Yílǐ xiǎoshū 儀禮小疏
A Minor Sub-Commentary on the Yílǐ
by 沈彤 (撰)
About the work
Shěn Tóng’s 沈彤 (1688–1752) seven-juan supplementary sub-commentary on five chapters of the Yílǐ (KR1d0025): Shìguānlǐ, Shìhūnlǐ, Gōngshí dàfū lǐ, Sāngfú, Shìsāng lǐ — each treated in dozens of annotation entries. Each chapter is followed by an Office-edition correction (Jiānběn kānwù 監本刊誤) section. The volume-end appends a Zuǒyòu yìshàng kǎo 左右異尚考 chapter on left-right ritual variations. The Sìkù tíyào characterises Shěn Tóng’s Sānlǐ learning as “less wide than Huì Shìqí but more pure than Wàn Sīdà” — a careful middle position. Shěn’s contributions include detailed discriminations of Wàn Sīdà’s KR1d0039 erroneous Shìguānlǐ and Miàoqǐn readings; the Sìkù editors flag several specific Shěn lapses (the jiǎlì gloss; the Sìyuán dōngróng reading; the Shìsānglǐ niúzhōng gloss) but approve the broader contribution.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Yílǐ xiǎoshū in seven juan was composed by Shěn Tóng of the present dynasty. Tóng has Zhōuguān lùtián kǎo already separately catalogued. The book takes the Yílǐ Shìguānlǐ, Shìhūnlǐ, Gōngshí dàfū lǐ, Sāngfú, Shìsānglǐ five chapters and provides annotation on each, with several dozen entries. After each chapter further appends Jiānběn kānwù (Office-edition Correction). Volume-end appends Zuǒyòu yìshàng kǎo one chapter — the verification quite precise-and-evidential.
[Several detailed discussions follow of Shěn’s specific arguments and lapses on technical terms — jiǎlì (assistant clerk); the geometric layout of the Sìyuán dōngróng; the niúzhōng in the Shìsānglǐ — with the Sìkù editors providing detailed cross-references demonstrating where Shěn’s evidential argumentation falls short.]
[A particularly substantial passage discusses Shěn’s reading of the zhuā and kuòfà: the Sāngfú “bùzǒng jiànjī zhuā shuāi sānnián”, with Zhèng’s note “zhuā — lùjié (exposed bun)” interpreted by Shěn as differing from before the official mourning service; Shěn following Huángshì’s rejected reading from Sāngfú xiǎojì shū; the editors siding with Zhèng’s note over Huáng’s reading.]
But the other detailed-and-precise verifications are not few. As, holding the victim has 21 components including bì (femur); Zhōulǐ Nèiyōng and Shìhūnlǐ two sub-commentaries did not count bì; Chén Xiángdào further removed bì and used guài (knee-cap) — quite confusing. Furthermore holding bone-folding is not just folding spine-and-rib; reaches shoulder-arm-and-leg’s bones — referring to the Shìyú jì: “using zhuānfū as folding-platter, taking various-neck-and-throat” — that zhé tóujǐng is also called zhézǔ — accordingly knowing shoulder-arm-and-leg is also folded. Furthermore discriminating Wàn Sīdà’s interpretation of Zībùquēxiàng (Shìguānlǐ) and Miàoqǐn errors. Furthermore discriminating Shìsānglǐ “zhòngzhǔrén zài qí hòu” — Zhèng’s note saying “the various younger-brother-cousin’s son who died — namely the various-sons” — they are zhǎnshuāi (deepest mourning) relatives; Áo Jìgōng saying “zīshuāi dàgōng (lighter mourning) relatives” — quite mistaken. Furthermore holding “women paired with the bed east-facing” — Zhèng’s note “saying wife-concubine son-and-grandson” — namely “the dead-person’s wife”; Wàn Sīdà saying “all Yílǐ sāngjì called zhǔfù — all the zōngzǐ’s wife — not the zōngzǐ’s mother” — quite missing Zhèng’s meaning. Examples like these — his accounts all having canonical-and-evidential ground.
Apparently Tóng’s Sānlǐ learning compared with Huì Shìqí is less; but compared with Wàn Sīdà is purer.
Respectfully revised and submitted, sixth month of the forty-fifth year of Qiánlóng [1780].
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 xiǎoshū is Shěn Tóng’s principal Yílǐ contribution and the companion to his KR1d0023 Zhōuguān lùtián kǎo. The work is a focused supplementary sub-commentary on five selected chapters (capping, marriage, dukely-hosting, mourning-clothing, gentleman’s mourning) — the chapters Shěn judged most in need of evidential correction — rather than a comprehensive treatment. Shěn’s signature is the careful evidential discrimination of his contemporaries’ specific lapses, particularly Wàn Sīdà (KR1d0039) on whom he writes several extended passages.
The Sìkù tíyào’s characterisation — “Tóng’s Sānlǐ learning compared with Huì Shìqí is less; but compared with Wàn Sīdà is purer” — is one of the more revealing comparative-classifications in the late-Qiánlóng court-classicist scheme. Huì Shìqí (KR1d0022) represents broad-but-sometimes-loose evidential method; Wàn Sīdà represents original-but-sometimes-erratic method; Shěn Tóng occupies the precise-but-narrower middle position. The editors’ tendency to position different scholars relative to each other in this way is characteristic of the late-Qiánlóng court-canonical method.
Composition belongs to Shěn Tóng’s mature evidential career; the dating “1730–1752” brackets a plausible window through Shěn’s death.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located. Treated in surveys of mid-Qīng Wú-pài Sānlǐ scholarship.
Other points of interest
The Zuǒyòu yìshàng kǎo (左右異尚考) appendix at the volume-end addresses a recurrent technical difficulty in Yílǐ reading: the variability of which side (zuǒ 左 left or yòu 右 right) is treated as the place of honour in different ceremonial contexts. This single-issue evidential investigation is characteristic of the sustained Wúpài attention to small-but-recurrent technical points.
Links
- Chinaknowledge: http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Classics/yili.html