Shēnyī kǎowù 深衣考誤
Investigation into the Errors of [Previous] Studies of the Shēnyī
by 江永 (撰)
About the work
A short Qīng-evidential monograph by Jiāng Yǒng 江永 (1681–1762) on the Shēnyī 深衣 chapter of the Lǐjì KR1d0052 in 1 juàn, refuting earlier Qīng-period reconstructions of the Shēnyī garment — particularly Huáng Zōngxī’s KR1d0069 Shēnyī kǎo — and restoring the canonical HànTáng zhùshū reading of the rèn 衽 (lapel/side-panel) and the xùrèn gōubiān 續衽鉤邊 (continued-lapel and hooked-edge) construction. The Sìkù tíyào judges Jiāng’s reconstruction as “evidential-and-precise, surpassing earlier men by much” (kǎozhèng jīnghé, shèng qiánrén duō yǐ 考證精核勝前人多矣) — a near-superlative editorial endorsement.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Shēnyī kǎowù in one juan was composed by Jiāng Yǒng of the present dynasty. The system of the shēnyī — the various sayings tangled-and-confused. [Jiāng] Yǒng — basing on the Yùzǎo “shēnyī sān qū, féng qí bèi yāo, rèn dāng páng” text — knows that of the lower-skirt’s front-and-back, those at the centre are jīn (front-flap) and jū (back-flap), and are not called rèn; only those at the side and slanting-cut are called rèn. Now examining [Jiāng] Yǒng’s exposition through the training-and-glosses books: although there are agreements and disagreements, [when] checked against the canon-text, his meaning is most-correct.
Examining the Shuōwén: “rèn — the jīn of clothing.” The Lèipiān: “jīn — namely jīn (front-flap).” [Jiāng] Yǒng [reads]: the front of the lower-skirt as jīn, the side as rèn. The Shuōwén takes rèn as jīn — then [in their reading] the front-jīn is also called rèn, not just the side called rèn. Further the Ěryǎ says “holding-the-rèn called jié; tucking-the-rèn called xié”; Lǐ Xún says “rèn — that which is below the lower-skirt.” Saying “below” — then below-the-lower-skirt is all called rèn, not just the side.
Yet the Fāngyán says: “lǚ is called rèn”; Guō Pú’s annotation says: “the jīn of clothing” — exactly agreeing with the Shuōwén’s “front-jīn called rèn”. Yet Guō’s annotation further says “alternatively rèn is the chángjì (lower-skirt edge)” — saying chángjì — then [it] is at the two sides. [Jiāng] Yǒng’s investigation apparently bases on Pú’s annotation latter saying.
Further Liú Xī’s Shìmíng says: “jīn is jìn (forbidding) — crossing at the front to forbid wind-and-cold. Jū — jù (jutting); jùjùrán straight; further saying [it is] at the back appearing jù. Rèn — chān; at the side; chānchānrán (flapping).” Verified by [Jiāng] Yǒng’s exposition: saying that the lower-skirt’s front-jīn and back-jū are both straight breadths not crossed-and-cut — namely what the Shìmíng calls jùjùrán straight; saying those at the side are called rèn — namely the Shìmíng’s “at the side, chānchān” meaning. His explanation of the canonical text “rèn dāng páng” three characters — in fact not what Kǒng’s shū could reach.
Further his discrimination of xùrèn gōubiān one [section] — saying xùrèn is at the left, the front-and-back mutually-attached; gōubiān is at the right, the front-and-back not-mutually-attached. Gōubiān in Hàn times was called qūjū — namely separately, with one breadth of the lower-skirt obliquely-cut, attached to the upper of the right-back rèn — making [it] hook-and-go-forward. Kǒng’s shū erroneously combined xùrèn and gōubiān into one. His discussion is also evidential-and-precise — surpassing earlier men by much.
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
Jiāng Yǒng’s Shēnyī kǎowù is the Qīng-evidential refutation of Huáng Zōngxī’s KR1d0069 Shēnyī kǎo and the subsequent Qīng standard reconstruction of the Shēnyī garment. The work is methodologically a model of high-Qīng kǎozhèng: each terminological dispute (rèn / jīn / jū / xùrèn / gōubiān) is anchored by sequential evidential citations from the Yùzǎo canonical text, the Shuōwén jiězì and Lèipiān graphological dictionaries, the Ěryǎ and Fāngyán lexica with both early and late annotations, and the Shìmíng etymological dictionary. The cumulative argument restores the canonical HànTáng twelve-breadth lower-skirt reading and establishes the side-panel reading of rèn (against Huáng Zōngxī’s lapel-only reading and Wáng Tíngxiāng’s other reconstruction).
The Sìkù tíyào’s strongly positive verdict on this work — kǎozhèng jīnghé, shèng qiánrén duō yǐ — should be read in conjunction with the harshly negative verdict on Huáng Zōngxī’s KR1d0069 Shēnyī kǎo in the same Sìkù section: the editors are explicitly endorsing Jiāng Yǒng’s reconstruction over Huáng’s. This is one of the clearer cases in the Sìkù tíyào tradition where two consecutive entries in the same sub-class function as paired demonstrations of evidential method — Huáng’s idiosyncratic conjecture rejected, Jiāng Yǒng’s evidential reconstruction endorsed.
The dating bracket 1720–1762 reflects Jiāng Yǒng’s adult scholarly career; the work cannot be tied to a precise year.
Translations and research
- Benjamin A. Elman, From Philosophy to Philology (Harvard, 1984; rev. 2001) — situates Jiāng Yǒng in the Wǎn-pài evidential-school tradition.
- Qīng shǐ gǎo 清史稿 j. 481 (biography of Jiāng Yǒng).
- Pèng Lín 彭林, Sānlǐ yánjiū rùmén 三禮研究入門 (Fùdàn dàxué chūbǎnshè, 2012) — covers the Qīng Shēn-yī studies tradition.
- Sūn Jīhé 孫機, Zhōngguó gǔdài yúfú lùn-cóng 中國古代輿服論叢 (Wénwù chūbǎnshè, 1993) — modern reconstruction of the Shēn-yī drawing on Jiāng Yǒng.
Other points of interest
The Shēnyī problem received intensive Qīng-evidential attention because the canonical text is genuinely difficult and the garment was a working item of late-imperial Confucian ritual practice (worn by senior officials at Confucian temple ceremonies and by some scholarly jīngshì groups in private rite). Jiāng Yǒng’s reconstruction in this monograph and his parallel discussion in KR1d0086 Lǐshū gāngmù fixed the standard scholarly understanding for the rest of the Qīng period and into modern Chinese classical-clothing studies.