禮記集說

Lǐjì jíshuō 禮記集說

Collected Expositions of the Book of Rites

by 衞湜 (撰)

About the work

A massive Southern Sòng jíshuō 集說 (“collected expositions”) of the Lǐjì KR1d0052 in 160 juàn by Wèi Shí 衞湜 (zì Zhèngshū 正叔, hào Lìzhāi 櫟齋), native of Wújùn 吳郡 (modern Sūzhōu) — the most encyclopedic Sòng commentary on the Lǐjì and the principal repository of otherwise-lost Sòng-period Lǐjì scholarship. Begun in the Kāixǐ–Jiādìng period (ca. 1205–1224) when Wèi was a junior official, presented to court in Bǎoqìng 2 (1226) when he was Wǔjìn xiàn lìng (and subsequently advanced to Bìgé zhí), printed at the Jiāngdōng Cáoyuàn in 1228 (Shàodìng xīnmǎo 紹定辛卯) by Zhào Shànxiāng 趙善湘, and revised by Wèi Shí himself nine years later (ca. 1237) into the present recension. The Sìkù tíyào describes the work as “the deep ocean of the Lǐ-school” (lǐjiā zhī yuānhǎi 禮家之淵海).

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that Lǐjì jíshuō in one hundred sixty juan was composed by Wèi Shí of the Sòng. [Wèi] Shí — zì Zhèngshū, a man of Wújùn — his book began in the Kāixǐ–Jiādìng period; his own preface states “by the day editing, by the month deleting, very nearly twenty-and-more years and afterwards complete.” In the second year of Bǎoqìng [1226], when [he] held the office of Wǔjìn magistrate, [he] tabularly submitted [it] to court and was promoted to Bìgé zhí; later [his career] ended at Cháosǎn dàifu Zhí Bǎomógé, Zhī Yuánzhōu. In the xīnmǎo year of Shàodìng [1231], Zhào Shànxiāng cut the blocks at the Jiāngdōng Cáoyuàn; nine years later, [Wèi] Shí again added collation-and-revision, fixing it into the present recension. He himself made a former preface and a latter preface, and again himself made a colophon-tail recounting its beginning-and-end most thoroughly.

Apparently the head-and-tail traversed thirty-and-more years; therefore [its] gathering-and-selecting from collected sayings is most-thoroughly comprehensive; [its] taking-and-rejecting is also most-thoroughly precise. From the Zhèng annotation downward, the [authors] taken in total: one hundred forty-four schools. Other books that touch on the Lǐjì — those quoted there — are not [included] in this number.

Now apart from the Zhèng annotation and Kǒng sub-commentary — of the original books not one survives. Zhū Yízūn’s Jīngyì kǎo gathers most copiously, yet of those books [for which he] does not know the book and does not know the man — there are forty-nine schools — all relying on this book to be transmitted. [It] may also be called the deep-ocean of the Lǐ-school.

In the early Míng, when the system was fixed, [the authorities] then established Chén Hào’s annotation KR1d0059 at the imperial academy; whereas Shí’s annotation was put aside in semi-obscurity. Now the Sage Court’s Qīndìng Lǐjì yìshū KR1d0068 takes from Shí’s book especially much. Is this not [a case where] the public verdict on right-and-wrong, after long passage, must inevitably be settled?

Further [Wèi] Shí’s latter preface says: “Other people in writing books only fear [that the words may] not come from themselves; my [purpose] in this compilation is only to fear that [the words may] not come from others. May later attainers not appropriate the things this compilation has already said and so destroy the merits of [the] previous men.” Thereafter Cíqī Huáng Zhèn’s 黃震 Dú Lǐjì rìchāo and Xīn’ān Chén Lì’s 陳櫟 Lǐjì jíyì xiángjiě — both took [Wèi] Shí’s book, deleted-and-condensed [it], appending their own views. Mr Huáng’s blending-of-the-various schools still gives the surnames at the bottom of the page (the Huáng Rìchāo is examinable). Mr Chén then no longer signs (Chén Lì’s book today does not survive; this is seen from the Dìngzì jí, where [Chén] Lì himself made the preface). Even from this single matter — not only is the book worth treasuring; the depth of his use-of-mind is also not what the various schools can reach.

