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春秋穀梁傳(正文)

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Text ID
KR1e0008
Date
-200–-100
Dynasty
周

Chūnqiū Gǔliáng zhuàn 春秋穀梁傳

The Spring and Autumn Annals with the Gǔliáng Tradition (canonical text)

(canonical text — pseudepigraphic attribution to Gǔliáng Chì 穀梁赤)

About the work

The Chūnqiū Gǔliáng zhuàn 春秋穀梁傳 in twelve juan is the third of the Sān zhuàn 三傳 — the three commentary-traditions on the Chūnqiū — and the latest of the three to be set down in writing. The Kanripo recension carried under this id is the bare canonical text without commentary, prepared on the basis of the SòngQīng Shísān jīng zhùshū 十三經注疏 line and circulated as the TLS digital text (Kanripo BASEEDITION tls). The conventional source of this base is the Jiāngxī Nánchāngfǔ 江西南昌府 1816 reprint of the Sòng-period Chūnqiū Gǔliáng zhuàn zhùshū 春秋穀梁傳注疏, the same line that underlies the Ruǎn Yuán 阮元 1815 Shísān jīng zhùshū.

Abstract

Tradition (Yáng Shìxūn 楊士勛’s Gǔliáng zhuàn shū) ascribes the Gǔliáng zhuàn to Gǔliáng Chì 穀梁赤 (also called Gǔliáng Chū 穀梁俶, zì Yuánshǐ 元始), said to have received the Chūnqiū from Zǐxià 子夏 (卜商) and to have composed the commentary himself. Already in the Táng, however, this attribution was challenged: Xú Yàn’s 徐彥 Gōngyáng shū notes that the Gōngyáng was set down in writing only with Gōngyáng Shòu 公羊壽 in the early Western Hàn, and infers a parallel late date for the Gǔliáng. The Sìkù tíyào (under KR1e0010) accepts Xú Yàn’s view, citing internal evidence: the Gǔliáng quotes “Master Shěn says” (Shěnzǐ yuē 沈子曰), a teacher whom Hé Xiū 何休 identifies as a *post-*Zǐxià master and so post-dating the supposed lifetime of Gǔliáng Chì; the Gǔliáng contains the formula “Master Gǔliáng says” (Gǔliángzǐ yuē 穀梁子曰), incompatible with self-authorship; and it cites Shī Jiǎo 尸佼 (Shīzǐ), a teacher of Shāng Yāng 商鞅 who fled to Shǔ after Shāng Yāng’s execution in 338 BCE, and so post-dates the late Warring States. The current view places the composition of the surviving recension in the Western Hàn (early 2nd c. BCE), perhaps as late as Hàn Wǔdì.

The Gǔliáng zhuàn shares c. 20–30 percent of its text with the Gōngyáng zhuàn; on those shared passages it is generally judged secondary. Its hermeneutical method, like the Gōngyáng’s, treats the bare Chūnqiū as cipher for ethical-political judgement (bāobiǎn 褒貶), but with a distinctly different emphasis: the Gǔliáng is more concerned with the propriety of ritual, less with cosmological-political schemes; it is the more conservative of the two New-Text commentaries.

The Gǔliáng was raised to Bóshì 博士 status under Hàn Xuāndì 漢宣帝 (r. 73–49 BCE), at the famous Shíqú Gé 石渠閣 conference of 51 BCE that adjudicated Gōngyáng-vs-Gǔliáng disputes — the conclusions of which favoured the Gǔliáng and were embodied in the lost Shíqú yì zòu 石渠議奏. The Gǔliáng school then declined under the rise of the Zuǒzhuàn in the late Western and Eastern Hàn; only Fàn Níng’s 范甯 (339–401) Eastern-Jìn Jí jiě 集解 (see KR1e0009 / KR1e0010) preserved a substantial Gǔliáng commentary, and that commentary is the basis of the surviving Gǔliáng tradition.

For the layered scholarly editions, see KR1e0009 (Fàn Níng jí jiě + Lù Démíng yīn yì, SBCK) and KR1e0010 (full zhùshū in SKQS, with the Yáng Shìxūn Táng zhèngyì).

Translations and research

  • Göran Malmqvist, “Studies on the Gongyang and Guuliang Commentaries,” Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities 43 (1971): 67–222; 47 (1975): 19–69; 49 (1977): 33–215 — fundamental three-part philological study covering both commentaries; the only thoroughgoing Western-language analysis of the Gǔliáng text.
  • Pu Weizhong 浦衛忠, Chūnqiū sān zhuàn zōnghé yánjiū 春秋三傳綜合研究 (Tāiběi: Wénjīn, 1995) — Chinese-language comparative study of the three Chūnqiū commentaries.
  • Chéng Yánfān 承琰璠, Gǔliáng zhuàn jiào zhèng 穀梁傳校證 (Shànghǎi gǔjí 1990) — modern critical edition.
  • No complete English translation; brief selections in James Legge’s notes to The Chinese Classics, vol. 5 (1872).
  • Wáng Xītōng 王熙桐, Chūnqiū Gǔliáng zhuàn yì zhù 春秋穀梁傳譯注 (Shànghǎi gǔjí 2007) — modern Chinese translation and annotation.

Other points of interest

The Liú Xiàng 劉向 Shuō yuàn 說苑 records that “King Wén resembled the Yuán nián 元年; King Wǔ resembled chūn wáng 春王; the Duke of Zhōu resembled zhèng yuè 正月” — a Gǔliáng-school reading that splits the famous opening yuán nián chūn wáng zhèng yuè into three rhetorical units. Liú Xiàng was himself a Gǔliáng transmitter, and this reading is preserved in the layout of the Fàn Níng jí jiě (Dìng 1).

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