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復齋易說

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Text ID
KR1a0036
Date
1180–1200
Dynasty
宋

Fùzhāi Yì shuō 復齋易說

Master Fùzhāi’s Talks on the Yì

by 趙彥肅 Zhào Yànsù (zì Zǐqīn 子欽, hào Fùzhāi 復齋, fl. late twelfth century, of the Sòng imperial clan; recommended by 朱熹 Zhū Xī to 趙汝愚 Zhào Rǔyú)

About the work

A six-juan Yì commentary by 趙彥肅 Zhào Yànsù, an imperial-clan (zōngshì 宗室) scholar of the late Southern Sòng. Zhào Yànsù was jìnshì and held a sequence of relatively junior posts: Shūjì 書記 (Bookkeeper) at Níngguójūn 寧國軍, Tuīguān 推官 (Recommendation-Officer) of Xiùzhōu 秀州, then Xiànchéng 縣丞 (Deputy Magistrate) of Huátíng 華亭 with provisional charge of the magistracy. He went home to observe inner-mourning (nèijiān 內艱, mother’s death). Zhū Xī recommended him to the chief minister 趙汝愚 Zhào Rǔyú (1140–1196), and Zhào Rǔyú in turn memorialized to have him appointed jiédù tuīguān 節度推官 of Nínghǎijūn 寧海軍 — but he fell ill almost immediately upon assumption and died.

The Sìkù tiyao signals that Zhào Yànsù enjoyed Zhū Xī’s high regard on most fronts: his Guǎng záxué biàn 廣雜學辨 (an extension of Zhū Xī’s Záxué biàn 雜學辨, against the qímò 歧末 syncretists), his ritual diagrams for the Shìguānlǐ 士冠禮 (“capping ceremony”), Hūnlǐ 婚禮 (“marriage ceremony”), and Kuìshí lǐ 饋食禮 (“food-offering ceremony”), were all praised by Zhū Xī. Only on the Yì did Zhào Yànsù decisively diverge from Zhū Xī, and Zhū Xī said so explicitly in his Yǔlèi: “His exposition is too refined and his extraction of meaning too tight; at points it injures the easy-and-simple flavor.” The Sìkù editors are mildly defensive on Zhào Yànsù’s behalf: his approach, they say, is jí xiàngshù yǐ qiú yìlǐ 即象數以求義理 (“getting at yìlǐ by way of xiàngshù”) — that is, beginning from the line-and-trigram drawing rather than from doctrinal categories. Zhào Yànsù’s signature methodological declaration:

The earlier sages, in making the Yì, had only the lines and drawings — that and nothing more. The later sages attached words to them; every single utterance and word comes out of the drawings — like a painter transmitting the spirit, not at all like depicting cloud-mist or grass-and-trees.

The Sìkù editors’ verdict: “His sinking-and-immersion within the Yì is, even so, much better than splintering-fragmentation outside the Yì.”

The composition window 1180–1200 brackets Zhào Yànsù’s mature scholarly activity (his recommendation by Zhū Xī to Zhào Rǔyú must precede Rǔyú’s deposition in Qìngyuán 1, 1195, and Rǔyú’s death in 1196, the Wěixué 偽學 / “False-Learning” proscription year). Zhào Yànsù’s death, which the tiyao says followed quickly upon his Nínghǎijūn appointment, is therefore likely 1195 or 1196.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that Fùzhāi Yì shuō in six juan was composed by the Sòng zōngshì (imperial-clan member) 趙彥肅 Zhào Yànsù. Yànsù, zì Zǐqīn — Fùzhāi is his hào. He once raised jìnshì; held charge as Shūjì (Bookkeeper) of Níngguójūn; was reassigned as Tuīguān (Recommendation-Officer) of Xiùzhōu; transferred to Xiànchéng (Deputy Magistrate) of Huátíng with charge of the magistracy. On account of inner-mourning (nèijiān) he returned home. 趙汝愚 Zhào Rǔyú memorialized to recommend him as jiédù tuīguān of Nínghǎijūn; he soon fell ill and died — for indeed Zhūzǐ [Zhū Xī] had recommended him to [Zhào] Rǔyú.

Yànsù’s writings include Guǎng záxué biàn, Shìguānlǐ, Hūnlǐ, Kuìshí tú — all of which were praised by Zhūzǐ. Only on the Yì did he and Zhūzǐ not agree. So Zhūzǐ’s Yǔlèi says of him: “His exposition is too refined; his taking of meaning is too tight; sometimes it harms the jiǎnyì [easy-and-simple] flavor.”

