Chūnqiū Húzhuàn fùlù zuǎnshū 春秋胡傳附錄纂疏
Compiled Sub-commentary with Appendices on Mr Hú’s Tradition of the Spring and Autumn Annals
by 汪克寬 (撰)
About the work
The Chūnqiū Húzhuàn fùlù zuǎnshū 春秋胡傳附錄纂疏 in thirty juan is the Chūnqiū sub-commentary of Wāng Kèkuān 汪克寬 (1304–1372, zì Défǔ 德輔, hào Huángǔ 環谷, of Qímén 祁門). Its parent text is Hú Ānguó’s KR1e0036 Chūnqiū zhuàn 春秋傳 — the orthodox examination commentary of the Yuán curriculum. Wāng Kèkuān’s work fully accepts Hú Ānguó as the principal authority but supplies precisely what Hú Ānguó’s own text lacks: chronological annotation of the various states’ regnal years and posthumous titles, comprehensive collation of the textual variants among the Zuǒ, Gōngyáng and Gǔliáng recensions, supplementary citation of pre-Hú commentators (Chéng Yí, Zhū Xī, Sūn Fù, Liú Chǎng, Lǚ Dàguī, Wú Chéng, etc.) where Hú Ānguó had been cursory, and explicit identification of Hú Ānguó’s own source-citations. Wāng’s preface is dated zhìzhèng 6 = 1346 (the work was begun in 1338).
Tiyao
The Sìkù tíyào: The Chūnqiū Húzhuàn fùlù zuǎnshū in thirty juan was composed by Wāng Kèkuān of the Yuán. Kèkuān, zì Défǔ, also zì Zhòngyù 仲裕, of Qímén, passed the Zhèjiāng provincial examination in Tàidìng bǐngyín (1326); the next year he was rejected at the metropolitan examination and never thereafter served. The book has Kèkuān’s own preface, which says: “By annotating in detail the various states’ regnal years and posthumous titles, the actual events can be fully investigated; by setting out side-by-side the textual variants of the canonical text, the sage’s brushwork can be sought; by adding the discussions of the various schools, Mr Hú’s omissions can be supplemented; by appending Liú Chǎng’s Quánhéng and DànZhào’s Biànyí, the merits and demerits of the Three Traditions can be known.” Yet his overarching purpose is to take Mr Hú as the master.
Examining the Yuán shǐ Xuǎnjǔ zhì, in Yányòu 2 (1315) the new examination regulations specified the Chūnqiū using the Three Traditions and Hú Ānguó’s tradition; Yú Jí’s 虞集 preface also mentions this. Hence the work was set up additionally for the examination system. Chén Tíng 陳霆 has criticised it for taking Lǔ’s suburban sacrifice as the xià calendar yet taking Lǔ’s zhēngcháng sacrifice as the zhōu calendar — this too is an accommodation to Hú’s tradition, an instance of fence-sitting. Yet for Hú’s interpretations, item by item, he investigates what Hú cites and where it comes from, like a zhù having a shū; for the learning of one school the work may be called thorough indeed.
In the Yǒnglè of the Míng, Hú Guǎng 胡廣 and others compiled the Chūnqiū dàquán KR1e0074. Its fánlì (general principles) say: “Year-numbering follows Mr Wāng’s Zuǎnshū; place-names follow Mr Lǐ’s Huìtōng; the canonical text follows Mr Hú; the formulae follow Mr Lín.” But in fact it wholly plagiarises Kèkuān’s book; the original copy is fully extant and may be collated against it item by item. Submitted at the Imperial Editorial Review on the Qiánlóng 43, 6th month (1778). Chief compilers (your servants) Jì Yún (紀昀) [text reads 紀均 — typographical slip for 紀昀], Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; chief collator Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The work was composed under the Yuán examination system, when the Chūnqiū curriculum required mastery of the Three Traditions and Hú Ānguó’s Chūnqiū zhuàn; Wāng Kèkuān’s Zuǎnshū is the standard textbook of the Hú-school. Wāng’s own preface (dated zhìzhèng 6 = 1346) states that he began the work after his rejection at the huìshì in 1327 and pursued it through years of teaching at private academies. The work was preceded by an earlier draft destroyed by fire in 1339; the present recension was completed in 1341 and revised through 1346. The 凡例 (general principles) lay out the book’s editorial method explicitly: chronology after the Tōngjiàn gāngmù; canonical text following Hú; variants noted in interlinear notes; supplementary commentary drawn from DànZhào, Liú Chǎng, the Chéng brothers, Zhū Xī, and Wāng’s teacher Wú Zhòngyū 吳仲迂 (Kětáng 可堂). Wāng explicitly states that his goal is to relieve beginning students from having to consult the entire scattered commentarial library — “so that beginners may obtain it, and without exhaustively consulting the multitudinous books, the words and the meaning are bright and clear.”
