Orality and the Transmission of Interpretations in Two Versions of Huang Kan'sLunyu Yishu: TeachingLunyufrom the National University of the Liang to the Periphery of the Tang Empire

Abstract

This article explores the received version of Huang Kan's (488–545) Lunyu Yishu and a Tang manuscript fragment that stems from it, with a view to investigating residues of the oral transmission of glosses and interpretations of the Lunyu (the Analects). The discussion is based on close readings of passages that display remnants of the oral transmission of interpretations and attest to pedagogical techniques applied by Huang Kan during the Liang Dynasty (502–557) and by an unknown tutor in Dunhuang toward the end of the Tang Dynasty (618–907). The two versions of the Lunyu Yishu are read as texts of oral utterances that bear evidence of two distinct layers of recognizable oral vestiges.