Tiānzǐ sìxiànguàn kuìshí lǐ 天子肆獻祼饋食禮
The Royal Sì-Xiàn-Guàn-and-Food-Offering Ritual
by 任啟運 (撰)
About the work
Rèn Qǐyùn’s 任啟運 (1670–1744) three-juan reconstruction of the king’s ancestral-temple sacrifice ritual, modelled on the Yílǐ Tèshēng and Shǎoláo (gentleman-and-grandee) ritual chapters but extrapolated to the king’s level by the standard “推士禮以致天子” (extending gentleman’s ritual to derive the Son of Heaven’s) method. Title drawn from the Zhōulǐ Dàzōngbó phrase “sìxiànguàn xiǎng xiānwáng (肆獻祼享先王) — kuìshí xiǎng xiānwáng (饋食享先王)” — combining the Zhōulǐ’s rite-name with the Yílǐ’s text. The work has five chapters: Jì tǒng 祭統 (sacrificial overview), Jí juān 吉蠲 (ritual purification), Cháo jiàn 朝踐 (morning sacrifice), Zhèng jì 正祭 (main sacrifice), Yì jì 繹祭 (continuation sacrifice). Each chapter is divided into sections with summary at top and source-citations below. The Sìkù tíyào judges the work “more precise than Huáng Gàn’s Jìlǐ continuation [in Zhū Xī’s KR1d0085 Yílǐ jīngzhuàn tōngjiě]” — the highest praise the editors give to a SòngYuánMíng ritual reconstruction in this section.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Tiānzǐ sìxiànguàn kuìshí lǐ in three juan was composed by Rèn Qǐyùn of the present dynasty. This compilation takes the Yílǐ Tèshēng and Shǎoláo kuìshí lǐ — both gentleman-rituals — and accordingly draws on the Sānlǐ and other traditions related to the king’s ritual to extend it; what cannot be obtained from the classics or sub-commentaries to supplement. Total five chapters: one Jìtǒng (sacrificial overview); two Jíjuān (ritual purification); three Cháojiàn (morning sacrifice); four Zhèngjì (main sacrifice); five Yìjì (continuation sacrifice). Its name takes the Zhōulǐ “sìxiànguàn xiǎng xiānwáng; kuìshí xiǎng xiānwáng” wording. Each chapter inside further sections; each section first holds his account and self-notes the source. After it parallel-attaches classical-text. Compared with Huáng Gàn’s continued Jìlǐ — even more precise.
[Multiple specific arguments follow about Rèn’s particular readings of: the Wángfù gathering of women in the temple-purification process; his rule of Tóngxìng (same-surname) attendants going from north-to-south down the eastern stair sequenced by zhāomù, while Wàn Sīdà’s reading was different; his innovation of identifying báobèi pieces in the ancestral-shrine offering with reference to Xuēshì Lǐtú. These detailed analyses follow the same pattern as the discussion in KR1d0045.]
[The Sìkù editors are particularly approving of Rèn’s correction of Xuēshì’s Lǐtú arrangement of the ancestor-offering food-arrangement sequence — placing the queen’s offering of zhāoshì dòubiān before the king’s leading-in of the victim, against Xuē’s incorrect order of after the third libation; with detailed cross-reference to Zhèng Sīnóng’s Sīzūnyí note. The corrections are characterised as “investigated and kǎozhèng clear-and-distinct.“]
Yet broadly summing-up the various scholars; head-and-tail blending-through; extremely orderly. As, the queen’s offering at Cháoshì dòubiān — Rèn places before the nàshēng (leading-in the victim); Xuētú places after the Sānxiàn (Three Libations). [Cross-reference to Nèizǎi sub-commentary]: “the king goes out to welcome the special-event; the zhù (priest) extends the shī (corpse) at the hù outside, southwest-facing; the queen offers the eight dòubiān; the king leads-in the victim” — then Rèn’s account is verifiably grounded. Furthermore examining Míngtáng wèi: “the lord ròutǎn welcomes the victim at the gate; the wife offers dòubiān; below saying ‘the lord himself leads-in the victim; the dàfū assists with the silk and follows’” — by this then the Cháoshì offering of dòubiān, Jiǎ’s sub-commentary placing before the nàshēng — quite confirmed. Xuētú’s distortion is also plainly visible.
Furthermore the queen’s offering of Kuìshí’s dòubiān, Rèn places before the Wǔxiàn (Five Libations); Xuētú places after the Wǔxiàn. Examining Zhèng’s Sīzūnyí note: “kuìxiàn xiàn shú shí — when the queen at this time offers the Kuìshí dòubiān”; saying “xiàn shú shí” — then this when first offering-the-cooked yet-not reaching the Wǔxiàn — clear; hence Shǎoláo lǐ the mistress offers jiǔcū tǎnhǎi kuícū luǒhǎi still at the time before the corpse enters — accordingly knowing the queen at Kuìshí offering the dòubiān must not be after the Wǔxiàn. All such cases — Rèn corrects Xuētú’s errors — all jīnghé fēnmíng (precise-evidential clear-and-distinct); preserving and recording them. With the Yílǐ jīngzhuàn tōngjiě xù also can in detail-or-broad mutually-consult-them.
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 Tiānzǐ sìxiànguàn kuìshí lǐ is the principal mid-Qīng reconstruction of the royal ancestral-temple ritual and is judged by the Sìkù editors superior to Huáng Gàn’s KR1d0085 Yílǐ jīngzhuàn tōngjiě xù on the same topic — the highest praise the editors give in this Sānlǐ section. Rèn Qǐyùn’s editorial method (chapter / section + summary + source-attribution) and his detailed cross-referencing with Niè Chóngyì’s KR1d0078 Sānlǐ tú jízhù and Xuēshì Lǐtú establish a model of evidential ritual reconstruction.
The work belongs to the early-Qiánlóng court-classicist circle (Rèn was deputy compiler on the Qīndìng Sānlǐ yìshū commission). The dating “1733–1744” brackets Rèn’s late career (1733 jìnshì) through his death.
The 1773 (Qiánlóng guǐsì) preface by Tán Cuì 檀萃 of Gāopíng — included at the head of the work — frames the work in explicit Zhū Xī-tradition terms: “The Yílǐ Tèshēng and Shǎoláo Yǒusīchè are shìdàfū lǐ, but the king and the lords are missing. Huáng Miǎnzhāi’s [Huáng Gàn’s] continued Tōngjiě placed Zōngmiào lǐ at the ninth place of Jìlǐ, mixing Son-of-Heaven and lords together — its rubrics from temple-system to gàoshuò totalling twenty chapters; mostly cuts-and-takes from Sānlǐ and other classical traditions and fully loads the zhùshū into them — unable to escape over-burdened-and-redundant; on the procedure-stage sequence not yet detailed — cannot be promoted-and-implemented.” Tán Cuì then characterises Rèn Qǐyùn’s project as completing what Huáng Gàn left unfinished, with explicit reference to Zhū Xī’s wishes for the Tōngjiě project.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located. Treated in surveys of mid-Qīng ritual scholarship.
Other points of interest
The work’s title — Tiānzǐ sìxiànguàn kuìshí lǐ — is constructed by combining the Zhōulǐ rite-name (sìxiànguàn) with the Yílǐ category-name (kuìshí lǐ) — explicitly signalling Rèn’s project of integrating the Zhōulǐ-bureaucratic and Yílǐ-procedural traditions on a question that neither classic addresses fully. This synthesising title-construction is characteristic of mid-Qīng evidential ritual scholarship.
Links
- Chinaknowledge: http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Classics/yili.html