Xiàojīng shùzhù 孝經述註
Transmitted Notes on the Classic of Filial Piety
by 項霦 (撰, fl. Hóngwǔ era 1368–1398)
About the work
A short early-Míng commentary on the gǔwén recension of the Xiàojīng by Xiàng Bīn 項霦, native of Línhǎi 臨海 in Zhèjiāng, who served as àncháshī qiānshì 按察司僉事 (assistant judicial commissioner) of Jiāngxī during the Hóngwǔ era. The work was lost from circulation after the Míng and survived solely as a fragment in the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn 永樂大典, from which the Sìkù editors recovered it in 1781. The chapter divisions follow the gǔwén, but the commentary itself is straightforward and pedagogical rather than philological.
Tiyao
We have respectfully examined the Xiàojīng shùzhù in one juàn, composed by Xiàng Bīn of the Míng. Bīn’s beginning and end cannot be traced; only the Jiāngxī zhì records that “Xiàng Bīn was a man of Línhǎi, Zhèjiāng; in the Hóngwǔ era he was àncháshī qiānshì,” which agrees with what Huáng Zhāo’s 黄昭 original preface says — so this is the same person. The work uses the gǔwén Xiàojīng as its base. Its glosses do not strive for profundity but follow the text and amplify the meaning, marking the import chapter by chapter; the diction is tolerably clear and concise. Among classical commentators it is one of the unrambling. The Mingshǐ “Bibliographic Treatise” does not record it; Zhū Yízūn’s Jīngyì kǎo 經義考 also does not list it by name; only the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn preserved this exemplar — but the chapter sequence is corrupt and incomplete. The commentary on zhāng 7 has been inserted under the canonical text of zhāng 6, leaving zhāng 6 with no commentary and zhāng 7 with no canon. We have here supplied the missing canon from the gǔwén original, but as for the missing commentary, no other copy of the work exists, so it cannot be restored. As the work has lain buried in worm-eaten manuscripts for over three hundred years, with no one in the world able to name it, and now it has the good fortune to meet a flourishing age and be brought back into the light — itself an encounter possible only once in ten thousand generations — we have specially extracted it for inclusion, that it may be heard of in later times: it ought not to be discarded simply for being incomplete. Submitted respectfully on the imperial command, ninth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). 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.
Abstract
The work was originally part of Xiàng Bīn’s collected writings; only the Xiàojīng commentary section was extracted by the prefacer Liú Dǐng 劉鼎 and circulated as a stand-alone work. Huáng Zhāo’s 黄昭 preface (the Yuánxù 原序 preserved at the head of the Sìkù recension), composed when Huáng was Tíxíng àncháshǐ fùshǐ 提刑按察使副使 of Línchuān 臨川, frames the work in early-Míng terms: under the Hóngwǔ emperor’s project of governing the empire by xiào, the assistant judicial commissioners stationed in the great prefectural offices needed scholar-officials of “classical learning, integrity, prudence, and clear understanding”; Xiàng Bīn was selected because he came from a literary household, had retired into private study for over a decade, and could “succeed in his father’s resolve” (kè chéng fù zhì 克承父志) by composing books and proposing arguments. After ten years’ service, his colleagues collected his writings and singled out the Xiàojīng commentary as the part most relevant to zhì dào 治道 (governance).
The work expressly aligns itself with Wú Chéng’s Xiàojīng dìngběn (see KR1f0008) — Huáng Zhāo’s preface explicitly says: “Recently Mr. Wú of Cǎolú divided the Xiàojīng into canon and zhuàn and corrected the errors and lacunae; the meaning of his book is brilliantly clear; now Master Xiàng has further added his commentary, and Mr. Wú and Master Xiàng mutually elucidate each other’s work.” Xiàng’s commentary is therefore best read as a glossary attached to Wú Chéng’s restructured recension rather than as an independent restructuring.
The dating window above is set as Hóngwǔ era (1368–1398): Huáng Zhāo’s preface refers to jǐyǒu 已酉 (1369) winter as the year Xiàng was appointed to Jiāngxī, and the work must have been composed and circulated during his tenure there in the next decade or so. Xiàng’s full lifedates are not recoverable.
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 early-Míng Xiàojīng commentary tradition.
No substantial focused secondary literature on Xiàng Bīn located.
Other points of interest
The work is one of the few cases of an early-Míng Xiàojīng commentary that survived only because it was anthologized in the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn. The Sìkù editors’ decision to include a fragmentary text — a chapter is wholly missing its commentary — reflects their general policy of preserving rare Xiàojīng exemplars; the Tíyào explicitly notes “we have specially extracted it for inclusion, that it may be heard of in later times: it ought not to be discarded simply for being incomplete.” The case is a useful illustration of the Sìkù editors’ inclusionary attitude toward the Xiàojīng sub-canon.