聞分館君 Ask BunKanKun

三禮圖集注

8 min read

Text ID
KR1d0078
Date
956–962
Dynasty
宋

Sānlǐ tú jízhù 三禮圖集注

Collected Annotations on the Diagrams of the Three Ritual Classics

by 聶崇義 (撰)

About the work

The principal pre-modern Sānlǐ tú 三禮圖 (illustrated diagrams of ritual implements, garments, vehicles, palaces, and ceremonial layouts) of the entire Three Ritual Classics tradition, in 20 juàn, by Niè Chóngyì 聶崇義 (10th c.), native of Luòyáng. Compiled at imperial commission under the HòuZhōu Shìzōng (Xiǎndé period, 954–960) — Niè was Guózǐ jiān sīyè and was charged with revising the imperial jiāomiào jìyù (suburban-and-temple jade-ritual). At Sòng accession the work was completed and presented; Sòng Tàizǔ examined and praised it, and ordered its imperial promulgation. The work draws on six earlier Sānlǐ tú sources (Zhèng Xuán’s [attributed], Ruǎn Chén’s, Xiàhóu Fúlǎng’s, Zhāng Yì’s, Liáng Zhèng’s, and the SuíKāihuáng imperial commission), making it a jízhù (collected-annotation) compilation rather than an original work — but Niè’s editorial selection became the standard pre-modern Sānlǐ tú and the principal influence on all subsequent SòngYuánMíng lǐtú tradition.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that Sānlǐ tú jízhù in twenty juan was composed by Niè Chóngyì of the Sòng. [Niè] Chóngyì — a man of Luòyáng — in the HòuZhōu Xiǎndé period was promoted to Guózǐ jiān sīyè. Shìzōng commanded [Niè] Chóngyì to participate in fixing the jiāomiào jìyù; therefore [Niè] took the Sānlǐ tú — in total obtained six recensions — added thorough re-examination. In the early Sòng [it was] presented to court; Tàizǔ examined and praised it; [he] commanded its imperial-promulgation.

Examining: ritual-diagrams began with the HòuHàn Shìzhōng Ruǎn Chén; thereafter there was Liáng Zhèng, who titled [Ruǎn] Chén’s diagrams: “Chénliú Ruǎn Shìxìn received-learning from Yíngchuān Mr Qímǔ; took his sayings making them into diagrams in three juan; mostly does-not-rely-on the Lǐ text and cites Hàn matters; with Mr Zhèng’s text [it] is at-variance and erroneous.” [Liáng] Zhèng [thus] called [his version corrective]. The Suí jīngjí zhì lists Zhèng Xuán and Ruǎn Chén etc. Sānlǐ tú in nine juan. The Táng shū yìwén zhì has Xiàhóu Fúlǎng Sānlǐ tú in twelve juan, Zhāng Yì Sānlǐ tú in nine juan. The Chóngwén zǒngmù has Liáng Zhèng Sānlǐ tú in nine juan. The Sòng shǐ records: Lìbù shàngshū Zhāng Zhāo et al. memorialized: “within the Sìbù shūmù there is Sānlǐ tú in twelve juan; this is the Kāihuáng [period] imperial-commission Lǐbù-edited [version]; its diagrams: the first and second titled ‘[by] Mr Liáng’; the tenth bottom titled ‘[by] Mr Zhèng’. The present court-library has a Sānlǐ tú also titled ‘Mr Liáng’ [and] ‘Mr Zhèng’.” Then what was called the six recensions: Zhèng Xuán one, Ruǎn Chén two, Xiàhóu Fúlǎng three, Zhāng Yì four, Liáng Zhèng five, the Kāihuáng imperial-commission six.

Yet checking-and-verifying [Zhèng]‘s Zhì: [Zhèng] Xuán in fact never made diagrams. Probably students of the Mr Zhèng learning made diagrams and ascribed [them] to Mr Zhèng?

Now examining the book — the diagrams of gōngshì (palaces), chēfú (chariots-and-clothing) etc. mostly disagree with the Zhèng annotation. As: at the Shǎoláo kuìshí the duì all face south. The Zhèng annotation says: “the duì having a head — zūnzhě (the honoured one)‘s vessel-decoration — the decoration probably imitates the turtle: in Zhōu’s system the decoration of the vessel necessarily according to its category; the turtle has upper-and-lower shells. This says the duì’s upper-and-lower [parts] imitate the turtle’s upper-and-lower shells; the cover is the yìnǐ (intended) word.” Yet this book makes the duì, fǔ, and guǐ all small turtles, and as the cover-top — this is one vessel’s small detail; also missing the Zhèng intent. Shěn Kuò’s Mèngxī bǐtán has criticised its xīxiàng zūn (sacrificial-bull and sacrificial-elephant vessels) and huángmù zūn (yellow-eye vessel) as erroneous. Ōuyáng Xiū’s Jígǔ lù has criticised its guǐ diagram as differing from the genuine ancient guǐ obtained by Liú Yuánfǔ. Zhào Yànwèi’s Yúnlù mànchāo has criticised its jué as a què (sparrow)‘s back bearing one vessel; the xīxiàng zūn as one vessel painted with bull-and-elephant. Lín Guāngcháo also criticised: “Mr Niè’s Sānlǐ tú — entirely without origins. Gǔbì — then [he] painted gǔ (grain); púbì — then [he] painted pú (rush) — all by his own intent. [He] does not know that gǔbì — only like the present waist-belt-cross-strap above the millet-pattern.” This [shows] that even Sòng-period Confucians did not regard his diagrams as right. Yet his book — extracting various schools — also considerably preserves the old patterns, not entirely from invented-conjecture.

