Rúxíng jízhuàn 儒行集傳
Collected Tradition on the Conduct of Confucians
by 黃道周 (撰)
About the work
A late-Míng monograph commentary on the Rúxíng 儒行 (“Conduct of the Confucian”) chapter of the Lǐjì KR1d0052 in 2 juàn by Huáng Dàozhōu 黃道周, composed in 1638 (Chóngzhēn 11) at the imperial-lecture tent and presented to the throne — the fifth and last of his parallel Lǐjì-chapter monographs of that year (with KR1d0062, KR1d0063, KR1d0064, KR1d0065). Huáng divides the Rúxíng into 17 chapters (Fú xíng 服行, Zì lì 自立, Róng mào 容貌, Bèi yù 備豫, Jìn rén 近人, Tè lì 特立, Gāng yì 剛毅 etc.), and accompanies each with citations from historical-biographical sources illustrating the matching virtue. The chapter division is more textually defensible than in the parallel monographs (the canonical Rúxíng is structurally a list of fifteen-plus characteristics, each introduced by qí … yǒu rú cǐ zhě 其…有如此者), and Huáng’s chapter-rubrics — Zì lì, Gāng yì etc. — closely track the canonical formulae.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Rúxíng jízhuàn in two juan was composed by Huáng Dàozhōu of the Míng. [Huáng] Dàozhōu has Sānyì dòngjǐ, separately catalogued. This compilation takes the Rúxíng one piān, dividing into seventeen chapters: upper juan rubrics: Fú xíng one, Zì lì two, Róng mào three, Bèi yù four, Jìn rén five, Tè lì six, Gāng yì seven, further Zì lì zhāng eight; lower juan rubrics: Rú shì (Confucian Office) nine, Yōu sī (Anxious Thought) ten, Kuān yù (Generous Forbearance) eleven, Jǔ xián (Promoting the Worthy) twelve, Rèn jǔ (Recommending the Promoted) thirteen, Tè lì dú xíng (Standing Alone, Walking Alone) fourteen, Guī wèi (Norm-Action) fifteen, Jiāo yǒu (Befriending Friends) sixteen, Zūn ràng (Honouring Yielding) seventeen. The chapter-titles are all what [Huáng] Dàozhōu created. Yet [the canonical text reads]: “his self-establishment has [aspects] like such-and-such,” “his firmness-and-decisiveness has [aspects] like such-and-such” — all originally exist in the canonical text. Compared to the Fāngjì, Biǎojì rubrics, [these chapter-titles] approach naturalness.
Further: the Rúxíng piān — former Confucians ridiculed it for not being pure, taking it not to be Confucius’s words; because its tone-and-air approaches jīnzhāng (boasting-and-displaying), not the zhōnghé atmosphere. [Huáng] Dàozhōu — bearing his own indignation, daring to speak — by zhíjié qīngdé (upright-bone, pure virtue) was esteemed at the time. Therefore he uniquely took inspiration from this piān. The zhuàn he gathered then miscellaneously cites successive-generation history-and-biography, taking such-and-such as able-to-self-establish, such-and-such as firm-and-decisive — for the superior in selecting shì: holding this as the standard, fixing the balance of qǔshě (taking-and-rejecting) — then for using-men, [one will] not be confused as to direction. Therefore his own preface says: “Confucius feared that later generations, not learning, would not know that the way of the former kings exists in the Confucians, therefore [he] fully cited [the qualities] to clarify it — making the later Son of Heaven follow-the-name examine-the-substance, knowing-people, well-employing-them, for the All-under-Heaven obtaining suitable men.” This is the běnzhǐ (root-purpose) of his composing the book.
