Verifications of Some Guodian Bamboo Slips Characters which Comprise the Radical of bi, and Some Related-terms

Kwok Wa Yuen

Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica

       Some characters in the Guodian Bamboo Slip manuscripts have the radical of bi. Due to the misunderstanding of the structure of the characters, some related phrases and sentences were not verified correctly. Five such cases are worth studying.

       Firstly, the phrase “bi wu” in “Lao Zi Jia” had been formerly transcribed as “pin wu,” although both transcriptive phrases have the same meaning, “bi” should not be regarded as a variant of “pin.” “Bi” is “bi.” It is a jiajiezi of “pin.”

       Secondly, the phrase “wu bi” in “Yu Cong 2” had been correctly transcribed as “wu bi.” This paper further points out that, because the special written word form bi is extremely different from the proper one, the distinction is difficult to make.

       Thirdly, the character “pi” in “Lao Zi Jia”, possesses a phonetic radical bi, so it should be transcribed as “pi,” which is a jiajiezi of “mi.” “Mi” means “calm.”

       Fourthly, the phrase “pi fu” in “Tang Yu Zhi Dao” had been formerly transcribed as “ze fu.” The first word had also been regarded as a literal of “pi.” By comparison with the latest published Chu Bamboo Slips of the Warring States period, it is certain that “pi” is a variant of “pi.” The phrase “pi fu” means “plebs.”

       Lastly, “pi ren,” found in “Zun De Yi,” is a hewen. The character “pi” looks very similar to “suo.” According to the word form and the meaning of the character, “pi” is presumed as a literal of “pi.” The phrase “pi ren” has the same meaning as “pi fu,” which means “plebs.”

Keywords: Guodian Bamboo Slips, wu bi, pi fu, pi ren, verifications of ancient Chinese characters