Yílǐ yìjīng 儀禮逸經
The Lost Classic of the Yílǐ
by 吳澄 (撰)
About the work
Wú Chéng’s 吳澄 (1249–1333) two-juan Yuán reconstruction of the lost portions of the Yílǐ (KR1d0025), comprising eight reconstructed jīng (canonical) chapters and ten reconstructed zhuàn (commentary) chapters. The eight reconstructed jīng chapters are: Tóu hú lǐ 投壺禮 (taken from the Lǐjì), Bēn sāng lǐ 奔喪禮 (taken from the Lǐjì), Gōng guān lǐ 公冠禮, Zhūhóu qiān miào lǐ 諸侯遷廟禮, Zhūhóu xìn miào lǐ 諸侯釁廟禮 (taken from the Dà Dài Lǐjì and consulted with the Xiǎo Dài Lǐjì), Zhōngliú lǐ 中霤禮, Dì yú tài miào lǐ 禘于太廟禮, Wáng jū míngtáng lǐ 王居明堂禮 (taken from Zhèng Xuán’s Sānlǐ note citations of lost text). The ten reconstructed zhuàn chapters are: Guān yí, Hūn yí, Shì xiāngjiàn yí, Xiāngyǐnjiǔ yí, Xiāngshè yí, Yàn yí, Dàshè yí, Pìn yí, Gōngshí dàfū yí, Cháoshì yí — all taken from the Dà Dài and Xiǎo Dài Lǐjì. The Shì xiāngjiàn yí and Gōngshí dàfū yí draw on Liú Chǎng 劉敞’s earlier reconstructions in his Gōngshì jí 公是集.
About the work continued
The work is one of the principal Yuán-period attempts at recovering lost canonical materials. Editorial method is the consolidation of fragmentary citations from later sources into reconstructed piān (chapters), with editorial reordering for ritual coherence. The Sìkù tíyào judges the work “more methodologically tight than Wāng Kèkuān’s KR1d0036 Jīnglǐ bǔyì” but flags Wú’s omission of his own Tóuhú yí (which Liú Chǎng had also written), recovered later by Hé Qiáoxīn 何喬新 in the Míng. Yán Ruòqú 閻若璩 in Shàngshū gǔwén shūzhèng lists 25 surviving citations of the lost Sānlǐ canonical chapters in HànWèi sources; Wú Chéng’s eight chapters cover only three of these — Yán’s note in the Sìkù tíyào indicates the work is partial.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Yílǐ yìjīng in two juan was composed by Wú Chéng of the Yuán. Chéng has Yì zuǎnyán already catalogued. This compilation gathers up the lost canon to supplement the Yílǐ’s missing portions. It comprises eight chapters: Tóuhú lǐ, Bēnsāng lǐ — taken from the Lǐjì; further Gōngguān lǐ, Zhūhóu qiānmiào lǐ, Zhūhóu xìnmiào lǐ — taken from the Dà Dài Lǐjì and consulted with the Xiǎo Dài Lǐjì; further Zhōngliú lǐ, Dì yú tàimiào lǐ, Wáng jū míngtáng lǐ — taken from the lost text cited by Zhèng Kāngchéng’s Sānlǐ note. The editorial sequence follows the order of ritual procedure, not always the original-text order — this follows Zhū Xī’s Yílǐ jīngzhuàn tōngshì example. Citations of the two Dài records list source; citations of Zhèng’s note do not list source — like Wáng Yīnglín’s Zhèngshì Yì, by ancient writers’ books not extending to later editorial precision; not surprising.
The ten zhuàn chapters all draw from the two Dài records: Guānyí, Hūnyí, Shìxiāngjiànyí, Xiāngyǐnjiǔyí, Xiāngshèyí, Yànyí, Dàshèyí, Pìnyí, Gōngshídàfūyí, Cháoshìyí. The Xiāngshèyí and Dàshèyí take the Lǐjì Shèyì chapter’s account of the king, lords, and qīngdàfū’s archery, distinguishing them as two; the Shìxiāngjiàn yí and Gōngshídàfū yí take Sòng Liú Chǎng’s earlier reconstructions. Chǎng’s Yílǐ mock-record also has a Tóuhú yí one chapter, also visible in Gōngshì jí; Chéng inadvertently omitted it. Míng Hé Qiáoxīn once took it and arranged it after the Cháoshì yí; the Tōngzhìtáng printed Jiǔjīngjiě again loses the text — apparently relying on the un-supplemented old copy, not Qiáoxīn’s edition.
