Zhōuyì Zhèng Kāngchéng zhù 周易鄭康成註
Zhèng Kāngchéng’s Commentary on the Zhōuyì
original commentary by 鄭玄 Zhèng Xuán (zì Kāngchéng 康成, 127–200, Hàn); recompiled from quotations by 王應麟 Wáng Yīnglín (zì Bóhòu 伯厚, 1223–1296, Sòng)
About the work
A one-juàn reconstruction by the late-Sòng polymath 王應麟 Wáng Yīnglín of 鄭玄 Zhèng Xuán’s lost Zhōuyì zhù 周易註, the most authoritative of the Hàn xiàngshù 象數 commentaries. Zhèng’s original was in nine (or ten) juàn and was the foundational alternative to the yìlǐ 義理 reading later canonised by 王弼 Wáng Bì (KR1a0006); it was already in fragmentary state by the Northern Sòng and effectively lost during the Sòng. Wáng Yīnglín gathered the surviving fragments from 李鼎祚 Lǐ Dǐngzuò’s Zhōuyì jíjiě 周易集解 (KR1a0008), 陸德明 Lù Démíng’s Jīngdiǎn shìwén 經典釋文, the Shī 詩 and Three-Rites zhèngyì 正義, the Chūnqiū 春秋 commentaries, the Hòu Hànshū 後漢書, and 李善 Lǐ Shàn’s Wénxuǎn 文選 commentary, and arranged them under hexagram heads following the received Zhōuyì sequence. It is the earliest systematic jíyì 輯佚 (“recompilation of lost texts”) of Zhèng’s Yì and the parent text for the further-augmented KR1a0004 Zēngbǔ Zhèng shì Zhōuyì 增補鄭氏周易 of 惠棟 Huì Dòng.
The catalog assigns the dynasty as Hàn (the dynasty of the source author), but the actual composition window is the late Southern Sòng: notBefore 1241 (Wáng Yīnglín’s jìnshì date and the start of his serious bibliographic productivity) — notAfter 1296 (his death). The Sìkù editors note in the tiyao that, when a work is wholly a recompilation of an earlier author, the convention is to file it under the original author’s dynasty regardless.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Zhōuyì Zhèng Kāngchéng zhù in one juàn was compiled by 王應麟 Wáng Yīnglín of the Sòng. Yīnglín, zì Bóhòu 伯厚, was a Qìngyuán 慶元 man, who signed himself “of Jùnyí 浚儀” — that being his ancestral seat. He took the jìnshì in the first year of Chúnyòu [1241]; in the fourth year of Bǎoyòu [1256] he passed the bóxué hóngcí 博學鴻詞 examination as well; and he rose to be Vice Minister of Rites (Lǐbù shàngshū 禮部尚書) and Censorial Adviser (jǐ shìzhōng 給事中). His record stands in the Sòngshǐ Rúlín zhuàn 宋史儒林傳.
The Suí[shū jīngjí] zhì lists Zhèng Yuán’s [Zhèng Xuán] Zhōuyì zhù in nine juàn; it further notes that Zhèng Yuán and 王弼 Wáng Bì — these two commentaries — were both established in the National Academy under the Liáng and Chén, that under Qí only Zhèng was transmitted, and that with the rise of the Suí Wáng’s commentary flourished and Zhèng’s learning waned. (Note: the Suíshū writes “Zhèng Yuán” 鄭元 throughout, by the Táng-period taboo on the character 玄.) The Xīn Tángshū records the work in ten juàn, so in the Táng it still circulated; this is why 李鼎祚 Lǐ Dǐngzuò’s Jíjiě quotes it copiously. The Sòng Chóngwén zǒngmù 崇文總目 records only one juàn, surviving of the Wényán 文言, Xùguà 序卦, Shuōguà 說卦, and Záguà 雜卦 — the four wing-commentaries — with the rest scattered and lost. By the time of the Zhōngxīng shūmù 中興書目 it is no longer recorded at all. (Note: the Zhōngxīng shūmù itself does not survive today; this is according to 馮椅 Féng Yǐ’s Yìxué 易學, which quotes it.) So the work perished between the Northern and Southern Sòng. 晁說之 Cháo Yuèzhī and 朱震 Zhū Zhèn could still see fragments; but from Chúnxī 淳熙 onwards the various Confucians rarely cite it.