Yet Yànsù’s exposition of the Yì lies in getting at the meanings-and-principles by way of the imagery-and-numerology, taking the six-line drawing as the master. So he says: “The earlier sages, in making the Yì, had only the drawings and nothing more; the later sages attached words to them — every single utterance and word comes out of the drawings — comparable to a painter transmitting the spirit, not on a par with depicting cloud-mist or grass-and-trees.”

Such being the case, Yànsù’s deep meditation and forceful reaching-out — these are all his investigation-and-inquiry into the line-meanings, his urgent search for the why-it-is-so of each. His sinking-and-soaking-in within the Yì is, even so, better than splintering-fragmentation outside the Yì.

Respectfully revised and submitted, second month of the forty-sixth year of Qiánlóng [1781].

General Compilers: 紀昀 Jǐ Yún, 陸錫熊 Lù Xīxióng, 孫士毅 Sūn Shìyì. General Reviser: 陸費墀 Lù Fèichí.

Abstract

趙彥肅 Zhào Yànsù (fl. late twelfth century, prob. c. 1140s–c. 1195/96), zì Zǐqīn 子欽, hào Fùzhāi 復齋, was a member of the Sòng imperial clan (zōngshì 宗室). CBDB id 50806 records him without lifedates and with sparse biographical apparatus, consistent with his junior official career. The Sòngshǐ gives no separate biography; the principal sources are Zhū Xī’s Wén jí (correspondence and Yǔlèi 119, 124) and Zhào Rǔyú’s memorial recommendation, partially preserved in the late-Sòng Cháoyě zájì and Yuán-period chronicles.

The work is a sustained xiàngshù-rooted yìlǐ exposition. Zhào Yànsù’s program is methodologically interesting: he refuses both the pure yìlǐ line (王弼 Wáng Bì → 程頤 Chéng Yí) and the floridly speculative xiàngshù line (劉牧 Liú Mù KR1a0011 → 朱震 Zhū Zhèn KR1a0024). His starting-point is always the six-line drawing, and the guàcí / yáocí are read as the sages’ explicit verbalization of what is already encoded in the drawing. This positions him as an early xiàngshù-grounded synthesizer in the line that will pass through 林栗 Lín Lì and 項安世 Xiàng Ānshì (KR1a0040) toward the late-Sòng / Yuán xiàng-and-lǐ synthesis.

The composition is undated internally; the bracket 1180–1200 reflects Zhào Yànsù’s productive mid-and-late career and the constraint that the work must have been complete or substantially complete by the time of Zhū Xī’s recommendation to Zhào Rǔyú (i.e. before Rǔyú’s Qìngyuán 1, 1195, dismissal). Zhào Yànsù’s death soon after assuming his Nínghǎijūn post sets the latest plausible composition terminus.

The relationship to Zhū Xī is the work’s most-discussed feature in the secondary literature: a personal-and-philosophical disciple-relation, marked by mutual respect, that nevertheless dissented openly on the central canonical text of the Dàoxué curriculum. Zhū Xī’s published Yǔlèi judgment (“too refined, too tight, sometimes injures the jiǎnyì flavor”) is itself a small landmark in the history of Sòng Yì-criticism, formulating in plain language what Zhū Xī’s own Zhōuyì běnyì implicitly stakes against the over-elaborate xiàngshù tendencies even within friendly Yì-readings.

Translations and research

No European-language translation of the Fùzhāi Yì shuō.

  • Hoyt Cleveland Tillman, Confucian Discourse and Chu Hsi’s Ascendancy (Univ. of Hawaii, 1992), section on Zhū Xī’s circle of Yì-students and the disagreement with Zhào Yànsù.
  • Zhū Bóqūn 朱伯崑, Yìxué zhéxué shǐ, vol. 2 — Zhào Yànsù treated as a Zhū-Xī-line Yì-dissenter and xiàngshù-rooted synthesizer.
  • Liào Mínghuó 廖名活, articles in Zhōuyì yánjiū on Zhū Xī’s Yì-circle.
  • Modern punctuated editions from the Sìkù base; no separate critical edition.

Other points of interest

The Zhū Xī → Zhào Rǔyú recommendation chain is one of the better-documented examples of how the Zhū-Xī-circle’s Dàoxué protégés moved into political posts in the brief 1194–1195 window when Zhào Rǔyú was chief minister. Zhào Yànsù’s death almost immediately upon assumption of office, on the eve of the Qìngyuán dǎngjìn 慶元黨禁 (“False Learning Proscription”), preserved him from the proscriptive reaction that fell on Zhū Xī’s surviving disciples between 1196 and 1202.

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