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大戴禮記

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Text ID
KR1d0076
Date
-50–50
Dynasty
漢

DàDài Lǐjì 大戴禮記

The Greater Dài’s Records of Ritual

by 戴德 (撰), 盧辯 (註)

About the work

The DàDài Lǐjì is the parallel ritual-records compilation to the canonical Lǐjì KR1d0052 (= XiǎoDài Lǐjì 小戴禮記), preserving in 13 juàn a selection of Western Hàn-period Confucian ritual essays distinct from those preserved by Dài Shèng 戴聖 in the XiǎoDài recension. Compiled by Dài Dé 戴德 (1st c. BCE), uncle of Dài Shèng. The original 85-piān recension survives only in fragmentary form: the text recorded in the Suí jīngjí zhì as 13 juan, in the Chóngwén zǒngmù as 10 juan / 35 piān, and in the present transmitted recension as 39 surviving piān (with some chapters numbered up to piān 81 — confirming substantial textual loss). The principal early annotation is by Lú Biàn 盧辯 (Northern Zhōu, mid 6th c.), whose annotation is integrated into all surviving editions.

The text contains some of the most important early-Confucian materials outside the canonical XiǎoDài: the Wǔdì dé 五帝德, Dìxì 帝繫 (foundational genealogical material drawn upon by Sīmǎ Qiān for the Shǐjì Wǔdì běnjì), the Zēngzǐ chapters (the most extensive single-author Confucian-disciple corpus in the entire ritual tradition, attributed to Zēng Cān’s school), the Xià xiǎo zhèng 夏小正 (the early agrarian-calendrical classic), the WénWáng guānrén 文王官人 (with parallels in the Yì Zhōu shū), and the Bǎofù 保傅 (an important pre-Hàn pedagogical-ritual text). The DàDài Lǐjì is therefore an indispensable witness to the early Confucian textual world, even in its fragmentary state.

Tiyao-summary

[Catalogue summary, abridged.] We respectfully submit that DàDài Lǐjì in thirteen juan was composed by Dài Dé of the Hàn. The Suí jīngjí zhì states: DàDài Lǐjì in thirteen juan, composed by Dài Dé, Tàifù of the Hàn Xìndū prince. In the Liáng [period] there was a Shìfǎ in three juan; the HòuHàn Ānnán Tàishǒu Liú Xī’s annotation has been lost. The Chóngwén zǒngmù says: ten juan, thirty-five piān; another recension thirty-three piān. The Zhōngxìng shūmù says: presently surviving, only forty piān. Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì says: chapter-numbers begin from thirty-nine; without forty-three, forty-four, forty-five, sixty-one — four piān; and there are two seventy-fours. Hán Yuánjí, Xióng Pénglái, Huáng Zuǒ, Wú Chéng all say “two seventy-threes”. Chén Zhènsūn says “two seventy-twos”. Apparently the later men separately extracted the Míngtáng one piān from the Shèngdé sixty-six to form sixty-seven; the other piān numbers…

[Discussing the lost portions and surviving witnesses; concluding:]

The DàDài Lǐ, although not as comprehensive as the XiǎoDài, retains important materials not preserved elsewhere. [The tíyào concludes by setting the work into the Hàn ritual-textual transmission, alongside the XiǎoDài and the Yílǐ.]

Abstract

The DàDài Lǐjì — usually called the DàDài Lǐ in pre-modern Chinese scholarly usage — is the principal surviving witness to the parallel Hàn-period ritual-records corpus that did not become fully canonical in the way the XiǎoDài Lǐjì (i.e., what Chinese tradition simply calls the Lǐjì) did. The original Western Hàn 85-piān recension, recorded in the Hàn shū yìwén zhì, was substantially reduced by transmission losses; the present 39-or-40-surviving-piān recension is the text of the Lú Biàn annotation that the Tang and Song bibliographic catalogues record. The Sìkù base-text follows the Sòng-imprint Yǒnglèdàdiǎn line.

The textual relation between the DàDài and the XiǎoDài Lǐjì has been a perennial scholarly problem. The Western Hàn tradition (per Zhèng Xuán’s Liùyì lùn, cited in the Lǐjì zhèngyì tíyào KR1d0053) takes the two as parallel selections from a common 131-piān ancestor, with Dài Dé’s DàDài selecting 85 chapters and his nephew Dài Shèng’s XiǎoDài selecting 49. Some chapters (notably Tóuhú 投壺 and Bēnsāng 奔喪) appear in both recensions in slightly different forms, confirming partial overlap of source materials. Modern scholarship (William Boltz in Early Chinese Texts; Jeffrey Riegel) treats both as Western Hàn editorial products from a common Confucian ritual-records corpus.

The dating bracket -50 to 50 reflects Dài Dé’s late-Western-Hàn floruit (late 1st c. BCE) and the early-Eastern-Hàn period of the recension’s stabilisation. The Lú Biàn annotation is mid-6th c. CE (Northern Zhōu period).

The Wǔdì dé and Dìxì chapters — whose foundational early-Chinese mythological-historical content underlies Sīmǎ Qiān’s Shǐ jì Wǔdì běnjì and the standard imperial genealogical framework — are arguably the DàDài Lǐjì’s most influential single contribution to subsequent Chinese historical thought. The Bǎofù chapter is the principal pre-Hàn source on imperial-prince pedagogy and was an active reference for HànTáng pedagogical-ritual practice. The Xià xiǎo zhèng is the principal calendrical-agrarian text of the late-pre-Qín tradition (parallel to the Yuèlìng in the Lǐjì) — see KR1d0077 for its standalone Sòng commentary.

Translations and research

  • Sūn Yírǎng 孫詒讓, Dà-Dài Lǐjì jiāo-bǔ 大戴禮記校補 — the standard Qīng-evidential text-critical edition.
  • Wáng Pìnzhēn 王聘珍, Dà-Dài Lǐjì jiějiè 大戴禮記解詁 (Zhōnghuá shūjú, 1983) — the standard modern Chinese punctuated annotated edition.
  • Jeffrey Riegel, “Ta Tai Li chi 大戴禮記”, in Michael Loewe (ed.), Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide (Berkeley: SSEC / IEAS, 1993), 456–459 — the standard English critical introduction.
  • R. P. Kramers, K’ung tzu chia yü: The School Sayings of Confucius (Brill, 1950) — translates substantial Confucius-disciple material that overlaps with the Dà-Dài.
  • Yán Zhèn-yì 嚴振益, Dà-Dài Lǐjì jīngzhuàn shìyì 大戴禮記經傳釋義 (Wén-shǐ-zhé chūbǎnshè, 2003) — modern critical study.

Other points of interest

The DàDài Lǐjì’s preservation of the Wǔdì dé and Dìxì chapters is one of the most important single instances of pre-Qín / early-Hàn material survival outside the canonical Five Classics. The chapters are the direct source for the imperial Five-Emperors framework and for the Confucian genealogical reconstruction of remote antiquity that organises the opening books of Sīmǎ Qiān’s Shǐjì. Without the DàDài Lǐjì, the source-base for the standard imperial historical framework would be substantially poorer.

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