Bó Wǔjīng yìyì 駁五經異義
Refutation of [Xu Shen’s] Disagreements among the Five Classics by 許愼 (original Wǔjīng yìyì) and 鄭玄 (refutation)
About the work
A short reconstituted compilation, transmitted in 1 juàn with a 1-juàn supplement (bǔyí 補遺), preserving fragments of two interlocking Hàn-period works: Xǔ Shèn’s Wǔjīng yìyì 五經異義 — a survey of doctrinal disagreements among the Han classical schools — and Zhèng Xuán’s point-by-point rebuttal Bó Wǔjīng yìyì 駁五經異義. Both works were lost as independent books long before the Sòng; the Wényuāngé Sìkù edition is a Qing reconstruction from quotations in the Sānlǐ zhèngyì 三禮正義, Chūxué jì 初學記, Tōngdiǎn 通典, Tàipíng yùlǎn 太平御覽 and similar repositories.
Tiyao
Your servants having respectfully examined: the Bó Wǔjīng yìyì, in 1 juàn with a 1-juàn supplement, contains the text in which the Hàn scholar Zhèng Xuán refuted Xǔ Shèn’s Wǔjīng yìyì. According to the biography of Xǔ Shèn in the Hòu Hànshū, Shèn — finding that the various traditions of the Five Classics differed in their judgments — accordingly compiled the Wǔjīng yìyì, and the work was famous in its day. The biography of Zhèng Xuán records that of the over one million words he composed, one is entitled “Refutation of Xǔ Shèn’s Wǔjīng yìyì”. The bibliographical treatise of the Suíshū jīngjízhì lists “Wǔjīng yìyì in 10 juàn, by Xǔ Shèn, Tàiwèijìjiǔ of the Later Hàn”, but does not mention Zhèng Xuán’s refutation. The Jīngjízhì of the Old Tángshū records “Wǔjīng yìyì in 10 juàn, by Xǔ Shèn, with refutations by Zhèng Xuán”; the Yìwénzhì of the New Tángshū is the same. Evidently Zhèng’s refutations were appended to the original text of Xǔ rather than circulating as a separate book; this is why the historical bibliographies record them with varying degrees of detail. By the Yìwénzhì of the Sòngshǐ the work has dropped from view altogether — it had been lost since the Táng. What scholars have seen of the Yìyì derives only from the citations in the Chūxué jì, Tōngdiǎn, Tàipíng yùlǎn and other such books; the refutations of Mr. Zhèng, beyond the Sānlǐ zhèngyì, are likewise meager.
The present transmitted copy is itself derived from later compilers harvesting the citations from various sources; it is no longer the 10-juàn book of the Suí and Táng records. Some attribute its compilation to the Sòng scholar Wáng Yīnglín 王應麟, but no firm evidence supports this; presumably because Yīnglín took an interest in Hàn learning — he had reconstituted the Zhōu Yì Zhèng zhù and similar works — this book too was assigned to him. There remain in it some isolated single-word and fragmentary passages where the refutation is preserved but the original disagreement is lost; the original text mixes citations together without order.
We have now thoroughly redacted it, listing entries in which both the disagreement and the refutation are extant at the front, and appending in supplement form the fragments where only the refutation survives. In recent times Zhū Yízūn 朱彝尊 in his Jīngyì kǎo 經義考 has likewise drawn out a number of Zhèng’s refutations; and Mr. Huì of Chángzhōu (i.e. Huì Dòng 惠棟; cf. KR1g0024) has compiled an even more thorough collection, often containing matter not included in this text. We have collated the two and, eliminating duplicates, taken from these two collectors fifty-seven entries to constitute the supplementary 1-juàn added at the end. Where there is a disagreement in Xǔ but no refutation by Zhèng, that signifies that Zhèng concurred with Xǔ.
The classicists of the Western Hàn for the most part each specialized in one Classic, and could not interconnect them; the masters’ transmissions which they had received were always at variance. By the Eastern Hàn, scholars who could embrace several Classics had become more numerous, and Xǔ Shèn accordingly received the epithet “without peer in the Five Classics”. From the time the Táng scholars compiled the Wǔjīng zhèngyì 五經正義, which exclusively followed Zhèng’s interpretations, the doctrines of Xǔ gradually fell into obscurity. Yet the Yìyì’s thorough analysis of agreement and divergence and its identification of the points at issue can mostly still be made out: this present text, though its entries are few and only one part in ten survives, is in truth what students of Hàn learning ought to study with care. Respectfully collated and submitted in the tenth month of the forty-sixth year of the Qiánlóng era (1781).
Editor-in-chief: your servants Jǐ Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅 Chief proof-reader: your servant Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
The Wǔjīng yìyì of Xǔ Shèn (c. 58–c. 147) and Zhèng Xuán’s (127–200) point-by-point refutation are among the most consequential lost works of Hàn classical learning. Xǔ catalogued where the various schools — Jīn wén 今文 Lǔ Shī 魯詩, Hán Shī 韓詩, Qí Shī 齊詩, Gǔ wén 古文 Máoshī 毛詩, Jīn wén Shàngshū, Gǔ wén Shàngshū, Gōngyáng 公羊, Gǔliáng 穀梁, Zuǒshì 左氏 Chūnqiū, the various Lǐ traditions, etc. — differed on doctrinal points, citing each by name and giving his own judgment. Zhèng’s Bó annotates each entry, accepting some, modifying others, rejecting others. Both works were lost as integral books well before the Sòng (no entry in the Sòng shǐ Yìwén zhì) and survive only through quotation. The reconstruction printed in the Sìkù quánshū derives ultimately from SòngYuán manuscript redactions — sometimes attributed without firm warrant to Wáng Yīnglín 王應麟 (KR2g0034) — supplemented in the WYG edition by additional fragments harvested from Zhū Yízūn 朱彝尊’s Jīngyì kǎo 經義考 (KR1g tradition; see KR3i0006) and from the more thorough collation by Huì Dòng 惠棟 (KR1g0024). The work is fundamental for any reconstruction of Eastern Hàn classical learning and for the prehistory of the Sānlǐ zhèngyì 三禮正義 tradition. Dating: the underlying compositions are unambiguously second-century (Xǔ before c. 147; Zhèng before 200), but the received recension is a Sòng-Qing reconstruction; the date bracket here covers the original compositional window and the WYG editorial framework.
Translations and research
- Pi Xirui 皮錫瑞. Bó Wǔjīng yìyì shū zhèng 駁五經異義疏證. 19th c. The standard Qing critical edition with running annotation, still the point of departure for modern scholarship.
- Chen Shouqi 陳壽祺 (1771–1834). Wǔjīng yìyì shū zhèng 五經異義疏證. Influential Qing reconstruction parallel to Pi’s.
- Jiang Hailong 姜海龍 et al. 2000s–. Modern critical reconstructions in the Quánhàn jīngshī 全漢經師 and similar collections.
- Loewe, Michael, ed. Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide. Berkeley: SSEC/IEAS, 1993, s.v. Wujing yiyi (Anne Cheng) — concise English entry with bibliography.
Other points of interest
The Bó is critically important for Hàn-Tang interpretation history because it preserves, almost uniquely, named attributions of doctrinal positions to specific Western-Hàn schools. Where Zhèng concurs without refutation his agreement is recorded by silence — a convention faithfully described in the Sìkù tíyào.