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春秋分記

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Text ID
KR1e0045
Date
1196–1207
Dynasty
宋

Chūnqiū fēn jì 春秋分記

Divided Records of the Spring and Autumn Annals

by 程公說 (撰)

About the work

The Chūnqiū fēn jì 春秋分記 in ninety juan is the most ambitious Southern-Sòng Chūnqiū historical reorganisation, by Chéng Gōngshuō 程公說 (1171–1207). Composed during Chéng’s exile in An-gù-shān 安固山 escaping the Wú Xī 吳曦 rebellion (1207); completed just before his death at age 37. The work redistributes the Chūnqiū material into a comprehensive historical-encyclopaedic structure: chronological tables (9 juan), genealogies (7 juan), name-charts (2 juan), institutional monographs (26 juan), Zhōu royal affairs (2 juan), Lǔ affairs (6 juan), great-state genealogies (26 juan), middle-state (2 juan), small-state (7 juan), and appendices (3 juan). The structure consciously parallels Sīmǎ Qiān’s Shǐjì organisation. The Sìkù base is a copy from the Mǎ Yuēlù 馬曰璐 family of Yángzhōu, derived from a Sòng print (preserved Sòng-period taboo characters).

Tiyao

The Sìkù tíyào (text from the Kyoto Zinbun digital Sìkù tíyào):

By Chéng Gōngshuō of Sòng. Gōngshuō, zì Bógāng 伯剛, sobriquet Kèzhāi 克齋, was a man of Dānléng 丹棱; resided at Xuānhuà 宣化. Passed jìnshì at age 25; held the post of Qióngzhōu jiàoshòu 邛州教授. During the Wú Xī rebellion (1207), he abandoned office, took his Chūnqiū writings, and hid in An-gù-shān 安固山 to revise; the work was just completed at his death. He was only 37 years old.

The work is prefaced by his own Kāixǐ yǐchǒu 開禧乙丑 (1205) preface; in Chúnyòu 3 (1243) his younger brother Gōngxǔ 公許 cut it at Yíchūn 宜春. The structure: chronological tables 9 juan; genealogies 7 juan; name-charts 2 juan; institutional records 26 juan; Zhōu royal affairs 2 juan; Lǔ affairs 6 juan; great-state genealogies 26 juan; middle states 2 juan; small states 7 juan; appendices 3 juan. The chronological tables open with Zhōu and the various states, with empresses-and-consorts, ministers, and executives each their own chapter. The genealogies cover the royal lineage and noble lineages, each state in its own chapter; Lǔ’s adds the women’s names and Confucius’ disciples; Yān’s has only the table without the lineage prose, evidently a defect. The name-charts list everyone named in the Chūnqiū in five categories. The institutional records cover seven domains: calendar, astronomy, wǔ xíng 五行 (Five Phases), territory, ritual-and-music, military expeditions, and officialdom.

The Zhōu and Lǔ and various-state lineages, plus the middle-state, small-state, and appendix sections, all categorise jīng and zhuàn records under the appropriate state. The order is clear; the narrative is dignified and rich. The selected views and Chéng’s own attached prefaces and discussions are all sound and orthodox — truly the comprehensive collection for the Chūnqiū student.

The work was rare in Míng-period transmission, hence Zhū Yízūn’s Jīng yì kǎo notes “not seen.” Gù Dònggāo 顧棟高’s Chūnqiū dàshì biǎo often coincides in arrangement with Chéng’s; Gù being not the kind to plagiarise, we know he too had not seen the work. The present exemplar is from the Yángzhōu Mǎ Yuēlù 馬曰璐 family; the juan-counts agree with the Tōng kǎo; Sòng-period taboo characters within are still uncorrected, indicating it derives from a Sòng print.

Liú Guāngzǔ 劉光祖’s tomb-inscription for Chéng records that he also produced Zuǒshì shǐ zhōng 左氏始終 in 36 juan, Tōng lì 通例 in 20 juan, Bǐ shì 比事 in 10 juan — clearly his major scholarly intent was Zuǒshì learning. Sòng-era Chūnqiū commentators since Sūn Fù KR1e0018 all explained the Chūnqiū by subjective speculation; hating the old commentaries’ refusal of their lights, they set aside the three commentaries’ regulatory items and abolished them; still hating the Zuǒ’s clear evidentiary basis (which they could not freely reverse), they also abolished the Zuǒ’s factual records. Like a courtroom: trying to destroy the case-files, silence the witnesses — only then can right and wrong be decided as one wishes, with no contestation. Chéng, in this age of welling speculation, alone could examine the old text exhaustively, making source-and-stream and beginning-and-end distinctly visible — closing the mouth of empty argument. He may be said to have rendered service to the Chūnqiū.

Abstract

The Sìkù tíyào makes the principal points: that this is the most comprehensive Southern-Sòng Chūnqiū historical reorganisation, on the model of the Shǐjì but devoted entirely to the Chūnqiū period; that Chéng Gōngshuō composed it during the chaos of the Wú Xī rebellion, dying at age 37 just as it was completed; that the structure (tables, genealogies, charts, monographs, state-by-state) is methodologically the precursor of Gù Dònggāo’s mid-Qīng Chūnqiū dàshì biǎo; that Chéng’s stand against the Sòng speculative tradition — preserving the Zuǒ-evidentiary base — earns the editors’ explicit praise.

The work is one of the great unrecognised achievements of Southern-Sòng classical historiography; its eclipse from the Míng to the mid-Qing was largely due to the dominance of Hú Ānguó’s KR1e0036 Chūnqiū zhuàn in the imperial examination curriculum.

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 Mǎ Yuēlù 馬曰璐 family of Yángzhōu — from whose collection the Sìkù exemplar comes — was one of the principal mid-Qīng book-collecting families. Their library, the Xiǎolínglóngshānguǎn 小玲瓏山館, was a major repository of rare Sòng-period prints, many of which provided Sìkù base copies.

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