Lǐshū gāngmù 禮書綱目
Outline-and-Items of the Book of Ritual
by 江永 (撰)
About the work
A massive mid-Qián-lóng comprehensive Sānlǐ compendium in 85 juàn (with two-juan appendix Lùn lǜlǚ 論律呂) by Jiāng Yǒng 江永 (1681–1762) — the most ambitious individual Sānlǐ re-edition since Zhū Xī’s Yílǐ jīngzhuàn tōngjiě KR1d0085, on which it is explicitly modelled. Jiāng Yǒng’s editorial schema is roughly that of Zhū Xī’s project — the jiā lǐ / xiāng lǐ / xué lǐ / bāngguó lǐ / wángcháo lǐ topical organisation — but with substantial corrections-and-additions that took advantage of the eighteenth-century Qīng-evidential method. The Sìkù tíyào judges the work as “supplementing what [Zhū Xī’s Tōngjiě] did not reach”, with detailed examples of points where Jiāng Yǒng improves on Zhū Xī’s editorial decisions, and concludes that Jiāng Yǒng has been “of substantial benefit to ritual-meaning, namely effectively meritorious to Zhūzǐ” — a high editorial endorsement.
The work draws on a striking 48 source-categories (listed in the Cǎijí qúnshū mù 採輯羣書目 prefatory bibliography): 13 canonical books with their standard zhùshū commentaries; 4 appended-canon sources (DàDài Lǐ, Guóyǔ, Kǒngzǐ jiāyǔ, Fúshēng Shàngshū dàzhuàn); 8 miscellaneous early texts (Jízhǒng Zhōushū, Lǚshì chūnqiū, Jiǎ Yì xīnshū, Liú Xiàng’s Shuōyuàn / Xīnxù / Liènǚ zhuàn / Shìběn, Bān Gù’s Báihǔ tōng); 5 zǐ books (Guǎnzǐ, Zhuāngzǐ, Xúnzǐ, Huáinánzǐ, Kǒngcóngzǐ); 5 military books (Wòjī jīng, Sānlüè, Liùtāo, Sīmǎ fǎ, LǐJìng duì); 4 history books (Shǐ jì, Hàn shū, Hòu Hàn shū, Zīzhì tōngjiàn); the Tōngdiǎn; the Shuōwén jiězì; the Jiǔzhāng suànshù; and 6 Sòng-Confucian collections (Yílǐ jīngzhuàn tōngjiě + Huáng Gàn extension; Zhūzǐ wénjí and Yǔlèi; Yìxué qǐméng; Chén Xiángdào’s KR1d0084 Lǐshū; Cài Yuándìng’s Lǜlǚ xīnshū).
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Lǐshū gāngmù in eighty-five juan was composed by Jiāng Yǒng of the present dynasty. [Jiāng] Yǒng — zì Shènxiū, a man of Xiūníng. His book — broadly relying on the Jīngzhuàn tōngjiě KR1d0085 for it — but with some divergences-and-similarities; mostly able to supplement the not-yet-reached.
As [in] the Shì guān lǐ: “Lǚ in summer using gé” downward fifty characters originally [were] after the addresses-record at the front; the Tōngjiě moved [it] into the jīng text, the Chén qìfú node end; this book also followed it — this is what was inherited and not changed.
Other [places]: as the Shì hūnjì “Fù jiào zǐ mìng zhī cí yuē” downward thirty-one characters: the Tōngjiě listed [them] under the Chén qìzhuàn node; whereas this book changes [them] to listed under the Qīnyíng node. Further the Tōngjiě takes the recorded text “Fù rù sānyuè ránhòu jì xíng” two phrases and separately makes [them] one Jì xíng node before the Diàncài node; whereas this book takes these two phrases and appends [them] to the end of the Miàojiàn node. Apparently this book’s Miàojiàn is precisely what the Tōngjiě calls Shìdiàn. [Jiāng’s arrangement] gauging by ritual-meaning, [is] more orderly than the Tōngjiě. Further the Tōngjiě cuts-out the Shì guānjì “wú dàifu guānlǐ ér yǒu qí hūnlǐ” four phrases, takes [it] should be in Jiāyǔ Guānsòng, suspecting cuòjiǎn (mis-bound) here on the canon — quite dipping into conjectural-decision; this book then keeps the recorded text as old, not following the Tōngjiě — especially careful-and-detailed. Apparently the Tōngjiě originally is Zhūzǐ’s not-yet-fixed book, cannot avoid small variations. [Jiāng] Yǒng cites and bases-on the various canons, supplements its leakages-and-gaps — in fact has substantial benefit to ritual-meaning; namely effectively meritorious to Zhūzǐ. Compared to Hú Bǐngwén etc. who [pursued] broad-and-firm-faith name yet truly were not Zhūzǐ’s intent — [the levels of] taste-and-sentiment are at considerable distance.
