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韓詩外傳

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Text ID
KR1c0066
Date
-180–-130
Dynasty
漢

Hán Shī wài zhuàn 韓詩外傳

Outer Tradition of the Hán Recension of the Poetry by 韓嬰 (Hán Yīng, fl. early-mid 2nd c. BCE)

About the work

The sole surviving work of the Western-Hàn Hán Shī school. Hán Shī — one of the four early-Hàn Shī recensions, alongside Lǔ Shī, Qí Shī, and (the eventually-victorious) Máo Shī — was founded by Hán Yīng 韓嬰 of Yān (modern Héběi). Per the Hàn shū rúlín zhuàn, Hán Yīng “tuī Shī rén zhī yì ér zuò NèiWài zhuàn shù wàn yán; qí yǔ pō yǔ QíLǔ jiān shū rán guī yī yě” (he extended the poet’s intent and composed Inner and Outer Traditions of several myriad words; his readings differed somewhat from the Qí and Lǔ readings but came back to one).

The Hàn shū yìwén zhì records four Hán Shī texts: Hán gù 韓故 in 36 juǎn; Hán Shī nèi zhuàn 内傳 in 4 juǎn; Hán Shī wài zhuàn 外傳 in 6 juǎn; Hán shuō 韓說 in 41 juǎn. The Suí shū jīngjí zhì gives the Wài zhuàn in 10 juǎn. The recensional variation reflects later bǎnběn differences; the present transmitted Wài zhuàn is in 10 juǎn. The Nèi zhuàn survived through the Tàipíng yùlǎn period (citation evidence from late Northern Sòng) and was finally lost in the Zhènghé / Jiànyán transition (early 12th century, late Northern Sòng / early Southern Sòng). Only the Wài zhuàn in 10 juǎn now survives.

Genre: the Wài zhuàn is not a verse-by-verse commentary on the Shī. It is a collection of short illustrative-stories, parables, and historical anecdotes — drawing on pre-Qín literature (the Xúnzǐ corpus is the largest single source, with extensive parallels) — each ending with the formula “Shī yún (the Shī says) …” invoking a Shī line as moral-summary. The zhāng dùn qǔ yì (excerpting and applying) method has substantial overlap with the Lǐ jì jì yì genre. The work is therefore not a classical commentary in the Máo zhuàn sense; it is a Confucian moral-literature anthology with the Shī as its scripture-anchor.

The Sòng-period xù (preface, attributed to “Liú Hóu” 劉侯 of Hǎidài 海岱 — i.e., from Shāndōng) and Hán Yīng xiǎo zhuàn (a small biographical note) are appended at the front of the SBCK source-edition (= the editions used in the Sìbù cóngkān reproductions): the xù records the youth’s amazement at the work’s XiānQín feel, his subsequent quest for the Sān jiā lost-readings, and the historical decline of the Sān jiā; the xiǎo zhuàn recapitulates the Hàn shū rúlín zhuàn on Hán Yīng. The Wài zhuàn’s scholarly importance lies less in its specific Shī-readings (which are scattered and not systematic) than in its dual role as: (1) the only direct surviving witness to Hán Shī; (2) one of the principal Western-Hàn collections of pre-Qín moral-pedagogic anecdotes, paralleling the Xúnzǐ corpus and the Liènǚ zhuàn-genre.

Prefaces

(For KR1c0066, the WYG / SBCK source-edition does not carry a 提要 in the _000.txt; the front-matter consists of a Sòng-period xù (序) attributed to a Liú Hóu of Hǎidài, and the Hán Yīng xiǎo zhuàn (a brief biographical sketch). The Sìkù recension was edited from the SBCK form, but the project as catalogued here uses the SBCK edition. There is no 提要 in this file. For 提要 of the Sìkù-recension version, the canonical fallback is the Kyoto Zinbun digital Sìkù tíyào: http://kanji.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/db-machine/ShikoTeiyo/0050001.html.)

The Liú-prefacer’s xù — translated:

“In my youth, reading the Hán Shī wài zhuàn, I doubted that it was a Pre-Qín composition; and that Shī-transmission specialism had reached this scope. I heard of the three HánLǔQí Shī schools and went searching for their books. By the Hàn records, Lǔ Shī was Shēn Péi 申培’s, transmitted by Fúqiū Bó 浮丘伯. Hán Shī was Hán Yīng’s, of Yān. Qí Shī was Yuán Gù 轅固’s, of Qí. They differ — by state-name or by surname-of-transmitter. The Qí Shī in the Wèi already lost; the Lǔ Shī lost in the Western Jìn; only the Hán Shī survived; even there, the Hán tradition’s transmission differed from the Qí and Lǔ — yet came back to one.

