Lǐ záwèn 禮雜問
Miscellaneous Questions on Ritual
by 范甯 (撰)
About the work
A single-juàn reconstruction of 范甯 Fàn Níng’s (339–401) lost Lǐ záwèn 禮雜問 — a question-and-answer ritual treatise in the manner of KR1d0094 Tōngyí and KR1d0096 Shìzhì. Fàn Níng is the author of the surviving Chūnqiū Gǔliáng zhuàn jíjiě (KR1m0002) and, in this corpus, of KR1d0103 Lǐyì dáwèn. The CHANT reconstruction (CH2c1358) draws all surviving citations from Dù Yòu 杜佑’s Tōngdiǎn juàn 80, 81, 95, 99, 100, 102, and 103. The format is a sequence of identified interlocutors (Wáng Shuòzhī 王朔之, Sīmǎ Tián 司馬恬 prince of Qiáo, Cáo Shùchū 曹述初, et al.) posing specific ritual cases and Fàn Níng answering with reasoned judgements.
Abstract
The Lǐ záwèn preserves a particularly rich set of biàn lǐ judgements on second-marriage, címěi-mǔ (charge-given second mother), and post-chū (sent-away wife) mourning cases — the corner-cases of Sāngfú practice that the Eastern-Jìn court ritualists had to settle. The surviving fragments cover six principal biàn lǐ problem-areas:
(i) Mourning for the empress’s parents (Wáng Shuòzhī 王朔之 question). The principle that the sovereign should not downgrade the empress’s parents on grounds of his own zūn (status-elevation), with the Tài-yuán 太元 1 (376) precedent of Jìn Xiàowǔdì observing three-day mourning for the empress’s deceased father, the Zhènjūn jiāngjūn Wáng [Yǎ] 王雅.
(ii) Mourning for a foster-mother appointed by ducal command (Sīmǎ Tián case). When a concubine departs after bearing two sons and the duke appoints another concubine to foster them, do the sons mourn the second concubine? Fàn Níng rules: no, the ducal command constitutes teacherly rather than maternal relation, with no mourning obligation.
(iii) Mourning for a deceased first wife’s parents after remarriage (Cáo Shùchū case). Drawing on Lǐjì xiǎojì “cóng fú zhě, suǒ cóng wáng zé yǐ” (the indirect-mourner ceases when the principal-mourner dies), Fàn Níng rules that with the first wife deceased there is no further mourning obligation to her parents.
(iv) The jì-fù (continued-father) case. Mourning protocols for the second husband of a widow whom one was raised by; with the response calibrated to the suǒ-cóng (whom-through) doctrine.
(v) Post-marriage Marriage rites and bride-going protocols. Fragments on qǐn-shī 寢室 and bridal-chamber arrangements.
(vi) The zhāo-mù (alternate-generation) ordering of related shrines.
The dating bracket (339–401) reflects Fàn Níng’s documented lifespan in Jìn shū 75. The Tài-yuán 1 (376) precedent in the surviving text confirms composition no earlier than that year; the work is conventionally placed in his Yùzhāng tàishǒu 豫章太守 tenure of the late 370s through 390s.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located on the Lǐ záwèn as such; Fàn Níng is treated as a Chūnqiū scholar in surveys of the Gǔliáng tradition. For his ritual scholarship see paragraph-level treatment in Tōngdiǎn-source-studies.
Other points of interest
The Lǐ záwèn is the principal source for the Eastern-Jìn doctrine that the sovereign does not downgrade mourning for the empress’s parents on the basis of zūn elevation — a doctrinally important post-Hàn moderation of the canonical jiàng-shā (graduated reduction) rule, justified through the Wáng-zhě yú tiānxià yǔ zhūhóu yú yī guó, yì wú yǐ yì (the relation of the king to the empire and of the prince to a state, the principle does not differ) analogy.
Links
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_Ning_(Eastern_Jin)
- Chinese Text Project — Tōngdiǎn: https://ctext.org/tongdian