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程氏經說

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Text ID
KR1g0005
Date
1080–1107
Dynasty
宋

Chéng shì jīng shuō 程氏經說

Master Chéng’s Discussions on the Classics by 程頤 (撰)

About the work

A 7-juàn compilation of classical exegesis by Chéng Yí 程頤 (Yīchuān 伊川), comprising the Xìcí 繫辭 (1 juàn), Shī (2 juàn), Chūnqiū (1 juàn), Lúnyǔ (1 juàn), and the redacted Dàxué 大學 (1 juàn). The work is one of the principal vehicles by which Yīchuān’s classical interpretations beyond his epoch-defining Yīchuān Yìzhuàn (KR1a0016) were transmitted; the Chūnqiū zhuàn layer is the unfinished commentary referenced in his 1103 self-preface, while the Shī, Shū, and Lúnyǔ discussions are recorded sayings collected from teaching contexts rather than systematic commentary.

Tiyao

Your servants having respectfully examined: the Chéng shì jīng shuō in 7 juàn is wholly composed of Yīchuān Master Chéng’s exegetical sayings on the Classics. The original copy does not name the editor. The Shū lù jiě tí 書錄解題 calls it the Hénán jīng shuō 河南經說 and lists 1 juàn on the Xìcí, 2 on the Shī, 1 on the Chūnqiū, 1 on the Lúnyǔ, and 1 on the redacted Dàxué; it adds: “of Mr. Chéng’s learning, the Yìzhuàn is the complete work; the rest of the Classics are exhausted in this.” Its sub-categorization and juàn arrangement match the present text, so this is still the old book of the Sòng. Among its contents the Shī discussion, the Shū discussion, and the Lúnyǔ discussion are all materials produced ad hoc in oral exchanges, not deliberate commentaries. The Chūnqiū zhuàn is a deliberate commentary that he never finished — as is shown by the self-preface dated the second year of Chóngníng 崇寧 (1103). As to the Xìcí shuō in 1 juàn: the Wénxiàn tōngkǎo combines it with the Yìzhuàn into a 10-juàn whole; the Sòng zhì, on the other hand, lists it separately apart from the 9-juàn Yìzhuàn. Master Chéng’s Yìzhuàn in fact lacks any Xìcí — which is why Lǚ Zǔqiān 呂祖謙 collected the 14-juàn Xìcí discussion and made it into the Xìcí jīng yì 繫辭精義 to fill the gap. We suspect the Xìcí shuō here may have been gathered together by later persons to make up the deficiency. The Dàxué re-redaction is presented alongside Chéng Hào’s redaction, perhaps so that the brothers’ two versions might be compared.

In the Míng, Xú Bìdá 徐必達 in compiling the Èr Chéng quán shū 二程全書 combined the two juàn Shī commentary into one and added a juàn on the Mèngzǐ and one on the Zhōngyōng, totalling 8 juàn. But the Jīngyì kǎo cites Kāng Shàozōng 康紹宗’s view that the Mèngzǐ jiě was assembled from external scraps by later persons and is not by Master Chéng’s own hand; while Zhū Xī has demonstrated very plainly that the Zhōngyōng jiě is by Lǚ Dàlín 呂大臨 — neither can therefore be smuggled into the Chéng shì jīng shuō by adding such a section. Therefore in this text we follow the Sòng original. Respectfully collated and submitted in the twelfth month of the forty-sixth year of Qiánlóng (1781). — Editors-in-chief: your servants Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. — Chief proof-reader: your servant Lù Fèichí.

Abstract

The Chéng shì jīng shuō is the principal repository of Chéng Yí’s exegesis on classical texts other than the Yìjīng. Its compositional history runs from the 1080s (when Yīchuān was already teaching the Lúnyǔ and the Dàxué in his Luòyáng circle) to the Chūnqiū commentary’s self-prefaced (incomplete) state of 1103, and was assembled posthumously after 1107. The Sìkù compilers carefully distinguish three layers: (1) systematic individual commentaries (the unfinished Chūnqiū zhuàn); (2) classroom sayings on the Shī, Shū, Lúnyǔ gathered by disciples; (3) the Dàxué re-redaction (the famous Yīchuān reordering that Zhū Xī adopted in his Dàxué zhāngjù 大學章句, presented alongside Chéng Hào’s parallel redaction). The Xìcí shuō is shown by the Sìkù compilers to be a later compilation by disciples to make good the absence of Xìcí commentary in Yīchuān’s Yìzhuàn — so its presence here is, strictly speaking, partly anachronistic for the Chéng shì attribution. The Míng additions of Mèngzǐ jiě (per Kāng Shàozōng, an external compilation) and Zhōngyōng jiě (per Zhū Xī, by Lǚ Dàlín 呂大臨) are correctly excluded by the Sìkù editors.

The work is a foundational source for any study of Northern-Sòng Dàoxué exegesis outside the Yì tradition. Its most influential single passage is the redacted Dàxué — preserved here in both Yīchuān’s and Míngdào’s versions side-by-side — which became the structural basis of Zhū Xī’s Sì shū zhāngjù. The Chūnqiū layer, though unfinished, is the basis of subsequent ChéngZhū Chūnqiū hermeneutics.

Translations and research

  • Èr Chéng jí 二程集. Zhōnghuá shūjú, 1981 (rev. ed. 2004), 4 vols. Modern critical edition; the Jīng shuō materials are in vols. 3–4.
  • Graham, A. C. Two Chinese Philosophers: The Metaphysics of the Brothers Ch’eng. London: Lund Humphries, 1958; repr. Open Court, 1992. Standard English-language exposition of the Èr Chéng philosophy; uses the Jīng shuō extensively.
  • Bol, Peter K. Neo-Confucianism in History. HUP, 2008. Pages 86–103 on the Chéng brothers’ classical hermeneutics.
  • Tillman, Hoyt Cleveland. Confucian Discourse and Chu Hsi’s Ascendancy. UHP, 1992. Discussion of the Sòng reception of Chéng Yí’s Dàxué redaction and Chūnqiū materials.

Other points of interest

The presence of both Chéng Yí’s and Chéng Hào’s redactions of the Dàxué in this work is the textual point of origin for Zhū Xī’s later editorial decision (in the Sì shū zhāngjù) to follow Yīchuān’s redaction; the parallel form here records the two brothers’ different conjectural reorderings of the canonical text — a window onto the prehistory of Sòng Dàxué hermeneutics.

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