穀梁傳例

Gǔliáng zhuàn lì 穀梁傳例

Regulatory Items in the Gǔliáng Tradition

(anonymous)

About the work

A one-juàn anonymous compendium of lì 例 (regulatory items / topical patterns) drawn from the Gǔliáng zhuàn 穀梁傳 (KR1e0007) — the Gǔliáng-school analogue to the Chūnqiū shì lì tradition descending from 杜預 Dù Yù for the Zuǒzhuàn (KR1e0012) and the parallel lì programmes of 何休 Hé Xiū for the Gōngyáng. The catalog supplies neither author nor dynasty. The text is preserved in CHANT (CH2e1136) and survives as an integral but undated topical handbook to the Gǔliáng.

Abstract

The work is organised by topical lì-headings rather than by Chūnqiū year-sequence. Each heading enumerates the regulatory pattern, gives the count of cases in the jīng, and then specifies the principles by which exceptions are recorded. The preserved structure includes the following sections (in textual order):

• Rì shí lì 日食例 (solar-eclipse cases): four sub-types distinguished by whether the jīng records the day (rì 日) and / or the new moon (shuò 朔) — eclipse on the day of the new moon, eclipse on the day before the new moon, night eclipse, etc.
• Bù shū wáng lì 不書王例 (cases of omitting wáng 王 from the jīng): 108 total in the Chūnqiū; Huán-gōng never records wáng, marking his failure to uphold the royal house; other dukes’ omissions follow from omitting the zhèng yuè 正月 first month.
• Suì shì lì 遂事例 (sequential-action cases): 19 instances.
• Nì wánghòu lì 逆王后例 (escorting the royal consort): 2 instances, both routed through Lǔ.
• Qiān lì 遷例 (population removal): 10 cases of qiān 遷, distinguishing wáng-qiān 亡遷 (3 forced removals) from hǎo-qiān 好遷 (7 voluntary), with discussion of why the jīng records or omits the month.
• Zāi lì 災例 (disaster-cases): 12 instances; internal disasters record the day, external record the season; states are called zāi 災, towns huǒ 火.
• Sān wàng lì 三望例 (three “distant looks” sacrifices): five sub-types.
• Fūrén xíng lì 夫人行例 (consort’s travel): 12 instances; recording the month signals impropriety.
• Fàng dàfū lì 放大夫例 (banishment of a dàfū): 3 cases (Jìn banishes Xū Jiǎfù; Chǔ banishes Gōngzǐ Zhāo; Cài banishes Gōngsūn Liè).
• Huǎn cí lì 緩辭例 (mitigated phrasing): 35 instances.
• Zuò lì 作例 (cases marked zuò 作 [“instituted”]): 6 instances, sub-divided into “zuò alone” (3) and “xīn zuò 新作” (3) — both implying censure.
• Chū nǚ lì 出女例 (sending a daughter back from marriage): 3 + 1 ancillary case.
• Kuì lì 潰例 (state-collapse): 4 instances, of which 3 have zhuàn commentary on the principle.
• … (continuing through to)
• Fūrén hōng lì 夫人薨例 (consort’s death): 10 deaths all recorded with burial; the two exceptional cases (Yǐn-gōng’s consort yielding to her husband, Zhāo-gōng’s consort under same-surname taboo) are not given burial entries.

The compilation’s vocabulary and exegetical phrasing — jù shǐ yě 據始也, cóng lì yě 從例也, dú fā zhuàn zhě 獨發傳者, xián X yǒu zuì 嫌X有罪 — is characteristic of the late-Six-Dynasties / Táng Gǔliáng zhèngyì tradition that culminates in 楊士勛 Yáng Shìxūn’s Chūnqiū Gǔliáng zhuàn shū 春秋穀梁傳疏 (KR1e0009). The compilation is most plausibly an extract from, or a Táng-period topical digest derived from, the zhèngyì tradition — though no preface or colophon confirms this attribution.

The dating bracket (265–900) reflects this uncertainty: a terminus post quem in the early Gǔliáng zhèngyì tradition (e.g. 范甯 Fàn Níng’s jí jiě, late 4th c.) and a terminus ante quem before the work’s transmission lines into the Sòng catalog tradition. The catalog yaml supplies neither dynasty nor author; the present dating is therefore tentative.

Translations and research

No substantial Western-language secondary literature located. For the Gǔliáng exegetical tradition see:

• 浦衛忠 Pú Wèizhōng, Chūnqiū Gǔliáng zhuàn yánjiū 春秋穀梁傳研究 (Wúhàn 1990s).
• Newell Ann Van Auken, The Commentarial Transformation of the Spring and Autumn (SUNY 2016), on the lì 例 tradition across the sānzhuàn 三傳.

Other points of interest

The compilation parallels the Zuǒzhuàn lì-tradition begun by 杜預’s Shì lì (KR1e0012) and the Gōngyáng lì-tradition of 何休 Hé Xiū. The three sets of lì are the principal Six-Dynasties / Táng-period systematisations of Chūnqiū exegesis, each demonstrating how its zhuàn school read the jīng as a coherent biàn-lì 變例 (variant-regulatory) system. The present Gǔliáng zhuàn lì is the only such handbook surviving as a stand-alone book for the Gǔliáng tradition.

Links

• Chinese Text Project — Gǔliáng zhuàn: https://ctext.org/guliang-zhuan