The Hàn shū yìwén zhì gives the Hán Shī in 36 juǎn; the Nèi zhuàn in 4 juǎn; the Wài zhuàn in 6 juǎn; Shuō in 41 juǎn. The Suí shū jīngjí zhì gives 22 juǎn (the Xuèshì commentary recension). The Táng shū yìwén zhì gives the Hán Shī Bǔ Shāng xù (preface), Hán Yīng’s annotation in 22 juǎn; further the Wài zhuàn in 10 juǎn. The Hán Shī surviving with no transmitting-master continued to Táng; today only the Wài zhuàn in 10 piān survives — not Hán Yīng’s detailed Shī-explanation, with the lost-readings sometimes seen elsewhere — strikingly different from Máo’s readings; we lack leisure to discuss them here. Yet observing the Wài zhuàn: although not the detailed account of his canonical-explanation, zhāng dùn qǔ yì (excerpting-and-applying) — necessarily of one piece with the Confucian gate’s ShāngCì yán Shī (Shāng / Cì discussions of the Shī — i.e., Zǐxià / Zǐgòng); further the language is qīng wǎn (clear and graceful), with the feel of pre-Qín — students how can we not honor it? Hǎidài Liú Hóu… [signature].”

The Hán Yīng xiǎo zhuàn — translated:

“The Hàn shū rúlín zhuàn says: Hán Yīng was a man of Yān. In Xiàowén dì’s reign, he was bóshì; in Jǐngdì’s reign, he rose to Chángshān tàifù. Yīng extended the poet’s meaning and composed Wài zhuàn of several myriad words. His language differed somewhat from the Qí-and-Lǔ readings, but came back to one. Huáinán Bēnshēng received it (note: bēn read as fén); Yān-and-Zhào’s Shī speakers come from Hánshēng. Hánshēng also transmitted the Yì; extended the Yì-meaning and composed his own commentary; Yān-and-Zhào people fond of Shī — hence his Yì was little (of importance), only the Hán shì school self-transmitting it. In Wǔdì’s reign, Yīng held debate with Dǒng Zhòngshū before the throne; his man jīng hàn (sharp-and-keen), his handling of affairs fēnmíng (clear-and-distinct) — Zhòngshū could not refute him. Later his grandson Shāng was bóshì; in Xiàoxuān dì’s reign, Zhuōjūn Hánshēng — his descendant.”

Abstract

The Hán Shī wài zhuàn is the sole surviving work of the Hán Shī school, one of the four Western-Hàn Shī recensions. The work itself is in 10 juǎn and consists of moral-pedagogic anecdotes, each invoking a Shī verse as moral-summary; the genre is zhāng dùn qǔ yì (excerpting-and-applying) rather than verse-by-verse commentary. Composition is Hán Yīng’s lifetime — fl. early-to-mid second century BCE; the conventional bracket of -180 to -130 is given here as a defensible range. The work has very substantial textual overlap with Xúnzǐ, the Liènǚ zhuàn genre, and other early-Hàn moral-anthological materials — this overlap has been studied in detail in modern Chinese-and-Western scholarship.

For the Hán Shī school’s Confucian-pedagogic project, the work is a primary source. For Shī-readings, the work is a major source for Sān jiā Shī recovery scholarship: the readings preserved as “Shī yún …” tags are precious witnesses to the Hán-recension Shī text, distinct from the eventually-canonical Máo recension. (See Fàn Jiāxiāng’s Sān jiā Shī shí yí KR1c0062 for the principal mid-Qing systematic recovery work.)

Translations and research

  • The standard English translation: James Robert Hightower, Han Shih Wai Chuan: Han Ying’s Illustrations of the Didactic Application of the Classic of Songs (Harvard University Press / Harvard-Yenching Institute Studies 11, 1952). The translation is complete, with extensive philological apparatus.
  • Hightower’s broader treatment in Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide, ed. Michael Loewe (Society for the Study of Early China, 1993), pp. 125–128 — concise summary entry.
  • The Hán-Wèi-period Shī-recensional reconstruction continues: see Anne Behnke Kinney’s chapters in the Cambridge History of Chinese Literature; David Hawkes’s earlier work on Hán-period Shī; Lín Qìngzhāng 林慶彰, ed., Sān jiā Shī yánjiū (modern monograph series).
  • For the Hán Shī / Xúnzǐ parallels see Liú Hóu’s preface (above); modern Chinese-language work by Chèn Wéizhāng 陳惟章 and Lín Qìngzhāng.
  • ICS Concordance Series 5 — character-frequency concordance.

Other points of interest

The work is — per the Hàn shū yìwén zhì and Suí jīngjí zhì counts — preserved in two distinct juǎn-counts (6 juǎn in Hàn shū, 10 juǎn in Suí); the present 10-juǎn form has been the standard since the Tang. The Sòng and Yuán periods produced multiple recensions of the surviving 10-juǎn form; the SBCK edition reproduces a quality Sòng or early-Yuán bǎn. The work is also one of the principal Western-Hàn texts to survive in manuscript form (rather than reconstructed from Tàipíng yùlǎn citations or other extracts); this gives it special evidentiary value for Hàn-period Shī-recension studies.

The work’s substantial parallels with Xúnzǐ — particularly with the Xúnzǐ Quàn xué and Liú yǎn chapters — register the integration of pre-Qín Confucian moral-pedagogic literature into the Western-Hàn Shī-school’s pedagogical apparatus. This is one of the great early-Hàn intellectual fusions: pre-Qín Confucian moral philosophy + Confucian classical-canon-as-anchor.

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