Jiézhāi Máoshī jīngyán jiǎngyì 絜齋毛詩經筵講義
Master Jiézhāi’s Imperial-Lecture Discourses on the Mao Recension of the Classic of Poetry by 袁燮 (Yuán Xiè, zì Héshū 和叔, hào Jiézhāi 絜齋, 1144–1224)
About the work
A 4-juǎn set of lectures delivered by Yuán Xiè at the imperial jīngyán 經筵 (“classics-mat”) while serving as Chóngzhèng diàn shuōshū 崇政殿說書 (Lecturer at the Hall of Esteemed Government). Like the parallel jīngyán lecture-texts of Zhū Zhèn 朱震 and Fàn Chōng 范沖 on the Zuǒ zhuàn and Dài Xī on the Chūnqiū, the lectures were submitted to the throne as written jiǎngzhāng 講章. Both the Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì and Chén Zhènsūn’s Shū lù jiětí omit the work, and Zhū Yízūn’s Jīngyì kǎo does not list it; the Sìkù editors recovered it from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn. The recovery is partial — only the Guófēng lectures survive (organized into 4 juǎn); the Yǎ and Sòng lectures may have been lost or may simply never have been delivered (Yuán Xiè may not have been on duty during those rotations of the lecture cycle). Like Yáng Jiǎn (KR1c0016), Yuán Xiè was a Lù-school xīnxué exegete, but unlike Yáng his Shī readings are politically motivated: as imperial lecturer in the immediately post-Kāixǐ (1206) restoration period, he selects each Guófēng ode for its bearing on dynastic recovery (zhènxīng huīfù 振興恢復). On Shìwēi he praises Tài Wáng and Gōu Jiàn for turning weakness into strength and faults the Marquis of Lí for having no resolve; on Yáng zhī shuǐ he calls Píngwáng’s softness “pitiable”; on Shǔlí he speaks directly of the Biànjīng (Northern Sòng capital) ancestral temples. The Sìkù editors note approvingly that, where Hú Ānguó’s Chūnqiū zhuàn (with its revanchist agenda) often “drags the Classic to fit the man’s purpose,” Yuán Xiè genuinely “expounds outward from what the Classic itself contains.” The work is therefore a rare extant specimen of a politically engaged but exegetically responsible Southern-Sòng lecture series.
Tiyao
By the Sòng Yuán Xiè. Yuán Xiè has the Jiézhāi jiāshú shū chāo, already catalogued. This work was submitted while he was Chóngzhèng diàn shuōshū. Neither the Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì nor the Zhízhāi shū lù jiětí records it; Zhū Yízūn’s Jīngyì kǎo also omits the title. Only the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn preserves a substantial portion — clearly the work has been lost from circulation for a long time. The Sòng jīngyán jiǎngzhāng — Zhū Zhèn’s and Fàn Chōng’s Zuǒshì jiǎngyì, Dài Xī’s Chūnqiū jiǎngyì — were generally collated and printed separately; this work follows the same pattern. The discussion is calm and centred, getting at the poets’ true intent. On the matter of dynastic restoration, he returns to it again and again. On Shìwēi he praises Tài Wáng and Gōu Jiàn for turning weakness to strength and reproaches the Marquis of Lí for having no rousing heart. On Yáng zhī shuǐ he calls Píngwáng’s softness pitiable. On Shǔlí he names directly the Biànjīng ancestral temples and palace gates. All deeply apt to the duty of “submission and counsel.” Hú Ānguó’s Chūnqiū zhuàn sets vengeance as its theme, and tends to drag the Classic into self-purpose; but Yuán Xiè works outward from what the Classic itself has, so his sense is clear and his words direct, with no twisting. He may be said to have used ancient meaning as the material for instructive admonition. We have collated and reorganized into 4 juǎn — all Guófēng. The Yǎ and Sòng are not in the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn — perhaps because the lectures rotated and Yuán Xiè happened not to be on duty.
Abstract
The Jiézhāi Máoshī jīngyán jiǎngyì is the only surviving Southern-Sòng Shī-canon jīngyán lecture series and the principal evidence for how the Classic of Poetry was deployed in face-to-face imperial pedagogy under Níngzōng. Yuán Xiè was the most senior Lù-school figure in court office during the post-Kāixǐ (1207) period, and his lectures consciously map Guófēng odes against the contemporary JīnSòng frontier situation — his Shǔlí lecture is the most explicit identification of Western Zhōu loss-of-capital with the Northern Sòng loss of Biànjīng to be found in any extant Sòng Shī commentary. The dating bracket is set from Yuán Xiè’s first appointment as jīngyán lecturer (ca. 1199) to his removal during the renewed Hán Tuōzhòu repressions and the Kāixǐ campaign aftermath (ca. 1207). The work is now preserved only as a Yǒnglè dàdiǎn recovery and the YǎSòng portion is irretrievable.
Translations and research
No translation. The work has been used as a primary source in studies of Sòng jīngyán institutional practice (Zhū Ruìxī 朱瑞熙, Sòngdài jīngyán zhìdù yánjiū, Shànghǎi shèkē, 2001) and as evidence for the political reception of the Classic of Poetry in the late twelfth century (Hé Hǎiyàn, Qīng-rén Shīxué yǔ Sòng-rén Shīxué).
Other points of interest
The Sìkù editors’ use of the work as a counter-example to Hú Ānguó’s Chūnqiū zhuàn is one of the more specific defences they mount of pre-Zhū-Xī Southern-Sòng exegesis: Yuán Xiè is praised precisely for not doing what the editors otherwise treat as the cardinal Sòng-commentary vice — projecting a contemporary political agenda onto the canonical text.