Chūnqiū bǐ shì 春秋比事
Comparative Affairs of the Spring and Autumn Annals
by 沈棐 (撰)
About the work
The Chūnqiū bǐ shì 春秋比事 in twenty juan is a Southern-Sòng Chūnqiū topical compilation. The catalog meta gives the author as Shěn Bǐ 沈棐, but authorship is contested — the SKQS tíyào tentatively follows Chén Liàng’s 陳亮 (1143–1194) preface, which calls the author Shěn Bǐ (zì Wénbó 文伯, of Húzhōu 湖州, school official at Wùzhōu 婺州). Chén Zhènsūn’s Shū lù jiětí, however, identifies a “Shěn Wénbó” of Húzhōu as Shěn Chángqīng 沈長卿 (sobriquet Shěnzhāi jūshì 審齋居士), prefect of Chángzhōu, exiled by Qín Guì 秦檜 to Huàzhōu — not Shěn Bǐ. Dū Mù’s 都穆 Tīng yǔ jì tán 聽雨紀談 cites a Jiādìng xīnwèi 嘉定辛未 (1211) preface by Tán Yuèqīng 譚月卿 of Lúlíng attributing the work to Liú Shuò 劉朔 of Púyáng 莆陽. The original title was Chūnqiū zǒng lùn 春秋總論; Chén Liàng renamed it. The Sìkù base is the Yuán Zhìzhèng 至正-era Jīnhuá print, with a preface by Wáng Xiǎnrén 王顯仁 of Zhōngxīnglù rúxué jiàoshòu 中興路儒學教授.
Tiyao
The Sìkù tíyào (text from the Kyoto Zinbun digital Sìkù tíyào):
Old text titled “by Shěn Bǐ of Sòng.” Bǐ’s career is unrecoverable. Only the work’s preface by Chén Liàng calls his zì Wénbó, of Húzhōu, formerly school-official of Wùzhōu. Chén Zhènsūn’s Shū lù jiětí says: “Among Húzhōu personalities is one Shěn Wénbó, named Chángqīng 長卿, sobriquet Shěnzhāi jūshì, prefect of Chángzhōu, who antagonised Qín Guì and was demoted to Huàzhōu — not ‘Bǐ.’ Why Tóngfù [Chén Liàng’s zì] says so is unclear. Was there another person named Bǐ with the zì Wénbó? Then he is not from Húzhōu.” Chén Zhènsūn’s view is at odds with Chén Liàng. Dū Mù’s Tīng yǔ jì tán, citing the Jiādìng 4 (1211) Lúlíng preface by Tán Yuèqīng, calls the author Liú Shuò of Púyáng, claiming Tán saw the Liú-family copy. The present text does not include Tán’s preface; we cannot tell what Dū Mù was relying on. Doubt is transmitted as doubt; we have no firm correction. Since Chén Liàng was close in time to Bǐ, we provisionally follow Chén Liàng’s preface, retaining the name Shěn Bǐ.
The work places the various states in classified sequence first; afterwards it brings together comparable affairs of court attendance, sieges, and covenants — categorising and explaining each. The argument is rather balanced. The original was titled Chūnqiū zǒng lùn 春秋總論; Chén Liàng renamed it. In the Yuán Zhìzhèng era it was cut at Jīnhuá; the woodblock was long destroyed, and the work rarely transmitted. Hence Zhū Yízūn’s Jīng yì kǎo notes “lost.” The present text has at the head a preface by Zhōngxīnglù rúxué jiàoshòu Wáng Xiǎnrén — apparently still based on the Yuán print.
Abstract
The Sìkù tíyào makes the principal points: that the work’s authorship is genuinely contested between Shěn Bǐ (per Chén Liàng’s preface), Shěn Chángqīng (per Chén Zhènsūn’s identification of “Shěn Wénbó”), and Liú Shuò (per Dū Mù’s record of Tán Yuèqīng’s preface); that the editors provisionally follow Chén Liàng’s contemporary attribution; that the work’s hermeneutical method is to organise Chūnqiū events thematically (court visits, sieges, covenants, etc.) rather than year-by-year, anticipating Gù Dònggāo’s 顧棟高 Chūnqiū dàshì biǎo 春秋大事表 by half a millennium; that the work was rare in transmission, recovered via the Yuán Zhìzhèng 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).
- Hoyt Cleveland Tillman, Utilitarian Confucianism: Ch’en Liang’s Challenge to Chu Hsi (Harvard 1982) — for Chén Liàng’s editorial role.
Other points of interest
The thematic organisation of Chūnqiū events — by category of event rather than chronologically — is the precursor to the Qīng evidential-school dàshì biǎo 大事表 form, of which Gù Dònggāo’s mid-Qīng 50-juan Chūnqiū dàshì biǎo is the most ambitious example.
Links
- Zinbun Sìkù tíyào: http://kanji.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/db-machine/ShikoTeiyo/0054301.html