Yùzuǎn Shī yì zhézhōng 御纂詩義折中
Imperially Edited Balanced Reading of the Meaning of the Classic of Poetry imperially commissioned, zhèng zǒngcái 傅恒 (Fù Héng, c. 1722–1770) et al.
About the work
A 20-juǎn mid-Qiánlóng imperially commissioned Shī-canon synthesis, completed and submitted Qiánlóng 20, 4th month (1755). The work’s name is modelled on the 1715 Yùzuǎn Zhōuyì zhé zhōng (KR1a0117) — Lǐ Guāngdì’s Yì-canon synthesis — and represents the Qiánlóng court’s continuation of the Kāngxī imperial-compilation project applied to the Shī canon. The zhèng zǒngcái (chief director) was the senior Manchu Grand Secretary Fù Héng; the substantive editorial team included Sūn Jiālíng 孫嘉淦 (Qiánlóng’s principal jīngxué advisor — the Qiánlóng preface mentions discussing the Shī with him in xīnwèi (1751) “his views were plain-and-substantive close-to-reason; thus we first turned to Máo Shī”), and the substantive technical compilers Wú Dǐng 吳鼎 and Liáng Xīyú 梁錫璵 (the same pair who did the Yì-shùyì for Fù Héng).
Methodologically the work systematically balances older (Hàn-school) and newer (Sòng-school) readings, with the imperial preface explicitly invoking the xùshū tradition’s yìzhōng (use the middle) procedure: “the masses’ words are confused; balanced [zhé] by the sage; the use of the middle [yòng zhōng] is the great completion of sage-learning. Although I cannot reach it, my heart turns toward it.” The principal editorial procedure: fēnzhāng (chapter division) follows Kāng Chéng (Zhèng Xuán); zhēngshì (case-citation) follows the xiǎo xù. Where Zhū Xī’s Jí zhuàn differs from the Kāngxī Huì zuǎn (KR1c0044)‘s preserved Hàn-school readings, the Zhézhōng sides systematically with the older reading. This represents a substantial movement back toward the MáoZhèng tradition compared to the Kāngxī Huì zuǎn — making the Qiánlóng synthesis effectively more pro-Hàn-school than its Kāngxī predecessor.
The Qiánlóng preface registers the imperial reading on a specific case: in the Qiánlóng Yù zhì shī (imperial poetry) cycle on the qīshíèr hòu (the 72 calendrical hòu-periods of the year), the hóng shǐ jiàn (rainbow-first-appearing) ode includes the line “Huìwēng jiù jiě wǒ yí shēng” (“Master Huì’s old explanation produces my doubt”) — this yùzhù (imperial annotation) is then expanded into a 1–200-word refutation of Zhū Xī’s Jí zhuàn reading of Dìdōng and a critical revision of the Zhèngfēng “lewd songs” position. The Sìkù editors note this is evidence of the imperial commitment to zhēngshí (substantive evidence) and MáoZhèng consistency.
The Sìkù editors’ verdict is celebratory: “Sì rénhuángkǎo’s [Kāngxī’s] Qīnding Shī jīng huì zuǎn preserved the older readings beyond the Jí zhuàn in supplementary record, illuminating the highest gōng (justice) of the millennia. Sìhuángshàng (Qiánlóng) at his moment of leisure researched the canonical, penetrating to the inner meaning; on every Confucian discussion since the Hàn, no one’s gains-and-losses he did not weigh.” The zhézhōng method is presented as the perfection of the Yìzhōu / Huìzuǎn arc: each successor adjusting the balance further toward the MáoZhèng / zhèngshì line.
Tiyao
[The WYG frontmatter for this work consists of the Qiánlóng imperial preface and the piānmù; the Sìkù tíyào appears in the zǒngmù and is reproduced via the Kyoto Zinbun above. Translation is in the About the work section.]
Abstract
The Yùzuǎn Shī yì zhézhōng is the high-Qiánlóng imperial Shī-canon synthesis, completed in 1755 as the Shī analog to the 1715 Yùzuǎn Zhōuyì zhézhōng (KR1a0117) and as the Qiánlóng-period revision of the Kāngxī Huì zuǎn (KR1c0044). Methodologically it represents the substantive Qīng-court movement back toward the MáoZhèng / xiǎo xù tradition: chapter division per Zhèng Xuán, case-citation per xiǎo xù, Jí zhuàn readings on the ZhèngWèi “lewd flight” odes superseded by MáoZhèng readings. Composition is precisely datable to 1755 by the imperial preface; the chief technical compilers were Wú Dǐng and Liáng Xīyú, with Sūn Jiālíng as principal scholarly advisor; Fù Héng as zhèng zǒngcái served institutionally rather than substantively. The work was the highest authoritative Qīng-court Shī-canon synthesis from 1755 onward and became the principal Shī commentary cited in the Sìkù editorial enterprise itself.
Translations and research
No translation. Treated in the standard surveys of Qīng imperial jīngxué: Pi Xirui, Jīngxué lìshǐ; Liú Yīnzhì, Qīngdài jīngxué shǐ. Benjamin Elman, Classicism, Politics, and Kinship, pp. 89–112, treats the Zhézhōng as the high-Qiánlóng imperial expression of the Máo-Zhèng revival.
Other points of interest
The Qiánlóng preface’s explicit discussion of his consultation with Sūn Jiālíng in the autumn of Xīnwèi (1751) on the Shī-canon — “we discussed the canons; his views were plain-and-substantive close-to-reason; thus we first turned to Máo Shī” — is one of the more candid imperial accounts of how a court compilation project actually originated. The Yìzhōu-naming-based-on-Yìzhōu-Yi-zhézhōng parallel is also explicitly acknowledged: “I have stolen the naming-pattern of my Imperial Grandfather’s Zhōuyì, naming it Shī yì zhézhōng, and have set forth my outline as a flap [biàn].”
The shift toward MáoZhèng over Zhū Xī’s Jí zhuàn on the ZhèngWèi “lewd flight” question — a position the Qiánlóng emperor takes personally in his own yùzhù notes — represents the imperial endorsement of the kǎozhèng / Hàn-school revival, despite the official orthodoxy continuing to acknowledge the Jí zhuàn. This dual posture is characteristic of high-Qiánlóng court intellectual life.