Guiguzi: a textual study and translation

Abstract

The rather obscure early Chinese text Guiguzi is used in this study as a focus for the explication of an overall method of reading a Classical Chinese text. First, the study gives a textual history of this text, tracing its origins as far back as possible and attempting to distinquish between myth and reality. Second, the study subjects the text to textual analysis, specifically through the use of new microcomputer programs for this purpose developed by Vinton A. Dearing. Third, the study offers an analysis of the reading process its author calls "constituent analysis," whereby structural principles that both inform the text and influence its meaning are outlined in general and with specific examples. In the fourth chapter this study presents a translation of the text in accordance with the principles from chapter three and using a text (Appendix A) arrived at in keeping with the findings of chapter two.