The Huangdi Sijing (; lit. "Yellow Emperor's Four Classics") are ancient Chinese texts thought to be long-lost, manuscripts of which however are generally thought to have been discovered among the Mawangdui Silk Texts in 1973. Also known as the Huang-Lao boshu (), or Huangdi shu (Yellow Thearch Manuscripts), they are thought by modern scholars to reflect a lost branch of early syncretist Daoism, referred to as the "Huang–Lao school of thought" named after the legendary and . One finds in it "technical jargon" derived of Taoism, Legalism, Confucianism and Mohism.
Translations The first complete English translation of the Huangdi sijing was produced by Leo S. Chang (appended in Yu). Subsequent translations include scholarly versions by Yates, and by Chang and Feng, as well as some selected versions. Ryden provides an informative examination of "The Yellow Emperor's Four Canons".
A Complete Tao Te Ching with the Four Canons of the Yellow Emperor is translated by scholar Jean Levi (2011).
Title In the decades since 1973, scholars have published many Mawangdui manuscript studies. In 1974, the Chinese journal presented a preliminary transcription into modern characters. Tang Lan's influential article gave photocopies with transcriptions, analyzed the textual origins and contents, and cited paralleling passages from Chinese classic texts. Tang was first to identify these texts as the "Huangdi sijing", a no-longer extant text attributed to the Yellow Emperor, which the Hanshu's Yiwenzhi () bibliographical section lists as a Daoist text in four . The "Huangdi sijing" was lost and is only known by name, and thus the Daoist Canon excluded it. While most scholars agree with Tang's evidence, some disagree and call the texts the Huang-Lao boshu or the .
The four texts
Mawangdui is an archeological site, comprising three Han-era tombs, found near Changsha in modern Hunan Province (ancient state of Chu). In December 1973, archeologists excavating "Tomb Number 3" (dated at 168 BCE) discovered an edifying trove of silk paintings and silk scrolls with manuscripts, charts, and maps.
These polymathic texts discussed philosophy, politics, medicine, Daoist neigong, Yin and Yang, and astronomy. Most were unknown in the received literature, ranging from a formulary that modern editors entitled Recipes for Fifty-Two Illnesses and two texts on cauterization – the Zubi Shiyi Mai Jiujing and Yin Yang Shiyi Mai Jiujing, both precursors of the Huangdi Neijing – to the unknown Book of Silk, which lists three centuries of comet sightings.
The Mawangdui manuscripts included two silk copies of the Daodejing, eponymously titled "Laozi". Both add other texts and both reverse the received chapter arrangement, giving the Dejing chapters before the Daojing. The so-called "B Version" included four previously unknown works, each appended with a title and number of characters (): , 5000 characters , 4564 , 1600 , 464 To note an additional work, Yates addends Jiu Zhu (The Nine Rulers), appended to the ‘A’ version of the Laozi Due to textual lacunae, that is gaps in the written text due to the fragmentary preservation of the original ancient silk manuscripts, the original character counts are also uncertain.
The two longest texts are subdivided into sections. "The Constancy of Laws" has nine: 1. , 2. , 3. .... "The Sixteen Classics", which some scholars read as , has : 1. , 2. , 3. ....
Philosophical significance The Huangdi sijing reveals some complex connections within Chinese philosophy. Take, for example, the first lines in "The Constancy of Laws": The Way generates standards. Standards serve as marking cords to demarcate success and failure and are what clarify the crooked and the straight. Therefore, those who hold fast to the Way generate standards and do not to dare to violate them; having established standards, they do not dare to discard them. [Missing graph] Only after you are able to serve as your own marking cord, will you look at and know all-under-Heaven and not be deluded. (Dao fa, 1.1)Tr. . This passage echoes concepts from several rival philosophies, Daoism, Legalism, Mohism, Confucianism, and School of Names. De Bary and Lufrano describe Huangdi sijing philosophy as "a syncretism that is grounded in a cosmology of the Way and an ethos of self-cultivation".
"Prior to the Mawangdui discovery," says Peerenboom, "sinologists were more confused than clear about the school of thought known as Huang-Lao". Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian says many early Han thinkers and politicians favored Huang-Lao doctrines during the reigns (202-157 BCE) of Emperor Wen, Emperor Jing, and Empress Dou. Sima cites Han Fei, Shen Buhai, and Shen Dao as representative Huang-Lao philosophers, advocating that sagely rulers should use wu wei to organize their government and society. However, after Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141-87 BCE) declared Confucianism the official state philosophy, Huang-Lao followers dwindled and their texts largely vanished.
The Huangdi sijing texts provide newfound answers to questions about how Chinese philosophy originated. Carrozza explains that, "For a long time, the focal point in the study of early Chinese thought has been the interpretation of a rather limited set of texts, each attributed to a 'Master' and to one of the so-called 'Hundred Schools'." For instance, tradition says Mozi founded Mohism and his students compiled the Mozi text. Conversely, Mawangdui textual syncretism reveals "the majority of the ancient texts" are not written by individual authors, "but rather collections of works of different origins."
Comparable works Apart from the fourth text, Yates considered the first essay of Jingfa ("The Canon: Law"), the first text, most prominently comparable with Laozi (Tao te Ching, later considered a Daoist classic)); the rest of Jingfa is "for the most part, tightly argued treatises" on "socioeconomic and political policy and philosophy".
