讀禮通考

Dúlǐ tōngkǎo 讀禮通考

A Comprehensive Investigation Read While Mourning

by 徐乾學 (撰)

About the work

Xú Qiánxué’s 徐乾學 (1631–1694) one-hundred-twenty-juan early-Qīng comprehensive treatise on Chinese mourning ritual — the most extensive Qīng treatment of the topic and one of the foundational works of the late-imperial Sānlǐ tōngkǎo tradition. Composed over more than a decade in three drafts, beginning during Xú’s mother’s mourning period (giving the work its title — “Dúlǐ”, “Reading Ritual [during mourning]”). Organised under eight major rubrics: (1) sāngqī 喪期 (mourning periods, 29 juan, with three tabular biǎo of historical variations); (2) sāngfú 喪服 (mourning garments, 8 juan, with diagrams and tables for the five-grade system); (3) sāngyíjié 喪儀節 (mourning procedures, 44 juan, drawing on the Yílǐ Shìsāng, Jìxī, Shìyú + Táng Kāiyuán lǐ + Sòng Zhènghé wǔlǐ + Sī Mǎguāng’s Shūyí + Zhū Xī’s Jiālǐ + the Míng Huìdiǎn); (4) zàngkǎo 葬考 (burial, 13 juan, including imperial mausoleum systems); (5) sāngjù 喪具 (mourning implements, 6 juan, with reference to current Qīng court regulations); (6) biànlǐ 變禮 (variant rituals, 7 juan, including delayed-burial, hasty-burial, re-burial, post-Hàn separation/lost-loved-ones cases, burning-of-coffins/destroyed-tombs); (7) sāngzhì 喪制 (mourning regulations, 11 juan, including ritual variations, two-religion ritual, and customary ritual); (8) miàozhì 廟制 (temple regulations, 2 juan).

About the work continued

The work’s research base was the Xú-family’s Chuánshì lóu 傳是樓 — the principal early-Qīng private library — supplemented by Yán Ruòqú 閻若璩 and others of the leading evidential scholars who were members of Xú’s household circle. The Sìkù tíyào characterises the work as “this Heaven-and-Earth’s indispensable book” (tiānrǎng jiān bìbùkěshǎo zhī shū 天壤間必不可少之書) — the editors’ highest praise for any work in the Sānlǐ section. Qín Huìtián’s 秦蕙田 Wǔlǐ tōngkǎo 五禮通考 explicitly continues Xú’s editorial framework, extending the work to cover all five ritual classes (jí / xiōng / jūn / bīn / jiā) rather than only mourning. Xú had intended to add this himself but died before completing it.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that Dúlǐ tōngkǎo in one hundred twenty juan was composed by Xú Qiánxué of the present dynasty. Qiánxué (zì Yuányī, hào Jiàn’ān, native of Kūnshān) was jìnshì second-rank of Kāngxī gēngxū [1670]; reached as far as Xíngbù shàngshū. This compilation was compiled during his home-residing reading-mourning period; after returning to the country he further added correction-determination; accumulating more than ten years; three drafts and then complete.

For the Yílǐ Sāngfú, Shìsāng, Jìxī, Shìyú and other chapters and the Dà- and XiǎoDài records — modeled on Zhū Xī’s Jīngzhuàn tōngshì, including various scholars’ accounts and dissecting their meaning. For the historical-period typology — entirely rooted in the proper-history; consulting the Tōngdiǎn and the Kāiyuán lǐ, Zhènghé wǔlǐ xīnyí and the various books — establishing the heading-and-organising the eyes. The major points have eight: one is sāngqī (mourning periods); two is sāngfú (mourning garments); three is sāngyíjié (mourning procedures); four is zàngkǎo (burial investigation); five is sāngjù (mourning implements); six is biànlǐ (variant rituals); seven is sāngzhì (mourning regulations); eight is miàozhì (temple regulations). For sāngqī’s historical-period sameness-and-difference there are tables; for wǔfú and yíjiésāngjù there are diagrams; threadlike-cutting article-breakdown — quite detailed-and-prepared.

