Abstract:
There was at least three kinds of Jinjiming in history and their texts origin were perfectly clear. The earliest kind was recorded by scholar Luo Bi in the Southern Song Dynasty, maybe mainly taken from Zuozhuan and Shiji (the Historical Records), as well as some other literature. The other two kinds were recorded by scholar Yang Shen in the Ming Dynasty. The first kind maybe is selected from Liutao by Yand Shen. The second is a combination "Huangdi's Ring" in the "Ring of the Five Emperors" and the "Yaodi's Ring" quoted in Huainan Zi. Dong Sizhang, a scholar in the Ming Dynasty, also recorded one kind of Jinjiming, which was echoig Yand Shen's. But he noted that it was cited from Diwangshiji, and this opinion was unreliable. On the whole, the three kinds of Jinjiming were created by later scholars since the Southern Song Dynasty, thus none is reliable and none belongs to Huangdiming. Thus, it should not be regarded as the reliable text about Huang-lao Thought.