Chiba Tomoko: Collected Essays on Bamboo Slips Research

Author: (Japan) Iketani Tomohisa / Cao Feng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-02-01
Features: For the study of Chinese intellectual history, newly unearthed materials such as bamboo and silk slips hold decisive significance. The traditional method of relying solely on transmitted literature for research can no longer be expected to yield progress. Although this is a fact, foresight does not mean that traditional literature and its study are meaningless or unnecessary. The significance and necessity of traditional literature and its study have merely been supplemented with certain restrictions. Therefore, the authors believe that to promote research progress, effectively combining newly unearthed materials with transmitted literature is the most important task today. This work, on one hand, involves accurately positioning the significance of newly unearthed materials within traditional literature and the intellectual history constructed from it. On the other hand, it calls for a comprehensive reflection on the study of traditional literature and the intellectual history constructed from it, based on the new stance and perspectives derived from newly unearthed materials. Ultimately, the goal is to dialectically unify these two seemingly contradictory aspects, thereby fostering deeper research, which is the most important work today. In any case, newly unearthed materials like bamboo and silk slips are undoubtedly extremely important resources that provide new perspectives and insights for the study of Chinese intellectual history. Given the astonishing quantity and highly significant content of newly unearthed materials, any attitude of indifference or dismissal toward them can no longer yield further research results.