The Guodian Laozi 老子 Materials

Abstract

According to tradition, the Laozi 老子 or Daodejing 道德經 was written in the mid-sixth century bce, but there has been little trace of it or its impact, until the third century bce. Recent archaeological discoveries of bamboo texts from the Warring States Period have begun to fill in this space. Several cosmogonic texts have been discovered, all buried around 300 bce, providing some insight into the broader context in which the Laozi was written and took form. The most important discovery is the three sets of bamboo strips found at Guodian, known as Laozi A, B and C. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce these Guodian Laozi materials, with a particular focus on their philosophical significance. The first section provides an overview of the materials and the ways they differ from other versions of the text. Section 2 offers an interpretation of the content of the materials, showing that they share a coherent philosophical position. The third section discusses the nature of the materials as a text, and the fourth section considers their relationship to the complete Laozi.