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忠經

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Text ID
KR1f0014
Date
700–1000
Dynasty
唐

Zhōngjīng 忠經

The Classic of Loyalty

attributed to 馬融 (撰, 79–166) with commentary attributed to 鄭玄 (註, 127–200) — both attributions spurious

About the work

The Zhōngjīng 忠經 is a short pseudepigraphic Confucian work in 18 zhāng 章, deliberately modeled in form, length, and chapter structure on the jīnwén Xiàojīng (see KR1f0001 / KR1f0002) — opening with a treatment of cosmological foundations (Tiāndì shénmíng 天地神明), descending through zhōng 忠 (loyalty) at the level of the Son of Heaven (Shèng jūn 聖君), the various ministers (Zhǒngzǎi 冢宰, Bǎigōng 百工, Shǒuzǎi 守宰, Zhàoshì 兆士), and the various social classes, and ending with a concluding zhāng on the cosmological scope of zhōng. The work is attributed to the Eastern Hàn scholar Mǎ Róng 馬融 (79–166), with a commentary attributed to his pupil Zhèng Xuán 鄭玄 (127–200); both attributions are spurious. Modern scholarship dates the received text to the late Táng or early Sòng. The work is not included in the Sìkù quánshū and is not in any of the standard editions (SBCK, WYG); the Kanripo recension is from the CHANT digital corpus.

Abstract

The Zhōngjīng presents itself in the words of Mǎ Róng’s preface (the so-called Mǎ Róng zì xù 馬融自序, transmitted with the work) as a self-conscious imitation of the Xiàojīng: where the Xiàojīng treats xiào 孝 as the foundation of moral order in the family, the Zhōngjīng treats zhōng 忠 as the foundation of moral order in the polity. The chapter divisions parallel the Xiàojīng’s descending hierarchy: Tiāndì shénmíng 天地神明, Shèng jūn 聖君, Zhǒngzǎi 冢宰, Bǎigōng 百工, Shǒuzǎi 守宰, Zhàoshì 兆士, Zhèngzhì 政治, Wǔ pìn 武備, Guān fēng 觀風, Bǎo xiào xíng 保孝行, Guǎng wéi guó 廣為國, Guǎng zhì lǐ 廣至理, Guǎng zhōng yú 揚聖, Chén yī shàn xíng 辭命, etc. (the chapter names vary slightly between recensions; the CHANT base used here gives 18 sections in 18 files). Each chapter is structured as a brief canonical assertion plus an interlinear Zhèng Xuán commentary — exactly mirroring the Yùzhù Xiàojīng form (see KR1f0002).

The earliest dateable reference to the work is in the Sòng Tōngzhì 通志 of Zhèng Qiáo 鄭樵 (c. 1161), which already lists “Mǎ Róng Zhōngjīng 1 juàn”; its citation in the Dazai Shundai preface to KR1f0003 — “in the late Hàn Mǎ Jìcháng [Mǎ Róng] composed an imitation, the Zhōngjīng in 18 chapters, in imitation of the jīnwén Xiàojīng” — repeats the standard but apocryphal attribution. The work is absent from the Hàn shū yìwén zhì 漢書藝文志, the Suíshū jīngjí zhì 隋書經籍志, the Jiù Tángshū “Bibliographic Treatise,” and the Xīn Tángshū yìwén zhì — i.e. there is no record of the work before the Sòng. Sìkù editors and modern scholars (Yú Jiāxī 余嘉錫 Sìkù tíyào biànzhèng 四庫提要辨證) consequently regard the work as a Táng or early-Sòng forgery.

The work was excluded from the Shísān jīng and from the Sìkù quánshū. Its omission from the latter reflects the Sìkù editors’ kǎozhèng-school caution about pseudepigraphic Hàn works (cf. their treatment of KR1f0003); however, the Zhōngjīng circulated widely in the late imperial period as a school primer, often paired with the Xiàojīng, and was repeatedly reprinted in Korea and Japan as well. Its placement in the Kanripo at the end of the Xiàojīng sub-corpus follows traditional SòngYuán bibliographic practice in pairing it with the Xiàojīng as a Confucian jīng of social ethics.

The composition window is set conservatively at 700–1000: the work cannot be earlier than the consolidation of Xuánzōng’s Xiàojīng recension (which it imitates) and cannot be later than its earliest Sòng citation. A Táng date is most likely on stylistic grounds.

Translations and research

  • 余嘉錫 (Yú Jiāxī), Sìkù tíyào biànzhèng 四庫提要辨證. Beijing: Zhōnghuá shūjú, 1980. The standard modern critical evaluation; treats the Zhōngjīng as Táng or Sòng pseudepigrapha.
  • 王重民 (Wáng Chóngmín), Zhōngguó shànběn shū tíyào 中國善本書提要. Shanghai: Shànghǎi gǔjí, 1983. Bibliographic notes on the principal Zhōngjīng editions.
  • 王志躍, “馬融《忠經》新論” 馬融《忠經》新論. Zhōngyāng yánjiū yuàn lìshǐ yǔyán yánjiū suǒ jíkān 中央研究院歷史語言研究所集刊 78 (2007): 175–204.
  • Patricia Buckley Ebrey discusses the work briefly in her treatment of Nǚ xiàojīng 女孝經 imitations of the Xiàojīng form (Mann and Cheng, Under Confucian Eyes, 2001).

No major Western-language translation located.

Other points of interest

The Zhōngjīng is the most successful of several Sòng-and-after imitations of the Xiàojīng, parallel in form to the Nǚ xiàojīng 女孝經 (an early-Táng pseudepigraphon attributed to a “Lady née Zhèng” Zhèngshì 鄭氏 c. 730; see Wilkinson §11790 and Murray 1988, 1990). Both works are attempts to extend the Xiàojīng genre to additional moral domains — loyalty in the case of the Zhōngjīng, women’s filial piety in the case of the Nǚ xiàojīng. The Zhōngjīng survived into the modern period in part because of its extensive use as a primer in late-imperial state-school curricula.

The work is excluded from the Sìkù tradition (and so does not appear in any of the WYG-derived works in the rest of KR1f), but is included in the Kanripo at the end of the Xiàojīng sub-corpus following the bibliographic precedent of the Sòng Tōngzhì and the Yuán Wénxiàn tōngkǎo 文獻通考, which traditionally treated it as a paratext of the Xiàojīng.

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