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書儀

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Text ID
KR1d0088
Date
1075–1086
Dynasty
宋

Shūyí 書儀

Etiquette of Documents

by 司馬光 (撰)

About the work

The Northern Sòng jiālǐ 家禮 (family-ritual) compendium of Sīmǎ Guāng 司馬光 (1019–1086, zì Jūnshí 君實, the senior Yuányòu opposition statesman and author of the Zīzhì tōngjiàn) in 10 juàn — the principal pre-Zhū-Xī Northern Sòng comprehensive jiālǐ manual and the foundational text of the post-Sòng family-ritual tradition. The title Shūyí — “etiquette of documents” — preserves the ancient generic name for private ritual manuals (the Suí Jīngjí zhì records earlier Shūyí by Xiè Yuán, Cài Chāo, Wáng Hóng, Wáng Jiǎn, Táng Jǐn, and others, plus fùrén Shūyí and sēngjiā Shūyí); Sīmǎ Guāng adopted the traditional title for his work. The 10-juan structure: 1 juan on documentary etiquette (biǎozòu memorial-and-petition forms; gōngwén official correspondence; sīshū private letters; jiāshū family letters), 1 juan guānyí (capping), 2 juan hūnyí (marriage), and 6 juan sānglǐ (mourning) — heavily weighted toward the mourning section. Zhū Xī in the Zhūzǐ yǔlèi characterised Sīmǎ Guāng’s Shūyí as “based mostly on contemporary practice” (大抵本今), in contrast to the parallel works of the Two Chéng and Zhāng Zǎi, which “mostly use ancient rites”.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that Shūyí in ten juan was composed by Sīmǎ Guāng of the Sòng. Examining the Suí jīngjí zhì: Xiè Yuán has Nèiwài Shūyí in four juan; Cài Chāo has Shūyí in two juan; down to Wáng Hóng, Wáng Jiǎn, Táng Jǐn — all have such writings. Further [there are] Fùrén Shūyí in eight juan and Sēngjiā Shūyí in five juan. Apparently Shūyí is the ancients’ generic term for private-house ritual-protocol. The Chóngwén zǒngmù records Táng Péi Hè, Zhèng Yúqìng; Sòng Dù Yǒu, Jìn Liú Yuèshàng — all using this rubric. [Sīmǎ] Guāng’s book also follows the old usage.

In total: biǎozòu / gōngwén / sīshū / jiāshū formats — one juan; guān yí — one juan; hūn yí — two juan; sāng lǐ — six juan. The Zhūzǐ yǔlù: Hú Shūqì asked about the four-Confucian rituals; Zhūzǐ said: “the Two Chéng and Héngqú [Zhāng Zǎi] mostly use ancient rites; the Wēngōng [Sīmǎ Guāng] then mostly basing on the present.” This is a clear summary of his book.

[Continued discussion of Sīmǎ Guāng’s relation to ancient ritual; his jiālǐ commentary on the Sānlǐ tradition; the influence on Zhū Xī’s KR1d0089 Jiālǐ; the work’s continuing role as a jiālǐ reference down to the late Qīng.]

[Final endorsement.]

Respectfully revised and submitted, [date].

Abstract

Sīmǎ Guāng’s Shūyí is the foundational text of the SòngYuánMíngQīng jiālǐ (family-ritual) tradition. Composed in the late-Northern-Sòng period of Sīmǎ Guāng’s political eclipse — when he was in retirement at Luòyáng working on the Zīzhì tōngjiàn — the work draws on the canonical Hàn-Táng-period Shūyí tradition (the Suí jīngjí zhì-recorded works of Xiè Yuán, Cài Chāo et al., now mostly lost) but adapts it for the late-Sòng household context. Zhū Xī’s KR1d0089 Jiālǐ takes Sīmǎ Guāng’s Shūyí as its principal predecessor — Zhū Xī repeatedly acknowledges this in his prefatory and exegetical writings — and the line of descent from Shūyí through Jiālǐ defines the late-imperial Chinese family-ritual handbook tradition.

The dating bracket 1075–1086 reflects Sīmǎ Guāng’s late-life retirement period in Luòyáng (during which the Zīzhì tōngjiàn was completed and presented in 1084) through to his death in 1086 (in office for the final months as Zhāngbīng zǎixiàng 章兵宰相 of the brief restoration). The Shūyí cannot be tied to a precise compositional year, but is securely a product of the Yuánfēng to Yuányòu period.

The Shūyí’s heavy weighting on sānglǐ (six of ten juan) is a notable structural feature, reflecting both the eleventh-century Sòng intellectual environment (where mourning-ritual was the most contested jiālǐ domain) and Sīmǎ Guāng’s particular interest in mourning-ritual as a domain of xiào (filial piety) practice. The work was the principal pre-Zhū-Xī mourning-ritual handbook and remained an active reference in late-imperial Chinese mourning practice alongside Zhū Xī’s Jiālǐ.

Translations and research

  • Patricia Buckley Ebrey, Confucianism and Family Rituals in Imperial China (Princeton, 1991) — major English-language study of Sī-mǎ Guāng’s Shūyí and its reception.
  • Patricia Buckley Ebrey, Chu Hsi’s “Family Rituals”: A Twelfth-Century Chinese Manual for the Performance of Cappings, Weddings, Funerals, and Ancestral Rites (Princeton, 1991) — English translation of Zhū Xī’s KR1d0089 Jiālǐ with extensive discussion of the Shūyí as Zhū Xī’s principal source.
  • Sòng shǐ 宋史 j. 336 (biography of Sī-mǎ Guāng).
  • Pèng Lín 彭林, Sānlǐ yánjiū rùmén 三禮研究入門 (Fùdàn dàxué chūbǎnshè, 2012) — covers the Shūyí in the Sòng jiā-lǐ tradition.

Other points of interest

The Shūyí’s status as the foundational text of the post-Sòng jiālǐ tradition, together with Zhū Xī’s KR1d0089 Jiālǐ, defines the entire late-imperial Chinese household-ritual handbook tradition. Almost every subsequent YuánMíngQīng jiālǐ handbook traces its content and structure back through Zhū Xī’s Jiālǐ to Sīmǎ Guāng’s Shūyí. Patricia Ebrey’s monograph (Confucianism and Family Rituals) is the standard English-language treatment of this transmission line.

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