Toward Retrieving Early Oral Traditions: Some Ruminations on Orality and Textuality in Early Chinese Culture

Abstract

In this chapter, the author tries a new approach to early Chinese textuality. The point of departure is no longer the traditional dating of the transmitted text but the possible forms of the underlying original textual and/or oral objects and their evolution. In other words, the date of the transmitted text is the date of the earliest object in that form that can be attested as such, for instance the early Western Han for the Lunyu. What is truly interesting about the history of Chinese written texts or the practice of writing is not that it was developed so early but rather that so little use was made of it until the late fourth century BCE. Attention is drawn to the fact that there are really very few (if any) early texts for which it is certain that they have been transmitted as texts (rather than as oral and changing traditions), since the Shang or early Zhou period. What we have are the end point of traditions, in which the purpose and nature of the transmission is by no means self-evident. This leads to interesting possibilities in the case of Confucius, for instance. Since the Lunyu containing his aphorisms is a late textual object anyhow, none of which faithfully reflects his original ideas (as far as we can establish); there is no logical reason to limit ourselves to this particular text when we want to learn more about the early traditions reflecting his teachings. In other words, any early quotation ascribed to Confucius in any sources becomes relevant source material. Traditional histories of early philosophy that limit themselves to the Lunyu can be rewritten.