Respectfully revised and submitted, seventh month of the forty-third year of Qiánlóng [1778].
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 Lǐshū gāngmù is the principal mid-Qīng comprehensive Sānlǐ compendium and the most ambitious individual classical-scholarly project of the Wǎnpài evidential school. Composed across the long span of Jiāng Yǒng’s adult scholarly life, the work synthesizes the Sānlǐ with a quality of evidential method and breadth of source-base substantially beyond Zhū Xī’s Yílǐ jīngzhuàn tōngjiě (which Jiāng explicitly takes as model). The 48-source bibliographic apparatus — covering canonical-and-classical books, zǐ literature, history, military, technical (the Jiǔzhāng suànshù on numerical aspects of ritual measurement), and Sòng-philosophical-Confucian sources — exemplifies the Qīng-evidential-school methodological commitment to the broadest possible source-base.
The Sìkù tíyào — generally restrained in its endorsements — gives this work an unusually warm verdict: “in fact has substantial benefit to ritual-meaning; namely effectively meritorious to Zhūzǐ”. The contrast drawn with Hú Bǐngwén 胡炳文 and other YuánMíng ZhūXué scholars — who claimed broad-faith allegiance to Zhū Xī while in fact misunderstanding Zhū’s textual-philological intent — is an editorial position that places Jiāng Yǒng’s evidential work in continuity with Zhū Xī rather than in opposition.
The dating bracket 1735–1762 covers Jiāng Yǒng’s mid-and-late life period of major Sānlǐ composition. Jiāng Yǒng was 54 in 1735 (Yōngzhèng 13); his Wǎnpài circle (including his student Dài Zhèn 戴震, b. 1724) was active through the mid-Qián-lóng period; his death in 1762 (Qiánlóng 27) provides the terminus ad quem. The work cannot be tied to a precise compositional year within this span.
The two-juan appendix Lùn lǜlǚ (Discussion of Pitch-Pipes) connects the Sānlǐ corpus to the parallel canonical music-and-pitch tradition descended from Cài Yuándìng’s 蔡元定 Lǜlǚ xīnshū — explicitly listed as one of the 48 source-categories — and an additional appendix juan reproducing Jiāng Yǒng’s own KR1d0075 Shēnyī kǎowù.
Translations and research
- Benjamin A. Elman, From Philosophy to Philology (Harvard, 1984; rev. 2001) — situates Jiāng Yǒng’s Sānlǐ corpus in the Wǎn-pài evidential school.
- 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 Lǐshū gāngmù.
- Sūn Yírǎng 孫詒讓 et al., Zhōulǐ zhèngyì, Yílǐ zhèngyì — modern critical commentaries that depend extensively on Jiāng Yǒng’s prior text-critical work.
Other points of interest
The Lǐshū gāngmù and Qín Huìtián’s KR1d0087 Wǔlǐ tōngkǎo (composed slightly later, in the same Qiánlóng period) together represent the high-water-mark of mid-Qīng comprehensive Sānlǐ scholarship — Jiāng Yǒng’s organised topically through Zhū Xī’s Yílǐjīng schema, Qín Huìtián’s organised through the parallel Wǔlǐ (five ritual classes: jí, xiōng, jūn, bīn, jiā) schema descended from Xú Qiánxué’s KR1d0051 Dúlǐ tōngkǎo. The two together effectively define the late-imperial Chinese Sānlǐ commentarial tradition’s mature scholarly form.