讀春秋編

Dú Chūnqiū biān 讀春秋編

Notes from Reading the Spring and Autumn Annals

by 陳深 (撰)

About the work

The Dú Chūnqiū biān in twelve juan is the Chūnqiū commentary of Chén Shēn 陳深 (1260–1344) of Píngjiāng 平江 (Sūzhōu), zì Zǐwēi 子微, hào Qīngquánzhāi 清全齋. Although the catalog files the work under Sòng (he was about twenty at the fall of Sòng in 1279, never took Yuán office, and spent his long subsequent life in retired scholarship in Sūzhōu), it is more accurately a late-Sòng / early-Yuán yímín 遺民 product. The work’s exegetical line is Hújiā wéi zōng 胡氏為宗 — taking Hú Ānguó’s Chūnqiū zhuàn KR1e0036 as the framework — but with a notable willingness to use the Zuǒzhuàn for historical evidence, against the broader Sòng tendency (especially Sūn Fù KR1e0026 and successors) to push it aside as untrustworthy. The SKQS tíyào gives a programmatically clear formulation of why this matters: “Zuǒshì himself was a Lǔ historian; what he says must have a basis. He is not in the same class as the chuánwén ‘reported-rumour’ Gōngyáng and Gǔliáng. From the Sòng on, fond of treating the Chūnqiū via kōngyán 空言, scholars came to doubt even Zuǒ’s shìshí — to the point where Zuǒ was almost shelved. Chén’s amplifications, while not opening any new vista, at least know how to kǎojù shìshí 考據事實 rather than indulge an empty-soaring fèizhuàn qiújīng polemic.”

Tiyao

The Sìkù tíyào (translated):

We your servants respectfully report. The Dú Chūnqiū biān in twelve juan is by Chén Shēn of Sòng. Shēn, zì Zǐwēi, was a man of Píngjiāng. He named his dwelling Qīngquán zhāi and used that as his hào. Zhū Yízūn’s 朱彝尊 Jīngyì kǎo 經義考 cites Lú Tài’s 盧態 Sūzhōu zhì 蘇州志 to the effect that “Shēn was born under Sòng, and after Sòng’s fall committed himself to ancient learning, shutting his door and writing books. In the Tiānlì era (1328–1330) when officials of the Kuízhānggé recommended him on calligraphy, he hid and would not come out.”

Examining Zhèng Yuányòu’s 鄭元祐 QiáoWú jí 僑吳集: there is a mùzhì 墓誌 for Shēn’s second son Zhí 植, recording that Zhí died in Zhìzhèng 22 (1362) aged 70, putting his birth in Zhìyuán 30 (1293, guǐsì 癸巳); the mùzhì says further that Zhí was one year younger than his elder brother and “thirty-some years younger than Shēn.” Hence Shēn’s birth must be in the Kāiqìng (1259) / Jǐngdìng (1260–1264) period — at the fall of Sòng (1279) he had only just reached ruòguàn 弱冠 (the cap-of-twenty), and thus could still be alive in Tiānlì.

He composed a Dú Yì biān 讀易編 and a Dú Shī biān 讀詩編, which are not extant. Only this work survives. Its line of explanation generally takes Húshì 胡氏 [Hú Ānguó] as the zōng but at the same time uses Zuǒshì. For Zuǒ himself was a Lǔ historian — what he says must have a foundation; he is not in the same class as the chuánwén doubt-and-rumour Gōngyáng and Gǔliáng. Since Sòng times, scholars have liked to discuss the Chūnqiū via kōngyán 空言, and have come to doubt even Zuǒ’s events, almost shelving him entirely. Chén’s amplifications, while showing no notably original arguments, are alone capable of kǎojù shìshí 考據事實 — they do not pose-and-puff in the fèizhuàn qiújīng line of high-flown polemic. He may justly be called a dūshí jūnzǐ 篤實君子 — a substantial scholar — and ought not to be dismissed as ordinary or shallow.

Reverentially examined and submitted, Qiánlóng 42 (1777), ninth month. Chief compilers: Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. Chief proofreader: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.

Abstract

Chén Shēn’s Dú Chūnqiū biān is a textbook-of-its-kind: not innovative, but a careful and historically literate gloss-by-gloss reading anchored in Hú Ānguó’s framework but supplementing Hú with Zuǒzhuàn historical detail. The SKQS editors’ tíyào is significant for its open declaration of philological method: against the Sòng tendency to fèizhuàn jiějīng (discard the commentaries to read the classic), they applaud Chén’s evidential discipline. This is a recognisable Qián-lóng-era kǎozhèng 考證 valuation — the SKQS editors valuing Chén precisely because he resists the Sòng ideologically-driven moralising in favour of kǎojù shìshí.

The work’s date is bracketed conservatively from Chén’s adult years (c. 1290) to before his calligraphy-recommendation episode in the Tiānlì era (1328–1330) — a span during which he was a settled retired scholar in Sūzhōu. The catalog’s fl. 1279–1328 (Sòng fall to Tiānlì) is consistent with the SKQS’s biographical reconstruction.

Translations and research

• Sūn Wěimíng 孫衛明, Sòng dài Chūnqiū xué yánjiū 宋代春秋學研究 (Bēijīng: Zhōngguó shèhuì kēxué chūbǎnshè 2009).
• Lǐ Wěitài 李偉泰, Sòng-rén Chūnqiū xué dōu lùn 宋人春秋學論衡 (Tāiběi: Wénjīn 1995).
• The work has not been the subject of dedicated modern monograph treatment.

Links

• Catalog meta: data/catalogs/meta/KR1e.yaml
• CBDB person 33334 (Chén Shēn of Píngjiāng)
• Zhèng Yuányòu, QiáoWú jí (KR4d, available in WYG)