Sāngfú yàojí 喪服要集
Essential Compilation on Mourning Dress
by 杜預 (撰)
About the work
A single-juàn reconstruction of 杜預 Dù Yù’s (222–285) lost Sāngfú yàojí 喪服要集. Dù Yù — the Western-Jìn general, Zhèng-nán dàjiāngjūn 鎮南大將軍, conqueror of Wú in 280, and the principal author of the standard Chūnqiū Zuǒ-shì jīng-zhuàn jíjiě 春秋左氏經傳集解 (cf. KR1m0010) — is principally a Chūnqiū scholar but also a major Sānlǐ ritualist. His Sāngfú yàojí is the principal Western-Jìn Sāngfú compendium, preserved in Tōngdiǎn citations and in the citation-chain through 賀循’s KR1d0118 Hè-shì sāngfú yàojì. The CHANT reconstruction (CH2e1082) is drawn from these two principal source-chains.
Abstract
The text opens with a zōng-pǔ 宗譜 (clan-genealogy) section establishing the canonical doctrine that the shǐ-fēng zhī jūn (founding prince) names one bié-zǐ (collateral son) as zǔ (lineage-founder), with the tài-zǔ (great ancestor) thereafter receiving permanent shrine-worship.
The substantive content covers:
(i) Lineage-founder and shrine-permanence rules. The canonical Lǐjì-Dà-zhuàn doctrine of the bié-zǐ wéi zǔ — the foundational principle of the zōng-fǎ (lineage-law) system.
(ii) Cross-generational collateral mourning. Specific rulings on the bó-shū-fù / cóng-mǔ mourning-grades preserved in Dù Yòu’s Tōngdiǎn 73.
(iii) Cross-reference to 賀循’s Sāngfú yàojì. The CHANT note “Dù Yòu Tōngdiǎn juàn 73 Chuán Chún wèn Hè Xún Yàojì yúnyún, yǐn Dù-shì, xún qí wén-yì” (cited as: Tōngdiǎn 73 records Chuán Chún 傳純 questioning Hè Xún on his Yàojì, where Hè Xún cites Dù [Yù] and follows his sense) preserves an important transmission-link: 賀循 in the early Eastern-Jìn period cited Dù Yù’s Sāngfú yàojí as his authoritative base-text, then was in turn questioned on his interpretation by Chuán Chún.
The dating bracket (222–285) reflects Dù Yù’s documented lifespan in Jìn shū 34. The Sāngfú yàojí is conventionally placed in his post-280 retirement period at Xiāngyáng, contemporaneous with the completion of his Chūnqiū Zuǒ-shì jīng-zhuàn jíjiě.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language secondary literature located on the Sāngfú yàojí as such. Dù Yù’s broader scholarship is treated in:
- Anne Cheng, Étude sur le confucianisme Han (Paris, 1985) chapter on the late-Hàn / early-Jìn Confucian transition.
Other points of interest
The Dù Yù → 賀循 → Chuán Chún citation-chain preserved in Tōngdiǎn 73 is one of the most important documented Western-to-Eastern-Jìn ritual-scholarship transmission lines, establishing Dù Yù’s Sāngfú yàojí as a key intermediary between Wèi-Jìn Wáng Sù-school Sāngfú scholarship and the early Eastern-Jìn court-ritual programme.
Links
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Du_Yu
- Chinese Text Project — Tōngdiǎn 73: https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=en&res=549840