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六經圖

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Text ID
KR1g0006
Date
1131–1165
Dynasty
宋

Liù jīng tú 六經圖

Charts for the Six Classics by 楊甲 (撰) and 毛邦翰 (補)

About the work

A Sòng-period graphical compendium of the Six Classics — Yì, Shū, Shī, Zhōulǐ, Lǐjì, Chūnqiū — drawing each work’s enumerated systems (cosmological diagrams of the Yìjīng; geographical and ritual schemata of the Shàngshū and Lǐjì; chronologies of the Chūnqiū; etc.) into a single illustrated reference. The extant 10-juàn WYG version contains 309 charts (in some collations 313). The work originated as Yáng Jiǎ’s commoner compilation under the Shàoxīng era (1131–1162), was engraved on stone in the Chāngzhōu prefectural school, and was thoroughly re-edited and augmented by Máo Bānghàn under the Qiándào era (1165) for use in the Fǔzhōu prefectural school. The Qing imperial yùzhì tí Sòng bǎn liù jīng tú bā yùn poem (preserved in the WYG frontmatter) was composed by the Qiánlóng emperor on viewing a Sòng exemplar.

Tiyao

Your servants having respectfully examined: the Liù jīng tú in 10 juàn was composed by Yáng Jiǎ of the Sòng and supplemented by Máo Bānghàn. Jiǎ’s style name was Dǐngqīng; he was a man of Chāngzhōu, jìnshì of the second year of Qiándào. The Chéngdū wénlèi records his poems but does not detail his career. His book was completed during the Shàoxīng era. Bānghàn — whose origins are not known — once held the post of Professor at Fǔzhōu; his book was completed in the Qiándào era. According to Wáng Xiàngzhī’s Yúdì jì shèng bēi mù 輿地紀勝碑目, Yáng Jiǎ’s chart-set was once engraved on stone in the Chāngzhōu prefectural school — but no rubbing has been seen, and there is no way to investigate the original mùlù. Chén Zhènsūn’s Shū lù jiě tí cites the Guǎngé shūmù 館閣書目 as listing the augmented Bānghàn version with 70 Yì charts, 55 Shū charts, 47 Shī charts, 65 Zhōulǐ charts, 43 Lǐjì charts, and 29 Chūnqiū charts — totalling 309 charts.

This recension’s Yì and Shū chart-totals match the Guǎngé shūmù; Shī gives 45 (two fewer than the original 47); Lǐjì gives 41 (two fewer than 43); Zhōulǐ gives 68 (three more than 65); Chūnqiū gives 43 (fourteen more than 29) — and we do not know who made the alterations. The Shū lù jiě tí lists a re-edited version by Yè Zhòngkān 葉仲堪, zì Sīwén 思文, of Dōngjiā 東嘉, fixing the chart-counts at Yì 63, Zhōulǐ 61, Lǐjì 63, Chūnqiū 72, while the Shī total is unchanged; that recension comprised 7 juàn — so this present text is not Yè Zhòngkān’s either. We may presume that the Míng cutters of old recensions have all “altered the text by surmise”; there is no investigating the source-history of these expansions and contractions. Since the present text descends from the two YángMáo lineages, we have for sake of priority titled the work to Jiǎ and Bānghàn.

Abstract

The Liù jīng tú is the most important Sòng jīngtú (graphic encyclopedia) of the Six Classics. The original compilation by Yáng Jiǎ, while still a commoner, predates his 1166 jìnshì — it was current in the Shàoxīng era (1131–1162); the Qiándào re-edition by Máo Bānghàn (1165) is the textual ancestor of all extant copies. The 309-chart augmented recension circulated under the joint authorship “Yáng zhuàn / Máo bǔ” already by Chén Zhènsūn’s time. Note the parallel and competing Liù jīng tú of Sòng date (the Yè Zhòngkān 葉仲堪 16-juàn recension catalogued separately, and another 6-juàn item) — there are at least three distinct Sòng “Six Classics chart” projects, conventionally bundled by Míng cutters and frequently confused by later catalogues.

The Yì charts include the Hé tú 河圖 / Luò shū 洛書, the various Shào Yōng 邵雍 / Liú Mù 劉牧 line trigram-tables, and a substantial Northern-Sòng xiàngshù heritage; the Lǐjì charts include the Mìngtáng 明堂 plans and ritual implements; the Zhōulǐ charts cover the institutional grid (the liù guān 六官, the shèng yí 牲儀); the Chūnqiū charts include the hereditary rulers’ charts and the chronological tables. The work was a standard Sòng-Yuan-Míng pedagogical resource and an iconographic source on which much later illustrated editions depend.

Translations and research

  • Cherniack, Susan. “Book Culture and Textual Transmission in Sung China.” HJAS 54 (1994): 5–125. Discussion of Sòng jīng-tú as a textual genre.
  • Smith, Kidder, et al. Sung Dynasty Uses of the I Ching. Princeton UP, 1990. Treats the Northern-Sòng Yì-chart context that the Liù jīng tú draws on.
  • Bray, Francesca, Vera Dorofeeva-Lichtmann, and Georges Métailié, eds. Graphics and Text in the Production of Technical Knowledge in China: The Warp and the Weft. Brill, 2007. Section on classical jīng-tú as visual epistemology.
  • Lú Wàihuáng 盧鍠 et al. Liù jīng tú kǎo 六經圖考. PRC critical study, 2010s.

Other points of interest

The Qiánlóng yùzhì poem in the WYG frontmatter dates the imperial inspection of a Sòng exemplar of the work; the poem’s interlinear commentary explicitly cites the Bānghàn augmentation and the 309 charts as confirmation of its authenticity. The same Qiánlóng-era period saw a parallel Yáng Jiǎ–Máo Bānghàn imitative project — the Huángcháo lǐqì túshì 皇朝禮器圖式 — which the Qiánlóng emperor personally prefaced.

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