Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 12, 2023

The Chu Bamboo Slips—Shi Jing: Zhao Nan: Zou Yu, and the Yuheng System of Remote Antiquity—On the Construction of Contemporary  Chinese Classics

(Abstract)

Huang Dekuan

Research on the Shi Jing: Zhao Nan: Zou Yu analyses the interpretation of the poem Zou Yu through different ages, and provides a new interpretation based on the newly discovered Chu bamboo slips of the Warring States period. It reveals the deep connection between the ancient Yuheng system and the poem, and puts forward a new view of the long unsolved problems in its study, thus providing a typical sample and a possible path to the construction of contemporary study of the Chinese classics. On the basis of inheriting the tradition of classical learning, the construction of contemporary Chinese classical studies should, firstly, combine the traditional “minor study” with contemporary paleography and the study of the ancient Chinese script, so as to realize the integration of the ancient and the modern in the “script” dimension. Secondly, it should combine the study of the documents received from ancient times with the newly discovered excavated writings and realize the integration of the study of the received documents and excavated writings in the dimension of “text.” Thirdly, in the dimension of “culture,” it should reveal not only the deep-rooted relationship between the ancient classics and their connotations and history and culture, but also the original appearance and evolutionary trajectory of Chinese history and civilization acquired through research on the ancient classics, so as to reveal the deathless historical laws governing China’s civilization.