禮書

Lǐshū 禮書

The Book of Ritual

by 陳祥道 (撰)

About the work

A massive Northern Sòng comprehensive treatise on the Sānlǐ in 150 juàn by Chén Xiángdào 陳祥道 (1042–1093, zì Yòngzhī 用之, native of Fúzhōu 福州, Fújiàn). (The catalog meta gives 1053–1093 but CBDB id 47952 records 1042–1093, followed here.) The principal Wáng-Ān-shí-school Sānlǐ monograph — Chén was a kè 客 (client-disciple) of Wáng Ānshí — and a major resource of pre-archaeological Sòng Sānlǐ learning. Composed in the late Yuánfēng to Yuányòu period (1080s–early 1090s); presented to the throne in Yuányòu 7 (1092) when Chén was newly appointed Tàicháng bóshì; Chén died the following year (1093). The Sìkù tíyào characterises the work — despite its Wáng-Ān-shí-school polemical commitments to refuting the HànTáng zhùshū tradition — as nonetheless having “vein-and-channel through-running canon-and-commentary, fineness-of-thread analysing categorical sub-divisions; diagram in front, exposition behind; kǎodìng detailed-and-prepared” — and concludes that the work was actively endorsed by even Wáng Ānshí’s intellectual opponents (Cháo Gōngwǔ, Lǐ Zhì) for its general scholarly excellence.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that Lǐshū in one hundred fifty juan was composed by Chén Xiángdào of the Sòng. [Chén] Xiángdào — zì Yòngzhī, a man of Fúzhōu. Lǐ Zhì’s Shīyǒu tánjì states he passed-the-examinations under Xǔ Shǎozhāng’s bǎng (list); further states: in Yuányòu 7 [1092] he presented the Lǐtú and Yílǐshuō, was appointed Guǎngé jiàokān; the next year used as Tàicháng bóshì, [imperial] bestowal of fēiyī (vermilion-clothing) — within ten-and-some [days], he died. Further states: he held office for twenty-seven years, ending at Xuānyì láng. The Sòng shǐ makes [it] “office reached Mìshūshěng zhèngzì”. Yet Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì records this book — also calling [him] “Zuǒ Xuānyì láng Tàicháng bóshì Chén Xiángdào composed” — agreeing with what [Lǐ] Zhì recorded.

[Lǐ] Zhì further states: [Chén] formerly composed the Lǐtú in one hundred fifty juan and the Yílǐ shuō in sixty-and-more juan; the Nèixiàng fàngōng (Range Duke = Fàn Chúnrén?) presented them, requesting [it be] sent to the Mìgé and Tàichángsì. Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí then states: “in the Yuányòu period, [he] tabular-submitted it.” Cháo Gōngwǔ then states: “the court hearing of it, gave a zhá and copied-it-and-presented-to-the-imperial.” The Sòng shǐ Chén Yáng biography states: “Lǐbù shìláng Zhào Tǐngzhī said: ‘[Chén] Yáng [Chén Xiángdào’s brother] composed the Yuèshū in twenty juan’ (note: the Yuèshū is in fact two-hundred juan; the Sòng shǐ’s character is mistaken) — guànchuān clear-and-prepared; requesting to draw on his elder brother [Chén] Xiángdào’s [example of] presenting Lǐshū matter, give a zhá [for it] to be copied” — then [Lǐ] Zhì’s and [Chén] Zhènsūn’s recordings are correct. [Cháo] Gōngwǔ’s “the court hearing of it” account is not what really happened.

Among the [readings of] the book — many [are] criticisms of the Zhèng-school. As: discussing the miào system [he] cites the Zhōuguān, Jiāyǔ, Xúnzǐ, Gǔliáng zhuàn, taking [it that] the Son of Heaven all has seven miào — different from [Zhèng] Kāngchéng’s “Son of Heaven five miào” exposition. Discussing dìxiá, [he] says: the yuánqiū is itself the yuánqiū; the dì is itself the dì — strenuously rebuts [Zhèng] Kāngchéng’s “dì is precisely the yuánqiū” exposition. Discussing the dì as greater than xiá and including-the-close-temples — attacks [Zhèng] Kāngchéng’s “dì is small, xiá is great; sacrifice does not include the close temples” exposition. Discriminates Shàngdì and the Wǔdì — citing the Zhǎngcì text — refutes [Zhèng] Kāngchéng’s “Shàngdì is precisely the Wǔdì” exposition.

Probably [Chén] Xiángdào and Lù Diàn were both Wáng Ānshí’s clients. (Note: Xiángdào being Wáng Ānshí’s disciple is seen in Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì under the Lúnyǔ jiě item.) [Wáng] Ānshí explaining the canon, [had] now created new meanings, [had] worked-to-differ-from former Confucians; therefore Chén Xiángdào and [Lù] Diàn also all repulsed the old explanations. [Lù] Diàn’s Lǐxiàng now is not transmitted; only Shénzōng’s Xiángdìng jiāomiào lǐwén zhūyì — the various discussions today still stored in the Táoshān jí. Generally [it] mostly creates separate explanations — with [Chén] Xiángdào’s rebutting Zhèng [Xuán] roughly the same. Apparently the temporary current [trend] — no need to deeply press.

