聞分館君 Ask BunKanKun

羣經補義

6 min read

Text ID
KR1g0028
Date
1730–1762
Dynasty
清

Qún jīng bǔ yì 羣經補義

Supplementary Doctrines on the Various Classics by 江永 (撰)

About the work

A 5-juàn mid-Qing supplementary classical compendium by Jiāng Yǒng 江永 (Shènxiū 慎修) of Wùyuán, founding figure of the Wǎnpài 皖派 (Anhui school) of kǎozhèng. Covers cruxes across nine classical books — Yì, Shū, Shī, Chūnqiū, Yílǐ, Lǐjì, Zhōngyōng, Lúnyǔ, Mèngzǐ — with miscellaneous discussions in the closing section. The work is in suí bǐ (note) form: each entry treats one philological or doctrinal point. Strong on calendrical-astronomical and ritual questions where Jiāng’s specialized expertise gave him insights beyond the zhùshū tradition.

Tiyao

Your servants having respectfully examined: the Qún jīng bǔ yì in 5 juàn was composed by Jiāng Yǒng of our reigning dynasty. This book takes the cruxes of Yì, Shū, Shī, Chūnqiū, Yílǐ, Lǐjì, Zhōngyōng, Lúnyǔ, Mèngzǐ — nine Classics — in suí bǐ (running note) form, with a closing miscellaneous-discussions section. Many supplements to gaps in the zhùshū. Only some over-correct Zhèng Xuán’s interpretations.

[The tíyào enumerates: Jiāng’s reading on the Lǐjì’s zhǔ (sacrificial-tablet) being always in the inner chamber while the body-substitute shī moves between hall and chamber — Jiāng holds that the zhǔ never moves, only the shī. The tíyào counters with detailed examination of the Jiāo tè shēng annotation of Zhèng Xuán and the Dà sī yuè job-description, finding that Zhèng’s reading is supported by the wider Sānlǐ and Chūnqiū corpus and Jiāng’s reading is over-narrow.]

[Then on the Lúnyǔ bǔ yì’s reading of the Lǔ dì sacrifice as in the autumn-cháng month: Jiāng holds that the Lǔ dì fell in the seventh month of the Zhōu calendar = autumn; the tíyào counters with a careful enumeration of all Chūnqiū records of dì sacrifices, finding that they fall in all four seasons (Mǐn 2, fifth month; Xī 8, seventh month; Wén 2, eighth month; Xuān 8, sixth month; Zhāo 15, second month; Xuān 8, winter at Xī gōng) — and Jiāng’s seasonal-fixity reading is over-narrow.]

But other items — for instance the Shàngshū bǔ yì taking the “Western Sea” (Xī hǎi 西海) as the Qīnghǎi Lake, with the argument that though the Xīhǎijùn was first established under Wáng Mǎng, the Shānhǎi jīng already speaks of “south of the Western Sea, the bank of the flowing sands” — the Xī hǎi name is anciently attested. The Chūnqiū bǔ yì on “elder-brother dies, younger-brother succeeds”: the temple sequence (zhāo mù) of the Son of Heaven and feudal lords is limited to four generations, but the zhāo mù shrines do not need to be limited to four — and refutes Wàn Chōngzōng’s reading of the Mìngtáng wǔ shì in the Shàngshū jí zhuàn. Arguing that in the Chūnqiū age, soldiers and farmers were already separated, citing the Guǎn zǐ “Zhì guó” chapter (twenty-one xiāng; six craftsman/merchant xiāng; fifteen shì xiāng; the duke commands five xiāng; the Guó and Gāo families each command five) — i.e. Qí’s three armies all came from the fifteen xiāng near the capital, with the rural yě bǐ farmers exempted. The Lúnyǔ bǔ yì’s argument that the previous Confucians’ calculation of the mámiǎn hat using 30 shēng of cloth at 80 threads per shēng (= 2,400 threads) over a 1.2-foot brow band would mean each thread occupies less than 1/2,000 of a foot — Zhū Xī had already remarked that the cloth would be as fine as the silken silk juàn of his day, but Jiāng’s argument that the actual mámiǎn used only 15 shēng. His other discussions — on the geography of the Yǔ gòng and the calendrical shuòrùn of the Chūnqiū — are extensively investigated and citation-rich, of substantial benefit to the canonical text and annotation.

Respectfully collated and submitted in the fifth month of the forty-third year of Qiánlóng (1778). — Editors-in-chief: your servants Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. — Chief proof-reader: your servant Lù Fèichí.

Abstract

The Qún jīng bǔ yì is one of the more philologically distinguished mid-Qing compendia, exhibiting Jiāng Yǒng’s characteristic strengths: ritual precision, astronomical-calendrical accuracy, and broad citation of classical and historical sources. Three points of distinction:

(1) The Wǎnpài method. Jiāng’s kǎozhèng method — investigating each philological point through a five-step procedure of (i) source-collation, (ii) parallel-text adduction, (iii) calendrical/ritual-systemic verification, (iv) graphic-philology testing, and (v) doctrinal weighing — is on full display. The work is in this respect the prose model of what would become the high-Qing Wǎnpài method (Dài Zhèn, Duàn Yùcái, Wáng Niànsūn).

(2) The over-correction of Zhèng Xuán. The Sìkù tíyào’s principal critique — that on the Lǐjì’s zhǔshī and the Lǔ dì’s seasonal placement, Jiāng has over-corrected Zhèng’s readings into too-narrow alternatives — is fair and represents a genuine point of contestation in Qing kǎozhèng. (The tíyào is broadly correct: Zhèng’s wider classical-systemic reading is more defensible than Jiāng’s.)

(3) The dating. The work has no specific date in the source. Jiāng’s lifedates 1681–1762 (per CBDB and existing person note) bracket the composition; the work is generally assigned to his late career (post-1730). The bracket here (1730–1762) reflects the most defensible window.

Translations and research

  • Qing shǐ gǎo 清史稿 j. 481, Rúlín zhuàn — biographical entry on Jiāng Yǒng.
  • Elman, Benjamin A. From Philosophy to Philology. HUP, 1984; rev. UCLA 2001. The Wǎn-pài context.
  • Hummel, Arthur W., ed. Eminent Chinese of the Ch’ing Period. Library of Congress, 1943; repr. SMC, 1991. Entry on Jiāng Yǒng.
  • Wú Tiān-rèn 吳天任. Jiāng Shèn-xiū xué shù sī xiǎng yán jiū 江慎修學術思想研究. Modern PRC monograph, 1980s.
  • Chow Kai-wing. The Rise of Confucian Ritualism in Late Imperial China. Stanford UP, 1994. Background on the Wǎn-pài ritual scholarship.

Other points of interest

Jiāng’s astronomical-calendrical learning — visible in the Chūnqiū bǔ yì discussions of shuò and rùn — is the same expertise that he brought to the Shù xué 數學 (KR3f0031); one can read the Qún jīng bǔ yì and the Shù xué as parallel applications of a unified Wǎnpài kǎozhèng method to canonical and to mathematical-astronomical material.

Graph View

Backlinks