Excavated Text
In 1973, Chinese archeologists excavated a Han Dynasty tomb near Dingzhou 定州 (or Dingxian 定縣) in Hebei. Its occupant is identified as King Huai 懷王 of Zhongshan (state), who died in 55 BCE. Tomb furnishings included a precious Jade burial suit, jade ornaments, writing tools, and remnants of eight Chinese classic texts, including the Wenzi and Confucian Analects copied on hundreds of bamboo slips (jian 簡 "bamboo slip/strip; simple"). These bamboo manuscripts were fragmented, disordered, and blackened by fire, perhaps accidentally caused by tomb robbers. The Yinqueshan Han Slips and the Guodian Chu Slips are comparable examples of using bamboo strips as writing tablets.
The specialized project of deciphering and transcribing this ancient Wenzi copy was delayed owing to a 1976 earthquake at Tangshan that further damaged the Dingzhou bamboo slips. The team published their first report in 1981 and their Wenzi transcription in 1995 (both in the archeological journal Wenwu 文物 "Cultural Relics").
Ongoing sinological studies of the so-called Dingzhou Wenzi (Le Blanc 2000, Ho 2002, van Els 2006) are providing both specific details of the presumed urtext edition and general insights in the early history of Daoist texts. Portions of the Dingzhou Wenzi are basically consistent with 6 of the 12 chapters in the received text. Consensus is building that this excavated Wenzi dates from the early 2nd century BCE, while the transmitted text was repeatedly corrupted by copyists and amended by editors.
The question-and-answer format is a significant difference between the bamboo and received Wenzi versions. Ames and Rosemont explain.
Consistent with the court bibliography in the History of the Han, the Dingzhou Wenzi has Wenzi as teacher who is being asked questions by a King Ping of the Zhou 周平王. The received text, on the other hand, has the teacher Laozi 老子 being asked questions by the student Wenzi, certainly less appropriate given that texts are usually named for the teacher rather than the student. (1998:273-4)
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