Additional Notes
The Chi Dialect

Several scholars have argued for the existence of Chi textual layers in our present Analects. We find those theories intrinsically unconvincing. Early lists and traditions show that the Lu and Chi Analects were separately preserved in Han. Philological study further shows that our present text is essentially based on old-script or "Gu" text, from the Lu state, with some variants adopted from an orally transcribed copy made at the beginning of Han and known as the "Lu" text; both texts are of Lu derivation. The Lu Analects text tradition does not seem to have been corrupted by Chi material, either during its formation process or during its final editing in Han.

But traces of Chi language in our basically Lu Analects, if they can be reliably recovered, are still of great interest for the history the Analects. The only Chi word that we recognized as of the first edition of TOA in 1998 was su "flurry," which occurs in 13:17. The word itself recurs in *14:44(17), but without any particular evidence for Chi in the context of that later passage.

Work on this subject continues, and any relevant findings will be reported in this space.

This Supplement is Copyright © 2001- by E Bruce and A Taeko Brooks

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