鬳齋考工記解

Yànzhāi Kǎogōngjì jiě 鬳齋考工記解

Yànzhāi’s Explanation of the Records of the Examination of Crafts

by 林希逸 (撰)

About the work

Lín Xīyì’s 林希逸 (1193–1271) two-juan commentary on the Kǎogōngjì 考工記 portion of the Zhōulǐ (KR1d0001), the only surviving Sòng-period independent commentary on the Kǎogōngjì. Earlier independent Kǎogōngjì commentaries are all lost: the Táng Dù Mù 杜牧, and the Sòng Chén Xiángdào 陳祥道, Lín Yìzhī 林亞之, and Wáng Yán 王炎. The catalog gives the date 1235, Lín Xīyì’s jìnshì year; composition more probably belongs to his Jǐngdìng-era career as Sīnóng shǎoqīng (1260–1264) when he had specific bureaucratic exposure to craft-administration concerns.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that Kǎogōngjì jiě in two juan was composed by Lín Xīyì of the Sòng. Xīyì (zì Sùwēng, native of Fúqīng) was a jìnshì of Duānpíng 2 [1235], in the Jǐngdìng era held office as Sīnóng shǎoqīng, and ended as Zhōngshū shělén. Since Héjiān Xiànwáng of the Hàn took the Kǎogōngjì and supplied it for the [missing] Zhōuguān portion, the classic and the records have constituted a single book. Yet the later Confucians have often given them separate explanations. The Táng has Dù Mù’s annotation; the Sòng has Chén Xiángdào, Lín Yìzhī, and Wáng Yán’s commentaries — all today lost. Only Xīyì’s annotation survives.

The Sòng Confucians made it their habit to attack the Hàn Confucians, and so this book is much at variance with Zhèng Kāngchéng’s notes. But on taking gěng 綆 (“two-thirds of an inch”) for the rim-jacket on the outer two sides of the wheel-hub, and jiào 較 for the cross-piece in front of the chariot-box rising above the shì 式 — these do not fit the lúnyú 輪輿 (wheel-and-box) system. On the jùjù 倨句 (“more-than-right-angle”) of the “one square-and-a-half,” he follows Zhèng Xuán’s note in his diagram, but takes the drum-shape (gǔ 鼓) for the jù and the leg-shape (gǔ 股) for the jù — which does not fit the qìngzhé 磬折 (chime-stone-fold) measurement. On the gē 戈 (dagger-axe), the néi 內-then-fold “the front becomes the yuán 援 alongside the hú 胡 like a chime-stone-fold.” On the drumming-up jùjù of the gāo gǔ 臯鼓, the qìngzhé takes the drum to be a round object — but with the jùjù and qìngzhé shapes, there appears to be a textual lacuna. All these are matters where the ancient implement-system has not been carefully verified.

But the classical text is archaic and obscure, not easily made out at a glance; Xīyì’s notes are clear and accessible, and beginners find them easy to follow. Furthermore, the work of various crafts cannot be made manifest without diagrams; Xīyì has selected and incorporated the Sānlǐ tú 三禮圖 illustrations relevant to the Records, much to the convenience of consultation. So the book is still in transmission among readers of the Zhōulǐ today.

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

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

Abstract

The Yànzhāi Kǎogōngjì jiě is the principal Sòng-period independent Kǎogōngjì commentary that survives, all four of its known SòngTáng predecessors having been lost. Lín Xīyì’s intellectual orientation — a late-Sòng Dàoxué scholar with extensive interests in Daoist literature and craft-administration practice — places him outside the Reform-school and outside the Yǒngjiā-statecraft mainstream of Sòng Zhōulǐ studies. The commentary is consistently critical of the Hàn-period Zhèng Xuán readings on technical points (chariot-and-wheel terminology, jùjù angle measurements, qìngzhé fold geometry). The Sìkù tíyào judges that on these specific points Lín’s revisions do not in fact improve on Zhèng’s reading, but the commentary’s overall accessibility and its incorporation of Sānlǐ tú 三禮圖 illustrations make it the standard pedagogical entry into the Kǎogōngjì — for which reason it remained in active scholarly use into the Qīng.

The catalog dates the work to 1235 (Lín’s jìnshì year); on the basis of biographical context the more plausible composition window is the Jǐngdìng era (1260–1264), when Lín served as Sīnóng shǎoqīng (Junior Vice-Director of the Court of Imperial Granaries) and would have had direct bureaucratic exposure to the practical questions raised by the Kǎogōngjì’s craft-administration content. The bracket adopted here (1235–1264) covers both possibilities.

Translations and research

• Wén Rénjūn 聞人軍, Kǎogōngjì yìzhù 考工記譯注 (Shànghǎi gǔjí 1993) — modern critical edition; cites Lín Xīyì regularly.
• Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, especially vols. 4.2 and 4.3 — uses Lín Xīyì alongside Zhèng Xuán and modern editions.
• No dedicated monograph or major article on Lín Xīyì’s Kǎogōngjì jiě has been located. The work is treated in surveys of Kǎogōngjì scholarship and in literature on Lín Xīyì’s broader intellectual project.

Other points of interest

The incorporation of Sānlǐ tú 三禮圖 (Three-Rituals diagrams) — which are themselves in part attributable to the Northern Sòng Niè Chóngyì 聶崇義 (KR1d0078 Sānlǐ tú jízhù) — into the body of Lín’s commentary is the earliest sustained example of integrated text-and-diagram presentation of the Kǎogōngjì in the surviving Chinese commentary tradition. The Sìkù editors specifically commend this editorial choice as enabling the kind of consultation that the Hàn-period text alone cannot.

Links

• Chinaknowledge: http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Classics/zhouli.html