The number of chapters of Lao Tzu and its classicization

When ancient books are first written or edited into articles, they will naturally "become poor and formed" ("Wenxin Carved Dragon Chapters and Sentences") and form chapters. Li Zero called it "natural chapters and sentences": "Before the ancient books were compiled into chapters, there were many fragments with relatively independent meanings, that is, natural chapters and sentences. The compilation of ancient books is the result of the consolidation and collation of such natural chapters and sentences. (Li Zero: "Thirteen Comprehensive Studies of Sun Tzu", Zhonghua Bookstore, 2006, p. 364) By the middle of the Warring States period at the latest, a clear concept of chapters and sentences had been formed, which was clearly proved to be a large number of simple documents written in chapters. For example, Tsinghua Jian 's "Department Year", "the whole text of 138 branches, each jane has a number on the back, a total of 3875 words." The whole article is originally divided into 23 chapters, each chapter is relatively independent, the end of the chapter has a sign, and the end of the simple end is blank. (Li Shoukui, "Preface to the Qinghua JianZhiNian and New Exploration of Ancient History Research Series", p. 4, in Ma Nan: "Qinghua Jian "Lineage Year" Series", Zhongxi Bookstore, 2015) This is already very similar to the way later generations propose segments. Although the "Year of the Lineage" may not have been divided into chapters in the way seen in banknotes at the time of writing, the chapters are from the original author, and there is no doubt about the meaning. Chapters have also become an important way to sort out old books. The old books, which were originally only "natural chapters and sentences", have also been systematically sorted and divided into chapters in this trend.

"On Heng Zheng said" "The speaker is good at restoring righteousness, and he does not suffer misfortunes, but the number of passages in the scriptures is the law... The meaning is manjushri, the change of things is more, according to the intention of the matter, the righteousness of the Ande Dharma image? "One of the ways in which the Han Dynasty classicized old books was to give special meaning to the number of chapters. For example, "or the twenty-nine chapters of the Book of Shang, the Fa Yue Dou Seven Lodges also." Four seven twenty-eight, one of which is called douyi, so twenty-nine. ("On Heng Zhengshu") and then re-compiled old books and even new works (such as "History", "Taixuan", etc.) with special figures. At present, the three early "Lao Tzu" books that are known in full chapters, the seventy-seven chapters of the Northern Han Dynasty, the seventy-two chapters of the Yan Zun "Finger Return" version, and the eighty-one chapters of the Heshang Gong "Chapters and Sentences" are all products of this trend.

Yang Ximei refers to this phenomenon as the "mystical compilation type of ancient books": "The number of volumes or sentences of ancient books often adopts certain fixed forms, which are expected to cooperate with mysterious numbers. The compilation of ancient books is therefore often mysterious, that is, the symbolic meaning of the way of heaven and earth. (Yang Ximei: A Collection of Treatises on the History of Pre-Qin Culture, China Social Science Press, 1995, pp. 736-737) The so-called "mysterious numbers" are "a mysterious language or ghost language used in ancient Chinese society, especially ancient theocratic society." Yang believes: "The language used by human beings to deal with ghosts and gods in surreal society, that is, the language used for religious life, can be called mystical language. Mystical language is often non-self-metaphorical, that is, metaphorical or symbolic language. (Collected Treatises on the History of Pre-Qin Culture, p. 616) Yang's research is truly refreshing. But to study a mature idea entirely within an anthropological framework, it is easy to see the subtleties of this idea. Hu Shi once proposed that ancient Chinese philosophy is based on the rationalist trend (Hu Shi: Outline of the History of Chinese Philosophy, The Commercial Press, 2011, pp. 318-319). From the perspective of rationalization, the so-called "mysterious numbers" and even the so-called "Wei Wei theology" of the Han Dynasty are based on the absolute necessity shown in the calculation of numbers as a true grasp of the Heavenly Dao. In essence, it is precisely the calculation based on the "mysterious number" that combines the primitive belief in unknowability of witchcraft with the rationalized pursuit of absolute necessity. For example, the Book of Han and the Vinaya: "Sixteen and two pounds, four hours multiplied by the image of the four squares." "Sixteen" is the result of absolute and inevitable calculations by two "mysterious numbers", "four hours" and "four squares" as base numbers. The Later Han Shu Zheng Xuanlie's Biography: "Hui (Ma) gathered all the students to examine Tuwei, and Wen Xuan was good at planning, but summoned upstairs." Considering Tuwei and summoning Zheng Xuan with good planning, it can be seen that the mysterious number must be calculated. In the discrepancy in the number of chapters of Lao Tzu, we should pay attention not to the mystery of each kind of chapter number, but to the search for absolute necessity in the acquisition of chapter numbers. That is to say, the calculation of numbers is used to pursue absolute necessity, and the number of the numbers calculated by numbers is used as the number of chapters of Lao Tzu.

