Qīndìng Yílǐ yìshū 欽定儀禮義疏
Imperially Commissioned Sub-Commentary on the Yílǐ
by 高宗弘曆 (敕撰)
About the work
The official Qīng-court commentary on the Yílǐ (KR1d0025) in 48 juan, the second part of the Qīndìng Sānlǐ yìshū commission of Qiánlóng 13 (1748). Companion to KR1d0018 Qīndìng Zhōuguān yìshū and KR1d0068 Qīndìng Lǐjì yìshū. The 48 juan are organised as: 40 juan covering the seventeen Yílǐ chapters; 4 juan of preliminary gānglǐng (organising principles) including a shìgōng (architectural-spatial) chapter taken from Zhū Xī’s edited Lǐ Rúguī text; 4 juan of lǐqìtú (ceremonial-vessel diagrams); 4 juan of lǐjiétú (ritual-procedure diagrams). The seven-rubric editorial apparatus (zhèngyì, biànzhèng, tōnglùn, yúlùn, cúnyí, cúnyì, zǒnglùn) is the same as in the parallel Zhōuguān yìshū and Lǐjì yìshū. The work draws particularly heavily on Áo Jìgōng’s KR1d0035 Yílǐ jíshuō — judged by the editors as “the only YuánSòng commentary that subtly corrects the zhùshū without polemic” — and supplements with substantial use of SòngMíng material.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Yílǐ yìshū in forty-eight juan was Qīndìng in Qiánlóng 13 [1748], the second part of the Yùdìng Sānlǐ yìshū. The seven explication categories are the same as the Zhōuguān yìshū. Divides the classical text into 40 juan, prefaced with gānglǐng in 4 juan, Shìgōng in 1 juan, capped with lǐqìtú in 4 juan and lǐjiétú in 4 juan. The Yílǐ is most difficult to read; Zhèng’s note’s wording is ancient-and-obscure, also not easily understood; furthermore the entire classic is a learning of names-and-things and measurement-numbers — cannot be argued through empty words; so the Sòng Confucians mostly avoid not discussing it; even when occasional accounts exist, mostly not transmitted. Only Yuán Áo Jìgōng’s Yílǐ jíshuō opens up Zhèng’s note and corrects its errors — called the good edition. So this compilation’s general framework takes Áo’s account as its lineage and consults the various scholars to supplement-and-correct his omissions.
As to the jīnwén / gǔwén differences, all adopting Zhèng’s note and moving them to under the audio-cuts of the classical text. The classical-text and record-text sequence — entirely follows the ancient text without using the cut-and-attach account. The chapter sections divided largely follow Zhū Xī’s Yílǐ jīngzhuàn tōngshì and consult Yáng Fù and Áo Jìgōng’s accounts in mutual cross-reference. Shìgōng uses Zhū Xī-edited Lǐ Rúguī’s text KR1d0031; ritual vessels use Niè Chóngyì’s Sānlǐ tú KR1d0078; ritual procedures use Yáng Fù’s Yílǐ tú KR1d0032 — and one by one prune their errors and pick up their omissions. Lifting up several centuries of stored-up dust, picking up the dispersed, scattering the comb-and-tooth — making the doubts-and-old-words flow like ice-melt, the previous-king’s old typology can be traced and have its bank-shore. Kǎozhèng merit truly compared to other classics is severalfold more.
Is this not a great moment of fortunate-meeting under the imperial court’s table-of-honour for ancient learning, a thousand-year, ten-thousand-year confluence?
(Date: blank in the source — typesetter’s omission.)
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 Qīndìng Yílǐ yìshū is the Qīng official statement on the Yílǐ — the longest of the three Sānlǐ yìshū commentaries in the imperial set, reflecting the editors’ judgement that the Yílǐ’s technical-procedural difficulty had received the least adequate SòngYuánMíng commentary attention and most deserved a thorough imperial editorial intervention. The work’s seven-rubric editorial apparatus (matching the parallel Zhōuguān yìshū and Lǐjì yìshū) is supplemented by extensive diagrammatic appendices: 4 juan of ceremonial-vessel diagrams (drawing on Niè Chóngyì’s KR1d0078 Sānlǐ tú jízhù) and 4 juan of ritual-procedure diagrams (drawing on Yáng Fù’s KR1d0032 Yílǐ tú).
The acknowledged primary source-commentary is Áo Jìgōng’s KR1d0035 Yílǐ jíshuō — explicitly named by the fánlì (editorial conventions) as the work that “opens up Zhèng’s note and corrects its errors” without polemical attack. The commission also incorporates the shìgōng (architectural-spatial) chapter from Zhū Xī-edited Lǐ Rúguī, the diagrams from Yáng Fù, and supplementary material from SòngMíng commentary.
The deputy compilers list (preserved in the prefatory matter and reproduced in detail in KR1d0018) names many of the same court-classicists who served on the Zhōuguān yìshū commission, including Fāng Bāo (compare his KR1d0021 Zhōuguān jízhù and KR1d0041 Yílǐ xīyí), Lǐ Qīngzhí, Wāng Yóudūn, and others. Several of the deputy compilers are themselves authors of Sānlǐ works admitted to the Sìkù.
Translations and research
- Benjamin A. Elman, From Philosophy to Philology: Intellectual and Social Aspects of Change in Late Imperial China (Council on East Asian Studies / Harvard University Asia Center, 1984; 2nd ed. UCLA, 2001) — places the Qīndìng Sānlǐ yìshū in the context of early-Qīng court-sponsored classical learning.
- No dedicated monograph on the Yílǐ yìshū has been located. Treated in surveys of Qīng classical scholarship.
Other points of interest
The 4-juan lǐqìtú (ritual-vessel diagrams) and 4-juan lǐjiétú (ritual-procedure diagrams) appendices to the Yílǐ yìshū together constitute one of the most elaborate diagrammatic engagements with the Yílǐ in pre-modern Chinese scholarship. The diagrams correct what the editors regarded as the methodological defects in Yáng Fù’s KR1d0032 Yílǐ tú (lack of integrated shìgōng spatial framework, scattered procedural diagrams) by providing an integrated visual-and-textual reference work. The diagrams are extensively cited in nineteenth-century Yílǐ scholarship and in Joseph Needham’s Science and Civilisation in China.
Links
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qianlong_Emperor
- Chinaknowledge: http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Classics/yili.html