TO PUNISH THE PERSON: A READING NOTE REGARDING A PUNCTUATION MARK IN THE TSINGHUA MANUSCRIPT MING XUN

The Tsinghua manuscript *Ming xun 命訓 contains a compound sentence that reads: 大命殜罰少命＝身. In an earlier article, the author translated this sentence as “The great mandate for generations punishes; the minor mandates command the person,” understanding the “＝” mark to indicate that the preceding character ming 命 was to be repeated. However, scholars in China have recently noted that the “＝” mark can also indicate the repetition of characters that occur in the same context earlier in the text. This would suggest that the “＝” mark here indicates the repetition of the word fa 罰 in the preceding clause, such that the sentence should read “The great mandate punishes the world; minor mandates punish the person,” which is the reading of the received text of the Ming xun. This scribal practice has important implications for the reading of other manuscripts as well. 清華簡本《命訓》載有“大命殜罰少命＝身”的句子。在以前發表的文章，作者理解了 “＝” 符號為重文號，表明前置的“命”字要重讀。然而，最近中國學者指出 “＝” 符號也可以表明上文的某一個字要重讀，於此表明前句的“罰”字要重讀，句子即讀作“大命世罰，小命罰身”，與傳世本《命訓》一樣。這種抄寫習慣在其他寫本也出現，對寫本的理解可能有重要意義。