Respectfully revised and submitted, third 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 Lǐjì jíshuō is the most comprehensive Sòng-period commentary on the Lǐjì, a 160-juan compilation drawing on 144 named schools (plus a substantial body of works cited passim without standing in this count) — the principal Sòng-period repository for the otherwise-lost commentaries of the early-mid Sòng Lǐjì tradition. Wèi Shí’s preface (Bǎoqìng 1, 1225) and Wèi Liǎowēng’s preface (also 1225) place the work in the late-Southern-Sòng Dàoxué context: Wèi Liǎowēng, the senior Dàoxué statesman responsible for KR1d0033 and KR1d0055, explicitly endorses Wèi Shí’s effort as completing what the Hàn–Táng zhèngyì line had failed to consolidate.

The Sìkù editors’ praise is unusually warm: they note that Zhū Yízūn’s 朱彝尊 Jīngyì kǎo 經義考 — the standard Qīng catalogue of classical scholarship — lists 49 Lǐjì-school authors whose books no longer survive but whom Zhū could only know about through Lǐjì jíshuō. The work is for these authors the sole transmission-channel. The editors further note the work’s editorial scrupulousness: Wèi Shí himself wrote in his postface “other people writing books fear that [the words may] not come from themselves; my purpose in this compilation is only that [the words may] not come from others.” This editorial principle — preserving every cited author’s exact words and attribution — is in marked contrast to Chén Lì’s 陳櫟 later Lǐjì jíyì xiángjiě (which silently absorbs Wèi Shí’s quotations without re-attribution) and is one reason the Sìkù editors prefer Wèi Shí’s recension.

The work was eclipsed by Chén Hào’s KR1d0059 Lǐjì jíshuō under the Míng Yǒnglè curriculum, but recovered substantial editorial influence under the Qīng Qīndìng Lǐjì yìshū KR1d0068, which the Sìkù tíyào acknowledges draws particularly heavily on Wèi Shí.

The dating bracket 1205–1232 covers the active composition (Kāixǐ–Jiādìng) through the 1226 court-presentation and the 1231 first printing, with subsequent revision down to ca. 1232 (the year of Wèi Shí’s death — the tíyào notes Wèi’s own subsequent revision “nine years later”, placing this revision around 1237 in calendrical terms but in any case posthumous of the Shàodìng xīnmǎo printing).

Translations and research

• Sòng shǐ 宋史 (no separate biography of Wèi Shí; references in the Cáo-yùn and Wǔ-jìn xiàn official-history sections).
• Hilde De Weerdt, Competition over Content: Negotiating Standards for the Civil Service Examinations in Imperial China (Harvard-Yenching, 2007) — situates Wèi Shí in late-Southern-Sòng examination culture.
• Pèng Lín 彭林, Sānlǐ yánjiū rùmén 三禮研究入門 (Fùdàn dàxué chūbǎnshè, 2012) — covers the Lǐjì jíshuō as the principal Sòng Lǐjì commentary.
• Yáng Tiānyǔ 楊天宇, Lǐjì yìzhù 禮記譯注 (Shànghǎi gǔjí, 1997) — modern translation that incorporates Wèi Shí’s collected materials.

Other points of interest

The work is the principal scholarly source for many Sòng-period Lǐjì commentators whose works are otherwise lost — including substantial fragments of Sòng-period Dàoxué and pre-Dào-xué Lǐjì exegesis. Pre-modern Chinese scholars regularly consulted Lǐjì jíshuō as a de facto anthology of lost Sòng-period commentary; the work served essentially the same function for the Lǐjì tradition that the Yílǐ jíshì of Lǐ Rúguī KR1d0030 served for the Yílǐ.

Links

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