and not force them into a predetermined mould. These are cardinal qualities of the Daoist sage in this text and other related ones that some believe are part of the Huang-Lao tradition. For details see Roth 1991: 599–650.
- 22.
Emending wu (nothing) to er (and), following Wang Niansun.
- 23.
Emending zhi (possessive particle) to you (have) following Ding Shihan.
- 24.
SBCK 13/1b2–5. Emending wei (not yet) to da (great), following Guo Moruo.
- 25.
Reading qi (its) as er (and), following Xu Weiyü.
- 26.
Emending wei (position) to di (oppose), following Wang Yinzhi.
- 27.
Deleting zhi (knowledge), following Zhang Wenhu.
- 28.
Following the word order suggested by Guo Moruo.
- 29.
Restoring wu (no) before jian (gap) and deleting li (pattern), following Wang Yinzhi.
- 30.
Emending yin (adapt) to qü (derive) based on parallels in the previous sentences. Also emending yi (suitable) to Dao (Way), following Guo Moruo.
- 31.
Emending qü (derive) to shih (generation), following Yü Yüe.
- 32.
SBCK 13/3a2–3b1.
- 33.
SBCK 13/2a3–7.
- 34.
SBCK 13/8b1–9. The section divisions are my own.
- 35.
SBCK 13/10/9–10.
- 36.
SBCK 13/10a11–b5.
References
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Guo, Moruo, Xu, Weiyü 許維遹, Wen, Ido 聞一多. 1955. Collected editorial comments on the Guanzi 管子集校. Beijing: Chung-hua shuchü. (This is the most thorough and complete set of the textual comments made by Qing, Republican, and modern scholars, including the especially valuable work of the compilers themselves.)
Haloun, Gustav (1898–1951). 1951. Legalist fragments: Part I: Guan-tsi 55 and related texts. Asia Major (n.s. 2, pt. 1): 85–120. (The only work on the Guanzi ever formally published by Haloun, it argues for the existence of a core “proto-Kuan-tzu” that emerged from Jixia.)
Hsiao, Kung-chuan. 1979. A history of Chinese political thought, vol. 1. Trans. F.W. Mote. Princeton: Princeton University Press. (The most authoritative study of the development of political philosophy in China contains a long chapter on Guanzi that is admirable in its detailed examination of the political and economic thought of the text but is, unfortunately, written from the now superseded standpoint that the entire book was written by seventh century BCE Prime Minister Guan Zhong.)
Hu, Jiacong 胡家聰. 1995. A new examination of the Guanzi 管子新探. Beijing: Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. (This is a valuable study of the origins, text, and ideas of the Guanzi.)
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Luo, Genze 羅根澤 (1900–1960). 1931. Examining the source of the Guanzi 管子探源. Shanghai: Zhonghua shuju. (An important study of the date and authorship of each chapter of the Guanzi.)
Ma, Feibai 馬非百. 1990. Collected commentaries to the ‘inward training’ chapter of the Guanzi 管子內業篇集注. 管子學刊 1(1990): 6–13; 2(1990): 14–21; 3(1990): 12–21. (This is one of the most insightful and valuable text critical works on the Xinshu chapters. It was published posthumously.)
Maverick, Lewis. 1954. Economic dialogues in ancient China: Selections from the Kuan-tzu. Carbondale: Privately published. (This contains relatively poor translations of thirty texts from the Guanzi collection that deal with economic and political thought but is useful for understanding early Chinese economic theory.)
Meyer, Andrew S. 2010–2011. ‘The altars of soil and grain are closer than kin:’ The Qi model of intellectual participation in the Jixia Patronage Community. Early China 33–34: 37–100.
Qiu, Xigui 裘錫圭. 1980. The relationship of the lost works found before and after the A and B manuscripts of the Mawangdui Laozi to Daoists and Legalists 馬王堆老子甲乙本卷前後佚書與道法家. Zhongguo zhexue 中國哲學 2: 68–84. (This article is an interesting attempt to identify the for “Huang-Lao” texts from Mawangdui in terms of extant intellectual traditions and includes a discussion of their relationship to the four Xinshu texts.)
Rickett, Allyn. 1985 and 1998. Guanzi: Political, economic, and philosophical essays from early China, vol. 2. Princeton: Princeton University Press. (This is the only complete English translation of the entire text and represents the major achievement and life’s work of this significant scholar.)
Rickett, Allyn. 1993. Kuan Tzu. In Early Chinese texts: A bibliographical guide, ed. Michael Loewe. 244–251. Berkeley: The Society for the Study of Early China and the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California. (This is an essential and succinct summary of the textual history of the Guanzi.)
Riegel, Jeffrey. 1978. The four ‘Tzu Ssu’ chapters of the Li Chi. Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University. (This work contains a critical text of Neiye that Riegel compiled based on the unpublished manuscript of the critical study and translation presented by Gustav Haloun in the late 1940s and recorded by Professor Denis Twitchett. It divides the text into twenty-two verses and is quite insightful and useful.)
Roth, Harold D. 1991. Psychology and self-cultivation in early Taoistic thought. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 51(2): 599–650. (This article contains the author’s initial published arguments for the existence of an early Daoist tradition that includes Laozi and Zhuangzi but goes well beyond them into such works at the Guanzi and the “Huang-Lao” silk manuscripts from Mawangdui.)
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Roth, H.D. (2015). Daoism in the Guanzi . In: Liu, X. (eds) Dao Companion to Daoist Philosophy. Dao Companions to Chinese Philosophy, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2927-0_11
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