Wáng-shì sāngfú yàojì 王氏喪服要記
Master Wáng’s Essential Notes on Mourning Dress
by 王肅 (撰)
About the work
A single-juàn reconstruction of 王肅 Wáng Sù’s (195–256) lost Sāngfú yàojì 喪服要記 — a compendium of practical Sāngfú (mourning-dress) rulings preserved in Táng-Sòng lèishū citations. Wáng Sù is the principal Wèi-period court ritualist alongside Zhèng Xuán, with the Sānguózhì recording his many ritual and exegetical works. His Sāngfú yàojì belongs to a productive Wèi-Jìn genre — yàojì (essential notes) collections on the Sāngfú zhuàn — alongside 賀循’s KR1d0118 Hè-shì sāngfú yàojì. The CHANT reconstruction (CH2e1080) draws citations from Tōngdiǎn, Běitáng shūchāo, Tàipíng yùlǎn, Yìwén lèijù, and others.
Abstract
The opening preserved fragment records a question-and-answer between Duke Āi of Lǔ 魯哀公 and Confucius on the funeral procession (zǔ-zài 祖載) for the duke’s father: Confucius asks whether the biǎo-mén 表門 (gate-marker) should be set, and the duke answers no — a Lǐjì-Tángōng-style pedagogical anecdote framing the technical Sāngfú discussion that follows.
The substantive content spans the major Sāngfú topic-areas: the zhǎn-cuī / zī-cuī / dà-gōng / xiǎo-gōng / sī-má five mourning-grades with technical specifications; the sāng-zhàng (mourning-staff) protocols; the fù-zhàng / xiāo-zhàng relation; the liàn-fú (felicitous practice-sacrifice) and xiáng-fú (felicitous-sacrifice) transitions; and cí-mǔ / jì-mǔ (foster-mother / continued-mother) cases.
As one of the principal Wèi-period Sāngfú commentaries, the work was an authoritative reference cited throughout the Six-Dynasties ritual tradition and was incorporated by Wáng Sù’s grandson Wáng Yán 王延 into the Jìn court-ritual programme.
The dating bracket (220–256) reflects Wáng Sù’s documented Cáo-Wèi court career.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language secondary literature located on the Sāngfú yàojì as such. Wáng Sù’s broader ritual scholarship is treated in:
- 林啟屏 Lín Qǐpíng, Wáng Sù jīngxué yánjiū 王肅經學研究.
- John Henderson’s chapter on Wèi-Jìn classical scholarship in Scripture, Canon, and Commentary (Princeton, 1991).
Other points of interest
Wáng Sù’s Sāngfú yàojì is one of the principal Wèi-period works that established the yàojì genre as a standard form of ritual-compendium publication, paralleling Wáng Sù’s broader strategy of producing alternative authoritative commentaries to compete with the Zhèng Xuán synthesis. The CHANT reconstruction at one juàn understates the original scale; Suí shū jīngjí zhì records it at 5 juàn.
Links
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Su_(Cao_Wei)
- Chinese Text Project — Tōngdiǎn: https://ctext.org/tongdian