Though noting similar principles to the late Warring States period Han Feizi, Leo S. Chang considered the Sijing most comparable with the late Warring States Guanzi, and Yates finds Guanzi quotations quantitatively dominant. The Guanzi would theoretically have been influential among late Warring States period nobles. Even the Nine Rulers text, attached to the other Laozi in the Mawangdui silk texts, is "very close in conception" to an essay in the Guanzi.
Yates numbers quotations, or at least similar wordings, at twenty seven for the Guanzi (or proto-Guanzi), eighteen from the Guoyu and Heguanzi, ten from the Tao te Ching. Other references include Wei Liaozi, Shen Buhai, Shen Dao, Xunzi, the Book of Rites, and the Book of Changes. The Mohist concept of universal love is mentioned once, an idea which can also be compared with Laozi.
Randall Peerenboom's earlier study considered the "technical jargon" of the Boshu (Sijing) most "redolent" of the Tao te Ching (Laozi), "Legalist" Han Feizi, Shen Dao, Shen Buhai, Guanzi, the Mohist Mozi, the Confucian text Xunzi, Yin Wenzi, parts of the "Daoistic" Huainanzi, the Qin's Lushi Chunqiu encyclopedia, and outer chapters of the (Daoist classic) Zhuangzi.
"Legalism" comparison As Chang's early survey noted, dating the Sijing back from the early Han dynasty, into the earlier Warring States period, would be theoretically complicated if it came after not only the Guanzi, but also the late Han Feizi, which Chang supposed possible given similar principles. Arguably, the authors of the late Qin state's Lushi Chunqiu encyclopedia are a stronger candidate for having read the Han Feizi, or at least it's chapter 40, discussing Shen Dao's ideas on (Shi) power or circumstantial authority. Shen Dao is known for the subject outside of the Han Feizi, but at least both texts discuss it. The same cannot be said for the Sijing.
Yates considered there to be "very close correspondences" between the Han Feizi and Sijing, with some passages similar to his predecessors, Shen Buhai and Shen Dao. It does not however directly use or reference concepts prominently associated with them in the Han Feizi, namely Shi circumstantial authority for Shen Dao, or Shu administrative technique, as evolving from Shen Buhai. Yates considered their absence "remarkable", strongly questioning it as a primarily "Legalist" text, and rejecting it as post-Qin dynasty text. It does have some similar administrative ideas to Shen Buhai, but with a stronger metaphysical foundation.
"A Lord's Government" in the Jingfa "Canon:Law" of the silk manuscripts recommends not pardoning the death penalty, so that it can be compared more to the "Legalism" of Shang Yang, but is also influenced by Confucianism. It recommends using orders and commands to form people into five and ten man groups, which can be compared with Shang Yang's military grouping of the populace. The Sijing however recommends training the groups according to their competencies, getting rid of market prohibitions and relaxing market taxes, the latter which can be compared with later Confucians Mencius and Xun Kuang. But Yates considered it's economic arguments still simpler than the Xunzi.
According to Yuri Pines, Shang Yang's "simplistic emphasis on agriculture" and suppression of commerce, was "eventually abandoned by Qin policy makers". The Qin dynasty stele are still said to memorialize the two basic occupations. The "Lord's Government", Shang Yang, and Qin dynasty, can be compared in this sense. In the "The Lord's Government", more specifically, earlier recommendations emphasizing agriculture for males, and weaving for females, continue alongside later contemporary recommendations for opening the market and relaxing prohibitions, which are argued to help "the worthy" keep "what they have obtained." The "three prohibitions" continues to recommend not opposing agriculture, but also not to oppose "the people's bright intelligence."
While noting grouping people as Shang Yang's policy recommendation, Yate's older scholarship questioned whether Qin carried it out. The opposite can be argued. Even supposing the idea of grouping people comes from the military, it is a basic enough military idea to be questioned as exclusive to Shang Yang. With Shang Yang as the preserved extreme example, it can be generalized to early Warring States mobilization. Although Shang Yang is earlier known to Xun Kuang as a renowned military leader, Yuri Pines affirms the Han Feizi as the first reference for writings associated with Shang Yang outside Qin.
Format dating The Sijing's compilational formatting is piecemeal, representing a type ranging the late pre-imperial period into the Han dynasty, whose formatting is influenced by Qin unification. Yates argued against late compilation of the present text as indicating Han works; although representative of Qin-Han formatting, its formatting is moreover not impossible to find in the late period outside Qin. Although questionable, it could have even been compiled as is before Qin unification.
But it does tend towards late formatting. The works could just as well have been compiled in the late Warring States period, and then updated to reflect chapter and title naming conventions of Han dynasty copyists. Yates regardless rejects the late copyists as the works original authors, favoring a pre-Qin dating for their original authorship (if not compilation).
Dating The Huang-Lao tradition is traditionally placed as more prominent from the late Warring States period to early Han dynasty. As Yates (1997) notes, dating for the Sijing had been disputed since its discovery. However, Yates "definitely" rejected it as a post-Qin work. Benjamin I. Schwartz (1998) considered scholarly efforts to relate and place the text within the context of pre-Qin thought to be "most convincing". Scholarship on the work "contributes to our understanding of the complexities of pre-Qin China."