In the Chúnxī period, Chén Bǎiguǎng once made a re-cut, titling its colophon: “his diagrams may not necessarily be entirely as-of-old; if [we] obtain it and examine it — [is it] not still better than seeking [these] in the wilds?” These words are correct. We now temporarily preserve the old recension and record it to provide one school’s learning.

This book — what is now circulating in the world — is the Tōngzhìtáng cut-print recension; either one page one diagram, or one page several diagrams; with the explanation appended at the four corners of the diagram; the line-spacing irregular — searching-and-viewing inconvenient. Only the Court Treasury’s collected Qián Zēng’s Yěshìyuán shadowed-Sòng manuscript copy: each page each forms one diagram and the explanation is appended at the back — clearer-and-cleaner, easier to view. Now [we] follow [it] and copy-record [it].

Respectfully revised and submitted, [date].

Abstract

Niè Chóngyì’s Sānlǐ tú jízhù is the standard pre-modern Chinese illustrated reference to the ritual-implement, vessel, vehicle, garment, and architectural-layout systems described in the Sānlǐ. Compiled at the moment of dynastic transition (mid-Hòu-Zhōu through early-Sòng, ca. 956–962), it draws on six earlier Sānlǐ tú sources — three of which (Zhèng Xuán-attributed, Ruǎn Chén, Liáng Zhèng) probably overlap with each other in textual descent, while three (Xiàhóu Fúlǎng, Zhāng Yì, SuíKāihuáng imperial-commission) are distinct lines.

The work’s editorial method — gather-and-collate the six previous illustrated traditions, present a synthesis with explanatory annotation — was decisive for the subsequent SòngYuánMíng lǐtú tradition: virtually every later Sānlǐ tú (including the early-Yuán Sānlǐ tú of Lín Xīyì and the Míng Sānlǐ tú of Liú Jì KR1d0079) takes Niè Chóngyì as its principal reference and modifies him only marginally. The Sòng commercial Zuǎntú hùzhù Lǐjì KR1d0054 and similar examination-aid volumes also draw their illustrations from Niè.

The Sìkù tíyào is critical of multiple specific reconstructions in Niè’s work — notably the xīxiàng zūn (which Niè’s diagram shows as a single vessel painted with a bull-and-elephant, against the HànWèi tradition that a xīzūn is in the form of a bull and a xiàngzūn in the form of an elephant), the huángmù zūn, the jué (which Niè’s diagram shows as a sparrow with a vessel on its back), and the guǐ (which Niè’s diagram differs from the actual Western Zhōu guǐ recovered by Liú Yuánfǔ in the Northern Sòng). These Sòng-period criticisms (Shěn Kuò, Ōuyáng Xiū, Zhào Yànwèi, Lín Guāngcháo) anticipate the modern archaeological view: most of Niè’s reconstructions are demonstrably wrong, but the work remains valuable as the consolidated medieval scholarly understanding of these systems.

The dating bracket 956–962 covers the late-Hòu-Zhōu Xiǎndé period of composition through the early-Sòng Tàizǔ presentation. The work was commissioned in 954–956 and presented to Sòng Tàizǔ before the Qiándé period.

Imperial inscription

The Sìkù edition opens with a Qiánlóng yùzhì essay (Yùzhì tí Sòngbǎn Niè Cóngyì Sānlǐ tú) — note the catalog source-text spelling 聶從義 here, a calligraphic variant of 聶崇義 (the name in standard biographical sources is 崇義). The variant 從義 / 崇義 is found in SòngYuán bibliographic catalogues; it should not be silently corrected when reproducing the imperial inscription text.

Translations and research

  • Patricia Buckley Ebrey, Confucianism and Family Rituals in Imperial China: A Social History of Writing about Rites (Princeton, 1991) — discusses the Sānlǐ tú tradition.
  • Wáng Guówéi 王國維, “Sānlǐ tú yìshuō” 三禮圖議說 in Guāntáng jí-lín 觀堂集林 — modern critical re-examination of Niè’s reconstructions.
  • Pèng Lín 彭林, Sānlǐ yánjiū rùmén 三禮研究入門 (Fùdàn dàxué chūbǎnshè, 2012) — covers the Sānlǐ tú tradition.

Other points of interest

The Sìkù base-text follows the Yěshìyuán shadowed-Sòng-manuscript layout (one page = one diagram + appended explanation), which the editors explicitly prefer over the more common Tōngzhìtáng layout (multi-diagrams-per-page with explanation in the corners). This is one of the few places where the Sìkù tíyào explicitly discusses page-layout in selecting the base-text, and reflects the editors’ attention to the visual usability of the diagrams.

Graph View

Backlinks