The work’s principal historical importance is precisely what the Sìkù editors attack: it became the unacknowledged textual base of the Chūnqiū dàquán KR1e0074 of Yǒnglè 13 (1415) — the official examination compendium of the Míng dynasty. Hú Guǎng and the imperial compilation team simply reproduced Wāng Kèkuān’s Zuǎnshū under a new title, without acknowledgement. The Sìkù editors’ acid comment that this can be “verified item by item by collation” is an enduring reproach against the Míng Dàquán compilation system. Wú Rènchén’s 吳任臣 critique (cited at length in the Sìkù tíyào of Chūnqiū dàquán) is the locus classicus.
The work’s secondary importance is its position as the most fully annotated Yuán-period Hú-school Chūnqiū commentary; it is the principal source for understanding how Hú Ānguó’s tradition was transmitted and elaborated under the Yuán examination system.
The frontmatter includes Wāng Zémín’s 汪澤民 preface (zhìyuán wùyín = 1338), Yú Jí’s 虞集 preface (zhìzhèng 1 = 1341), a Xiānrú géyán 先儒格言 (Sayings of the Earlier Confucians, with extensive citations from Zhōu Dūnyí, the Chéng brothers, and Zhū Xī’s Yǔ lù), a Fánlì (10 articles), Wāng Kèkuān’s own preface (zhìzhèng 6 = 1346), and a Yǐnyòng xìngshì 引用姓氏 (List of cited authorities) running to nearly 60 entries — a useful conspectus of the Sòng Chūnqiū commentarial literature visible to a Yuán scholar.
Translations and research
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §28.5 (Spring and Autumn) provides general orientation on the Hú Ānguó tradition that this work transmits.
- Sūn Wěimíng 孫衛明, Sòng dài Chūnqiū xué yánjiū 宋代春秋學研究 (Bēijīng: Zhōngguó shèhuì kēxué chūbǎnshè 2009).
- Pǔ Wěizhōng 浦衛忠, Yuán dài jīng-xué yánjiū 元代經學研究 (Bēijīng: Rénmín 2013), which discusses Wāng Kèkuān’s place in the Yuán Chūnqiū scholarly tradition.
- Wāng Kèkuān’s Chūn qiū hú zhuàn fù lù zuǎn shū 春秋胡傳附錄纂疏 has been republished in Yǐng-yìn Wén-yuān-gé Sì-kù quán-shū vol. 165 (Tāiběi: Tāiwān shāng-wù 1986).
Other points of interest
The tíyào preserves a typographical slip for the chief compiler’s name: in the WYG copy “紀均” appears for “紀昀” (the standard form). This is not an error in Wāng’s work but a slip of the WYG transcription/printing.
The Sìkù tíyào’s harsh judgment against the Chūnqiū dàquán compilers — that they “wholly plagiarised” Wāng Kèkuān’s Zuǎnshū — is the most influential single Qīng evaluation of the Míng Yǒnglè Dàquán compilation system, often cited in modern intellectual history (e.g., by Yú Yīngshíh, Zhū Xī de lìshǐ shìjiè, on the late-Yuán to early-Míng transmission of the Hú-school Chūnqiū).
Links
- Yuán shǐ j. 81 (Xuǎnjǔ zhì) on the 1315 examination regulations.
- Sìkù tíyào on KR1e0074 Chūnqiū dàquán for the parallel critique.