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御纂孝經集註

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Text ID
KR1f0012
Date
1727–1727
Dynasty
清

Yùzuǎn Xiàojīng jízhù 御纂孝經集註

Imperially Compiled Collected Commentary on the Classic of Filial Piety

by 世宗胤禛 (御定, 1678–1735, Yōngzhèng Emperor)

About the work

The Yōngzhèng emperor’s imperial compilation of the Xiàojīng, in 1 juàn, presented in 1727 (Yōngzhèng 5). The work is a deliberate condensation: under Shùnzhì 13 (1656) the imperial Xiàojīng zhù (see KR1f0011) had been issued, and under Kāngxī the massive Xiàojīng yǎnyì 孝經衍義 in 100 juàn had been compiled — too vast for ordinary readers. Yōngzhèng accordingly commanded the compilation of a much-shorter jízhù in the model of Zhū Xī’s Sìshū zhāngjù jízhù 四書章句集註, intended for everyday use by both literati and commoners. The work superseded the earlier Shùnzhì recension as the official Qīng imperial Xiàojīng commentary for ceremonial purposes.

Tiyao

We have respectfully examined the Xiàojīng jízhù in one juàn, imperially compiled by Shìzōng Xiànhuángdì 世宗憲皇帝 (the Yōngzhèng emperor). The imperial preface was composed in Yōngzhèng 5 (1727) and promulgated. Our dynasty’s successive sage emperors have transmitted broad teachings of the principle of filial piety; therefore the elucidation of this canon is particularly complete. Shìzǔ Zhānghuángdì 世祖章皇帝 (the Shùnzhì emperor) first composed his Xiàojīng zhù and afterward commissioned the Xiàojīng yǎnyì 孝經衍義; Shèngzǔ Rénhuángdì 聖祖仁皇帝 (the Kāngxī emperor) succeeded him in completing it; the matter is comprehensively threaded through, leaving no aspect of the meaning unresolved. Shìzōng Xiànhuángdì, fearing that the volume of the compilation might prevent it from reaching every family, ordered this present zhù to be made in concise form, glossing only the canonical text for ease of recitation, with diction transparent and clear so that wise and simple alike may read it. Its format follows Master Zhū’s Sìshū zhāngjù jízhù in its entirety. It is truly the supreme expression of explaining the canon and teaching filial piety for ten thousand ages. Submitted respectfully on the imperial command, tenth 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.

(Note on the catalog: the catalog meta yaml records the author as 世宗胤禎; the correct character is 禛 (Yìnzhēn), as confirmed by the imperial preface and standard reference works. Followed here.)

Abstract

The Yōngzhèng emperor’s preface (Yùzuǎn Xiàojīng jízhù xù 御纂孝經集註序) frames the work as the third stage of a Qīng imperial Xiàojīng programme: (1) Shùnzhì’s Xiàojīng zhù of 1656 (see KR1f0011); (2) the great Xiàojīng yǎnyì 孝經衍義 in 100 juàn commissioned by Shùnzhì and completed under Kāngxī (this work is not in the Sìkù but circulated independently as the principal Qīng-imperial encyclopedia of Xiàojīng commentary, with extensive philosophical and historical context for each chapter); (3) the present jízhù, compiled because “we are concerned that with so much volume the readers might not encompass the whole.” The preface explicitly cites Zhū Xī’s Sìshū zhāngjù jízhù as the formal model. Where the Shùnzhì commentary had run to over 10,000 characters and the yǎnyì to a hundred juàn, the present jízhù glosses only the canonical text in compact form, with the explicit goal that “every father may use it to teach his sons, every teacher his disciples; the mouth recites the words, the heart understands the principle, the body practises the matter.”

The work follows the Táng imperial Xuánzōng jīnwén base (continuing the Shùnzhì-recension’s reluctance to enter the gǔwén / jīnwén dispute, see KR1f0011) and similarly does not adopt Zhū Xī’s Kānwù deletions (see KR1f0006). Its commentary is concise and accessible; it does not reproduce the philosophical apparatus of the Shùnzhì recension but offers a single clear gloss for each phrase. The Sìkù editors’ assessment — “the supreme expression of explaining the canon and teaching filial piety for ten thousand ages” — is the standard formula of imperial deference and need not be taken at face value, but the work was in fact widely used as a primer in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Qīng schools.

Translations and research

  • See KR1f0001 for general Xiàojīng translations and research.
  • 陳鐵凡 Xiàojīng xuéshǐ 孝經學史. Taipei: Guólì biānyìguǎn, 1986.
  • Pamela Kyle Crossley, A Translucent Mirror: History and Identity in Qing Imperial Ideology. Berkeley: UCP, 1999. Contextualizes the Yōngzhèng-period imperial Confucian canon within the broader Qīng project of dynastic legitimacy.
  • 黃進興 (Huáng Jìnxīng), Yōurù shèng yù: Quánlì, xìnyǎng yǔ zhèngdàng xìng 優入聖域：權力、信仰與正當性. Taipei: Yùnchén, 1994.
  • Norman Kutcher, Mourning in Late Imperial China: Filial Piety and the State. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Treats the Qīng imperial use of xiào as an instrument of state ideology.

Other points of interest

The Yōngzhèng emperor was the second of two Qīng emperors (with Shùnzhì) to issue an imperial Xiàojīng commentary, paralleling the four Tang-Song-Ming-Qing emperors who annotated the Dàodé jīng (Wilkinson §65451). The contrast between the 100-juàn Kāngxī Xiàojīng yǎnyì and Yōngzhèng’s compact jízhù registers a deliberate shift in mid-Qīng imperial Confucian policy: from comprehensive scholastic apparatus to portable everyday primers — part of the broader Yōngzhèng programme of administrative tightening and cultural diffusion that produced the Shèng yù guǎng xùn 聖諭廣訓 of 1724 and the Qīndìng Zhí zhōng chéng xiàn of 1728.

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