Yet [if we] honour its broad-thrust — then guànchuān (vein-running) the canon-and-commentary; thread-cutting article-by-article distinct; with diagram in front, exposition in back; the kǎodìng detailed-and-prepared. Chén Zhènsūn praised: “[its] discussion-and-discrimination essential-and-broad, accompanied by drawing”; the Táng-period various-Confucians’ discussions, the modern-period Niè Chóngyì’s KR1d0078 diagrams — [Chén Xiángdào] either corrects their mistakes or supplements their gaps. Cháo Gōngwǔ — a Yuán-yòu-period factional-house — Lǐ Zhì — a Sū-shi gate-guest — both differed from the Wáng Ānshí school. [Cháo] Gōngwǔ also praises the book as “very essential-and-broad”; [Lǐ] Zhì also praises [Chén] as “the ritual-school passing-broad — at the time few reaching” — then his book truly was greatly esteemed by the time, not abolished because of [Wáng] Ānshí.

Respectfully revised and submitted, eleventh 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.

Abstract

Chén Xiángdào’s Lǐshū — composed in the late Yuánfēng to Yuányòu period and presented to court in 1092 just before his death — is the principal Wáng Ān-shí-school Sānlǐ monograph and one of the most substantial Northern Sòng comprehensive ritual treatises. The 150-juan format includes both diagrams (the work was originally titled Lǐtú per the Lǐ Zhì Shīyǒu tánjì record) and full prose exposition, organised topically through the major rubrics of the Sānlǐ tradition.

The work’s defining intellectual feature is its sustained refutation of the Zhèng Xuán tradition: the Son-of-Heaven seven-temple position (against Zhèng’s five), the yuánqiūdì distinction (against Zhèng’s identification), the dì-greater-than-xiá position (against Zhèng’s reverse), the Shàngdì-against-Wǔdì distinction (against Zhèng’s identification). These positions are characteristic Wáng Ān-shí-school doctrines — and as the Sìkù tíyào notes, both Chén Xiángdào and Lù Diàn 陸佃 (the other major Wáng Ānshí Sānlǐ commentator) developed them as part of the broader Yuánfēng–Yuányòu Wáng-school enterprise of “creating new meanings, working to differ from former Confucians.”

Despite its Wáng Ān-shí-school orientation, the work was endorsed by even Wáng’s political opponents — Cháo Gōngwǔ (a Yuányòu factional figure) and Lǐ Zhì (a Sū Shì client) — for its scholarly seriousness, particularly the integration of diagrams and prose, the careful organisation of the 150-juan structure, and the kǎodìng discipline. The dating bracket 1080–1093 covers the composition period from the early Yuánfēng (when Chén entered active scholarly life) to his death-year 1093.

The Sìkù editors note a parallel with Chén Xiángdào’s brother Chén Yáng 陳暘, whose Yuèshū 樂書 in 200 juan was the major Northern Sòng monograph on music. The two brothers’ parallel achievements — Lǐshū + Yuèshū — are explicitly linked in the imperial-court memorial that brought Chén Yáng’s work to imperial attention.

Translations and research

• Sòng shǐ 宋史 j. 432 (biography of Chén Xiángdào).
• Cháo Gōng-wǔ 晁公武, Jùn-zhāi dú-shū zhì 郡齋讀書志 — important contemporary Sòng-period notice.
• Lǐ Zhì 李廌, Shī-yǒu tán-jì 師友談記 — primary biographical and bibliographic source on Chén Xiángdào.
• Patricia Buckley Ebrey, Confucianism and Family Rituals in Imperial China (Princeton, 1991) — discusses Chén Xiángdào’s Lǐshū in context.
• Pèng Lín 彭林, Sānlǐ yánjiū rùmén 三禮研究入門 (Fùdàn dàxué chūbǎnshè, 2012) — covers Chén Xiángdào in the Sòng Sānlǐ tradition.

Other points of interest

The Wáng Ānshí school’s Sānlǐ programme — represented by Chén Xiángdào’s Lǐshū, Lù Diàn’s lost Lǐxiàng, and the various Yuánfēng–Yuányòu imperial-ritual reform discussions — represented one of the most ambitious Northern Sòng efforts to use the Sānlǐ as a foundation for contemporary state-ritual reform. The Wáng-school Sānlǐ programme failed politically with the fall of the Yuánfēng regime, but its scholarly products (especially Chén Xiángdào’s Lǐshū) survived and entered the standard Sānlǐ commentarial tradition.

Links

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