英文摘要 |
The transmission and interpretation of the Confucian Classics during the pre- Qin period are closely interwoven with intellectual developments internal to the Confucian tradition. Because these texts were transmitted as written documents and recorded on bamboo and silk, the graphic forms of the characters by which the contents were recorded, particularly the structure of the characters, were laden with intellectual meaning. This article takes the Guodian manuscripts as its target, focusing on the character ''(之止)'' such as is found in the ''Five Conducts,'' ''Human Nature Comes via the Mandate,'' and ''Grand One Gives Birth to Water,'' to show how a single graphic element served as the phonetic for a great number of words, which in turn reflected meanings such as ''to arrive at,'' ''to stop at,'' ''to reside in,'' ''to make even,'' and ''to expect,'' in order to advance the teachings of ''extending and securing'' (tui zhi), ''elevating worthy'' (zun xian), and more generally the inter-connectedness between personal self-cultivation and the Heavenly Way. |