The Bamboo Texts of Guodian

Reviews / Votes

The long-awaited publication of this magnum opus by Scott Cook, one of the leading scholars in the fields of early Chinese philosophy and the study of excavated manuscripts, is a major event in the study of early China and a cause for celebration. Cook, in Asia better known under his Chinese name Gu Shikao, which also appears on the book cover, presents us with a comprehensive study and translation of the entire corpus of the Guodianmanuscripts. The great significance of this work is owing not only to its scholarly quality but also to the special importance of its subject matter.

- Matthias L. Richter (Journal of Chinese Religions) This magnificent, 1,200-page, two-volume work is an essential reference for anyone interested in the Guodian texts.... Scott Cook has been comprehensive and inclusive, distilling scholarship from close to 1,000 secondary sources in his copiously annotated transcriptions of texts and in his discussion of the debates they have inspired.... Cook's aim in this work was to "provide a manageable basis for futher study" (p. 176) and, as he acknowledges, his translations naturally reflect his own informed understanding of the texts. Given the continuing debates over strip order and the identification of particular graphs, as well as differing views on the nature of certain texts, scholars of course have different interpretations of the materials. Future discoveries of palaeo-graphic materials, along with advances in the field of historical phonology, will allow scholars to reasses the identification of certain graphs, also affecting our understanding of the texts. But Cook's objective presentation clearly acknowledges these facts, and the reader is provided with many of the alternative analyses and made aware that the work will best be used in conjunction with new findings that solve or clarify remaining problems.

(Journal of Asian Studies)