Apparently Qiánxué’s Chuánshì lóu book-collection — best of his contemporary; while one-time tōngjīng xuégǔ (canonical-classical antiquity) scholars like Yán Ruòqú etc. also mostly gathered at his door; combining many forces to make it — hence broad-and-with-essence; alone surpassing the various Confucians. Qiánxué also wished to also compile jí (auspicious), jūn (military), bīn (guest), jiā (festive) four ritual; just engaged in arrangement-and-sequence and died.

Yet this book gathered-collection rich-and-having; Qín Huìtián’s Wǔlǐ tōngkǎo — namely because of its yìlì (editorial structure) and made. From-ancient-to-now those who speak of mourning-ritual — apparently none more prepared than this.

Respectfully revised and submitted, fourth 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 Dúlǐ tōngkǎo is the founding work of the late-imperial Wǔlǐ tōngkǎo (Five-Rituals Comprehensive Investigation) tradition and the most comprehensive Qīng-period treatment of mourning ritual. Xú Qiánxué’s project — begun during his mother’s mourning, sustained for more than a decade through three drafts, and supported by the Chuánshì lóu library plus the Yán Ruòqú household scholarly circle — set the standard for late-imperial systematic ritual scholarship. The eight-rubric editorial structure (mourning-periods / garments / procedures / burial / implements / variant-rituals / regulations / temple-regulations) was adopted and extended by Qín Huìtián’s 秦蕙田 Wǔlǐ tōngkǎo (covering all five ritual classes, not just mourning) — the major eighteenth-century continuation.

The Sìkù tíyào’s extreme praise — characterising the work as “this Heaven-and-Earth’s indispensable book” — is one of the strongest editorial endorsements in the entire Sānlǐ section of the Sìkù. The 1696 (Kāngxī 35) preface by Zhū Yízūn 朱彝尊 — included at the head of the work — provides important contextual material about Xú Qiánxué’s involvement in the imperial-mourning ritual at the death of Xiàozhuāng tàihuáng tàihòu (the empress dowager): “When the Xiàozhuāng tàihuáng tàihòu died, the gōng was at the time Lǐbù shìláng promoted to Dūcháyuàn zuǒdūyùshǐ and concurrently in the Historical Office. From initial mourning through to qǐbìn (opening-the-coffin) ritual without trifle-or-detail — the Son of Heaven only the gōng was consulted; the gōng deliberated ancient-and-now appropriateness, attached on the eunuch-messenger to enter-and-report; all matched the proper conditions.” This is a striking illustration of the practical-political relevance of evidential ritual scholarship at the early Qīng court.

The dating “1680–1696” brackets the bulk of the compositional and revision period through the posthumous publication.

Translations and research

• Benjamin A. Elman, Classicism, Politics, and Kinship: The Ch’ang-chou School of New Text Confucianism in Late Imperial China (UC Press, 1990) — discusses Xú Qiánxué’s circle and its place in early-Qīng evidential scholarship.
• The work is regularly cited in modern scholarship on Chinese mourning ritual, kinship law, and imperial-court ritual practice.
• Pèng Lín 彭林, Sānlǐ yánjiū rùmén 三禮研究入門 (Fùdàn dàxué chūbǎnshè 2012) — places the Dú-lǐ tōng-kǎo in the broader history of Sānlǐ tōng-kǎo compendia.

Other points of interest

The work’s classification in the Sìkù under Lǐlèi èr (Yílǐ zhī shǔ) — Fùlù (附錄, “appendix”) — rather than under the main Yílǐ sub-class — reflects the editors’ judgement that the work treats ritual practice rather than glosses the Yílǐ text proper. This editorial classification places it alongside KR1d0050 Nèiwài fúzhì tōngshì as the two major Fùlù works closing the Yílǐ sub-class.

The Sìkù-editorial recognition that Qín Huìtián’s Wǔlǐ tōngkǎo “namely because of its yìlì and made” (yīn qí yìlì ér chéng 因其義例而成) is a clear acknowledgement of editorial-genealogical succession. Xú Qiánxué began the project of mourning-ritual systematisation; Qín Huìtián extended it to all five ritual classes; the late-Qīng SūnYírǎng zhèngyì tradition then completed the canonical-textual side that the tōngkǎo tradition had set aside.

Links

• Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xu_Qianxue
• Chinaknowledge: http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Classics/yili.html