儀禮經傳通解

Yílǐ jīngzhuàn tōngjiě 儀禮經傳通解

A Comprehensive Exposition of the Yílǐ Canon-and-Tradition

by 朱熹 (撰), with continuations by 黃榦 and 楊復

About the work

The most ambitious Sānlǐ re-edition project in SòngYuán scholarship: a massive 37-juan main work plus 29-juan continuation in 23 juàn main + 14 chapter sub-divisions, organised topically as jiā lǐ 家禮 (5 juan), xiāng lǐ 鄉禮 (3 juan), xué lǐ 學禮 (11 juan), bāngguó lǐ 邦國禮 (4 juan), and the unfinished wángcháo lǐ 王朝禮 plus sāng 喪禮 and jì 祭禮 categories. Begun by Zhū Xī 朱熹 (1130–1200) under the title Yílǐ jīngzhuàn jízhù 儀禮經傳集注 in his late life as part of the “Petition to revise the Three Ritual Classics” (qǐ xiū sānlǐ zházǐ 乞修三禮劄子), with the editorial principle “taking the Yílǐ as the canon and gathering everything in the Lǐjì and the various canonical-and-historical writings that bears on ritual to append to the canonical text, fully listing the annotation-and-sub-commentary’s various Confucian sayings”. Zhū Xī died in 1200 with substantial portions still in draft. His disciple Huáng Gàn 黃榦 (1152–1221) was charged with completing the sāng (mourning) and jì (sacrifice) sections; Huáng died in 1221 having completed only the 15-juan sānglǐ. The jìlǐ portion was eventually completed by Yáng Fù 楊復 in 14 juan (presented to the throne by Zhèng Féngchén 鄭逢辰 in the early-Bǎo-dìng period). The combined recension forms 66 juan total: the original 37-juan jīngzhuàn tōngjiě (Zhū Xī) + 15-juan sānglǐ (Huáng Gàn, printed by Zhāng Fú at Nánkāng 1219) + 14-juan jìlǐ (Yáng Fù).

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that Yílǐ jīngzhuàn tōngjiě in thirty-seven juan, with continuation in twenty-nine juan, was composed by Zhūzǐ of the Sòng. Initially named Yílǐ jīngzhuàn jízhù. As Zhūzǐ’s Qǐ xiū Sānlǐ zházǐ states: “taking the Yílǐ as canon, and taking everything in the Lǐjì and the various canonical-and-historical miscellanies that bears on ritual to append to the canonical text below; fully listing annotation-and-sub-commentary, the various Confucians’ sayings; roughly having a beginning-thread” — namely this book. His zházǐ in fact was-not-completed-and-presented; in late years [Zhū Xī] revised-and-extended [it], and changed [the title] to the present name.

After Zhūzǐ died, in Jiādìng dīngchǒu [1217] [the work] first was carved at Nánkāng. In total: jiā lǐ five juan, xiāng lǐ three juan, xué lǐ eleven juan, bāngguó lǐ four juan — combined twenty-three juan, forty-two piān. Within: missing Shūshù (writing-and-numerics) one piān; Dàshè down to Zhūhóu xiāngcháo eight piān still not yet released-from-draft. From juan twenty-four to juan thirty-seven, in total eighteen piān, are still the previous-rough draft-recension; therefore [they] use the old name Jízhuàn jízhù. This is the Wángcháo lǐ. Within: missing Bǔshì one piān. From the Mùlù internally, Jiànzuò thirty-one and after, the prefatory-explanations are all missing — apparently the unfinished version.

The various piān of the Yílǐ recorded — all are not the old order; further considerable separation-and-analysis. As [in] the Shì guān lǐ “three lǚ” originally was after the addresses; [Zhū Xī] now moves [it] up into the [section on] arranging the implements-and-clothing chapter. The Jièsù (warning-the-host) and Jiā guān (adding the cap) etc. addresses originally were generally recorded at the back; [Zhū Xī] now divides [them] into the front [under] each chapter below. At the end [Zhū Xī] takes the Zájì “nǚzǐ shíwǔ xǔjià jī” text to continue [the] jīng establishing one item Nǚzǐ jī — examples like this not just one. Although [these] cannot avoid cutting-up-the-ancient-meaning, yet from Wáng Ānshí abolishing the Yílǐ [from the examination], only the Lǐjì survived. Zhūzǐ rebuking that [people] discarded the canon and entrusted-themselves-to-the-commentary, abandoning-the-base and pursuing-the-tip — therefore composed this book to preserve the previous sage’s bequeathed system. Dividing chapters and tabulating items — opening the volume immediately clear — also what the ritual-investigators do not abandon.

