Riding the wind of rebirth

“Of course, there are more details.” Zhou Zhi clicked on the text: “The link shows the biography of Wang Keming in the History of Song, which is mainly based on the epitaph of Wang Keming, a physician in the Hanlin Academy, written by Ye Shi. Ye Shi’s birth and death years were between 1150 and 1223, and he lived during the reigns of Emperor Xiaozong, Emperor Guangzong and Emperor Ningzong of Song. He must have had some interaction with Wang Keming. So the statement in the History of Song that he died in the fifth year of Shaoxing is problematic.”

"Let's look here again. There's a book here that actually annotated your question, Director Liu. Volume 582 of the 'Qinding Xu Tongzhi' records the following passage: 'The biography of Ke Ming in the 'History of Song' states that he was a famous doctor during the Shaoxing and Qiandao periods. However, Qiandao was the reign title of Emperor Xiaozong. If Ke Ming died in the fifth year of Shaoxing, how could he be known during the Qiandao period? Furthermore, Zhang Zigai's rescue of Haizhou, according to the 'Annals of Emperor Gaozong' in the 'History of Song,' occurred in the thirty-second year of Shaoxing. At that time, Ke Ming was still alive. Therefore, he did not die in the fifth year of Shaoxing. Thus, the character 'Xing' is a mistake for 'Xi,' which has now been corrected.'"

"Hey, previous scholars have already done the research. Shaoxi was the reign title of Emperor Guangzong of Song, Zhao Dun. The fifth year of Shaoxi was 1194 AD. If we take this as the basis, then Wang Keming's birth and death years were 1128 to 1194. It was the History of Song that mistakenly recorded 'Shaoxing' instead of 'Shaoxi'."

“If that’s the case, it does fit with our research,” said Researcher Li. “What you just said about the missing stroke in the character ‘慎’ (shèn) is not a stereotypical error, but rather a deliberate omission, which aligns with Emperor Xiaozong of Song.”

"Oh? So this missing stroke, could it be... to avoid a taboo?"

"Yes, if this Northern Song edition was repaired or traded during the reign of Emperor Xiaozong, then the fact that the character '慎' was missing a stroke during the repair would be consistent with the practice of avoiding the taboo of Emperor Xiaozong's name, Zhao Shen."

“That deduction makes sense.” Zhou Zhi nodded. “Wang Keming’s main activities happened to be concentrated during the reign of Emperor Xiaozong of Song. In addition, he loved reading, so it is possible that Wang Keming also collected the Northern Song edition of the Huainanzi. In any case, the seal next to it that says ‘Wang Family Collection’ indicates that the Northern Song edition became a family heirloom of the Wang family and must have been kept in the Wang family for a considerable period of time.”

“The idea of ​​studying the dating of classics through taboo characters is also very clever. Do you have any other findings regarding this book?” Zhou Zhi asked.

“Yes,” Researcher Wang said. “Previously, we discovered that characters such as ‘匡’, ‘筐’, ‘敬’, ‘擏’, ‘境’, ‘镜’, and ‘殷’ in the book were all characters that were explicitly forbidden to use during the reign of Emperor Taizu of Song, and were thus modified by omitting strokes. Characters such as ‘玄’, ‘絃’, ‘眩’, ‘炫’, ‘朗’, and ‘恒’ were forbidden to use during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song, and ‘贞’, a forbidden character during the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song, was also modified by omitting strokes. However, ‘曙’ was the name of Emperor Yingzong of Song, and ‘顼’ was the name of Emperor Shenzong of Song, and this book did not make any form of modification to avoid using these characters. Based on the historical patterns of taboo names in ancient times, we believe this is evidence that this book was produced during the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song.”

"As for the character '慎' in the title 'Recorded by Grand Commandant Xu Shen' in the second line of each volume, only the eighteenth volume has a missing stroke. We believe this is because the eighteenth volume was repaired, and the repair avoided the taboo of Emperor Xiaozong of Song."

"Furthermore, according to Su Song's description, this version should also be a composite version. Although each volume is signed by Xu Shen, its annotations should actually be a mixture of Xu Shen's annotations and Gao You's annotations." Researcher Xiao Wang continued, "Judging from the titles at the beginning of the volumes, the tenth and twenty-first volumes both have the word 'Jian Gu', which undoubtedly belongs to the same version system, while the other nineteen volumes are titled 'Huainan Honglie Jie,' and their versions must belong to different versions."

