Kim - Old Master, The A Syncretic Reading of the Laozi from the Mawangdui Text A Onward

SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture

Roger T. Ames, editor

THE OLD MASTER

A Syncretic Reading of the Laozi from the Mawangdui Text A Onward

HONGKYUNG KIM

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

2012 State University of New York

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Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kim, Hongkyung.

The old master : a syncretic reading of the Laozi from the Mawangdui text A onward / Hongkyung Kim.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-4384-4011-8 (hardcover : alk. paper)

1. Laozi. Dao de jing. I. Laozi. Dao de jing. English. II. Title. III. Title: Syncretic reading of the Laozi from the Mawangdui text A onward.

BL1900.L35K5 2012

299.5'1482dc23 2011021203

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In the received editions, the Laozi says, Many words lead to an early misery. This passage appears differently in this book because the Mawangdui texts, the base texts of my translation, contain a different wording. I would like to cite it here, however, because my foremost acknowledgements go to the invaluable accomplishments of the studies on the traditional Laozi. The classic texts, the ancient commentaries, and the historical researches of the Laozi were my true companions through the long course of this project. I cite the passage also because I respect and follow its teaching at least here in the acknowledgments: I used many words for my interpretation of this poetic classic. Notwithstanding, I need to engrave the names of supporters on this book, without whom this book would not have come out. I have always been grateful for their help: to my editors, Nancy Clough and Rachel Moore Jenkins, for their meticulous proofreading; to my colleagues Sung Bae Park, Sichun Kim, Gregory Ruf, and Chris Filstrup for their reading of and invaluable advice on my manuscript; to the unknown reviewers of my manuscript for their productive comments; to the Center for Korean Studies at SUNY at Stony Brook for both tangible and intangible supports; to Nancy Ellegate and Eileen Meehan from the SUNY Press for their incalculable help; and to my family for being with me all the time.

INTRODUCTION

Four main characteristics distinguish this book from other translations of Laozi. First, the base of my translation is the oldest existing edition of Laozi. It was excavated in 1973 from a tomb located in Mawangdui, the city of Changsha, Hunan Province of China, and is usually referred to as Text A of the Mawangdui Laozi because it is the older of the two texts of Laozi unearthed from it. Third, I have made extensive use of old commentaries on Laozi to provide the most comprehensive interpretations possible of each passage. Finally, I have examined myriad Chinese classic texts that are closely associated with the formation of Laozi, such as Zhuangzi, Lshi Chunqiu (Spring and Autumn Annals of Mr. L), Han Feizi, and Huainanzi, to understand the intellectual and historical context of Laozi's ideas.

In addition to these characteristics, this book introduces several new interpretations of Laozi. For example, I assert that Laozi should be recognized as a syncretic text before being labeled as a Daoist one, that it must have been completed sometime between 286 BCE and the time when Text A was written, and that Laozi was compiled in the Qin, which many have viewed as typical of Legalist states. Also, I see Laozi as basically a political text, fitting to answer the prevailing question among intellectuals when it was completed, How does one rule? Of course, this book could reach out to a broader scope of audience by switching the question to, How does one live? Despite the possible self-propagation of the question of this sort, Laozi, in my perspective of textual interpretation, will remain as a text practical and thereby conforming to the Chinese practical reason.