Zhōulǐ jíshuō 周禮集說
Collected Explanations of the Rites of Zhōu
by 闕名 (anonymous Sòng compiler) · 陳友仁 (增修)
About the work
A ten-juan anthology-commentary on the Zhōulǐ (KR1d0001) compiled by an unnamed Sòng scholar, recovered and edited by Chén Yǒurén 陳友仁 (early Yuán, fl. late 13th c.) in 1284. The original is a Sòng compilation organised in the manner of Lǚ Zǔqiān’s 呂祖謙 Dú Shī jì 讀詩記 and the Dōngzhāi shūzhuàn 東齋書傳; the compiler’s name was already unknown to Chén when he received the manuscript from his friend Shěn Zézhèng 沈則正 of Zhā (Húzhōu). Chén supplemented missing glosses with material from Jiǎ Gōngyàn’s 賈公彥 sub-commentary and Wáng Ānshí’s KR1d0004 Zhōuguān xīnyì, added discussions from senior contemporaries on disputed points, and appended Yú Tíngchūn’s KR1d0006 Zhōulǐ fùgǔ biān as a supplement. Chén’s preface (dated bǐngzǐ + 9 = 1284) is a deliberate Sòng-loyalist gesture, dating without Yuán reign-titles in the manner of Táo Qián’s Jìn-period writings. The original lacks the Dìguān (two juan); its Chūnguān general discussion is also missing.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Zhōulǐ jíshuō in ten juan does not record the compiler. It carries an early-Yuán preface by Chén Yǒurén stating that his friend Shěn Zézhèng had recently obtained this book in Zhā, that the editorial structure resembled Lǚshì Dú Shī jì and Dōngzhāi shūzhuàn, but that the author’s name was unknown. In the guǐwèi year [1283] Yǒurén carried it home; where the glossing was incomplete he supplemented from Jiǎshì and Wángshì commentaries; where the analyses were unresolved he appended discussions from senior contemporaries — and so on. Yǒurén thus re-edited an old Sòng text. Yǒurén (zì Jūnfù, native of Húzhōu) inscribes his preface “ninth year after bǐngzǐ”; bǐngzǐ was the year of the Sòng’s fall [1276]. Yǒurén refuses to inscribe with the Zhìyuán reign-title and dates by retrospective reference to bǐngzǐ — a Sòng loyalist’s gesture, on the model of Táo Qián recording cyclical years without LiúSòng dynastic titles. (Though as the case stands, in fact Táo Qián’s poems written under the Jìn also use cyclical-year dating, and not because he was already entering Sòng — the original collection survives, and Yǒurén did not check it carefully.)
The book opens with a zǒng gānglǐng (general framework) chapter and a guānzhì zǒnglùn (general discussion of the official system) chapter, dividing the topics and explicating with great comprehensiveness. Each ministry has its own zǒnglùn preceding it. The zhùshū and various Confucians’ commentaries cited are all selected for their distilled essentials. Wáng Ānshí’s Xīn jīng yì is excerpted with particular density. For although the Sānjīng xīnyì was attacked by the Sòng, Wáng Zhāoyǔ had transmitted the Zhōuguān xīnyì before (see his KR1d0005 Zhōulǐ xiángjiě) and Lín Zhīqí transmitted it after (Lín Zhīqí’s learning derived from Lǚ Běnzhōng of the Yuányòu line; he wrote Zhōulǐ quánjiě and also drew on Wáng Ānshí — see Wáng Yǔzhī’s KR1d0010 Zhōulǐ dìngyì). So this book correspondingly draws on and does not reject his text.
After the Kǎogōngjì one juan of Yú Tíngchūn’s Zhōulǐ fùgǔ biān is appended, which is excessively gratuitous and a failure of selection. Yet by being unwilling to alter the ancient classic and preserving the position to await later judgement, the editor has at least the small distinction of restraint compared with Tíngchūn’s wild absurdity.
The original text lacks two juan from the Dìguān, and the Chūnguān general discussion is also missing. Huáng Yúqí’s Qiānqǐngtáng shūmù records that Liú Chǔxiù 劉儲秀 of Guānzhōng once wrote a supplementary annotation; we have not seen it and follow the existing lacunae.
Respectfully revised and submitted, ninth month of the forty-third year of Qiánlóng [1778].
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 Zhōulǐ jíshuō is the second major SòngYuán anthology-commentary on the Zhōulǐ (after Wáng Yǔzhī’s KR1d0010 Zhōulǐ dìngyì), surviving here in the recension of the Sòng-loyalist editor Chén Yǒurén of 1284. The work is methodologically more pedagogical than Wáng Yǔzhī’s: in addition to the per-passage anthology of selected commentary, it provides a zǒng gānglǐng general-framework chapter at the head, a guānzhì zǒnglùn chapter discussing the bureaucratic system as a whole, and per-ministry general-discussion chapters. Its anonymous Sòng compiler clearly belongs to the same late-Sòng tradition that produced Wáng Yǔzhī, but the precise identity has not been recovered.
The work is notable for its unembarrassed inclusion of Wáng Ānshí Xīn jīng yì material — through the Wáng Zhāoyǔ (KR1d0005) and Lín Zhīqí transmission lineage — at a time when Xīnxué was nominally proscribed. The Sìkù editors approve this on the grounds that exegetical insight should not be rejected on political grounds.
The dating “1200–1284” brackets the most plausible composition window of the original Sòng compilation through Chén Yǒurén’s 1284 preface to his recension. The Sòng loyalist signal in the preface — dating bǐngzǐ + 9 from 1276 (the fall of Lín’ān) rather than using a Yuán reign-title — is one of the more pointed expressions of yímín identity in surviving Yuán-period scholarly prefaces.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located. Discussed in surveys of Sòng-Yuán Zhōulǐ scholarship.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù editors’ parenthetical correction of Chén Yǒurén’s claim about Táo Qián’s dating practice — pointing out that Táo’s cyclical-year dating in fact pre-dates the JìnSòng transition, so Chén’s appeal to it is anachronistic — is a small but characteristic example of late-eighteenth-century editorial precision applied to a thirteenth-century scholar’s loyalist gesture.
Links
- Chinaknowledge: http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Classics/zhouli.html