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孝經大義

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Text ID
KR1f0007
Date
1290–1305
Dynasty
元

Xiàojīng dàyì 孝經大義

The Great Meaning of the Classic of Filial Piety

by 董鼎 (撰, fl. late 13th c.)

About the work

A Yuán-period commentary on Zhū Xī’s restructured Xiàojīng kānwù recension (see KR1f0006) by Dǒng Dǐng 董鼎, zì Jìhēng 季亨, of Pōyáng 鄱陽 (modern Jiāngxī). The work supplies the explanatory commentary that Zhū Xī never finished. It also adds notes on the differences between the jīnwén and Zhū Xī-edited recensions. The work was edited and published by Xióng Hé 熊禾 (1247–1312, zì Jūbó 居伯, hao Wùxuān 勿軒) of Wǔyí 武夷 in Dàdé 9 (1305), with Xióng’s preface placed at the head and Dǒng’s son Dǒng Zhēnqīng 董真卿 the immediate intermediary. The work is among the most influential of the post-Zhū Xiàojīng commentaries.

Tiyao

We have respectfully examined the Xiàojīng dàyì in one juàn, composed by Dǒng Dǐng of the Sòng [recte: Yuán]. Dǐng’s Shàngshū jí lù zuǎn zhù 尚書輯錄纂註 has already been recorded. Originally Master Zhū composed the Xiàojīng kānwù, in which he reorganized the canonical text and the zhuàn and excised characters and phrases, but did not provide a gloss-and-explanation. Dǐng accordingly took Master Zhū’s revised recension and supplied the exposition. The characters Master Zhū had marked with circles for excision are all dropped; Master Zhū’s polemical phrases (biànzhèng 辨正) are preserved at the end of each zhāng. Wherever the text says yòu zhuàn zhī jǐ zhāng shì mǒu yì 右傳之幾章釋某義 (“the foregoing zhuàn chapters expound such-and-such a meaning”), the exposition follows the text exactly with no deviation. The thirteenth and fourteenth chapters — those that, in Master Zhū’s view, do not gloss the canon but each independently develop a separate point — are treated by Dǐng with off-canon expositions, without rebuttal. Dǐng’s only addition is the notation of jīnwén 今文 differences. His commentary mixes in some vernacular expressions, e.g. jīn yǒu yīgè dàolǐ 今有一箇道理 (“today there is a particular principle…”), or zhì cǐ fāng yán chū yīgè ‘xiào’ zì 至此方言出一箇孝字 (“only now does the word xiào come out”) — somewhat in the manner of the yǔlù 語錄 genre. The amplifying language adopts the manner of kǒuyì 口義 (“oral exposition”). Although the diction is a bit prolix, the exposition is clear, and able to turn the matter over and over to fully exhibit the meaning — for beginners not without value.

The book opens with a preface by Xióng Hé. In Dàdé 9 (1305) Dǐng’s son Zhēnqīng, accompanied by Hú Yīguì 胡一桂, called on Hé at Yúngǔ Mountain and laid this book before him; Hé therefore commissioned his elder kinsman Xióng Jìng 熊敬 to publish it, and wrote his own preface for the head. The preface refers to Master Zhū as Huánhuán Wéngōng 桓桓文公: the Shū says Mù zāi! Fūzǐ shàng huánhuán 朂哉夫子尚桓桓 (“Be diligent, sir; let your bearing be martial”); the Kǒngzhuàn glosses huánhuán as “martial mien”; the Ěryǎ glosses huánhuán and lièliè together as “martial dignity” — neither has anything to do with composing books or making the Dào clear. The usage is rather invented. Furthermore, the characters Wéngōng skip a line out of respect, but the characters Kǒngzǐ and Zēngzǐ do not skip a line — a striking inversion. We follow what is in the original and reproduce it as it stands. Submitted respectfully on the imperial command, fifth month of Qiánlóng 40 (1775). General editor: (your servant) Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. General collator: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.

(Note on dynasty: the Tíyào writes “Sòng,” but Dǒng Dǐng was active under the early Yuán — Xióng Hé’s preface is dated Dàdé 9 [1305]. The Sìkù attribution is loose; the work belongs to the early Yuán.)

Abstract

Dǒng Dǐng’s father, Dǒng Mèngchéng 董夢程 (later half of the 12th c.), had been a third-generation disciple of Zhū Xī through Huáng Gàn 黄榦 and is the principal channel by which the late Sòng Zhū Xī tradition passed into Pōyáng. Dǒng Dǐng (called Shēnshān xiānshēng 深山先生 in Xióng Hé’s preface) extended his father’s work into the Shàngshū (his Shàngshū jí lù zuǎn zhù 尚書輯錄纂註, in the Sìkù) and into the Xiàojīng. The Xiàojīng dàyì was the first sustained Daoxue-school commentary on Zhū Xī’s Kānwù recension and proved decisive for the post-Yuán reception of the work: many later commentators, including Wú Chéng (see KR1f0008), built on its framework.

Xióng Hé’s prefatory essay frames the Xiàojīng dàyì in maximalist terms: the Xiàojīng is “of one piece with” the Yáodiǎn 堯典 of the Shàngshū — both are statements of the moral order of the household and of the state, “the foundation by which the human pattern is cultivated.” Xióng particularly attacks the Táng Sīmǎ Zhēn 司馬貞 for advocating the jīnwén and “removing the guīmén chapter” (he calls Sīmǎ Zhēn “of shallow learning and shabby knowledge”), thus opening the door to “Xuánzōng’s calamities of impropriety and disorder” — the same argument the Sìkù editors at length rebut in KR1f0004. Xióng’s preface is dated Dàdé 9 (1305), tenth month (yánzhōng zhī yuè 陽復之月), and signed qián jìnshì Wǔyí Xióng Hé 前進士武夷熊禾.

The Composition window is set conservatively: the work was likely composed during Dǒng Dǐng’s mature years (post-1290 by the Sìkù dating of his father’s death) and was certainly complete by the 1305 Xióng Hé preface.

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 Dǒng Dǐng as the principal Yuán transmitter of the Zhū Xī recension.
  • Hoyt Cleveland Tillman, Confucian Discourse and Chu Hsi’s Ascendancy. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1992.
  • 宋平 (Sòng Píng), “董鼎《孝經大義》與朱熹《孝經刋誤》之關係” 董鼎《孝經大義》與朱熹《孝經刋誤》之關係. Hú-bě dàxué bào 湖北大學報 (社科版) 38.4 (2011): 90–95.

Other points of interest

The work is a key witness for how the Zhū Xī school transformed the Xiàojīng kānwù — originally a polemical philological intervention — into a stable curricular text within a generation of Zhū Xī’s death. The Xióng Hé preface’s strident attack on Sīmǎ Zhēn became a stock theme of post-Yuán Xiàojīng polemics that the Sìkù editors (in their tíyào on KR1f0004) directly refute.

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