The scene of the press conference. The Surging News reporter Cheng Ting figure
On December 16th, Tsinghua University held a press conference on the results of the "Tsinghua University Tibetan Warring States Bamboo Jane (Pick One)", introducing the relevant situation of the eleventh series of the "Tsinghua Jane" collation report.
The surging news learned from the scene that the "Tsinghua University Tibetan Warring States Bamboo Jane (Pick One)" contains a long Warring States bamboo book "Five Ages". This article is an unprecedented pre-Qin book, the length is huge, and the whole article constructs a grand and complex system of heaven and man, which can be regarded as a synthesis and summary of the understanding of the relationship between heaven and man in the pre-Qin and Warring States periods.
While continuing to promote the collation of "Tsinghua Jane", the compilation and translation of the English editions of the "Tsinghua University Tibetan Warring States Bamboo Jane" and "Tsinghua University Tibetan Warring States Bamboo Jane" have also been put on the daily basis.
The whole text is nearly 4500 words, and a large and complex system of celestial beings is constructed
The "Five Chronicles" has a total of 130 janes, the whole content is basically complete, the total word count is nearly 4500 words, which is an unprecedented pre-Qin book, the length is huge, and it can be called the most excavated Jane.
The Five Ages borrowed the mouth of the Later Emperor and centered on the Five Ages (day, moon, star, chen, and year) and the five calculations, establishing the routine and law of all things in heaven and earth. The Five Chronicles match the star calendar with the five virtues of etiquette, righteousness, love, benevolence, and loyalty, and the heavens and goddesses and the gods and the earth, while the larger space focuses on the corresponding personnel and practices, involving the establishment of the state, ritual sacrifices, human ethics, geotechnical things, soldiers and wars, fertility and reproduction, human body diseases and other aspects. The whole text constructs a grand and complex system of heaven and man, which can be said to be a synthesis and summary of the understanding of the relationship between heaven and man in the pre-Qin period.
"Tsinghua University Tibetan Warring States Bamboo Jane (Pick One)" book shadow. Courtesy of Tsinghua University
The Five Chronicles deal with the Doujian December name and the Twenty-Eight Houses contained in the Erya, as well as mythological content such as the Yellow Emperor's Battle Ofs. The article begins with the calendar and eventually returns to personnel affairs, with a grand scale, strict structure, rich levels, and a vast meaning, which is of great significance for the study of ancient astronomical calendars and national governance, and is a newly discovered important document on the history of pre-Qin thought and culture. The publication of the "Five Classics" will provide an important ideological document for the pre-Qin historians, and also provide valuable classical materials for all sectors of society to understand the ancient Chinese concept of heaven and man.
According to a previous report by The Paper, in 2008, Tsinghua alumni donated to Tsinghua University nearly 2,500 pieces of Warring States Bamboo Jane, which is now known as "Tsinghua Jane". These "Tsinghua Janes" are more than 2300 years old, and their lengths range from 10 centimeters to 47.9 centimeters, with an average thickness of only 1 millimeter. The text on the bamboo is the Chu script of the Warring States period and has now been lost.
According to the appraisal of experts, most of the contents of this batch of Warring States Bamboo Jane are classics involving the core content of traditional Chinese culture, such as classics and history, and most of them have never been seen in the pre-Qin bamboo janes that have been discovered, which has high academic value.
In August 2008, while carrying out the rescue clean-up and protection of bamboo jane, Tsinghua University decided to establish the Research and Conservation Center for Excavated Documents. The center undertakes the protection, collation and research of Tsinghua Jane, and also carries out the research and protection of other excavated documents (such as oracle bones and gold texts), as well as talent training.
Since 2011, Tsinghua has published a series of "Tsinghua Jane" compilation reports every year.
The "Tsinghua Jane" report has a total of about 15 series, and the subsequent edition will be published
What is the current progress of the "Tsinghua Jane" finishing work? What are the priorities for the future?
In this regard, Professor Huang Dekuan, director of the Tsinghua Excavated Documents Research and Conservation Center, said in an interview with the surging news that more than 2/3 of the "Tsinghua Jane" collation work has been completed. According to the previous progress, it will take about four or five years to complete the collation of all "Tsinghua Jane", and finally a total of about fifteen series of "Tsinghua Jane" collation reports can be produced.
The collation of the twelfth series of "Qinghua Jian" has been initiated, and it is also a long story, the main content of which is related to the ideas of the Xia Dynasty in governing the country.
Huang Dekuan told the surging news that the research team has a process of re-studying and re-discussing in the process of sorting out "Tsinghua Jane". With the deepening of the team's understanding, some of the problems that were not solved at that time in the research reports released in the previous period can now be solved. In addition, the academic community also has many new opinions and opinions on "Tsinghua Jane".
"Therefore, we feel it is very necessary to start the proofreading of 'Tsinghua Jane' in a timely manner." Huang Dekuan said, "On the one hand, it absorbs new achievements and reflects new understandings in the academic community; on the other hand, it meets an expectation of the academic community, that is, to provide a collated text of 'Tsinghua Jane' that is more convenient for different disciplines to use (the report we are now producing is more difficult and inconvenient to use). ”
At present, the Tsinghua Excavated Literature Research and Protection Center and a publishing house have agreed to start the 18-volume "Tsinghua University Tibetan Warring States Bamboo Simplified Interpretation" (hereinafter referred to as "Tsinghua Jane") work.
On the basis of the "Tsinghua Jane" collation report, the "Tsinghua Jane" proofreading will absorb new achievements, reflect new understandings, and recompile them according to the corresponding themes (possibly the content of the same volume) and write them into an annotated version suitable for scholars of general disciplines. At the same time, for the first time, a full set of "Tsinghua Jane" infrared photos will be published in this set of proofreading books, so that professional scholars can also use them conveniently and with confidence.
In addition, Huang Dekuan introduced that the center also launched a cooperation with Xia Hanyi, a sinologist and professor at the University of Chicago, to plan to translate "Tsinghua Jane" into English, that is, the English version of "Tsinghua University Tibetan Warring States Bamboo Jane". The English translation of "Tsinghua Jian" will be coordinated with the Chinese interpretation and will be published by Tsinghua University Press in 18 volumes.
"This year, we have completed the work of proofreading the first 4 volumes of 'Tsinghua Jane' and have delivered them to the publishing house. The first volume of the English edition is expected to be available next year, and the English translation of several volumes has been initiated at the same time. Huang Dekuan believes that this is conducive to international scholars to better use the new materials unearthed in China and let "Tsinghua Jane" go to the world.