Zhōuyì zhāng jù zhèng yì 周易章句證異
Verifying the Variants in the Chapter-and-Phrase of the Zhōuyì by 翟均廉
About the work
A focused philological Yìjīng work in twelve juàn by 翟均廉 Zhái Jūnlián of Rénhé 仁和 (Hángzhōu), Grand Secretariat Drafter, completed in 1765 (per catalog meta). The work systematically compares the canonical-text recensions and chapter-and-phrase-divisions of the various Hàn-and-Sòng commentators on the upper-and-lower scriptures of the Zhōuyì. Two distinct types of variant are treated:
(1) Structural variants (chapter-and-section orderings): 李鼎祚 Lǐ Dǐngzuò prefixes the Xùguà 序卦 before each hexagram-statement; 周燔 Zhōu Fán lays out Dà xiàng 大象 before the hexagram-statement, with Tuàn zhuàn 彖傳 below; 趙汝楳 Zhào Rǔméi prefixes Dà xiàng before the hexagram-statement, with Tuàn zhuàn below it, then Wényán, then line-statements; 李過 Lǐ Guò and 方逢辰 Fāng Féngchén lay out Tuàn zhuàn below the hexagram-statement, then Wényán, then Tuàn-explication, then Dà xiàng, then line-statements; 蔡淵 Cài Yuán lays out Dà xiàng below the hexagram-statement, then Tuàn zhuàn; Wényán separately as one zhuàn indented one space; 王洙 Wáng Zhū does not include the hexagram-statements in the canonical text but as a separate chapter — and so on.
(2) Textual-phrase variants (line-readings): on Qián 9/3, 孟喜 Mèng Xǐ reads “xī tì ruò yín” 夕惕若夤 (period) “lì wú jiù” 厲无咎 (period); 荀爽 Xún Shuǎng, 虞翻 Yú Fān, 王弼 Wáng Bì read “xī tì ruò lì” 夕惕若厲 (period); 邵雍 Shào Yōng, 朱震 Zhū Zhèn, 朱熹 Zhū Xī read “xī tì ruò” 夕惕若 (period). Such variants are catalogued line-by-line through all sixty-four hexagrams; Zhái occasionally interpolates his own opinions, marked Lián àn 廉案.
The Sìkù editors describe the work as “quite refined-and-tight” (頗為精密) in its philological apparatus and prefer it to 郭京 Guō Jīng’s Táng-period Zhōuyì jǔ zhèng 周易舉正 — the principal medieval parallel — because Guō altered the canonical text by conjecture (attributing the alterations to a fictitious Wáng Bì / 韓伯 Hán Bó old recension) while Zhái’s variants are all grounded in actual transmitted commentary recensions.
Tiyao
Sìkù tíyào (translated): The Zhōuyì zhāng jù zhèng yì in twelve juàn was composed by Zhái Jūnlián of our [Qīng] dynasty. Jūnlián, zì Chūnzhǐ, was a man of Rénhé; office: Grand Secretariat Drafter.
This compilation takes the Zhōuyì upper-and-lower scriptures’ ancient-and-modern recension same-and-different places and mutually examines them. As: Lǐ Dǐngzuò before the hexagram-statement separately prefixes Xùguà; Zhōu Fán lays out Dà xiàng before the hexagram-statement and Tuàn zhuàn repeated [below the hexagram-statement]; Zhào Rǔméi places Dà xiàng before the hexagram-statement and Tuàn zhuàn after, next Wényán, next line-statements; Lǐ Guò and Fāng Féngchén in Qián hexagram place Tuàn zhuàn after the hexagram-statement, next Wényán, next at the Tuàn-glossing place, next Dà xiàng, next line-statements; Cài Yuán places Dà xiàng after the hexagram-statement, next Tuàn zhuàn; Wényán separately as one zhuàn, the zhuàn indented one space; Wáng Zhū within the canon does not list the hexagram-statement, separately as one chapter — these are the kind of structural same-and-different.
As: Qián 3rd line — Mèng Xǐ writes “xī tì ruò” “yín” (period) “lì wú jiù” (period); Xún Shuǎng, Yú Fān, Wáng Bì write “xī tì ruò lì” (period); Master Shào, Zhū Zhèn, Master Zhū write “xī tì ruò” (period) — these are the kind of phrase-pause same-and-different.
Following hexagram following line, all are arranged-and-listed; he intersperses with his own opinions, marked off with two characters Lián àn. The places of ancient-and-modern recension same-and-different — collation is quite refined-and-tight. Although a recent-time book, what he says all has bases — turning out superior to Guō Jīng’s Jǔ zhèng which by-opinion altered, attributing-the-words-to WángHán old-recension.
Respectfully collated, the eleventh month of the forty-fifth year of Qiánlóng (1780). Editor-in-chief: Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. Chief proofreader: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
Composition is fixed by the catalog meta to 1765; the bracket here adopts the single year. The work is a substantively important mid-Qiánlóng philological monograph on the Yì’s textual recensions and chapter-divisions.
The work is one of the most thorough Qing philological apparatuses on the Yì-canon’s textual variants, and represents the kǎozhèng school’s mature focused application to canonical-text criticism. Its dual focus on structural variants (chapter-and-section orderings) and textual-phrase variants (line-readings) gives it broader coverage than most parallel works (Wáng Yīngtīng’s Sòng-period Zhōuyì jīng zhuàn yīn xùn 周易經傳音訓, etc.). The Sìkù editors’ favorable comparison to Guō Jīng’s Jǔ zhèng is methodologically substantive: Guō had been one of the principal pre-Qing philological treatments of the Yì-canon’s variants but had been long suspected of conjectural-attribution; Zhái’s evidence-based work supersedes Guō.
The work is therefore one of the principal kǎozhèng-era Yì-textual-criticism monographs, alongside 毛奇齡 Máo Qílíng’s Zhòngshì Yì 仲氏易 (KR1a0126) for the methodological side and 胡渭 Hú Wèi’s Yìtú míng biàn (KR1a0138) for the chart-tradition critique. Together they constitute the canonical Qing kǎozhèng corpus on the Yì.
Translations and research
No substantial monograph in Western languages located. The work is a standard reference in Chinese-language Yì-textual-criticism.
Other points of interest
The work is one of the cleanest cases of mid-Qiánlóng kǎozhèng methodology applied to a single canonical-textual problem, and represents a substantive achievement of the Wú pài school’s broader program. The systematic distinction between structural variants and textual-phrase variants is methodologically sophisticated and deserves wider recognition in modern philological scholarship.