Yellow Emperor's Four Canons

The Yellow Emperor's Four Canons -Library of Chinese Classics Chinese-English
Modern Chinese translation by Zhang Chun, English translation by Feng Yu, Explanation and annotation by Yu Mingguang
Published by Yuelu Publishing House, 2006
Library binding book, dimensions 960 x 640, 1/16, 1 Volume, 252 pages
ISBN: 7806656715
ISBN: 9787806656716

The Huangdi sijing (traditional Chinese: 皇帝四經; simplified Chinese: 黄帝四经; pinyin: Hu¨¢ngd¨¬ s¨¬jīng; lit. "The Yellow Emperor's Four Classics") are long-lost Chinese manuscripts that were discovered among the Mawangdui Silk Texts. They are also known as the Huang-Lao boshu (traditional Chinese: 皇老帛書; simplified Chinese: 黄老帛书; pinyin: Hu¨¢ng-Lǎo b¨®shū; lit. "Huang-Lao Silk Texts"), in association with the "Huang-Lao" philosophy named after the legendary Huangdi (黃帝 "The Yellow Emperor") and Laozi (老子 "Master Lao").

Mawangdui is an archeological site, comprised of 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, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Daoist yoga, Yin and Yang, and astronomy; ranging from the familiar (Huangdi Neijing medical classic also attributed to the Yellow Emperor) to the unknown (Book of Silk that 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 (字):

1. Jingfa (經法 "The Constancy of Laws"), 5000 characters
2. Shiliu jing (十六經 "The Sixteen Classics"), 4564
3. Cheng (稱 "Aphorisms"), 1600
4. Yuandao (原道 "On Dao the Fundamental"), 464

Owing to holes (literally lacuna) in the ancient silk fragments, the original numbers of characters are uncertain.

The two longest texts are subdivided into sections. "The Constancy of Laws" has nine: 1. Dao fa (道法 "The Dao and the Law"), 2. Guo ci (國次 "The Priorities of the State"), 3. Jun zheng (君正 "The Ruler's Government").... "The Sixteen Classics", which some scholars read as Shi da jing (十大經 "The Ten Great Classics"), has fifteen [sic]: 1. Li ming (立命 "Establishing the Mandate"), 2. Guan (觀 "Observation"), 3. Wu zheng (五正 "The Five Norms")….

In the decades since 1973, scholars have published many Mawangdui manuscript studies (see Carrozza 2002). In 1974, the Chinese journal Wenwu (文物 "Cultural objects/relics") presented a preliminary transcription into modern characters. Tang Lan's influential article (1975) 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 (藝文志) bibliographical section lists as a Daoist text in four pian (篇 "sections"). 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 Huangdi shu (黃帝書 "The Yellow Emperor's books").

The first complete English translation of the Huangdi sijing was produced by Leo S. Chang (appended in Yu 1993:211-326). Subsequent translations include scholarly versions by Yates (1997) and by Chang and Feng (1998), as well as some selected versions. Ryden (1997) provides an informative examination of "The Yellow Emperor's Four Canons".

汉英对照大中华文库：黄帝四经

汉英对照大中华文库：黄帝四经
作者：余明光 校注/今译 张纯/冯禹 英译
出版社：岳麓书社
出版日期：2006年7月
ISBN：7806656715
丛书名：大中华文库
页数：252 页
包装：精装一卷
开本：小16开

【内容提要】

     《黄帝四经》是先秦时期道家“黄老”学派的代表作，汉以后失佚，不传于世。1973年在长沙马王堆汉墓中发现这部书的帛书写本，书中所述“道论”与《史记》所述史事两相吻合。此书由：“经法”、“十六经”、“称”、“道原”四篇经文组成，展现出“黄老”丰富的政治哲学等方面的思想。它认为“道生法”，强调采用 “文武并用，刑德兼行”的统治术，建立“以法为符，皆断于法”的法治社会，提出在法治条件下实行”无为而治“的主张。这些都对古代的中国政治产生了非常深刻的影响，并成为西汉初年治国的指导思想。

     1973年在长沙马王堆汉墓中，发现了《黄帝四经》的写本。它是与《老子》乙本合卷抄写在一整幅帛上的。以前因未考证，不知道这四篇文章是什么书，故统称为《老子》乙本卷前古佚书。后来唐兰先生考证，这四篇古佚书就是《汉书¡¤艺文志》上所载的《黄帝四经》。它是道家的重要学术流派“黄学”——亦即“黄老之学”的代表作，展现出“黄老”丰富的政治哲学等方面的思想。本书采用英汉两种语言对照，把《黄帝四经》译成今文，供中外研究者参研，也可供普通读物了解中国古老的文化。