A grammatical study on the textual variations in Chu bamboo manuscripts = 楚簡文獻異文語法研究

Abstract

The pre-Qin texts which have been passed down to present were heavily revised through the ages of Han to Tang Dynasties. Since the Twentieth Century, plenty of excavated materials like bamboo manuscripts and silk books have been unearthed and used to be comparing with the extant pre-Qin texts, for example, Laozi, Zhouyi (Classic of Changes), The Chapter Ziyi of Liji (Book of Rites) and The Chapter Jinteng of Shangshu (Book of Documents). They can be collated with the texts of the bamboo manuscripts of Guodian as well as the bamboo manuscripts collected by the Shanghai Museum and Tsinghua University. However, a study of those manuscripts has revealed that fact that there are differences in contents and languages between the old text and the present text.

This research will analyse the linguistic similarites and the differences between the pre-Qin texts and three bamboo manuscripts: Guodian, Shangbo and Tsinghua, to examine the pattern of languages of the textual variants. Some diachronic changes of the classical Chinese grammar will also be discussed further based on the comparisons and discoveries of the variants.

This thesis will mainly explore two key aspects of the variants: Negation（否定形式）and mood words（語氣詞）. In Chapter Two and Three, I will discuss the negation of the textual variants, which includes existential verbs, negative adverbs and indefinite pronouns. There will be two pairs of negation of textual variants selected for the examination: (1) Wang（亡）which was usually used in bamboo manuscripts, but was then substituted by Wu（无、無）in extant pre-Qin texts; and (2) Fu（弗）which was also widely applied in bamboo manuscripts and was nevertheless replaced by Bu（不）in extant pre-Qin texts.

Chapter Four and Five will delve into the mood words. Ye（也）and Yi（矣）were commonly seen in ancient writings to express moods and feelings such as indicative mood, narrative mood or imperative mood. A finding in this research shows that these two words were not only found in bamboo manuscripts but also in extant pre-Qin texts. In particular, Ye appeared in both materials with a high frequency. These mood words were expunged from the bamboo manuscripts while some were added in the extant pre-Qin texts.

This grammatical study of the bamboo manuscripts manifests the patterns of the negations which normally show the same usages and grammatical functions in the bamboo manuscripts as well as the extant pre-Qin texts. As a consequence of the addition or omission of a specific mood word between the textual variants, this may influence the speaking tone of the text - enriching or eliminating the effects of “dialogue” in the writing.