Yán Ruòqú’s Shàngshū gǔwén shūzhèng twenty-first chapter says: “Hàn arose, Gāotáng Shēng transmitted ritual seventeen chapters; the Confucian-wall recovery added thirty-nine chapters, called the Yìlǐ; Wáng Mǎng under Píngdì established it but it was soon abolished; still transmitted to Eastern Hàn — Zhèng Kāngchéng annotating the Sānlǐ once cited it. Tiānzǐ xúnshòu lǐ says: ‘cloth ribbon eighteen chǐ, plain four enclosures’; Zhōngliú lǐ says: ‘using merit-cloth as guide-cloth, attached to the table’; Zhēngcháng lǐ says: ‘the pig shooter’; Jūnlǐ says: ‘no chariot interrupting; not shooting from behind’; Cháogòng lǐ says: ‘plain four enclosures, system eighteen chǐ’; Dì yú tàimiào lǐ says: ‘day uses dīnghài; if no dīnghài then jǐhài, xīnhài also used; if none then any with hài will do’…” Yán continues with extensive citations of the lost-canon material under the Zhōngliú, Wáng jū míngtáng, Bēnsāng names — totaling 25 entries under 8 chapter-titles. Wú Cǎolú’s Yìjīng eight chapters reaches only three. So Wú is also unable to escape some omission. Yet compared with Wāng Kèkuān’s KR1d0036 book, his order-and-condition is much tighter.
The Míng yītǒng zhì says: Yuánzhōu’s Liú Yǒunián, in the Hóngwǔ era as Investigating Censor, in the Yǒnglè era submitted Yílǐ yìjīng in eighteen chapters. Yáng Shèn searched for it in the Inner Cabinet but did not see the book. Zhū Yízūn’s Jīngyì kǎo says Liú’s submission was Wú Chéng’s edition — Yìjīng eight + zhuàn ten exactly fits the figure. The argument seems grounded. Today the transmitted Inner Cabinet catalogue records only Wú’s book without Liú’s name — apparently at that time it was already known to derive from Wú.
Respectfully revised and submitted, eleventh 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 Yílǐ yìjīng is the principal Yuán-period attempt at reconstructing the lost portions of the Yílǐ — the 39 chapters of the Confucian-wall recovery (the Yìlǐ 逸禮) that were transmitted into the Eastern Hàn but lost by the Táng. Wú Chéng’s editorial method consolidates the fragmentary lost-canon citations from HànWèi sources (especially Zhèng Xuán’s Sānlǐ note) into eight reconstructed jīng chapters; the ten zhuàn chapters draw on the Dà Dài and Xiǎo Dài Lǐjì essays-on-rituals.
The dating “1290–1330” brackets Wú’s mature scholarly career; Wú continued to produce major Sānlǐ compilations throughout this period.
The work establishes Wú Chéng as a major Sānlǐ reconstructor in addition to his better-known Yìjīng and Sìshū contributions. The Sìkù editors’ detailed citation of Yán Ruòqú’s Shàngshū gǔwén shūzhèng on the 25 lost-canon entries from HànWèi sources — and the observation that Wú’s eight chapters cover only three — is a model evidential-critical assessment of a SòngYuán reconstruction project. The note also indicates the Qīng-evidential continuation of Wú’s project; Yán Ruòqú himself supplied many of the missing entries in his own work.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located. The work is treated in surveys of Yuán-period classical scholarship and in literature on the Yìlǐ (lost rituals) tradition.
Other points of interest
The transmission complication — Wú Chéng’s Yìjīng + zhuàn combined into 18 chapters, perhaps re-submitted by the Míng Investigating Censor Liú Yǒunián as his own submission in the Yǒnglè era, then independently absorbed back into the WúChéng attribution by the Sìkù era — is a useful case study in the textual transmission of Yuán-period reconstruction works. The Tōngzhìtáng 通志堂 Jiǔjīng jiě edition (a Qīng-period anthology of SòngYuán classical commentaries) lost the Tóuhú yí portion through reliance on an earlier un-supplemented exemplar — a reminder that even authoritative early-Qīng anthologies have their own textual lacunae.
Links
- Chinaknowledge: http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Classics/yili.html