宗旨

　　中國古籍研究中心前身為漢達古文獻資料庫，成立於一九八八年，其目的在於將中國古代全部傳世及出土文獻加以校訂、整理，並收入電腦資料庫，然後通過各種媒體出版，為研究工作者、教育界以及大眾提供一重要學術工具與文化寶庫。

研究

　　在過去十七年間，中心獲大學研究資助局多次撥款資助研究計劃。如今大部分研究工作已按時完成，而部分拓展研究計劃則仍在進行。有關計劃主要可分為出土文獻及傳世文獻研究計劃兩大類。

　　出土文獻研究計劃計有：（一）「甲骨文全文資料庫研究計劃」：此計劃合共整理、校勘約近一百萬字甲骨卜辭，並悉數輸入電腦，建立以甲骨文字形為系統的，並具有多項類目功能檢索的甲骨文資料庫；（二）「金文全文資料庫研究計劃」：此計劃錄入資料主要來自中國社會科學院考古研究所編《殷周金文集成釋文》，總計收錄超過一萬二千多件銅器，約一萬八千張拓本，約近一百萬字器物資料說明，另十四萬字隸定釋文，皆經研究人員仔細校勘，並悉數輸入電腦，以建立資料庫；（三）「竹簡、帛書出土文獻電腦資料庫計劃」：此計劃重新標點、校勘各重要竹簡、帛書出土文獻，凡經校改之處，均加上校改符號，以建立原始文獻資料庫。

　　傳世文獻研究計劃有：（一）「先秦兩漢一切傳世文獻電腦化資料庫研究計劃」：此計劃將先秦兩漢之全部傳世文獻悉數輸入資料庫。資料庫輸入文獻所據版本，均為舊刻善本而未經後人恣意改動者，然後由研究人員重新標點、校勘；凡經校改之處，均加上校改符號，以建立原始文獻資料庫；（二）「魏晉南北朝一切傳世文獻電腦化資料庫研究計劃」：此計劃將魏晉南北朝之全部傳世文獻悉數輸入資料庫。資料庫輸入文獻所據版本亦為舊刻善本，經研究人員重新標點、校勘；凡經校改之處，均加上校改符號，以建立原始文獻資料庫；（三）「中國傳統類書資料庫研究計劃」：此計劃旨在全面整理傳世類書，建立大型類書電子資料庫，方便學者利用類書引文進行研究工作，並將類書引文與傳世古文獻文本進行對比研究，以探求類書引文與傳世文本之異同。此計劃處理資料量超過六千萬字，並已依期將已經整理的類書分批上網。

　　在上述各項計劃的基礎上，中心現正進行「古文獻資料庫現行計劃之拓展與完善計劃」。此計劃主要處理傳世類書資料第二期與竹簡帛書新出土資料。作為原有的竹簡帛書出土文獻電腦資料庫之拓展部分，簡帛第二期資料庫收錄一九九六年以後新出土簡帛文獻中與傳世文獻相關者。簡帛第二期資料庫已於二零零四年正式上網。

　　除上述主要研究計劃外，「先秦兩漢引錄經籍研究計劃」及「先秦兩漢互見文獻研究計劃」同為中心發展之重點項目。兩項計劃均以本中心的資料庫為基礎進行研究。前者旨在全面檢索先秦兩漢文獻引錄十三經文例，並比勘各種版本，紀錄異同，俾便參照；後者則利用資料庫全面蒐集先秦兩漢所有典籍之互見文獻，從而比對、校勘今本，考其異同，校訂訛誤。

出版

　　中心旨在將中國古代全部傳世及出土文獻加以整理，並建立電腦資料庫，然後通過各種媒體出版。十數載以來，中心已把研究成果通過書刊、電腦軟件及互聯網絡資料庫形式出版。

　　書刊方面主要有《逐字索引叢刊》及《漢達古籍研究叢書》兩大叢書。《逐字索引叢刊》由《先秦兩漢古籍逐字索引叢刊》及《魏晉南北朝古籍逐字索引叢刊》組成，前者利用先秦兩漢傳世文獻資料庫而編纂成書，至今已出版合共超過八十種；後者則利用魏晉南北朝傳世文獻資料庫而編纂付梓，至今亦已有二十多種面世。《漢達古籍研究叢書》則為近年推出的叢刊，該《叢書》包括「先秦兩漢典籍引經系列」、「先秦兩漢典籍重見資料系列」、「唐宋類書引錄古籍資料彙編系列」及「古籍研究專著系列」四大系列。「先秦兩漢典籍引經系列」是把「先秦兩漢引錄經籍研究計劃」研究的成果，編輯成書，分冊付梓，最初兩冊分別是先秦兩漢典籍引《尚書》和《詩經》的資料彙編，其餘各冊將陸續出版；「先秦兩漢典籍重見資料系列」則把「先秦兩漢互見文獻研究計劃」之研究成果重新編排整理，現已出版的有《〈古列女傳〉與先秦兩漢典籍重見資料彙編》及《〈大戴禮記〉與先秦兩漢典籍重見資料彙編》。「唐宋類書引錄古籍資料彙編系列」則據「中國古代類書資料庫研究計劃」的研究成果，比對唐宋以來重要類書引錄之古籍資料，與今傳世本之異同，首先推出的《唐宋類書引〈淮南子〉資料彙編》將於二零零五年五月出版。「古籍研究專著系列」則把與古籍研究有關之成果輯錄成書，已出版之著作有《〈文子〉著作年代新證》，其餘專書亦將相繼出版。