"The narrative and the signature are not consistent, and there are two forms. Su Song once discovered this. He wrote: 'According to the text, I have found some clues. The titles of the chapters all have the phrases 'therefore it is said' or 'therefore the title of the chapter,' and the unusual characters are also recorded with their pronunciations. Xu has written a rough discussion of the main idea below the chapter.'"

Zhou Zhi then entered a program into the search engine: "The Huainanzi in the database now includes a 21-volume edition published by the Tan family of Chaling in the National Palace Museum in Taiwan, a Tang Dynasty manuscript in Japan, and three photocopies that became popular in later generations, namely the Gu Guangqi edition, the Chen Huan edition, and the Liu Lufen edition. The Gu and Chen editions are photocopies of the original, and the latter is a photocopies of the Chen Huan edition."

"Among all versions, the Chaling Tan family edition is the Southern Song edition closest to the Northern Song edition. I just compared Su Song's words with it. The titles of the thirteen chapters, including 'Yuandao Xun,' 'Chuzhen Xun,' 'Tianwen Xun,' 'Dixing Xun,' 'Shize Xun,' 'Lanming Xun,' 'Jingshen Xun,' 'Benjing Xun,' 'Zhushu Xun,' 'Fanlun Xun,' 'Shuoshan Xun,' 'Shuolin Xun,' and 'Xiuwu Xun,' all contain the phrases 'therefore it is said' and 'therefore the title of the chapter.' However, the titles of the eight chapters, including 'Miaocheng Xun,' 'Qisu Xun,' 'Daoying Xun,' 'Quanyan Xun,' 'Binglue Xun,' 'Renjian Xun,' 'Taizu Xun,' and 'Yalue,' do not contain these two phrases and only give a rough overview."

“Your focus is very valuable. By extension, starting from the Northern Song edition, the commentaries on the Huainanzi are a combination of the commentaries by Xu Shen and Gao Shi, which is the same as what Su Song saw.”

"Director, Professor Zhou's search engine is amazing!" Xiao Li exclaimed upon seeing the search results on Zhou Zhi's computer screen. "It found several papers in a matter of minutes!" "Professor Zhou, could you help us check the differences in wording between the different versions?" Xiao Wang also got excited. "Let's see if we can verify it against the version we have."

Zhou Zhi then entered a series of codes into the index box and pressed Enter.

The results came out rather slowly this time, but it wasn't without any discoveries. Zhou Zhi quickly said, "We've discovered something else. The two sentences 'Shi Qi entered and said' and 'The Chu army is afraid of taking my head' in the Huainanzi·Daoyingxun are written as 'Shi Qi' and 'Chu army' in the Tang manuscript, but in the Chaling manuscript and subsequent manuscripts, they are written as 'Shi Yi' and 'Chu Jun'."

"In addition, the phrase 'the reign of Taiqing' in the manuscript of Benjingxun is changed to 'the beginning of Taiqing' in later versions. The phrase 'therefore, he turned his eyes wide and suddenly burst forth' in Daoyingxun is changed to 'therefore, he closed his eyes wide and suddenly burst forth' in various versions."

He frowned and said, "It is obvious that this should be '瞋目' (chēn mù) to correspond to '勃然' (bó rán) later. This character was clearly misrecorded in later editions after the Southern Song Dynasty."

"Go and find out what this book is!" Liu Yijie quickly waved his hand.

In fact, he didn't even need to give the order; Engineer Zhang had already taken the two of them there.

A moment later, the three of them exclaimed in surprise.

"The 'qi' in 'beggar,' and the 'jun' in 'army!'"

"The Reign of Taiqing! Ours is the Reign of Taiqing!"

"Angry eyes! It's written as 'angry eyes' in the Dao Ying Xun!" Xiao Li and Xiao Wang jumped up excitedly. "Our copy is different from the Southern Song copy! It's the same as the Tang copy! Ours is the Northern Song copy! Ours is the Northern Song copy!"

"Whether it's a Northern Song Dynasty edition or not is still uncertain." Liu Yijie was also very excited, but being an old hand, he managed to remain calm despite his excitement: "Everyone, first summarize today's findings, compile them into papers, have them reviewed by the library, and then report to higher authorities. Elbow, I'm afraid we'll need your help with this matter; your search engine is too domineering!"

"This engine is still a bit difficult to use," Zhou Zhi honestly stated. "For relatively complex searches, users need considerable Java programming skills and a thorough understanding of our self-created function set." (End of Chapter)