Reading Heng cheng 恆稱 in the Guodian Bamboo Text Lu Mu Gong wen Zisi 鲁穆公問子思 (Duke Mu of Lu Asked Zisi)

Abstract

The graph 恆 appears once and the graph 亙 three times in the Duke Mu of Lu Asked Zisi (Lu Mu Gong wen Zisi 鲁穆公問子思), a manuscript of the Chu bamboo corpus excavated from Guodian, Hubei province. The editor of the manuscript read them all as heng 恆 (consistent), hence the term heng cheng 恆稱 was initially glossed as “consistently mentioning”. Other scholars have proposed alternative readings such as ji cheng 亟 (極) 稱, meaning “urgently mentioning” or “forthright admonishing”. This chapter explores the philological justifications of reading heng as ji, expanding on earlier scholarly opinions of reading ji cheng as forthright admonishing, and inquires into the implications of such a reading for the scholastic lineage of the Zisi-Mencius school.