[Continuing on the sāng and jì portions completed by Huáng Gàn and Yáng Fù — concluding:]

Although the editing did not come from one hand, the threads-and-sources [are] mutually connected; the regulating-pattern not different. Those investigating ancient rituals — its broad-thrust and jiémù are roughly prepared here.

Respectfully revised and submitted, fifth 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 Yílǐ jīngzhuàn tōngjiě is the most influential single Sòng-period Sānlǐ project — Zhū Xī’s late-life effort to repair what he saw as the political-canonical disaster of Wáng Ānshí’s abolition of the Yílǐ from the examination canon (a Wáng-school reform that reduced the Yílǐ to peripheral status and elevated the Lǐjì + Zhōulǐ in its place). Zhū Xī’s editorial intervention — restoring the Yílǐ as the canonical core (jīng), demoting the Lǐjì to zhuàn (commentary tradition), and topical reorganisation of the entire Sānlǐ corpus around five categorical headings — was the most ambitious single SòngYuán Sānlǐ project. Begun in the late 1180s or 1190s; substantially completed but unfinished at Zhū Xī’s death in 1200; extended over the next three decades by Huáng Gàn (15-juan sānglǐ, completed by his death in 1221, printed at Nánkāng in Jiādìng jǐmǎo = 1219) and Yáng Fù (14-juan jìlǐ, completed in the early-Bǎo-dìng period, ca. 1225–1227).

The work’s intellectual significance is twofold. First, as the foundational text of the SòngYuánMíngQīng yìlǐ tradition’s continuing engagement with the Sānlǐ: virtually every subsequent Sānlǐ monograph (Wú Chéng’s KR1d0034 Yílǐ yìjīng, KR1d0058 Lǐjì zuǎnyán; Xú Qiánxué’s KR1d0051 Dúlǐ tōngkǎo; Qín Huìtián’s KR1d0087 Wǔlǐ tōngkǎo; Jiāng Yǒng’s KR1d0086 Lǐshū gāngmù) traces its editorial framework back to this work. Second, as the dispositional precedent for the late-imperial yìlǐ tradition’s willingness to re-arrange the canonical text — a willingness that produced both the most ambitious SòngYuán Sānlǐ monographs and the methodological excesses (Wú Chéng’s KR1d0058 aggressive reorganisation of the Lǐjì; Fāng Bāo’s KR1d0072 textual deletions) that the Sìkù tíyào tradition would later criticise.

The dating bracket 1190–1227 covers Zhū Xī’s late-life work on the project, the posthumous Jiā-dìng-period continuation by Huáng Gàn, and the final Bǎo-dìng-period completion by Yáng Fù.

The 1217 Nánkāng imprint of the original 23-juan jiā / xiāng / xué / bāngguó portion is the principal early printing-witness; the 1219 Nánkāng imprint of Huáng Gàn’s 15-juan sānglǐ (printed by Zhāng Fú 張虙 — note that this is the same Zhāng Fú who composed KR1d0056 Yuèlìng jiě) followed two years later. The Yáng Fù jìlǐ was completed and printed somewhat later.

Translations and research

• Patricia Buckley Ebrey, Confucianism and Family Rituals in Imperial China: A Social History of Writing about Rites (Princeton, 1991) — major English-language study of Zhū Xī’s Sānlǐ project and its reception.
• Hoyt Cleveland Tillman, Confucian Discourse and Chu Hsi’s Ascendancy (Hawaii UP, 1992) — historical-philosophical context.
• Sòng shǐ 宋史 jj. 429 (Zhū Xī), 430 (Huáng Gàn), 437 (Yáng Fù).
• Pèng Lín 彭林, Sānlǐ yánjiū rùmén 三禮研究入門 (Fùdàn dàxué chūbǎnshè, 2012) — covers the Yílǐ jīngzhuàn tōngjiě tradition.

Other points of interest

The work’s editorial-canonical inversion — taking the Yílǐ as the jīng and the Lǐjì as the zhuàn — is a specifically Zhū Xī claim, not endorsed by either the HànTáng zhùshū tradition (which treats all three of the Sānlǐ as canonical) or by YuánMíng official tradition (which followed Wáng Ānshí in elevating the Lǐjì through Chén Hào KR1d0059). The Qīng court’s Qīndìng Sānlǐ yìshū KR1d0018, KR1d0037, KR1d0068 formally restored the parallel-canonical status of the three classics — neither the Yílǐ-first nor the Lǐjì-first arrangement.

Links

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