Abstract

In the Chinese exegetical tradition, Guo Xiang 郭象 holds a very important position. Although he is mostly known in the field of Taoist Studies as the author of a very influent Commentary on Zhuangzi, some evidence allows us to think that Guo Xiang also wrote commentaries about the Confucian Analects. Regarding those so-called “Confucian works” of Guo Xiang, research is still in preliminary stage. Even though the History of the Sui and the Old History of the Tang still mention them, most appear to be lost in subsequent Dynastic Histories. Furthermore, the biography of Guo Xiang in the History of the Jin does not mention those works. Among them, only the 論語體略, Explanations on the main points of the Analects, survive until today as a collection of nine fragments of commentaries, together with the commented text from the Analects. How were those fragments passed on to us? In which context where they transmitted? After briefly exploring those questions, I consider the content of the fragments. In so doing, I show that the literary style as well as some of the main concepts are extremely close of those used by Guo Xiang in his Commentary on Zhuangzi. However, one should keep in mind that whether Guo Xiang did actually write the Explanations remains an open question. In the event that Guo Xiang did write this commentary, the study of those fragments opens new perspectives on Guo Xiang’s thought as well as new material for the research on Wei-Jin exegesis. This paper aims to provide a textual and historical approach to these issues as well as the philosophical questions raised by Guo Xiang’s Explanations.