　 除上述兩大叢書以外，中心尚出版根據甲骨文全文資料庫而編纂的《新編甲骨文字形總表》，以及有助金文研究的《殷周金文集成釋文》兩種出土文獻專書。此外，中心更與美國耶魯大學合作，邀請世界知名學者將本中心已經校訂之古籍翻譯為英文，編輯出版Culture and Civilization of China叢書。叢書第一種著作《中論》已於二零零三年出版。

　 中心亦將繼續出版《漢達通訊》，讓讀者可以據此了解中心的最新發展。

　　在整理傳世文獻的過程中，中心把文獻資料從「書本形態」轉變為「電腦可讀形態」。在上世紀九十年代，由於微型電腦日漸普及，中心利用電子媒體形式製作及出版古籍電腦檢索工具，至今已有兩套光碟面世。其中《先秦兩漢傳世古籍》光盤合共收錄一百零一種文獻，內容一如書刊本《先秦兩漢古籍逐字索引叢刊》，為讀者提供研究所需資料。另一套則為「竹簡帛書電子資料庫光碟」，為讀者提供本中心處理的竹簡帛書出土文獻資料，包括多種出土文獻釋文及圖片。

　　互聯網的應用日漸普及，且已成為書刊、光碟、磁碟以外，另一種極具效率之出版媒體。中心有見及此，決定將歷年所建資料庫重新編輯，並編製便捷的網上檢閱程式，然後分階段安裝於國際互聯網上，俾便讀者可以在互聯網上隨意檢閱超過一千種中國傳世及出土典籍。本中心現已建成之資料庫共有六個，內容包含廣泛，就出土文字而言，上自殷商甲骨卜辭、商周銅器銘文，下至漢世竹簡帛書，皆有收錄；至於傳世文獻，則上起先秦兩漢典籍、魏晉六朝文獻，下迄明清所編類書，亦在所網羅。詳情請瀏覽http://www.chant.org。

 

Research Centre for Chinese Ancient Texts

MISSION

The Research Centre for Chinese Ancient Texts, whose forerunner was the Chinese Ancient Texts (CHANT) Project set up in 1988 as an integral part of the Institute of Chinese Studies, was established in April 2005. It aimed at building up an electronic database of the entire corpus of traditional and excavated ancient Chinese texts and publishing them via different media. It was hoped that the Centre could provide valuable research tools for scholars, academia and the public alike.

RESEARCH

The Centre has been going on for over 17 years, within which the Research Grants Council (RGC, formerly known as the University Grants Council) of the Hong Kong Government has provided generous support. The majority of the research projects have been completed and the rest is in good process. They fall into two main categories:

Excavated Chinese texts research projects: (1) A Computerized Database of Oracular Inscriptions on Tortoise Shells and Bones: In this project, over 1 million characters of oracular inscriptions were deciphered and inputted into computers. A database in the original jiagu characters with multiple search functions was established. (2) A Computerized Database of Bronze Inscriptions: This project made use of the Complete Collection of Yin-Zhou Bronze Epigraphy published by the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. It includes information of over 12,000 bronze vessels, around 18,000 inscription rubbings, 1 million characters of explanatory notes and 140,000 characters of transcriptions. (3) A Computerized Database of the Excavated Wood/Bamboo and Silk Scripts: In this project, punctuations and textual notes were added to the excavated versions of the scripts. All emendations are clearly marked so readers can restore the original texts if they wish.

Traditional Chinese Texts research projects: (1) A Computerized Database of the Entire Body of Extant Han and Pre-Han Traditional Chinese Texts: In this project, the entire body of traditional texts of the Han and Pre-Han periods was inputted into a computer database. The texts used were based on the best available editions with the least subsequent tampering. Textual comparisons and punctuations were carried out for all texts. Variant readings were given in footnotes for reference. (2) A Database of Traditional Chinese Texts of Wei, Jin and the Northern and Southern Dynasties: In this project, the entire corpus of traditional texts of Wei, Jin and the Northern and Southern dynasties was included in a computer database. All inputted texts were also based on the best available editions. Textual comparisons and editing were carried out similarly to the Han and Pre-Han Database. (3) A Computerized Database of the Entire Body of Extant Chinese Encyclopedias (Leishu): This project aimed at making a comparative study of citations appearing in leishu and the CHANT Database and building up a computerized database of extant leishu. Since the scope of the project is very substantial, it was divided into two phases. Over 60 million characters were processed in the first phase and the leishu are being made available online in stages.

