Chūnqiū shí xiǎo lù 春秋識小錄
Records of the Lesser Things in the Spring and Autumn Annals by 程廷祚 (撰)
About the work
A three-part Chūnqiū reference compendium in 9 juǎn by Chéng Tíngzuò 程廷祚 (1691–1767), comprising: (1) Chūnqiū zhí guān kǎo lüè 春秋職官考略 in 3 juǎn — a survey of state offices; (2) Chūnqiū dìmíng biàn yì 春秋地名辨異 in 3 juǎn — a lexicon of homonymous and synonymous Chūnqiū place-names; (3) Zuǒ zhuàn rén míng biàn yì 左傳人名辨異 in 3 juǎn — a lexicon of synonymous personal names (one person under multiple names, up to eight names).
Tiyao
Imperially edited Sìkù quánshū, Classics, Chūnqiū category. Chūnqiū shí xiǎo lù in 9 juǎn. Composed in the present dynasty by Chéng Tíngzuò, zì Qǐshēng 啓生, native of Shàngyuán 上元. He was once recommended for the Bóxué hóngcí 博學鴻詞 examination and again for the jīngxué (classical-learning) summons. He is the author of many works.
The book contains Chūnqiū zhí guān kǎo lüè 3 juǎn, Chūnqiū dìmíng biàn yì 3 juǎn, and Zuǒ zhuàn rén míng biàn yì 3 juǎn. In the survey of offices, he first lists the offices held by several states in common, then offices found in a single state alone, all carefully arranged and tabulated; wherever the Chūnqiū office differs from the Zhōu lǐ office, he investigates the difference and adjudicates it on the basis of the zhù shū tradition — quite acute. At the end is a Jìnjūn zhèng shǐmò biǎo (Beginnings-and-ends of the Jìn military reorganizations) which traces the eight reorganizations of Jìn’s military system and lists the names of the commanders and their adjutants in detail; the yùróng and róngyòu (royal-charioteer and right-side warrior) entries are appended at the end. All quite tight. Why he subordinates all the other states alongside Jìn but treats Jìn alone in such detail is not explained.
In the place-name section, he begins with cases of one place under different names, then cases of different places under the same name, then a Jìn shū dìlǐ zhì zhèng (correction of the Jìn shū geographical chapter) — because Dù Yù in glossing the Zuǒ zhuàn uses Jìn-period place-names. In the personal-name section, he goes from one person with two names up to one person with eight names, tabulating each cluster with annotated cross-references; the conception is broadly similar to the Chūnqiū mínghào guī yī tú 春秋名號歸一圖 but the layout is cleaner and more concise.
Although the matter may seem unrelated to canonical sense, readers of the canon and the zhuàn often find that mismatched office-names, place-names, and personal names prevent them from grasping the events as a whole, and in turn from inferring the Sage’s praise and blame fully. Cases like Hú Ānguó’s mistaken stubbornness on Jìsūn — generating extraneous arguments — are precisely of this kind. Chéng’s book is therefore something every reader of the Chūnqiū must be aware of. Submitted on the Qiánlóng 45th year, 3rd month (= 1780, April). Editors-in-chief: Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. Chief proofreader: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Chūnqiū shí xiǎo lù is a triple reference apparatus in the high-Qing evidential mode, designed to clear three of the standard interpretive obstacles that misdirect Chūnqiū commentary: (1) office-name confusion (the same official function in different states under different titles, or different functions under similar titles); (2) place-name confusion (one place under multiple names; multiple places under one name); (3) personal-name confusion (one person known under two, three, or up to eight aliases or zì-style appellations across the zhuàn).
Chéng’s title quotes Zǐzhāng — “shí xiǎo” (knowing the lesser things), the Lúnyǔ 19.7 phrase that the great Confucian must master “the lesser things and the greater” — and signals the work’s modesty: this is not a doctrinal commentary but a clearing-the-ground reference. The book is a piece of mature Qing kǎozhèng and is bracketed by Chéng’s mature scholarly years and his death in 1767. The Sìkù tiyao notes a peculiarity: Chéng treats Jìn institutionally in much greater depth than he does the other states (the Jìnjūn zhèng shǐmò biǎo in particular) — possibly reflecting Chéng’s own special interest in Jìn military history. Wilkinson (Chinese History: A New Manual, p. 706) refers readers of Chūnqiū prosopography and toponymy routinely to Chéng’s book.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language secondary literature located. For Chéng Tíngzuò’s Chūnqiū and Yì work see the chapter in Liú Mòxī 劉默西, Chéng Tíngzuò pínɡ zhuàn 程廷祚評傳 (Nánjīng dàxué, 2011); for the Chūnqiū part specifically see Yáng Zhàoguì, Qīng dài Chūnqiū xué yán jiū (Wǔnán, 2010).
Other points of interest
The over-detailed treatment of Jìn relative to the other states reflects a broader eighteenth-century Jìn-centrism in Zuǒshì studies (Jìn supplies the bulk of the zhuàn narrative content) and prefigures the modern scholarly observation that the Zuǒ zhuàn is in significant degree a Jìn-perspective document.
Links
- ctext.org: Chūnqiū shí xiǎo lù (Sìkù WYG facsimile)
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual (2018), § 51, p. 706