Yílǐ Zhèngzhù jùdòu 儀禮鄭註句讀
The Yílǐ with Zhèng’s Annotation, Punctuated
by 張爾岐 (撰)
About the work
Zhāng Ěrqí’s 張爾岐 (1612–1677) seventeen-juan early-Qīng critical edition of the Yílǐ (KR1d0025), with a one-juan supplement Jiānběn Shíjīng zhèngwù 監本石經正誤. The work fully reproduces Zhèng Xuán’s annotation, selectively excerpts from Jiǎ Gōngyàn’s sub-commentary, and adds Zhāng’s own brief glosses; the entire text is provided with explicit jùdòu (punctuation marks for sentence-and-phrase boundaries) — a major pedagogical innovation, since the Yílǐ’s ancient and obscure language was held to be unreadable without explicit punctuation. The preface (autograph) is dated 1670 (gēngxū 庚戌 of Kāngxī, when Zhāng was 59); the work was completed shortly after. The Sìkù tíyào notes Gù Yánwǔ’s 顧炎武 strong endorsement: “Mr Zhāng Jìruò’s Yílǐ Zhèngzhù jùdòu is rooted in the previous Confucians; its statements are simple-and-apt; were Zhūzǐ to see it, his praise would not stop at his praise of Xiè Jiānyuè.” (Catalog meta gives Zhāng’s deathdate as 1678; CBDB has 1677, followed here.)
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Yílǐ Zhèngzhù jùdòu in seventeen juan with Jiānběn Shíjīng zhèngwù in one juan was composed by Zhāng Ěrqí of the present dynasty. Ěrqí has Zhōuyì shuōlüè already catalogued. The book fully records the Yílǐ Zhèng Kāngchéng note, extracts Jiǎ Gōngyàn’s sub-commentary, and slightly adjudicates with personal intent — because the wording is ancient-and-obscure-and-difficult-to-pass, also for it provides jùdòu. Mǎ Duānlín’s Wénxiàn tōngkǎo records his father Tíngluán’s Yílǐ zhùshū xù saying his family had a Jǐngdé-era Office edition of the Yílǐ proper-classic with notes both labelled with start-and-stop and with sub-commentary listed below; he had used the Office edition to add to it; hand-collated himself; further took Zhūzǐ’s ritual book and his disciples’ Wángshì Yángshì supplementary continuations; chapter-divided and jùdòu on the heading-headings — today Tíngluán’s book is not transmitted; Ěrqí’s compilation is broadly similar.
The Lǐjì: “first-year examines splitting the classic and discriminating the will” — note: “splitting the classic is breaking the sentence and pause” — so jùdòu is a top priority of teaching the classic. Shěn Yuē’s Sòng shū Yuè zhì on other musical songs all writes them connectedly; only the Duówǔ qū Shèngrén zhì lǐyuè chapter, having sound-but-no-text-meaning, fearing it would confuse the sentences, accordingly per-sentence leaves one character space writing — hence difficult-to-sentence ones are split, which is also an ancient method.
As to character-and-sentence variants, kǎozhèng especially detailed; what he collated outside the Office edition further has the Táng Kāichéng Stone Carving edition, the Yuán Wú Chéng edition, and Lù Démíng’s Yīnyì; not in detail with Huáng Gàn’s edited Jīngzhuàn tōngshì — various scholars; their errors-and-omissions, drop-loss, redundant-overflow, head-tail, classical-text-and-note mixing — all consulted-to-fact. Further, the Míng Xī’ān Wáng Yáodiǎn’s printed Stone Classic supplied-characters most distorted; one-by-one rebutted-and-corrected. Apparently the Yílǐ one classic — since Hán Yù was already pained as difficult-to-read, hence transmitters-fewer, transmission-prints-errors-many; Ěrqí’s compilation in this — for the student can be said meritorious.
Gù Yánwǔ rarely praised; yet his letter to Wāng Wǎn says: “Jǐyáng’s Mr Zhāng Jìruò named Ěrqí composed Yílǐ Zhèngzhù jùdòu, quite rooted in previous Confucians; statements simple-and-apt; because the man does not seek fame-attainment, has no contemporary fame; yet his book truly has [merit] to transmit. Were Zhūzǐ to see it, surely not just Xiè Jiānyuè’s praise was given.” Furthermore his Guǎngshī one chapter says: “Uniquely refined on the Sānlǐ, towering as canonical master — I am not as good as Zhāng Jìruò” — so to push and yield in the extreme, not without grounds.
Ěrqí’s Hāo’ān jí contains an autograph preface saying he still has Wúshì Yílǐ kǎozhù dìngwù one juan — today not in this compilation. Yet this compilation is the new-print edition without dropping anything — perhaps that juan also self-circulated separately?
Respectfully revised and submitted, second month of the forty-fourth year of Qiánlóng [1779].
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 Zhèngzhù jùdòu is the principal early-Qīng critical-pedagogical edition of the Yílǐ and the work that most directly anticipates the late-Qīng evidential commentary tradition (Sūn Yírǎng Yílǐ zhèngyì). Zhāng Ěrqí’s three-fold contribution — full reproduction of Zhèng Xuán’s note + selective Jiǎ Gōngyàn extracts + explicit jùdòu punctuation throughout — created the first widely-usable pedagogical edition of the Yílǐ in centuries. The jùdòu innovation was particularly valuable; the Yílǐ’s archaic-procedural language is notoriously difficult to parse without explicit punctuation guidance.
The Jiānběn Shíjīng zhèngwù one-juan supplement systematically corrects the errors introduced by the Míng Xī’ān-edition Wáng Yáodiǎn’s “supplied-character” reprint of the Táng Kāichéng Stone Classic — a textual-collation work of independent value. Together with the main work, it represents one of the most thorough early-Qīng textual-critical engagements with the Yílǐ.
The Sìkù tíyào preserves Gù Yánwǔ’s exceptionally strong praise (cited from his letter to Wāng Wǎn 汪琬 and from his Guǎngshī chapter); the Sìkù editors note that “Gù Yánwǔ rarely praised; yet his praise here was not without grounds” — implicitly endorsing the work as one of the few early-Qīng Sānlǐ studies of the highest rank.
Composition is securely dated to 1670 (autograph preface) through Zhāng’s death in 1677.
Translations and research
- The Jùdòu edition is regularly cited in modern Yílǐ commentaries as the principal early-Qīng pedagogical text.
- Pèng Lín 彭林, Sānlǐ yánjiū rùmén 三禮研究入門 (Fùdàn dàxué chūbǎnshè 2012) — discusses Zhāng Ěrqí’s contribution.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù editors’ decision to incorporate Gù Yánwǔ’s strong praise of Zhāng Ěrqí — including the comparison to Zhū Xī’s praise of Xiè Jiānyuè — is one of the more prominent endorsements of an early-Qīng private scholar in the Sìkù tíyào. The case demonstrates how the late-Qiánlóng court editorial board selectively transmitted Hàn-school authority through approving citations of recognised early-Qīng masters. Zhāng Ěrqí is the model of the principled-loyalist private scholar (Míng-loyalist who refused Qīng service) whose pedagogical-evidential work the Hàn-school retrospectively canonised.
Links
- Chinaknowledge: http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Classics/yili.html