Yílǐ shāng 儀禮商
Discussions on the Yílǐ
by 萬斯大 (撰)
About the work
Wàn Sīdà’s 萬斯大 (1633–1683) two-juan early-Qīng commentary on the Yílǐ (KR1d0025), with a one-juan appendix. Each of the seventeen Yílǐ chapters receives an essay-length discussion (shuō) of Wàn’s distinctive interpretations — many of them iconoclastic readings against Zhèng Xuán’s note. The work was prefaced (1680, gēngshēn) by Wàn’s friend Yīng Huīqiān 應撝謙 with the famously balanced characterisation “I delight in his deep meditation but reproach him for his self-assertion.” The Sìkù tíyào engages Wàn’s specific arguments on the xīxí (under-garment) reading, on the miàoqǐn tú (temple-and-residence diagram) placement of the eastern-and-western xiāng, and on the zhìcháo wútáng (audience hall has no platform) thesis — disagreeing on most specifics but acknowledging “his learning is originally encyclopaedic; his thought-deployment especially sharp; the harmony often opens up what previous scholars had not opened.”
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Yílǐ shāng in two juan with appendix in one juan was composed by Wàn Sīdà of the present dynasty. Sīdà (zì Chōngzōng, native of Yīnxiàn) — this book takes the Yílǐ seventeen chapters chapter-by-chapter and provides essay-length explanations, with frequent new meanings, and also vigorous in self-confidence. Prefaced by Yīng Huīqiān: “I delight in his deep meditation but reproach him for his self-assertion” — also a deliberate verdict.
His Pìnlǐ explanation of xīxí (clothing terminology — under-garment): “the garment outside the fur-coat is called xī-garment; xī-garment is the ritual garment; Pìnlǐ — already paying respects, the host-and-guest both xī to undertake the affair. By extension, all garment-outside-fur xī-garment is ritual garment.” Examining the Pìnlǐ Zhèng’s note: “xī is removing the upper garment to display the xī-garment; the xī-garment’s above necessarily having a garment is clear.” Jiǎ’s sub-commentary: “supposing winter has fur, body next-touching to dānshān; further has rúkù (jacket-and-trousers); over the rúkù has fur; over the fur has xī-garment; over the xī-garment has the upper-garment — the píbiàn (leather cap), sacrificial robes etc. — the ritual garment.” But by Sīdà’s account, the xī-garment’s above does not have píbiàn (leather cap), sacrificial robes, etc.
As for the Yùzǎo’s “the lord wears fox-fur called qiú; brocade-garment to xī it” — when the lords’ píbiàn attend the new-moon, only with brocade-garment as xī; not heard of not adding the píbiàn garment and uniquely using brocade-garment. The Yùzǎo further says: “the gentleman wears fox-blue fur, bàoxiù; xuánxiāo garment to xī it; the grandee assists in sacrifices wears juébiàn and pure garment, also only xuánxiāo garment as xī — not heard of not using pure garment and using xuánxiāo garment.” So holding that the xī-garment’s above without ritual garment — not just contradicting the note, but also defying the classic.
Sīdà further holds that xí-garment is on top of xī-garment adding deep-clothing (shēnyī) — because xī-garment has straight-collar so reveals the beauty; deep-clothing is crossed-collar so does not reveal the beauty. Now using Pìnfú píbiàn to verify: under píbiàn garment is cháofú; under cháofú is yuánduān; under yuánduān is shēnyī. Shēnyī is the commoner’s garment. Pìnlǐ values the pìn and weights the xiǎng; if at xiǎng time wearing píbiàn and xī, at pìn time wearing shēnyī and xí, then the pìn-garment is conversely lower than xiǎng-garment by three grades. Where would the rank-difference go? Furthermore the host-state’s lord with the envoy do pìn in the temple, each wearing commoner garment to mutually-meet in order to fully show the beauty — there is no such reason.
His miàoqǐn tú listing the eastern-and-western xiāng under the eastern-and-western táng like today’s gallery-and-corridor — examining the Gōngshí dàfū lǐ: “the guest ascends, the duke yields, retreats to the xiāng under”; further: “the duke descends and twice-bows” — if the xiāng were under the táng, then “already retreated to xiāng”, what is the descending? Hence Zhèng’s note holds xiāng as on the táng’s east-jiā’s front. Hàn shū Dǒng Xián zhuàn: “the Tàihuáng tàihòu summoned the Dàsīmǎ Xián to be received in Dōngxiāng” — then Dōngxiāng is not in the gallery-corridor space, plain. Wáng Yánshòu’s Lǔ Língguāngdiàn fù: “right-gè qīngyàn”; Lǐ Shàn’s note citing Dù Yù’s Zuǒzhuàn note: “gè — east-and-west xiāng (room)” — east-and-west gè is on the táng; then east-and-west xiāng not on the táng-down, plain. Sīdà’s diagram is also not classical-meaning.
Yet Sīdà’s learning is originally encyclopaedic; thought-deployment especially sharp — the harmony often opens up what previous scholars had not opened. Volume-end appended Dá Yīng Sīyín shū arguing the zhìcháo wútáng (audience hall has no platform) is especially precise-and-evidential. Taking what is good from him also has substantial kǎozhèng aid.
Respectfully revised and submitted, fifth 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 Yílǐ shāng is one of the principal early-Qīng iconoclastic engagements with the Yílǐ and the major Yílǐ contribution of the Sìmíng-school (Wàn Sīdà, Wàn Sītóng, Huáng Zōngxī). Wàn Sīdà’s method — chapter-essay rather than passage-gloss; original interpretive arguments rather than line-by-line commentary; vigorous defence of unconventional readings — represents a decisively different approach from the contemporaneous Lǐ-family Ānxī tradition (KR1d0019, KR1d0020, KR1d0040) and the Zhāng Ěrqí critical-edition tradition (KR1d0038). The Sìkù editors disagree with Wàn on most of the specific arguments they detail (the xīxí clothing reading, the miàoqǐn spatial diagram), but acknowledge his methodological originality and approve specifically of the appended Dá Yīng Sīyín shū (Letter to Yīng Sīyín) on the question of the zhìcháo (audience hall) lacking a táng.
Yīng Huīqiān 應撝謙 (1615–1683)‘s preface dated gēngshēn (1680) — included at the head of the work — is a notable instance of an early-Qīng colleague-preface that genuinely captures both the strengths and the methodological excesses of its subject author. Yīng’s “I delight in his deep meditation but reproach him for his self-assertion” became the standard characterisation of Wàn Sīdà for the Sìkù editors and subsequent scholarship.
Composition belongs to Wàn Sīdà’s mature scholarly career; the dating “1670–1683” brackets a plausible window through Wàn’s death.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located. Treated in surveys of early-Qīng Sānlǐ scholarship and in literature on the Sìmíng school of Huáng Zōngxī’s circle.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù editors’ specific praise of the appended Dá Yīng Sīyín shū on the zhìcháo wútáng question — judged “especially precise-and-evidential” (yóuwéi jīnghé 尤為精核) — is one of the more pointed tíyào endorsements of a particular essay within a work whose larger claims the editors otherwise reject. The case demonstrates the editors’ willingness to discriminate at the level of individual arguments rather than blanket approval or rejection of an author.
Links
- Chinaknowledge: http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Classics/yili.html