Yílǐ shìgōng 儀禮釋宫
An Explication of the Architectural Spaces of the Yílǐ
by 李如圭 (撰)
About the work
Lǐ Rúguī’s 李如圭 (fl. 1190s) one-juan supplement to his KR1d0030 Yílǐ jíshì, devoted exclusively to the architectural and spatial vocabulary of the Yílǐ (KR1d0025): rooms (shì 室, fáng 房, jiā 夾), corner-positions (ào 奧, yǎo 窔, yí 宧, wūlòu 屋漏), doors and windows (hù 戶, yǒu 牖), screens, eaves, courtyard layout, ascent-and-descent steps, gateways and outer walls. Modelled on the Ěryǎ Shìgōng 爾雅·釋宮. The work is essential as a reference manual for any reader of the Yílǐ: the seventeen chapters describe ritual procedures with constant reference to spatial positions, but without architectural context the descriptions are largely unintelligible. Zhū Xī engaged closely with Lǐ Rúguī on this material; the parallel text in Zhū’s collected works (Zhūzǐ dàquán 朱子大全集) is essentially the same as Lǐ’s, leading to a long-running scholarly disagreement about authorship.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Yílǐ shìgōng in one juan was composed by Lǐ Rúguī of the Sòng. Rúguī had already composed the Jíshì to bring out classical meaning and wing Zhèng Kāngchéng’s note; he further composed this book to investigate the system of ancient palaces-and-rooms, with editorial structure modelled on the Ěryǎ Shìgōng: under each entry citing the classic, traditions, and zhùshū with detailed discussion. For instance, on the question of the dàfū and shì having only an eastern fáng and western shì — though he follows the old note, he cites the Pìnlǐ’s “guests are housed at dàfū and shì’s residences” to demonstrate they too have right fáng; he cites the Xiāngyǐnjiǔ and Shǎoláokuìshí to demonstrate the dàfūshì also have the designations left fáng and east fáng, the same as how the lords’ “left-corresponding-to-right” and “east-corresponding-to-west” work. His verification is clear and deeply gets the classical meaning, opening up what previous scholars had not opened — broadly speaking like this; not the kind to interpret ritual through empty words.
Examining Zhū Xī’s Dàquán jí (collected works), it also contains his text, broadly the same as this one, only without the prefatory introduction. The Sòng zhōngxīng yìwén zhì says “Zhū Xī once collaborated with him on critical-edition work for the ritual book,” suggesting that Zhū Xī initially recorded Lǐ Rúguī’s chapter, and the editor of Zhū Xī’s works in turn took it as Zhū Xī’s own composition and entered it into the collected works — much as Sū Shì recording Liú Yǔxī’s words on the topic of “Jiāng Xiùcái’s Examination Notebook” was incorrectly entered into Sū Shì’s collected works. Examining Zhū Xī’s Yílǐ jīngzhuàn tōngjiě on the Xiāngyǐnjiǔlǐ “the offerings come out from the left fáng” and the Pìnlǐ “facing the right fáng” — both retaining only Jiǎ’s sub-commentary, different from this chapter’s account — also evidence that this is not Zhū Xī’s work.
In ancient times palaces-and-rooms each had fixed systems; through dynasties they have repeatedly changed and gradually become non-original — like the xù, yíng, méi, ē, xiāng, jiā, yǒu, hù, dāngróng, dāngbēi and similar terms. Readers of the Yílǐ who do not first know their positions cannot know the place of arrangement or the position of advance-and-retreat — sometimes guessing the ancient measurement-numbers from later regulations and getting it badly wrong. The composition of this chapter is in truth the touchstone for Yílǐ readers.
The Sòng Chén Wén 陳汶 once prefaced the Jíshì and printed it in the Guìlín-prefecture school-house, also printing this chapter together. Today the print is not transmitted; only the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn fully records its text under a separate juan titled “Lǐ Rúguī’s Yílǐ shìgōng” — apparently working from a Sòng original. We have now extracted-and-edited it, retaining alongside the Jíshì. The character-readings here are slightly different from Zhū Xī’s text — apparently that one is the early draft and this is the final version. We have followed the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn to restore Rúguī’s original.
Respectfully revised and submitted, second month of the forty-second year of Qiánlóng [1777].
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 Yílǐ shìgōng is the indispensable companion to the Yílǐ jíshì and the standard pre-modern reference manual for the architectural and spatial vocabulary of pre-Qín ritual spaces. The dual textual transmission — Lǐ Rúguī’s Yílǐ shìgōng recovered from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn and the closely-parallel text incorporated into Zhū Xī’s collected works — is one of the more interesting cases of attribution ambiguity in Sòng-period classical scholarship. The Sìkù editors decisively settle the question for Lǐ Rúguī on the basis of (a) Zhū Xī’s parallel text lacks the prefatory introduction, (b) Zhū Xī’s Yílǐ jīngzhuàn tōngjiě preserves Jiǎ Gōngyàn’s older readings on the very passages where the Shìgōng presents new readings, suggesting Zhū Xī had not yet adopted Lǐ’s interpretive innovations.
The Sìkù tíyào highlights Lǐ Rúguī’s specific contribution on the dàfūshì having both left fáng and right fáng — overturning the old position (Zhèng Xuán: only the lords have left-and-right fáng) by detailed cross-reference to the actual chapters. The editors include in parenthetical notes a substantial counter-discussion citing Yán Ruòqú’s 閻若璩 Shàngshū gǔwén shūzhèng and Jiāng Yǒng’s 江永 Xiāngdǎng túkǎo — both supporting Lǐ Rúguī’s reading against the older ZhèngJiǎ position.
Translations and research
- See KR1d0030 Yílǐ jíshì for related translations and research.
- The Yílǐ shìgōng is regularly cited in modern Yílǐ commentaries (Sūn Yírǎng Zhèngyì, Wāng Wénjǐn standard edition) for spatial-architectural questions.
Other points of interest
The substantial Sìkù-editorial parenthetical counter-discussion in the body of this work — citing Yán Ruòqú and Jiāng Yǒng on architectural questions, sometimes against the body text’s own arguments — is one of the more sustained running-commentaries the Sìkù editors apply to a Sòng-period work. The case demonstrates the editorial method of preserving the original text intact while threading later evidential corrections through bracketed editorial notes.
Links
- Chinaknowledge: http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Classics/yili.html