Rì jiǎng Chūnqiū jiě yì 日講春秋解義
Daily-Lecture Explication of the Spring and Autumn Annals
About the work
The Rì jiǎng Chūnqiū jiě yì 日講春秋解義 in 64 juǎn is the imperial jīngyán 經筵 (“classics-mat”) Chūnqiū lecture-cycle of the Kāngxī 康熙 emperor, prepared by the Hànlín lecturers under the joint zǒngcái 總裁 (“director-general”) of Kùlènà 庫勒納 (Manchu, Kuldena) and Lǐ Guāngdì 李光地 (1642–1718). The work belongs to the genre of rì jiǎng texts — companion volumes to rì jiǎng Sì shū jiě yì 日講四書解義 (KR3a0103), rì jiǎng Yì jīng jiě yì 日講易經解義 (KR1a0114), and rì jiǎng Shū jīng jiě yì 日講書經解義 (KR1b0045) — all produced by the Kāngxī court as the official imperial reading of the canonical text. It complements the more research-oriented Qīn dìng Chūnqiū chuán shuō huì zuǎn 欽定春秋傳說彙纂 (KR1e0094) of 1721. Together with that work and the Qiánlóng-era Yù zuǎn Chūnqiū zhí jiě 御纂春秋直解 (KR1e0095), it forms the trio of Qīng imperially-commissioned Chūnqiū commentaries.
Tiyao
The Sìkù tíyào may be rendered as follows:
We have respectfully examined the Rì jiǎng Chūnqiū jiě yì in 64 juǎn. This book is the older draft of the lectern-lectures of His Majesty the Sage-Ancestor Humane Emperor (i.e., Kāngxī); His Majesty the Reverent-and-Respectful (Yōngzhèng) further added discussion to it, and so it was edited and put into chapters. Of those who have explicated the Chūnqiū, none are more numerous than the writers of the two Sòng dynasties; among those composed for lectern-lecture, the Sòng shǐ Yì wén zhì records Wáng Bǎo’s 王葆 Chūnqiū jiǎng yì in 2 juǎn (now lost), Zhāng Jiǔchéng’s 張九成 Héngpǔ jí containing a Chūnqiū jiǎng yì of 1 juǎn, and the Yǒnglè dà diǎn preserving Dài Xī’s 戴溪 Chūnqiū jiǎng yì of 3 juǎn — all of which generally extrapolate from the canonical text and indicate the principles of governance, in a way quite distinct from chapter-and-verse exegesis. This is not only the established style for Chóngzhèng and Míyīng presentations to the throne; it is also because the lever of governance lies in the careful weighting of reward-and-punishment, and the essential point of reward-and-punishment lies in fitting them to merit and crime, distinguishing what is doubtful, clarifying right and wrong, and resolving the hesitations — and nothing is more refined on this than the Chūnqiū. The sage’s intent in compiling and editing truly lies in this. Hence Mèngzǐ said, “The Chūnqiū is the work of the Son of Heaven”; Gōng Hùzǐ said, “Those who possess a state cannot fail to study the Chūnqiū — the Chūnqiū is the mirror of the state”; Dǒng Zhòngshū extracted from the Gōngyáng purport 232 cases and composed Chūnqiū jué shì in 16 chapters — its meaning has its proper succession.
This compilation, on the model of the imperial-presentation works of the Sòng rú, illuminates the subtle words. Each entry first sets out the events from Zuǒshì, while not adopting its inflated displays; next it clarifies the principle-categories of Gōng and Gǔ, while not adopting their over-strained readings; it amply elaborates and works through, with the principal aim returning always to the king’s way (wáng dào 王道). It truly suffices to illuminate the shū fǎ 書法 of the Sage’s Classic and to explore the foundations of the imperial learning. The Sage-Ancestor Humane Emperor and the Reverent-and-Respectful Emperor, in succession sage upon sage, with deliberate care, brought forth this single edition. Surely this is because the great pivot of governing-the-world is here. Respectfully checked and submitted, Qiánlóng 41 (1776), tenth month. Editors-in-chief Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; chief proof-reader Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The work is the imperial Chūnqiū lecture-cycle of the Kāngxī 康熙 reign, edited from notes preserved in the imperial archive after Kāngxī’s lecture-attendance, with substantial revision under the Yōngzhèng emperor. Kāngxī’s preface (preserved as the first front-matter document, KR1e0093_000.txt) declares the imperial methodological position — that the Chūnqiū lays down “the great law of governing the world for an emperor and king, and is the heart-transmission essential text after the shǐ” (chūnqiū zhě, dì wáng jīng shì zhī dà fǎ, shǐ wài chuán xīn zhī yào diǎn yě 春秋者帝王經世之大法，史外傳心之要典也); that of all prior commentators, Hú Ānguó 胡安國 (胡安國) is the most successful (the imperial reckoning being “perhaps six or seven of ten”); but that even Hú is “occasionally too forced” (chí lùn guò jī 持論過激, jué yǐn tài yán 抉隱太嚴). The lecture-cycle accordingly takes Hú as its anchor while purging his most extreme readings.
