Zhōuguān lǐ yìtóng píng 周官禮異同評
Evaluation of Similarities and Differences in the Zhōuguān-Ritual [Transmissions]
by 陳邵 (撰)
About the work
A single-juàn, single-paragraph reconstruction of 陳邵 Chén Shào’s (Cáo-Wèi-period) lost Zhōuguān lǐ yìtóng píng 周官禮異同評, preserved only as a brief excerpt in Lù Démíng’s Jīngdiǎn shìwén 經典釋文 xù-lù 敘錄 (preface-table). The fragment is the single most-cited historical witness for the Hàn-Wèi transmission-genealogy of the Sānlǐ. CHANT (CH2e1071) preserves only this one fragment.
Abstract
The full fragment as transmitted in Jīngdiǎn shìwén xù-lù reads:
Dài Dé 戴德 excerpted the ancient Lǐ in 204 piān into 85 piān — this is the Dà Dài Lǐ 大戴禮. Dài Shèng 戴聖 excerpted the Dà Dài Lǐ into 49 piān — this is the Xiǎo Dài Lǐ 小戴禮. The later-Hàn Mǎ Róng 馬融 and Lú Zhí 盧植 collated the same-and-differing readings of the various schools and appended Dài Shèng’s piān-zhāng, removed the redundant and abbreviated material, and circulated [the result] in the world — this is the present Lǐ [i.e. the standard Lǐjì]. Zhèng Yuán [Xuán] 鄭元 also followed Lú Zhí and Mǎ Róng’s recension and made his annotation.
This passage is the locus classicus for the standard Hàn-Wèi Lǐjì transmission genealogy: from the original Hàn-court Lǐ corpus (the Yílǐ core plus subsidiary piān), through the Dà / Xiǎo Dài recensions, through the Mǎ-Róng-and-Lú-Zhí editorial collation, to the Zhèng Xuán annotated edition that became canonical. Every subsequent classical-history overview from the Suí-Táng Lǐjì zhèngyì onwards goes back to this Chén Shào fragment as the foundational historical witness.
The dating bracket (220–280) reflects Chén Shào’s documented activity as a Wèi-period official; his exact life-years are not preserved.
Translations and research
- Jean-Pierre Diény, Le saint ne rêve pas: De Zhuangzi à Michel Jullien discusses the parallel canonical histories of the Lǐjì.
- See also studies of the Hàn-Wèi Sānlǐ school by Kanaya Osamu 金谷治 and others.
- No substantial Western-language secondary literature located specifically on Chén Shào’s Zhōuguān lǐ yìtóng píng.
Other points of interest
The Chén Shào fragment as preserved in Jīngdiǎn shìwén is a frequent target of skepticism in modern philology: the Dài Dé / Dài Shèng piān-shù (204 → 85 → 49) ratios are tidier than the Hàn-source evidence actually permits, and the “Mǎ Róng and Lú Zhí editorial collation” claim is not corroborated in either Hàn-historical sources or Mǎ-Lú’s own preserved writings. The fragment is best read as a Cáo-Wèi-period synthesis-reconstruction that became authoritative through repeated citation.
Links
- Chinese Text Project — Jīngdiǎn shìwén: https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=en&res=608648