In general: among [Huáng] Dàozhōu’s various canon-[commentaries], the one [in which] his use-of-effort is deepest is none like the Sānyì dòngjǐ and Yì xiàng zhèng. Examining his back-and-forth discussion-and-debate with his disciples Zhū Cháoyíng, Hé Ruìyuán, Liú Lǚdīng et al., reaching twice or thrice — what is called “the lifetime’s essential-energy entirely in this book” — therefore [those works] are most-thoroughly profound-and-broad. Even the Xiàojīng jízhuàn took six years to complete; [its] expansion-and-extension is exceedingly deep. As to the five Lǐjì piān, then the intent is not focused on explaining the canon — only [the author] eyed the wrongness of current affairs and borrowed the canon to express his loyal-anger. Further, in one year [Huáng] compiled five sources — also completed too easily. Therefore in kǎozhèng there is at times some looseness. Only because [Huáng] is a generation’s wěirén (great-man) and his heart of yǐnjūn dāngdào (drawing-the-ruler-onto-the-Way) is amply much — therefore until today his books are still treasured.
Respectfully revised and submitted, sixth 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 Rúxíng jízhuàn is the most autobiographically resonant of Huáng Dàozhōu’s five 1638 Lǐjì monographs. The Sìkù tíyào explicitly notes the resonance: “[Huáng] Dàozhōu — bearing his own indignation, daring to speak — by upright-bone-and-pure-virtue was esteemed at the time. Therefore he uniquely took inspiration from this piān.” Huáng was one of the most stalwart late-Míng zhōngchén (loyal ministers); he refused to surrender to the Qīng in 1646 and was executed at Nánjīng. The Rúxíng chapter — defending the dignity and political seriousness of the scholar’s vocation in the face of court ridicule — is read by Huáng as a programme for the upright Confucian scholar’s relation to a corrupted court, and his interpretive intent (per his own preface) is explicitly that the imperial reader should use the Rúxíng as a checklist for evaluating personnel and rejecting the false-Confucians around him.
The Sìkù tíyào uses this final monograph in the series as the occasion for an overall verdict on Huáng’s Lǐjì corpus: methodologically casual (“the intent is not focused on explaining the canon — only the author eyed the wrongness of current affairs and borrowed the canon to express his loyal-anger”), too-quickly composed (“five sources in one year — also completed too easily”), with kǎozhèng lapses, but redeemed by Huáng’s stature as a martyr-figure (“until today his books are still treasured”). The editors’ verdict on Huáng’s Lǐjì monographs is thus distinct from their verdict on his more philosophically serious Yì-school works (the Sānyì dòngjǐ and Yì xiàng zhèng) — works composed across many years of revision-and-discussion with disciples. The Lǐjì monographs are political-moral occasional pieces; the Yì works are Huáng’s serious classical scholarship.
The dating 1638 is fixed by Huáng’s official position; the Rúxíng jízhuàn shares its compositional moment with the parallel four monographs.
Translations and research
- Lynn A. Struve, The Southern Ming, 1644–1662 (Yale UP, 1984) — biographical material on Huáng Dàozhōu’s late-Míng career and execution.
- Míng shǐ 明史 j. 255 (biography of Huáng Dàozhōu).
- Pèng Lín 彭林, Sānlǐ yánjiū rùmén 三禮研究入門 (Fùdàn dàxué chūbǎnshè, 2012) — covers the late-Míng Lǐjì commentary tradition.
Other points of interest
The reception of the Rúxíng chapter in the late Míng — including Huáng Dàozhōu’s reading — sits at one of the recurring crossroads in Confucian scholarly self-understanding: the chapter has been periodically dismissed (by some Sòng Dàoxué scholars, including Zhū Xī himself in some moods) as too-boastful and not in the zhōnghé spirit of the orthodox MèngYán tradition; and periodically embraced (most famously by Huáng Dàozhōu and the late-Míng qīngyì circles) as a defence of upright public-political conduct in a corrupt court. The Sìkù tíyào’s framing notes the ambivalence and treats Huáng’s appropriation as biographically motivated.
Links
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huang_Daozhou
- Chinaknowledge: http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Classics/liji.html