Lǐjīng běnyì 禮經本義
The Original Meaning of the Ritual Classic
by 蔡德晉 (撰)
About the work
Cài Déjìn’s 蔡德晉 (fl. 1726–1737) seventeen-juan early-Qīng commentary on the Yílǐ (KR1d0025). The first sixteen juan cover the seventeen Yílǐ chapters; the seventeenth juan appends Wú Chéng’s KR1d0034 eight-chapter Yílǐ yìjīng reconstruction with Cài’s annotation. The work cites broadly across SòngYuánMíng commentary tradition cross-referenced with the zhùshū. The Sìkù tíyào highlights both Cài’s lapses (uncritical adoption of Wàn Sīdà’s KR1d0039 kuētóu gloss for the Shìguānjì “kuēfù of Bāilǚ” passage) and his contributions (careful distinction between the hair-securing jī (笄) and the cap-securing jī, against Áo Jìgōng’s KR1d0035 reading). The catalog dates the work to 1726.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Lǐjīng běnyì in seventeen juan was composed by Cài Déjìn of the present dynasty. Déjìn (zì Jìngzhāi, native of Wúxī) — the book’s first sixteen juan are the proper-classic; the seventeenth juan attaches Wú Chéng’s compiled-eight-chapter Lost-Ritual; all citing Sòng-Yuán-Míng-onward various scholars’ accounts mutually-cross-verifying with the zhùshū. Among them citation-with-stumbling-and-rebuttal: as, Shìguānjì wén “bái lǚ yǐ kuīfù zhī”; Zhèng’s note: “kuī clam-shell; fù attaching”; apparently to use clam-ash fù-attach onto the shoe — taking its purity-and-cleanliness; the Shuōwén’s “kuī clam” is its solid evidence. Yet citing Wàn Chōngzōng’s account: “kuī using wood as it; in the Míng era turban-and-cap using wood as mould — called kuītóu — apparently rooted in this” — cannot escape fabricated-and-uninvestigated; this kind quite lacks selection.
Yet, as, Shìguānlǐ classical text says “go to the seat sit-down to comb hair, set the jī (笄)”; Áo Jìgōng holds it as “the cap-securing jī”; Déjìn holds: “jī has two kinds — one is the bun-inside-securing-hair jī; one is the jī-cap-securing-cap jī; this not-yet adding the cap — clearly the hair-securing jī; Jìgōng’s account is wrong.” Then quite differentiating-precisely-and-densely; what previous Confucians had not reached — for classical-meaning deeply with [merit] — supplement.
Respectfully revised and submitted, tenth 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 Lǐjīng běnyì is one of the second-tier early-Qīng Yílǐ commentaries, less central than the Lǐ-family Ānxī tradition (KR1d0019, KR1d0020, KR1d0040), Zhāng Ěrqí’s KR1d0038 critical edition, or Fāng Bāo’s KR1d0041 Yílǐ xīyí, but with substantial individual contributions. Cài Déjìn’s incorporation of Wú Chéng’s KR1d0034 Yílǐ yìjīng reconstruction as the seventeenth juan is methodologically significant — it represents an explicit acceptance of the Yuán-period reconstruction project as part of the legitimate working Yílǐ corpus.
The Sìkù editors’ specific arguments — both the criticism of Cài’s adoption of Wàn Sīdà’s wood-mould reading of kuī and the praise of Cài’s two-fold jī (hair-pin) reading against Áo Jìgōng — represent the late-Qiánlóng court-classicist methodology of detailed-passage assessment. The dating “1720–1737” brackets the most plausible composition window through Cài Déjìn’s recommended-for-Sānlǐ-commission years.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located. Treated in surveys of mid-Qīng Yílǐ scholarship.
Other points of interest
The deliberate inclusion of Wú Chéng’s KR1d0034 Yílǐ yìjīng reconstruction as a closing juan of Lǐjīng běnyì represents an early-Qīng integrationist position toward Yuán-period reconstruction work — accepting the project as legitimate even while the Sìkù editors of KR1d0034 are sceptical of its specific scholarship. Cài Déjìn’s presentation puts the WúChéng project on roughly equal footing with the seventeen received chapters.
Links
- Chinaknowledge: http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Classics/yili.html