On the foundation of the above research projects, "The Completion Project of All Ongoing CHANT Database," which aims at completing the second phase of the Leishu project as well as incorporating the most important recently published Jianbo and Jinwen materials, is still underway. As an extension of A Computerized Database of Excavated Wood/Bamboo and Silk Scripts of China, the Jianbo materials newly published have been incorporated and released through the Internet in 2004.

Apart from the above projects, there were two more related to the Centre: (1) A Complete Study of the Numerous Citations from the Thirteen Classics Found in Pre-Han and Han Traditional Texts, and (2) A Complete Study of the Parallel Passages Found in Pre-Han and Han Traditional Texts. Both of them were based on the Centre's database. The former aimed at a complete study of explicit and implicit citations from the Thirteen Classics found in Pre-Han and Han traditional texts. In this project, comparisons between these citations with the extant versions were made and numerous variations were found. The latter aimed at a comprehensive study of all parallel passages found in Pre-Han and Han texts. From the results of this study, a better understanding of how ancient texts were transmitted and their mutual imitation could be obtained. Parallel passages were also used in the emendation of extant versions.

PUBLICATIONS

The Centre aimed at emendating all traditional and excavated ancient Chinese texts, building up database and publishing them via different media. Up till now, these texts have been published in book form and electronically, as well as via the Internet.

Over the past years, the Centre introduced two book series: The ICS Ancient Chinese Texts Concordance Series and The CHANT Series. The ICS Ancient Chinese Texts Concordance Series consists of ICS Concordances to Works of Pre-Han and Han Concordance Series and ICS Concordances to Works of Wei-Jin and the Northern and Southern Dynasties Concordance Series. Then in 2003, The CHANT Series was launched. It consists of four categories: (1) works compiled from citation comparisons of ancient Chinese texts, (2) works compiled from parallel passages found in ancient Chinese texts; (3) citations of works found in the leishu compiled in the Tang and Song dynasties; and (4) studies in ancient Chinese texts. The first category is part of the result of "A Complete Study of the Numerous Citations from the Thirteen Classics Found in Pre-Han and Han Traditional Texts." The first two publications, Citations from the Shangshu to Be Found in Pre-Han and Han Texts and Citations from the Shijing to Be Found in Pre-Han and Han Texts were published in 2003 and 2004 respectively. The second category is part of the result of "A Complete Study of the Parallel Passages Found in Pre-Han and Han Traditional Texts." The first two publications of this category, The Gu Lienu Zhuan with Parallel Passages from Other Pre-Han and Han Texts and The Da Dai Liji with Parallel Passages from Other Pre-Han and Han Texts were published in a bound volume in 2004. The third category is part of the result of "A Computerized Database of the Entire Body of Extant Chinese Encyclopedias (Leishu)." The first publication, Citations of the Huainanzi Found in the Leishu Compiled in the Tang and Song Dynasties, will be released in May 2005. The last category includes the fruits of research on ancient Chinese texts. The New Evidence Which Points to the Date of the Wenzi was the first publication of this category. More works will be published subsequently.

There are also publications on the study of excavated texts. A New Compilation of Jiagu Characters was based on the Computerized Database of Oracular Inscriptions on Tortoise Shells and Bones. The Collected Explanations of "Complete Collection of Yin-Zhou Bronze Epigraphy" is a reference book for studying Bronze inscriptions. In addition, there is collaboration between the Centre and Yale University Press. Scholars are invited to translate the edited ancient Chinese texts produced by the Centre. The translations are published under the series of Culture and Civilization of China with the first title Balanced Discourses published in 2003.

For a wider circulation of updated information about the Centre, the publication of an aperiodic newsletter, the CHANT News, will be continued.

The process of reworking traditional texts is also a transformation of texts from print to electronic media. Taking advantage of the electronic age and the Internet, the Centre started to publish ancient Chinese texts on electronic media (floppy discs and later CD-ROM) with search programmes written in-house in the 1990s. Until recently, two sets of CD-ROM have been published. One of them contains the entire corpus of the Pre-Han and Han Database. There are altogether 101 titles. The content of this CD-ROM is the same as that of the concordances. The other one is CD-ROM on The Excavated Wood/Bamboo and Silk Texts (Jianbo). The database of the entire corpus of all published excavated wood/bamboo and silk texts (jianbo) has already been completed and published in this CD-ROM.

In view of the popularity of the Internet, the Centre has decided to publish all of its databases online in stages. Since 1998, over 1,000 titles of traditional and excavated materials have been released through the Internet. All upcoming databases will also be accessible through the Centre's website. There are altogether six databases established and are available online now. The establishment of the Centre's database can benefit scholars and researchers immensely because they can save much time on data retrieval and preparation, thus enhancing their research efficiency and helping them to focus on advanced analytical work. The database is especially helpful in the studies of parallel passages and citation comparisons of ancient Chinese texts. Moreover, comparisons between traditional and excavated Chinese ancient texts can also provide new insights. For more information, please go to the Centre's website http://www.chant.org.