The Northern Han Dynasty Jian Lao Tzu has a total of seventy-seven chapters, of which the upper classic is forty-four chapters and the lower classic is thirty-three chapters. Mr. Ding Sixin reduced "seventy-seven", "forty-four" and "thirty-three" to "seven", "four" and "three" (Ding Sixin: "The Organization Principle and Mathematical Law of the Total Chapter Number of the Han Jian Ben 'Lao Tzu] and the Number of Chapters above and Below the Scriptures: A Study of a Possibility", edited by Chen Guying: Taoist Cultural Studies, 30th Series, Zhonghua Bookstore, 2016, pp. 136-137), which we deeply agree with. However, we believe that the complete reduction process should be "seventy-seven", "forty-four", "thirty-three" divided by "eleven" to get "seven", "four" and "three", that is, 77 = 11× (3 + 4). "Eleven" should also come from "the number of heavens and earth." On the "Zhou Yi Genealogy": "The number of days is five, the number of earth is five, and the five are compatible and each has its own." The number of days is five, the number of earth is thirty, and the number of heavens and earth is fifty and five, so it becomes a change and the ghosts and gods also do. He also said, "Heaven is one earth two, heaven three earth four, heaven five earth six, heaven seven earth eight, heaven nine earth ten." "The number of heavens and earth is fifty and five" is the sum of "the number of days 13579" plus "the number of earth is 24680". Its specific addition is based on the Book of Han and the Vinaya: "The number five in the heavens and six in the earth, and the two are combined." At least in the Han Dynasty, there was an algorithm that used "number five days" plus "number six" to get "eleven". By analogy, "number one day" plus "number of earth" gets "eleven"; five "days" are added to five "earth numbers" to get "eleven"; five "eleven" are added together to get "the number of heavens and earth is fifty and five". Texts compiled in the form of "Eleven", such as the Nine Songs, although called "Nine", are actually eleven. The algorithm of the "Seventy-Seven" chapters of the Northern Han Dynasty Jian Lao Tzu is: 77 = (6 + 5) × (3 + 4).

Since the present edition of Lao Tzu's Finger Return has been mutilated, our understanding of the general outline of the whole book mainly depends on the "Junping Sayings of the Second Classic" attached to his book: "The works of Lao Tzu in the past are also the causes of change, morality is the mother, the sutra is the first, the heavens and the earth are the elephants, the upper scriptures are matched with the heavens, and the lower scriptures are matched with the earth." The vagina is eight, the yang is nine, and the yin is yang, so there are two songs in seventy. With the yang and the yin, it is divided into upper and lower levels. With the five elements and eight, the upper meridian begins with forty, and with the four elements and eight, so the lower meridian has two out of thirty and ends. Ding Sixin explained: "The basis for strictly adhering to the number of chapters set in this general chapter is 'yin and yang', that is, 72 songs are set by multiplying yin eight by yang nine; the basis for the number of chapters set is 'yang and yin', that is, yang nine is first divided into five and four numbers, and then multiplied by yin eight, respectively, and the upper part 40 songs and the next 32 songs. On the whole, the setting of the number of strict compliance in this chapter involves the concepts of heaven and earth (up and down), yin and yang, and the principle of 'one yin and one yang is the Tao'. (Ding Sixin: "The Evolution, Formation, and Shaping of the Early Lao Tzu Texts:Based on the Unearthed Simplified Manuscripts," in Zhongzhou Academic Journal, No. 10, 2014) VIII, Book of Han, Vinaya: "Man, following the heavens and the earth, the order of qi into things, the unification of bagua, the adjustment of the eight winds, the eight political, the eight verses, the harmonic eight tones, the dance of the eight, the supervision of the eight parties, the eight wildernesses, to the end of the heavens and the earth." The algorithm for strictly observing the "seventy-two" chapters of Lao Tzu is: 72=8× (4+5).

