郭店楚墓竹簡〈唐虞之道〉新釋

A New Translation of the ''Tang Yu zhi dao'' Bamboo Slips from the Chu tombs in Guodian

一九九三年，湖北荊門郭店一號楚墓出土大批竹簡，經整理者復原為《老子》、〈太一生水〉以及〈緇衣〉、〈五行〉、〈魯穆公問子思〉、〈窮達以時〉、〈性自命出〉等十六種先秦道家與儒家的古籍；其中〈唐虞之道〉竹簡二十九枚，七百零六字，內容闡釋唐堯、虞舜尊賢禪讓之說，不見於傳世文獻，為戰國中晚期儒家的佚籍。本文以一九九八年五月出版的《郭店楚墓竹簡》一書的釋文為基礎，對竹簡的疑難奇字重加考釋，並根據新釋文字調整竹簡的編連。此外，更隨文論述〈唐虞之道〉的作者與寫作的時代，指出簡文的若干用語與《孟子》雷同，簡文的若干字體具有齊、魯的特徵，簡文有闡述《尚書》的文句，簡文有「稷下學派」的色彩等；從而推論〈唐虞之道〉當出自孟子一派，其中心思想屬儒家，其具體的時代背景則為燕王噲與燕相子之禪讓一事。

In 1993, large bamboo slips were unearthed in Jingmen, Guodian no.1 site in present-day Hubei province. After being restored, sixteen types of Former Qin period Daoist and Confucian manuscripts were discovered, including: Lao Zi, ''Taiyi shengshui,'' ''Wuxing,'' ''Zi Yi,'' ''Lu Mu gong wen Zisi,'' ''Qiongda yishi,'' and ''Xingzi mingchu''. Among them was the ''Tang Yu zhi dao'' in 29 slips, 706 characters. Its contents include an explanation of the transference of power to the most able person as prescribed by Tang Yao, and Yu Shun. These documents cannot be found in any other primary collections and were considered as 'lost' Confucian documents of the late Warring States period. This text (Tang Yu zhi dao) was published in May 1998 as part of the Guodian chumu zhujian (Bamboo slips from the Chu tombs in Guodian) and includes commentary and textual exegesis of some of the more obscure characters. Moreover, given the time period and context of the writers of the ''Tang Yu zhi dao'', some of the written characters in the text seem quite similar to those found in Mengzi, while others seem representative of the characters used by the states of Qi and Lu. Other similarities within the text include explanations reminiscent of the Book of Documents (Xiang shu) and the School of Jixia (Jixia xuepai). Given the above, it seems quite likely that the ''Tang Yu zhi dao'' stems from the Mengzi school which may explain why it contains ideals of Confucian thought as well as the story of the King of Yan giving the throne to his minister, Zi Zhi, based on the fact that he was the most able person for the job.