Yīnglín then gathered material from many books and compiled the present collection. Where the canonical text shows variant readings, he preserved them all in parallel; the fragments to which he could not attach an original passage of the Yì he placed in a separate section at the end. Furthermore, because Zhèng Yuán’s commentary makes much use of “interlocked bodies” (hùtǐ 互體 — interpreting the trigrams formed by lines 2-3-4 and 3-4-5 as further hexagrams), Yīnglín appended eight passages bearing on hùtǐ drawn from the Zuǒzhuàn 左傳, Lǐjì 禮記, and Zhōulǐ 周禮 zhèngyì commentaries, classified by topic.
We may further consider: Zhèng Yuán in his early years studied the Jīng-school Yì (京房 Jīng Fáng line) under the Fifth Master Yuánxiān (第五元先 Dìwǔ Yuánxiān), and later studied the Fèi-school Yì (費直 Fèi Zhí line) under 馬融 Mǎ Róng. So his learning was a synthesis of both houses; but in its main thrust it inclined toward Fèi, and he stands in the genuine line of Yì transmission. 陸澄 Lù Chéng of the Qí, in his letter to 王儉 Wáng Jiǎn, says: “Wáng Bì’s Yì commentary is what Zhèng’s school venerates as its norm. If we are to honour the Confucians today, Zhèng’s commentary cannot be discarded.” The judgment is sound. In the early Táng, when the Zhèngyì 正義 was decreed to be edited, Zhèng was set aside in favour of Wáng — this was not the act of clear-eyed scholarship.
That Yīnglín, in the wake of dispersal and loss, was able to gather up what was scattered and so preserve a single thread of Hàn-period Yì learning, can rightly be called a man of dedicated will toward the bequeathed canon and of fixed mind upon ancient meanings. In recent times 惠棟 Huì Dòng has separately produced a textually-corrected version, more rigorous in its method (KR1a0004); but it was Yīnglín who pioneered the work, and his labour of gleaning cannot be effaced. We accordingly record both in our register, in order to preserve in twin the merits of the two men.
(Editorial note appended:) Where a previous-dynasty bequest is reedited by a later hand: if the editor has interpolated or rewritten material, then the work is filed under the editor’s own period (as with the Zēngzǐ 曾子 and Zǐsīzǐ 子思子). If the editor has gathered up old material verbatim, then the work is still filed under the period of the original. This work, though compiled by a Sòng man, is therefore listed after the Hàn. The same convention applies to the works that follow.
(Sìkù tiyao for Zhōuyì Zhèng Kāngchéng zhù; translation rendered from the Kyoto Zinbun digital text 0000301, which preserves the standard recension. The version preserved at the head of the SBCK base edition shipped in the Kanripo source file KR1a0003_000.txt is the original 1248 Wáng Yīnglín postface, not the 1781 Sìkù tiyao.)
Abstract
鄭玄 Zhèng Xuán (127–200), of Běihǎi Gāomì 北海高密 (modern Shāndōng), was the last and greatest of the Hàn classicists, equally authoritative on the Yì, Shī, Sānlǐ, Lúnyǔ, and Xiàojīng. His Zhōuyì zhù synthesised the Mèng-Jīng xiàngshù tradition (received via 第五元先 Dìwǔ Yuánxiān) with the older 費直 Fèi Zhí line received via 馬融 Mǎ Róng. The commentary made central use of hùtǐ 互體 (“interlocked-body” hexagrams generated by lines 2-3-4 and 3-4-5), of guàqì 卦氣 (“hexagram-breath” calendrical correlations), and of philological glossing — methods later marginalised by 王弼 Wáng Bì but central to Hàn Yì hermeneutics.