The Yōngzhèng-era preface (the second imperial preface in the front-matter) further records the editing history: the lectures were begun under Kāngxī and continued through his reign, but the printing was deferred because Kāngxī himself did not consider the cycle’s accommodation of Hú Ānguó fully satisfactory — pending the parallel Qīn dìng Chūnqiū chuán shuō huì zuǎn (KR1e0094, completed 1721) which carried out the systematic anti-Hú-Ān-guó philological work. Under Yōngzhèng, Yìnlǐ 允禮 (the Prince of Guǒ 果親王), Zhāng Tíngyù 張廷玉 (張廷玉), and Fāng Bāo 方苞 were commissioned to recheck the lectures (start of project: Yōngzhèng 7 / 1729). The book was finally promulgated in Qiánlóng 2 (1737), with the Qiánlóng emperor contributing the final preface. The dating bracket here therefore takes the printed-publication date 1737 as both notBefore and notAfter, with the understanding that the actual lecture-content is decades older.
The catalog meta credits Kùlènà and Lǐ Guāngdì as joint zǒng cái (奉敕撰); the actual lecture-text was composed by a wide team of Hànlín jiǎngguān and zhíjiǎng officers — Wáng Fēngjiǒng 王封濚, Gāo Shìqí 髙士奇, Tián Xǐjì 田喜吉(?), Dégélè 徳格勒, Bójì 博濟, Zhū Dūnà 朱都納, Sīgézé 思格則, Péng Sūnyù 彭孫遹, etc., as listed in the front-matter职名 (KR1e0093_000.txt, juan 銜名). The Yōngzhèng-era recheck team is Yìnlǐ, Zhāng Tíngyù, and Fāng Bāo. The work is thus a triple-reign collaborative — a fact stressed in the Qiánlóng preface to symbolise dynastic continuity in classical learning.
The work’s principal historical significance is institutional rather than scholarly: it is the official imperial reading of the Chūnqiū under the Qīng. The opening “general statement” zǒng shuō 總說 (KR1e0093_000.txt, juan 總說) is a substantial dossier of citations — Mèngzǐ, Dǒng Zhòngshū, Gōngyángzǐ, Sīmǎ Qiān, Sàoyōng, ÈrChéng, Zhāngzǐ, Zhū Xī, Hú Ānguó, Hú Hóng 胡宏, Hú Níng 胡寧, Wāng Zǎo 汪藻, Lǚ Dàguī 呂大圭 (KR1e0053), Liú Yǒngzhī 劉永之, Bān Gù, Dù Yù 杜預 (杜預), Lù Démíng 陸德明, Dài Xī 戴溪, Mǎ Duānlín 馬端臨, Ōuyáng Xiū 歐陽脩, Yáng Shí 楊時, Cháo Shuōzhī 晁說之, Cháo Gōngwǔ 晁公武, and others — and is itself a useful late-Qīng compendium of canonical citation on the Chūnqiū.
Translations and research
- Hsia, R. Po-chia, The Cambridge History of China, vol. 9 (CUP 2002–2016) — passim on Kāngxī classical-canon publication policy.
- Yang Lien-sheng 楊聯陞, “The Concept of Pao 報 as a Basis for Social Relations in China,” in Chinese Thought and Institutions, ed. John K. Fairbank (Chicago 1957) — for the Chūnqiū bāo biǎn 褒貶 framework.
- Pi Xirui 皮錫瑞, Jīng xué lì shǐ 經學歷史 (Bēijīng: Zhōnghuá 1959) — chapter on Qīng jīng yán lecturing.
- 黃克武, Yī gè bèi fàng-qì de xuǎn zé: Liáng Qǐ-chāo tiáo-shì yǔ wǎn-Qīng zhī-shi-jiè 一個被放棄的選擇: 梁啓超調適思想與晚清知識界 (Tāiběi: Zhōngyāng yán-jiū-yuàn 1994) — on the imperial-canon framing of Qīng Chūnqiū learning.
Other points of interest
The Yōngzhèng emperor’s editorial intervention is unusual: his preface concedes that Kāngxī had withheld printing because the lecture cycle still showed too much accommodation of Hú Ānguó, and that the Qīn dìng Chūnqiū chuán shuō huì zuǎn (KR1e0094) of 1721 had been brought forward first precisely because it carried out the necessary anti-Hú philological work. The eventual Qiánlóng 1737 printing is thus a deliberate dynastic statement: three emperors in succession have ratified the same reading of the Classic.
Note also the prosopographical interest of the Yōngzhèng-era recheck team: Fāng Bāo 方苞 (1668–1749), the Tóngchéng prose-school founder, is here documented in his Yōngzhèng-court editorial role; he himself is the author of Chūnqiū tōng lùn (KR1e0110) elsewhere in this division.
Links
- Sìkù tíyào (Yǐngyìn Wényuāngé Sìkù): V172.1, p1.