Cuīshì Chūnqiū jīng jiě 崔氏春秋經解
Master Cuī’s Explanation of the Classic of the Spring and Autumn Annals
by 崔子方 (撰)
About the work
The Cuīshì Chūnqiū jīng jiě 崔氏春秋經解 in twelve juan is one of three Chūnqiū works of Cuī Zǐfāng 崔子方 (the others being Chūnqiū běn lì KR1e0029 and Chūnqiū lì yào 春秋例要; the latter, in 1 juan, is appended in this Sìkù entry as the work’s fù lù). Cuī, a Northern-Sòng scholar from Fúlíng 涪陵 (modern Chóngqìng) who refused office under the Wáng Ānshí 王安石 New Policies, lived in seclusion at Liùhé 六合 in Zhēnzhōu 真州 for over thirty years writing the Chūnqiū trilogy. The work emerged into circulation only after the southern crossing (1127), when Jiāng Duānyǒu 江端友 (early 12th c.) and Zhū Zhèn 朱震 (1072–1138) successively memorialised the throne to obtain copies. The Sìkù base is the Tōngzhìtáng jīngjiě recutting (which preserves only KR1e0029) supplemented from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn recovery of KR1e0028 and 春秋例要.
Tiyao
The Sìkù tíyào (text from the Kyoto Zinbun digital Sìkù tíyào):
By Cuī Zǐfāng of Sòng. Zǐfāng was a man of Fúlíng 涪陵, zì Yànzhí 彥直, sobriquet Xīchóu jūshì 西疇居士. Cháo Yuèzhī’s 晁說之 collected works also gives him the zì Bózhí 伯直 — so he had two zì. Zhū Yízūn’s Jīng yì kǎo says he once held the prefectship of Chúzhōu 滁州, and that Zēng Zǐkāi 曾子開 (Zēng Bù 曾布) wrote a Chá xiān tíng jì 茶仙亭記 for him; the jīngjiě and the related works were all written after retirement.
The Sòng shǐ has no biography for Cuī Zǐfāng. Lǐ Xīnchuán’s 李心傳 Jiànyán yǐlái xìnián yào lù 建炎以來繫年要錄 says: “In the Shàoshèng era he submitted three petitions seeking the establishment of a Chūnqiū bóshì 春秋博士; no reply came; he then retired to Liùhé 六合 county in Zhēnzhōu 真州, shut his door, and wrote books for thirty years and more.” Chén Zhènsūn’s Shū lù jiětí gives a substantially identical account. Zhū Zhèn 朱震’s Jìn shū zházǐ 進書劄子 also calls him “Dōngchuān cloth-clothes” (Dōngchuān bùyī 東川布衣) — that is, an unattested commoner. Zhū Yízūn’s source is not clear. Only the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn citation of the Yízhēn zhì 儀真志 says Cuī roamed with Sū Shì 蘇軾 and Huáng Tíngjiān 黃庭堅, once writing a Chá xiān tíng jì for the Chúzhōu prefect Zēng Zǐkāi (the inscription cut at the side of the Zuìwēng tíng 醉翁亭). Huáng Tíngjiān called him “an excellent Liùhé scholar.” Zhū Yízūn’s confused recollection of these facts may explain the Chúzhōu attribution.
When Cuī wrote this work, Wáng Ānshí’s school was at the height of its dominance, hence it could not appear publicly. Only after the southern crossing did the work become known. Wáng Yīnglín’s Yùhǎi records: “In the sixth month of the second year of Jiànyán 建炎 (1128), Jiāng Duānyǒu 江端友 requested that Húzhōu 湖州 be ordered to obtain Cuī Zǐfāng’s Chūnqiū zhuàn and deposit it in the Imperial Archives. In the eighth month of the sixth year of Shàoxīng 紹興 (1136), Cuī’s grandson Ruò 若 presented it. At that time Zhū Zhèn was Hànlín xuéshì and also memorialised in support.” So the work was much esteemed at the time.
Cuī’s own preface says: “The sage wishes to bind together the right and wrong of his own age, and to set out admonitions for ages to come; therefore where the diction is hard to make clear, he sets out regulatory items to display the meaning. Items being inexhaustible, there are day-month items, and there are variant items. Care in thinking, fineness in examination — like the net upon the head-rope.” A second preface lays out the principles of his exegesis. The whole takes the jīng as ultimate ground, frequently correcting the three commentaries — as for example: on Jìn Wéngōng’s encirclement of Zhèng, taking it as a punishment for failure to attend the Díquán 翟泉 covenant; on Chéngbó Láibēn 郕伯來奔, taking it as forced by Qí; on the Lord of Qí’s destruction of Lái 萊 not being recorded by name, refuting the Lǐ jì’s “zhūhóu miè tóng xìng míng 諸侯滅同姓名” rule — all such interpretations had been raised by no earlier scholar. Although in places he over-relies on the day-month item theory and his judgements are uneven, surveying his merits, he stands as a school of his own.
The complete works comprise Jīng jiě 經解, Běn lì 本例, and Lì yào 例要. The Tōngzhìtáng jīngjiě prints only Běn lì; we now reconstruct from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn, restoring each to its original form. From autumn of Xīgōng 14 to year 32, and from summer of Xiānggōng 16 to year 31, the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn is silent — for these we have used Huáng Zhèn’s 黃震 Rìchāo 日鈔 citations of Běn lì to supplement. Other Běn lì explanations that develop themes not in the present Jīng jiě — or differ slightly from it — are also extracted and appended. The juan-counts and titles follow the Sòng shǐ. As for Cuī’s original jīng-text, it can no longer be seen; from the explanations one infers it was largely from the Zuǒ, but with occasional readings from the Gōngyáng and Gǔliáng; hence it sometimes diverges from Hú Ānguó’s Chūnqiū zhuàn KR1e0036.
Abstract
The Sìkù tíyào makes the principal points: that Cuī Zǐfāng (Northern-Sòng, refusing office under Wáng Ānshí) wrote his Chūnqiū trilogy in over thirty years’ Liùhé seclusion; that the work was suppressed by the Wáng Ānshí dominance and emerged only after the southern crossing, when imperial petitions secured its place in the archives; that the methodological core is the day-month item (rìyuè lì 日月例) theory — the doctrine that Chūnqiū entries are to be read as encoding praise-and-blame through their inclusion or omission of dates and months; that despite over-reliance on this single device the work makes interpretive innovations not anticipated by earlier commentators; that the bibliographic transmission required Yǒnglè dàdiǎn recovery for the present Jīng jiě and the Lì yào, only Běn lì having survived in the Tōngzhìtáng print.
Translations and research
- Lǐ Wěitài 李偉泰, Sòng-rén Chūnqiū xué dōu lùn 宋人春秋學論衡 (Tāiběi: Wénjīn 1995).
- Sūn Wěimíng 孫衛明, Sòng dài Chūnqiū xué yánjiū 宋代春秋學研究 (Bēijīng: Zhōngguó shèhuì kēxué chūbǎnshè 2009).
Other points of interest
The Cuī Zǐfāng case is one of the most pointed Northern-Sòng instances of Chūnqiū scholarship suppressed for political-curricular reasons under Wáng Ānshí; the survival of the work in Yǒnglè dàdiǎn fragments three centuries later is a tribute to the editors of the early Míng compendium.
Links
- Zinbun Sìkù tíyào: http://kanji.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/db-machine/ShikoTeiyo/0053301.html