| This thesis is a study of certain linguistic aspects of the Jingfa and the Jing (known also as Shiliu jing), two manuscripts discovered in a Han dynasty tomb at Mawangdui, China, in 1973. The manuscripts have been the object of intense study since their discovery. After a review of the major publications and an account of their contribution to the field of ancient Chinese thought, this thesis examines the rhetorical strategies and the vocabulary used in the two texts, in order to offer a description of the linguistic differences between the manuscripts. Various grammatical and argumentative patterns are analyzed: the use of sentence connectives, inference, implication, narrative procedures. The two texts show considerable discrepancy, attributable to their independent origin, an issue still debated among the experts. The perception of the manuscripts as belonging to different cultural milieux is confirmed by an analysis of the vocabulary, and in particular of the technical terms. |
