In July 2008, Tsinghua University collected a batch of extremely precious Warring States Bamboo Jane through donations from alumni. The relevant situation has been described in the small article "First Acquaintance with Tsinghua Jian" published by Guangming Daily on December 1, 2008. In fact, since Zhu Jian arrived at the school on July 15, Tsinghua has set up a research and protection center for excavated documents to clean up and protect these cultural relics. It is already known that the age of this batch of bamboo janes is the middle and late Warring States period, which has been confirmed by carbon-14 determination. The writing style is mainly Chu state. The number of Janes, together with a few broken ones, is 2388, which is the largest number among the Warring States Bamboo Janes found so far.
Due to the huge number, the difficulty of interpretation of the text, and the dispersion of Jane, the need to conjugate, compare, interpret, the task of collation is undoubtedly heavy and long-term, not to mention that the technical protection work is still continuing, and it is still impossible to fully understand the content of Tsinghua Jane. However, from the beginning of cleaning the bamboo jane, there have always been discoveries in the observation room, and some of them are really amazing. What I want to introduce to you here is a brief book that we first arranged, which originally had no titles, and now according to the article, the test questions are "Baoxun".
There are a total of 11 janes in the whole "Baoxun", each of which is 22-24 words, of which the first half of the second jane is broken and has not yet been found, but the article is generally complete. One of the characteristics of these Janes is that the length of Jane is only 28.5 cm, and the font is also a bit special, so it is easy to attract our attention.
This brief book is completely in the style of the Book of Shang, and begins: "But the king has been in the past fifty years, and he is not discouraged, and the king has many beards (calendars) for the day, and he is afraid of falling into the sermon." "As we all know, there were very few kings who could reign for fifty years in ancient times, and only King Wen of Zhou, who happened to reign for fifty years. The Wuyi in the Book of Shang records the words of The Duke of Zhou: "King Wen was appointed to enjoy the kingdom for fifty years. Therefore, when we see this first jane, we guess that it refers to King Wen. Later, it was found that the later text had "Wang Ruoyue: Fa (Wu Wang's name)", and the hypothesis was confirmed.
The text does not record the month, only the stem of the day: "Pengzi, zijing (i.e., 頮 or 沬字, wash your face). Ugly, ignorant...". This is the preparation ceremony for King Wen to issue his last words, similar to the ritual before King Zhou Cheng's death recorded in the Shangshu Gu Ming, but simpler.
King Wen told the prince about two ancient historical events and legends, and used these two historical events to illustrate an ideological concept that he asked the prince to follow--"Zhong", which was later said to be the Middle Way.
The first historical event is about Shun, and King Wen said: "Xi Shun used to be a villain, personally cultivating in Liqiu, fearing the middle, self-esteem, not contrary to the desires of the Shu wan surname." There are things that are applied to the upper and lower distances, the translocation is transposed, the yin and yang things are measured, and the saltiness is not disturbed. Shun has gained the middle, it is not easy to change his name, his body is nourished, his wings are unremitting, and he is used as the virtue of the three surrenders. Emperor Yao Jiazhi, with the help of the shu. ”
This passage is about how Shun seeks the Middle Way. Because Shun was born in the people and was able to examine himself and not go against the wishes of the people, he always put himself in the position of the government inside and outside the imperial court, considering both positive and negative aspects and doing things well. This reminds us of the words of Confucius in Zi Si's Zhongyong: "Shunqi's great knowledge is also with!" Shun is inquisitive and observant, conceals evil and promotes good, clings to both ends of it, and uses it for the people, which he thinks is Shunhu!"
Recently, Professor Huang Tianshu of Capital Normal University has a paper entitled "Speaking of "Yin" and "Yang" in Oracle Bones", arguing that "Yin people have been able to determine the orientation, distinguish between yin and yang, and have the concept of yin and yang" (see "Huang Tianshu Ancient Texts"), so it is not surprising that King Wen mentioned "yin and yang". If we consider the relationship between King Wen and "Zhou Yi", it makes us have a lot of associations.
The second historical thing is about micro. Wei is Shangjia, the sixth ancestor of Shang Tang. King Wen said, "In the past, there was a falsehood in the river, so that there was easy to restore, and there was easy to obey the sin." Slightly harmless, it returns to the river. "Here it is about Shangjia Wei taking revenge on his father Wang Hai. Both Wang Hai and Shangjia are found in the oracle bones unearthed from the Yin Ruins, and after the oracle bones were discovered, Wang Guowei and other scholars hooked this long-lost historical relic from the "Zhou Yi", "Shan Hai Jing", "Chronicle" and other documents: Wang Hai, the leader of the merchants, once led an ox cart to youyi to trade, and the prince of Yi set up a conspiracy to kill Wang Hai and seize the ox cart. Later, Wang Hai's son Shangjia united with Hebo to defeat Youyi and kill Mianchen.
What King Wen of Zhou said about Wei's "false middle" still needs to be considered, but according to the "Baoxun", Wei thus "passed on the "middle" to his descendants, as for the soup", so the soup had to have the whole world. Like the Shun mentioned above, the concept of "Zhong" plays an important role, which is repeatedly emphasized in the Baoxun chapter.
Everyone is familiar with the Analects of Yao Yue, which contains Yao Shun: "Consultation, Er Shun, the calendar of heaven is in Ergong, allowing to cling to it, the four seas are poor, and the heavens are eternally ended", and Yun: "Shun also lives yu with fate." This is different from what King Wen of Zhou said in the Baoxun, but Confucius did attach importance to the Middle Way, and his grandson Si's "Zhongyong" quoted Confucius's words, and then made a special play: "Zhongye, the great ben of the world; Harmony also, the world of the Tao also. To neutralize, heaven to the heavens, and all things to nurture. "Raising "Zhong" to the level of philosophy and expounding, and at the same time communicating with the concept of "and", there has been great development. In any case, the ideas of the Baoxun have something in common with Confucianism, and it is worth exploring and studying.
Speaking of this, it is inevitable to involve Song Ru's theory of "Taoism". Zhu Zi wrote the "Zhongyong Chapters and Sentences", and the beginning of the preface is to talk about "Dao tong", he said: "The transmission of The Tao tong has its own origins, and it is found in the scriptures, then those who are 'allowed to hold on to the middle' are given Shunye; 'the people's hearts are only in danger, the Dao heart is small, only the essence is the only one, and the only thing that allows the Tao to be in the middle' is why Shun is given to Yu Ye. Yao's words are exhausted, and Shun's three words are so that One of Mingfu Yao's words will be like this and then it can be several. Zhu Zi's words of ShunzhiYu are found in the Shangshu Da Yu Mo circulated in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, known as the "Sixteen-Character Heart Transmission", and Yan Ruoxuan and others have clearly identified their falsifications. Looking at the article "Bao Xun" now, it seems that Yao Shun has indeed had a "medium" teaching since then, and I believe that it will arouse the interest of all parties. The pictures and interpretations of the Jane of the "Baoxun" will also be published soon for everyone to study.