View source for Mawangdui Silk Texts

{{Short description|2nd-century BC corpus of Chinese manuscripts}}
The '''Mawangdui Silk Texts''' ({{zh|s=马王堆帛书|t=馬王堆帛書|first=t|p=''Mǎwángduī Bóshū''}}) are [[Chinese literature|Chinese]] philosophical and medical works written on [[silk]] which were discovered at the [[Mawangdui]] site in [[Changsha]], [[Hunan]], in 1973. They include some of the earliest attested manuscripts of existing texts (such as the ''[[I Ching]]''), two copies of the ''[[Tao Te Ching]]'', a copy of ''[[Zhan Guo Ce]]'', works by [[Gan De]] and [[Shi Shen]], and previously unknown medical texts such as ''[[Wushi'er Bingfang]]'' (''Prescriptions for Fifty-Two Ailments'').<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.hnmuseum.com/hnmuseum/eng/whatson/exhibition/mwd_2_5.jsp|title=The Treasure on Silk and Inscribed Slips|website=Hunan Provincial Museum|access-date=17 July 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160704032000/http://www.hnmuseum.com/hnmuseum/eng/whatson/exhibition/mwd_2_5.jsp|archive-date=4 July 2016}}</ref> Scholars arranged them into 28 types of silk books. Their approximately 120,000 words cover military strategy, mathematics, cartography, and the six classical arts: ritual, music, archery, horsemanship, writing, and arithmetic.<ref>[http://www.investchina.com.cn/english/2003/Jun/66332.htm 'The Age of the Bamboo Slip', ''China Through a Lens'' (6 June 2003)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050123202926/http://www.investchina.com.cn/english/2003/Jun/66332.htm |date=23 January 2005 }}. Retrieved 4 October 2006.</ref>

=={{anchor|Overview of the texts}}Overview==
{{See also|Huangdi sijing}}
[[Image:Mawangdui LaoTsu Ms2.JPG|thumb|right|upright|alt=Silk manuscript; although it has some holes, it is remarkably well-preserved.|Part of a silk manuscript from [[Mawangdui]], second century BC]]
The texts were buried in tomb number three at Mawangdui (which was sealed in 168 BC), and were hidden until their late-20th-century discovery. Some were previously known only by title, and others are previously unknown commentaries on the ''I Ching''. In general, they follow the same sequence as the received versions, which were passed down by copying and recopying texts collected and collated during the fifth century AD. However, in some important aspects they differ noticeably from the received texts known before their discovery.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Harper|first=Donald John|title=Mawangdui yi shu yi zhu = Early Chinese medical literature : the Mawangdui medical manuscripts|date=2015|isbn=978-1-138-96808-0|location=Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon|oclc=957574220}}</ref>

===''Tao Te Ching''===
{{See also|Guodian Chu Slips#Tao Te Ching}}
Most received versions of the ''[[Tao Te Ching]]'' are in substantial agreement. Occasionally two versions will have a [[homonym]], and a third text with a character which is a synonym for one of the first two characters is useful.

There are two Mawangdui Laozi texts, namely A ({{lang|zh|甲}}; written in earlier [[small seal script]]) and B ({{lang|zh|乙}}; written in later [[clerical script]]). Texts A and B were copied at different times, with A being the earlier text, although both may be derived from the same parent text. Both Mawangdui texts place the ''de'' section (chapters 38–81) before the ''dao'' section (chapters 1–37), whereas the received text places the ''dao'' section first.<ref name="Murphy 2006">{{cite thesis|last=Murphy|first=Dan|location=Amherst|date=2006|title=A comparison of the Guodian and Mawangdui Laozi texts|degree=M.A.|publisher=University of Massachusetts Amherst|pages=6, 25|url=https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2401&context=theses|doi=10.7275/6870785}}</ref>

[[D. C. Lau]] and Robert G. Henricks have made new translations of the ''Tao Te Ching'' based on the silk text, largely ignoring the received texts,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/may/31/dc-lau-obituary|title=DC Lau obituary|website=[[The Guardian]]|date=31 May 2010|access-date=17 July 2016|last=Ames|first=Roger T.|author-link1=Roger T. Ames}}</ref> although Henricks' translation compares received versions with the text found in the tomb. In 1990, [[Sinology|sinologist]] [[Victor H. Mair]] translated the Mawangdui version; Mair considered this earliest-known version (by 500 years) more authentic than the most commonly translated texts. The two silk books are part of the Cultural Relics from the Mawangdui Tombs collection at the [[Hunan Provincial Museum]].

