Wǔlǐ bó 五禮駁
Refutations on the Five Rites
by 孫毓 (撰)
About the work
A single-juàn reconstruction of 孫毓 Sūn Yù’s (late-third-century, Western-Jìn) lost Wǔlǐ bó 五禮駁 — a biàn-lùn (debate-and-refutation) collection across the Wǔlǐ (Five Rites) corpus. Sūn Yù is a Western-Jìn classicist known principally for his Máo Shī yìfēi 毛詩異義 — a refutation of Zhèng Xuán’s positions on the Máo Shī in favour of Wáng Sù’s alternatives. His Wǔlǐ bó applies the same biàn-Zhèng / fù-Wáng polemical methodology to the ritual classics. The CHANT reconstruction (CH2e1113) is drawn from Dù Yòu 杜佑’s Tōngdiǎn 通典 citations.
Abstract
The opening preserved fragment addresses the Wèi-court Tiānzǐ yī jiā 天子一加 (Son-of-Heaven single-capping) protocol — the abandoned three-capping standard that the Wèi court found xián tóng zhū-hóu (objectionably-same as prince-rank). Sūn Yù’s àn (case-analysis): cites Yùzǎo 玉藻 — “xuán-guān zhū-zǔ ruí, tiān-zǐ zhī guān; zī-bù-guān huì-ruí, zhū-hóu zhī guān” 玄冠朱組緌，天子之冠也。緇布冠繢緌，諸侯之冠也. The common reading takes both as shǐ-guān (initial-capping), implying a cì-jiā (sequenced-capping) phrase. But these two caps are both bēi-fú zhì-gǔ (low-attire ancient-substance); naturally not single-capping; must add the cháo-jì (court-sacrifice attire) capping to elevate honour. The sage-king’s ritual-making intent in the single-day-multiple-cappings is that the xīn chéng-rén (newly-become-adult) must on the bǔ-zé lìng-rì (divined auspicious day) receive comprehensive capping, in order to weight the inaugural moment.
The argument rebuts the Wèi-court single-capping abridgement and defends the canonical three-capping protocol for the Son of Heaven.
The substantive content covers refutations across the Wǔlǐ (jí-lǐ, xiōng-lǐ, jūn-lǐ, bīn-lǐ, jiā-lǐ) major topic-areas, consistently positioning against the Cáo-Wèi-court abridgements in favour of the canonical full protocols.
The dating bracket (252–311) reflects Sūn Yù’s documented Western-Jìn period activity; he died in the Yǒngjiā disaster.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language secondary literature located. See:
- 馬宗霍 Mǎ Zōnghuò, Zhōngguó jīngxué shǐ 中國經學史, on Wáng-Sù-school polemics.
Other points of interest
The Wǔlǐ bó is one of the principal continuations of the Wáng Sù vs. Zhèng Xuán polemical tradition into the ritual-classics field, paralleling Sūn Yù’s better-known Máo Shī yìfēi. Together these works document the late-third-century Western-Jìn court Confucian establishment’s organised attempt to displace Zhèng Xuán’s authority across the canonical classics.
Links
- Chinese Text Project — Tōngdiǎn: https://ctext.org/tongdian