The Teaching Materials Used by Jixia Si Meng Scholars:

ISSN 1562-059X　

World Hongming Philosophical Quarterly

Vol. 2000, No. December

The Teaching Materials Used by Jixia Si Meng Scholars: A Study of Guodian Bamboo Slips

Gao Zheng

Professor, Institute of Philosophy

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Beijing 100732

PRC

Email: kc_emb@hotmail.com

Abstract[1]

The bamboo slips in the No. 1 coffin chamber of the Chu Grave at Guodian are important texts for the study of traditional Chinese culture. This paper claims that they are in fact a set of step-by-step teaching materials used as textbooks by Jixia Si Meng scholars. The buried-with-the-dead materials cover a basic knowledge of Confucian classics, the basic views of the Zisi and Jixia Si Meng schools, and also human dispositions, social ethics, political philosophy, metaphysical cosmology, etc. The Da Yi Sheng Shui, which can be regarded as the "Thales theory" in ancient China, is a text with Jixia Si Meng scholars' ideological characteristics, as it not only followed Zeng Shen and Zisi in absorbing the metaphysics of Daojia Laozi, but Jixia scholars' idea that water is the source of the universe also. Wuxing is a development of the wuxing theory[2] in Liyun, the six-virtue theory[3] and Mencius' theory. Qu Yuan, who had been to Qi State as an envoy, probably brought these materials to the State of Chu from Jixia, Qi State in 311 B.C. It is very likely that when Qu Yuan was in Qi State, the 23-article Zisi had not been written yet. The new findings from the Guodian Grave have added greatly to Jixia Si Meng scholar's literature, which played an important role in the history of Chinese ideology.

Keywords: Jixia, teaching materials, Qu Yuan, Guodian Bamboo Slips, Si Meng scholars

[1] This is a Chinese paper with 10,381 characters, GBK version. To read the full text, please visit here. To download GBK Chinese fonts to browse with IE, please click here.

[2] An ancient Chinese theory of material composition, that is, from mu, huo, tu, jin, shui.

[3] They are wisdom, intelligence, humanity, justice, loyalty, and honesty.

Founders:	Dr. Hengyucius Dr. Chen Jian
Publisher:	Dr. Hengyucius
Editing and Reviewing:	World Hongming Philosophical Quarterly Editorial Committee
Published by:	World Hongming Academy Press
Issued in:	December 2000
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Submission Emails:	TG@whpq.org / whpq2000@sina.com