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孝經

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Text ID
KR1f0002
Date
722–743
Dynasty
唐

Xiàojīng 孝經

The Classic of Filial Piety with Imperial Annotation by Emperor Xuánzōng of Táng

by 玄宗 (御注)

About the work

This is the Yùzhù Xiàojīng 御注孝經 — the imperial commentary on the Xiàojīng by the Táng emperor Xuánzōng 玄宗 (Lǐ Lóngjī 李隆基, 685–762, r. 712–756). Issued in 722 (Kāiyuán 開元 10) and revised in 743 (Tiānbǎo 天寶 2), it became the definitive Táng-and-after recension of the Xiàojīng in eighteen zhāng 章, displacing the rival gǔwén 古文 recension and all earlier commentary lines. The Sìbù cóngkān 四部叢刊 (SBCK) prints the text with Xuánzōng’s own preface (序) at the head and his interlinear commentary distributed throughout. The catalog records this entry as a single juàn; the SBCK reprint adds Lù Démíng’s 陸德明 yīnyì 音義 indicating reading pronunciations between phrases (e.g. 《○行下孟反》).

Abstract

The preface, signed Táng Xuánzōng huángdì yùzhì 唐玄宗皇帝御製, narrates the emperor’s motivation: the Xiàojīng had been transmitted in two recensions, an “old text” (gǔwén) traceable to Kǒng Ānguó 孔安國 (see KR1f0003) in 22 chapters and a “new text” (jīnwén) traceable to Yán Zhī 顏芝 in 18 chapters; competing commentaries by Wéi Zhāo 韋昭, Wáng Sù 王肅, Yú Fān 虞翻, Liú Shào 劉邵, Liú Xuàn 劉炫, Lù Chéng 陸澄, and Zhèng Xuán 鄭玄 had multiplied to “almost a hundred schools.” The emperor declares that he has jǔ liù jiā zhī yìtóng 舉六家之異同 — collated the agreements and disagreements of these six schools — and huì wǔjīng zhī zhǐqù 會五經之旨趣 — synthesized them with the import of the Five Classics — to produce a single authoritative commentary.

The 722 commentary was carved on stone and erected before the Imperial Academy (Tàixué 太學) in Cháng’ān in 745, the so-called Shítái Xiàojīng 石臺孝經, with the title and preface in the emperor’s own seal-script and clerical-script hands. (The stele, in eight panels, survives in the Xī’ān Bēilín 西安碑林.) After Xuánzōng’s recension was promulgated, the gǔwén recension fell into disuse in China and survived only in Japan (see KR1f0003). Xíng Bǐng’s 邢昺 Xiàojīng zhèngyì 孝經正義 of 1001, which became part of the Shísān jīng zhùshū 十三經注疏, takes Xuánzōng’s commentary as its base — see KR1f0004.

(Note: the catalog meta entry gives 玄宗’s dates as 597–649; those are the lifedates of Tàizōng 太宗 / Lǐ Shìmín 李世民. Tang Xuánzōng lived 685–762, as confirmed by CBDB and Wikidata. The composition window for this work is fixed by the dated preface (722) and the dated revision (743).)

Translations and research

  • See KR1f0001 for general Xiàojīng translations and research.
  • 陳鐵凡 Xiàojīng xuéshǐ 孝經學史. Taipei: Guólì biānyìguǎn, 1986. Treats the formation and reception of the imperial commentary in detail.
  • Charles Hartman, “The Stone Classics of the Kāichéng Era and the Stone Stele of Filial Piety.” In Jonathan O. Pease, ed. In Pursuit of the Reciprocity of Words and Things: Studies in Chinese Reception of Western Knowledge. (Citation pending.)
  • 喬秀岩 Yìshū lùn 義疏論. Beijing: Beijing University Press, 2001. Includes a critical study of the relation between the imperial commentary and the zhèngyì tradition.

Other points of interest

The Shítái Xiàojīng 石臺孝經 stele in the Xī’ān Forest of Stelae (碑林) is the only Confucian classic surviving in a stele bearing the emperor’s autograph calligraphy in three different scripts (篆 zhuàn, 隸 lì, 行 xíng). It is one of two stone-classic projects begun in the Táng — the other being the Kāichéng shíjīng 開成石經 of 837, which carved the entire Twelve Classics. The autograph stele is a major monument of Táng imperial calligraphy.

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