The Suíshū jīngjí zhì records the original at nine juàn. By the early Táng both Zhèng’s and Wáng’s commentaries were officially canonised side by side; 孔穎達 Kǒng Yǐngdá chose Wáng for his Zhōuyì zhèngyì 周易正義 (KR1a0007), which became the imperial standard, and Zhèng’s text gradually fell out of circulation. 李鼎祚 Lǐ Dǐngzuò’s Zhōuyì jíjiě (mid-Táng, KR1a0008) preserves the largest single block of Zhèng quotations; 陸德明 Lù Démíng’s Jīngdiǎn shìwén preserves a smaller but textually crucial set. The Sòng Chóngwén zǒngmù (1042) still records “1 juàn” surviving — covering only the four “Wing” texts Wényán, Xùguà, Shuōguà, and Záguà — and the Zhōngxīng shūmù (Southern Sòng) records nothing.
王應麟 Wáng Yīnglín (1223–1296), of Qìngyuán 慶元 (modern Níngbō 寧波), was the leading bibliographer and kǎojù 考據 scholar of the late Southern Sòng, jìnshì of 1241 and bóxué hóngcí of 1256. His other surviving compilations include the Yùhǎi 玉海, Kùnxué jìwén 困學紀聞, and Sānzìjīng 三字經 (traditionally attributed). For the present work he combed Lǐ Dǐngzuò, Lù Démíng, the Shī and Sānlǐ zhèngyì, and the Hòu Hànshū and Wénxuǎn commentaries, organised the surviving fragments under hexagram heads, and appended a separately-grouped tail-section of unattributable fragments together with eight illustrative hùtǐ citations from the Zuǒzhuàn, Lǐjì, and Zhōulǐ sub-commentaries. The compilation was substantially complete by the late thirteenth century; it is the earliest extant systematic jíyì 輯佚 reconstruction of a Hàn Yì commentary, and it became the model for the Qīng evidential reconstructions that followed.
The Qīng kǎozhèng scholar 惠棟 Huì Dòng (1697–1758) produced an enlarged and textually corrected version, Zēngbǔ Zhèng shì Zhōuyì 增補鄭氏周易 (= KR1a0004); the Sìkù editors record both, citing Yīnglín’s pioneering role.
Translations and research
No European-language translation of the recompiled fragments as such exists; passages are translated incidentally in studies of Hàn Yì.
- Bent Nielsen, A Companion to Yi jing Numerology and Cosmology (RoutledgeCurzon, 2003) — entries on Zhèng Xuán, hùtǐ, guàqì, with bibliography.
- Tze-ki Hon, The Yijing and Chinese Politics: Classical Commentary and Literati Activism in the Northern Song, 960-1127 (SUNY, 2005) — chapter context on Hàn-Yì revival and Sòng reception.
- Bernhard Karlgren, “The Early History of the Chou Li and Tso Chuan Texts,” BMFEA 3 (1931) — useful on Zhèng’s textual practice across the classics.
- Lín Zhōngjūn 林忠軍, Zhōuyì Zhèng shì xué chǎnwēi 周易鄭氏學闡微 (Shànghǎi gǔjí, 2005) — the standard Sinophone monograph on Zhèng’s Yì method.
- Sūn Tángshū 孫堂書 / Liú Yùjīng 劉玉建 et al. modern punctuated editions of Wáng Yīnglín’s reconstruction, often printed together with Huì Dòng’s Zēngbǔ version.
- Zhū Bóqūn 朱伯崑, Yìxué zhéxué shǐ 易學哲學史, vol. 1 (Huáxià, rev. ed. 1995) — definitive Sinophone history of Yì exegesis; the chapter on Hàn Yì relies heavily on the recompiled Zhèng material.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù editors’ procedural note attached to this tiyao — that recompilations of lost works are filed under the original author’s dynasty rather than the recompiler’s — is itself a locus classicus for Qīng cataloguing convention. The same rule governs the placement of KR1a0005 Lùshì Yìjiě 陸氏易解 and many of the early-canon jíyì compilations later in the corpus.
The status of Wáng Yīnglín’s reconstruction has been re-examined in light of subsequent manuscript and quotation evidence (especially the Mǎwángduī silk Yì and bamboo-strip materials, which do not preserve Zhèng Xuán material directly but do confirm the antiquity of hùtǐ-style and guàqì-style reading practices Zhèng inherited).