Lost Qi version of Analects of Confucius expected to be recovered

The bamboo scripts unearthed from the Haihunhou Tomb in east China's Jiangxi province have been confirmed as the chapter contained in “Qi Lun,” the Qi version of The Analects of Confucius, local news sources have reported.

Photo: CCTV News

The Analects is a collection of sayings and ideas attributed to the Chinese philosopher Confucius and his contemporaries, and were supposedly compiled and written by Confucius' followers. There are three versions in total, including a version in 21 chapters, a Qi version in 22 chapters, and a Lu version in 20 chapters.

Experts have identified the ambiguous characters on over 5,000 unearthed bamboo slips with the help of infrared scanning. The experts concluded that parts of these bamboo scripts are in fact the lost chapter of Qi Lun.

According to historical records, the Qi version has been lost for about 1,800 years.

It is expected to be recovered by carefully reading the bamboo scripts of Haihunhou Tomb and its contemporary scripts unearthed in Gansu province, northwestern China, which also include excerpts of Qi Lun, said Wang Chuning and Zhang Yuzheng, archeologists from Beijing Union University.

Author: Fang Tian | Source: People's Daily Online [August 25, 2017]

TANN

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