The Heshang Gong 's Chapters and Verses' edition is eighty-one chapters, thirty-seven chapters of the Upper Classic, and forty-four chapters of the Lower Classic. The earliest extant explanation of the meaning of the number of chapters is found in the Japanese Ke changjian movable type Ben Kawakami Gong "Chapter Sentence" volume at the beginning of the old title Ge Hong's "Lao Tzu Sutra Sequence", in which Yun: "So the argument is written in the first two chapters and eighty-one chapters and more than 5,000 words ... The heavens are born at four o'clock, and the earth is made of five elements. Four by nine, so thirty-six, to respond to the rigidity and softness of all animals and animals; five by nine, so forty-five, to respond to the nine palaces and five squares, four dimensions and nine states, so the law is prepared. Therefore nine, so nine nine eighty-one, the number of extremes also. "There is much controversy about the title, authorship, and era of this preface, but no later than the Six Dynasties. Southern Song Dynasty Xie Shouhao's "Mixed Yuan Shengji" Volume III: "Ge Hong and others could not change this chapter, so they extinguished the chapter of the Dao Jing 'Chang Wuwei', following the end of the De Jing." It is said: "The heavens are made of four hours, so the upper scripture is 4936 chapters; the earth is composed of five elements, so the next scripture is 5945 chapters." Pass through the upper and lower meridians to correspond to the number of nine nines. That's exactly what it means. The old title Ge Hong's "Preface" believed that the number of chapters was inappropriate, and did not conform to the meaning of "heaven, four earth, five" and "nine", so he subtracted one from the "Tao Jing" and added it to the "De Jing". Book 59 of the Book of later Han, "The Biography of Zhang Henglie", Heng Shang Shu said: "And the "Heluo" and "Six Arts", the record has been determined, and the posterity Pi Fu has no room for usurpation. Li Xian quoted the "Zhang Heng Collection" on the matter cloud: ""Heluo" five nine, "Six Arts" four nine, said eighty-one also." "Then the Eastern Han Dynasty already had such an algorithm. From this, it can be seen that the early Taoist interpretation of the eighty-one chapters of Lao Tzu is to multiply the "nine" of the yang number by itself to obtain "eighty-one", that is, 81 = 9×9. In the early Western Han Dynasty, the book was compiled with "Eighty-One", "History of Tian Danlie": "The People who passed the book, goodness is the long and short theory, and the power of the Warring States became eighty-one." ”

In essence, the necessity of the calculus of the numbers attained by the numbers of lao tzu is not necessity itself, but only the borrowing of necessity by the calculus of numbers. That is, the compiler does not ask why the calculus of numbers has this result, but only pays attention to the calculus of numbers to obtain such a result. They do not even have to master mathematical theory, but only need to have a certain amount of computing ability--the inevitability of the absoluteness of the calculus of numbers is inevitable, and the compilers are ignorant. Thus the chapter number itself is given a mysterious nature, and it is precisely after the search for the absolute necessity of the calculus of the numbers has been forgotten that this forgetting is concealed.

(Author: Li Ruohui, Professor, National College, Chinese Min University)

(Guangming Daily)