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Three Guodian Laozi (meaning the Tao Te Ching), bamboo slip texts were discovered in 1993. The Guodian texts were transcribed before 300BC. Version C of the Guodian bamboo slips
includes a text:
" The Great One Gave Birth to Water Water returned to assist the great one, so as to form heaven. Heaven returned to assist the great one so as to form earth. Heaven and earth (again assisted one another) so as to form divinities. Divinities assisted one another so as to form yin and yang. Yin and yang again assisted one another so as to form four seasons. Four seasons assisted one another so as to form cold and heat. Cold and heat assisted one another so as to form damp and dry. Damp and dry assisted mutually so as to complete the year and there halted."
Further, the saying
?The dao that could be said is not the constant dao,"
can be found in all the texts (including those discovered at Mawangdui in 1976) EXCEPT the Guodian bamboo slips.
But there are some similarities:
The usual description of the dao is that it is inaudible, invisible, independent of all beings, and self-subsisting and unchanging. The Guodian text uses ?boundless,? which, acccording to the author, is a better term than the traditional ?changeless? because it avoids a possible contradiction between the dao as changeless and the dao as the original dynamism pushing all things into an unending process of change.
Lao Tzu, when reluctantly describing Dao, says in the Guodian slips, says: "reluctantly I will call it ?the great.? ?Great? means departing from all boundaries... and "turning back,? indicating a circular cosmic process of swirling convergences quite different from the Western cause and effect, dualistic model.
Larry Moore did an index of the Guodian Laozi before he passed away..
It's cross-referenced to Henricks and the received texts to make
comparision easier. Bradford has published it at the end of his own Laozi, Section B, the new pdf version, free at Bradford's website.
includes a text:
" The Great One Gave Birth to Water Water returned to assist the great one, so as to form heaven. Heaven returned to assist the great one so as to form earth. Heaven and earth (again assisted one another) so as to form divinities. Divinities assisted one another so as to form yin and yang. Yin and yang again assisted one another so as to form four seasons. Four seasons assisted one another so as to form cold and heat. Cold and heat assisted one another so as to form damp and dry. Damp and dry assisted mutually so as to complete the year and there halted."
Further, the saying
?The dao that could be said is not the constant dao,"
can be found in all the texts (including those discovered at Mawangdui in 1976) EXCEPT the Guodian bamboo slips.
But there are some similarities:
The usual description of the dao is that it is inaudible, invisible, independent of all beings, and self-subsisting and unchanging. The Guodian text uses ?boundless,? which, acccording to the author, is a better term than the traditional ?changeless? because it avoids a possible contradiction between the dao as changeless and the dao as the original dynamism pushing all things into an unending process of change.
Lao Tzu, when reluctantly describing Dao, says in the Guodian slips, says: "reluctantly I will call it ?the great.? ?Great? means departing from all boundaries... and "turning back,? indicating a circular cosmic process of swirling convergences quite different from the Western cause and effect, dualistic model.
Larry Moore did an index of the Guodian Laozi before he passed away..
It's cross-referenced to Henricks and the received texts to make
comparision easier. Bradford has published it at the end of his own Laozi, Section B, the new pdf version, free at Bradford's website.