Abstract
The statement tian sheng da chang 天升大常 of the “Cheng zhi wen zhi”〈成之聞之〉had been formerly transcribed as tian jiang da chang 天降大常. According to the graphic structure of the character sheng 升 which have appeared on the Chu slips so far discovered, it was a mistake to transcribe the second word as jiang 降. The phrase da chang 大常 is the name of the flag with a pattern of the sun and moon. The flag is set up on the king’s chariot as the order of his army. The tian sheng da chang 天升大常 means that there is an orderly arrangement for the moving of the sun, the moon and other stars in heaven, in the light of which human relationships should also be put into order. The statement fan yu zheng, wu wei, wu du, 凡於徵, 毋畏, 毋獨, of the “Xing zi ming chu”〈性自命出〉is a close quotation from “Zuo zhuan”《左傳》, concerning the historical facts of the Song 宋 state in the sixth year of Zhao gong 昭公. We also find there is a link between this statement and the sentence wu du si wei 毋獨斯畏 of “Shi”《詩》.
In the Guodian 郭店 bamboo-slip manuscripts, the character lie and some characters taken as lie should be transcribed as lie 獵. These characters should be explained according to the metaphorical meaning of lie 獵. The phrase nei lie 內獵 reads as nei qiu 內求 meaning inward pursue. The phrase yi lie 獵 reads as yi lie 弋獵 meaning pursue. The phrase shi qi lie 失其獵 means losing one’s direction of pursuit. The statement dao bu ke lie ye 道不可獵也 means dao 道 can’t be grasped in whole. The phrase lie xi 獵習 means extensive learning.
The character bi had been formerly transcribed as bi 必. According to the evidence that the word bi 比 of the Xiasi bo下寺鎛 bronze inscription is written as bi , the character bi is another graph of bi 比. The statement zhi xin ru shi, bi zhi er bu jie 至信如時, 至而不結, means time moves in order without any appointment. In the Guodian 郭店 bamboo-slip manuscripts, both the character bi and the character bi 比could be seen, and bi is written in the earlier text. This phenomenon is worth studying.
Keywords
Guodian Bamboo-slip, sheng, lie, bi
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