Abstract of “Early Intertextual Uses of Parallels with the Laozi and Their Role as Source of Authority” by Larson Di Fiori Ph.D., Brown University, May 2018. Although the Laozi is one of the most studied and translated Chinese texts, relatively little is known about its early reception. In large part, this is due to the relative paucity of sources engaging with the Laozi before the mid-Han. Additionally, excavated texts and scholarly investigations have challenged the existence of a unified text known as Laozi before the Han, complicating the study of those sources we do have. While many ancient texts have been lost, three essays from the mid second century BCE or earlier survive that shed some light on the role passages parallel with the Laozi played in the time before Emperor Wu of Han created official positions establishing the status of the six “Confucian Classics”. These essays, found in the Hanfeizi and the Huainanzi, are deeply indebted to the Laozi, relying on quotations of Laozi parallels to make their arguments and illustrate their insights. Through the lens of these essays we can see that parallels with the Laozi acted as a source of authority for authors wishing to advance political theories of an ideal society where the ruler cared for the state as though it were his own person, attending to the wellbeing of the people as surely as the essays advise him to care for his own health. As such, we can see parallels with the Laozi acting in the role of what we often translate as a “classic” – a jing – even before it officially received that title and imperial approval during the Han. This dissertation seeks to evaluate these essays without relying on now challenged fixed categories of school affiliation, or on a preconception of the passages they contain as belonging to a fixed Laozi. Instead, it examines the essays on their own merits and in the light of theories of interpretation and textual authority present in contemporaneous writings, seeing them as participating in a “textual ecosystem” of texts organically growing and influencing each other.
DiFiori, Larson,
"Early Intertextual Uses of Parallels with the Laozi and Their Role as Sources of Authority"
(2018).
Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.26300/7eey-k071
