confucius; old texts vs new texts.

[zhuangzi#8]

Do the Analects belong to the New Text School? And the texts discovered in Confucius' house are Old Text School?

I think it's strange that the Analects lacks metaphysical speculation. What are the main texts in the other School [their Chinese names] I want to buy them, as I am studying in Beijing. And do they contain MORE metaphysical elements, or less? E.g. references to Tian, spirits, etc.

Xie Xie!

[studentyoung]

Do the Analects belong to the New Text School? And the texts discovered in Confucius' house are Old Text School?

Hehe. I guess that you’re talking about the hermeneutics between the New Text School and the Old text School during Han Dynasty. (即：两汉经学古今之争)

所谓“今文”是指汉代流传的隶书字体，所谓“古文”是指秦代以前的字体。 “今文经学是汉代儒家的一个学派，与古文经学相对。西汉初年，儒家经书都用当时通行的隶书写定，由一批学者讲解，形成一个学派，叫经学。河间献王刘德从民间搜集书籍，‘所得书皆古文先秦旧书’（《汉书•景十三王传》）。汉武帝时，鲁恭王刘馀为了扩建宫室，拆除孔子故居，从墙壁中发现一批先秦古籍，也都是古文。西汉末刘子政提倡这些古文，形成经学的另一学派。后人把刘子政一派称‘经古文学’，与此相对，此前经学皆以今文经书为本，被称为‘经今文学’。后来两派又分别称为‘古文经学’和‘今文经学’。”（庞朴主编《中国儒学》第四卷，第14页，东方出版中心，1997年版）

http://cache.baidu.com/c?word=%C1%BD%BA%BA%3B%BE%AD%D1%A7%3B%B9%C5%BD%F1%3B%CE%C4%3B%D6%AE%D5%F9&url=http%3A//hi%2Ebaidu%2Ecom/zl5000/blog/item/754e61ad447b530b4a36d635%2Ehtml&p=b4769a45d6975df307b9c4710f0d&user=baidu

According to the texts above, the New Text means those Confucius works published in clerical script（隶书）in Han Dynasty. Its texts were popular at that time and lectured by royal-appointed lecturers.

While the Old Text means those Confucius works published in seal script (篆书) before Qin Dynasty (B.C.221-B.C.206). Its texts are slightly different from the New Text in Han Dynasty(B.C. 202 – A.D.220 ).

Therefore, whether the Analects (《论语》) belongs to the New Text School or the Old Text School depends on the version and the time it published.

What are the main texts in the other School [their Chinese names] I want to buy them, as I am studying in Beijing. And do they contain MORE metaphysical elements, or less? E.g. references to Tian, spirits, etc.

What do you mean “the main texts”? “in the other School”? What texts (the name of the book) are you talking about? What kind of schools are you talking about 郑玄 or 程朱？

Cheers!