===Jargon===
The Chinese characters in the silk texts are often only fragments of the characters used in later traditional versions. Many characters are formed by combining two simpler characters: one indicating a general category of meaning, and the other to guide pronunciation. Where the traditional texts have both components, the silk texts frequently give only the phonetic half of the character. There are several hypotheses to explain this:
* The scribe may have been too lazy to write the full form of many characters.
* The earlier of two silk texts (or the text from which it was copied) may have been a scribe taking dictation as quickly as they could write. The scribe wrote down the part of each character that indicates its pronunciation, with the intention of later recopying the text with the appropriate meaning components for the abbreviated characters.
* In English, "dog" has two apparently-unrelated meanings: a carnivorous mammal, or to pursue with unflagging patience. English speakers do not write "dog (the mammal)", even in the sentence "The feral dog dogged the human invaders of its territory until they eventually left the area". A similar understanding may have been assumed in the ancient writings.
* It may have been a form of jargon; similar writing of partial characters are found in ancient Chinese musical ([[pipa]], guqin and [[guzheng]]) scores. Partial characters and their derivatives are building blocks for the writing systems of some historical (such as [[Khitan language|Khitan]] and [[Tangut language|Tangut]]) and modern languages, such as [[Japanese language|Japanese]].

In addition to partial characters mentioned above, the two-silk texts sometimes use characters different from those in later versions. This is similar to the English "She flowered the table" compared with "She floured the table", and the older version provides insight into a text's original meaning.

==Translations==
{{wikisourcelang|zh|道德经 (帛书本)|Mawangdui Tao Te Ching (in Chinese)}}
*{{cite book | author=Heluo Tushu Chubanshe | title=Boshu Laozi | publisher=Heluo Tushu Chubanshe | location=Taipei | year=1975}}
*{{cite book | author=Yen Ling-feng| title=Mawangdui Boshu Laozi Shitan| location=Taipei | year=1976}}
*{{cite book | author=D. C. Lau | title=Tao te ching | publisher=The Chinese University Press | location=Hong Kong | year=1982 | isbn=962-201-252-3}}
*{{cite book | author=Robert G. Henricks | title=Lao-tzu : Te-tao ching | publisher=Ballantine Books | location=New York | year=1989 | isbn=0-345-34790-0}}
*{{cite book | author=Victor H. Mair | title=Tao Te Ching : The Classic Book of Integrity and the Way | publisher=Bantam Books | location=New York, Toronto, London, Sydney, Auckland | year=1990 | isbn=0-553-07005-3}}
*{{cite book | author=Edward L. Shaughnessy | title=I Ching = The classic of changes, the first English translation of the newly discovered Mawangdui texts of I Ching | publisher=Ballantine Books | location=New York | year=1997 | isbn=0-345-36243-8}}
* {{cite book |last = Harper|first =Donald   |translator = |year = 1998 |title = Early Chinese Medical Literature : The Mawangdui Medical Manuscripts |publisher = Kegan Paul International| location = London |isbn = 0710305826}}

==See also==
* [[Book of Silk]]
* [[Chu Silk Manuscript]]
* [[Guodian Chu Slips]]
* [[Mawangdui]]
* [[Shuanggudui]]
* [[Shuihudi Qin bamboo texts]]
* [[Yinqueshan Han Slips]]
* [[Zhangjiashan Han bamboo texts]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://ctext.org/mawangdui Mawangdui Laozi A and B texts] (Chinese Text Project)

{{Han dynasty topics}}
{{Excavated Chinese manuscripts}}
{{Writing}}

[[Category:168 BC]]
[[Category:2nd-century BC manuscripts]]
[[Category:1973 archaeological discoveries]]
[[Category:Archaeological corpora]]
[[Category:Archaeological artifacts of Han dynasty]]
[[Category:Chinese classic texts]]
[[Category:Chinese manuscripts]]
[[Category:History of Changsha]]
[[Category:Han dynasty texts]]
[[Category:Silk]]