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九經辨字瀆蒙

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Text ID
KR1g0030
Date
1720–1738
Dynasty
清

Jiǔ jīng biàn zì dú méng 九經辨字瀆蒙

Distinguishing the Characters of the Nine Classics, for the Younger Sort by 沈炳震 (撰)

About the work

A 12-juàn mid-Qing graphic-philology compendium by Shěn Bǐngzhèn of Guī’ān (Húzhōu), distinguishing the nine classical books’ graphic variants and phonetic loans through a precise 12-fold typology. Covers the Yì, Shū, Shī, Sānlǐ, Chūnqiū sān zhuàn, Lúnyǔ (= the standard nine). Each juàn applies a different analytical category. The work is methodologically the most precise mid-Qing graphic-philology compendium prior to Duàn Yùcái’s monumental Shuōwén jiězì zhù (1815).

Tiyao

Your servants having respectfully examined: the Jiǔ jīng biàn zì dú méng in 12 juàn was composed by Shěn Bǐngzhèn of our reigning dynasty. Bǐngzhèn was a man of Guī’ān. This work collates the Nine Classics’ characters.

The first juàn covers jīng diǎn zhòng wén 經典重文 (classical doublings) — such as piānpiān, kǎnkǎn. The second covers jīng wú zhòng wén 經無重文 (where the canonical text has no doubling, contra later usage) — such as chì 裭 and fén 豮. The third covers jīng diǎn zhuàn é 經典傳譌 (errors in transmission) — such as the Yì’s Wén yán zhuàn’s “chóng gāng ér bù zhōng” 重剛而不中 — the chóng 重 likely a wrongly-inserted character per the Běn yì’s suspicion; the xiàng zhuàn’s “lǚ shuāng jiān bīng” 履霜堅冰, which the Wèi zhì writes as “chū liù lǚ shuāng” 初六履霜. The fourth and fifth juàn cover jīng diǎn zhuàn yì (jùn) 經典傳異 (variant cuts) — placing the zhùshū readings on top and the stone-classic readings differing from them below; cross-citations from other works are also appended. The sixth covers jīng diǎn tōng jiè 經典通借 (graphic loans) — such as “jūn zǐ yǐ shùn dé”, which the Wáng Sù cut writes as “shèn dé” 慎德; “pán huán lì jū zhēn” 磐桓利居貞, which the shìwén writes alternatively as “pán” 盤. The seventh, eighth, and ninth cover xiān rú yì dú 先儒異讀 (older Confucians’ alternative readings) — such as the Yì’s “dà rén zào yě” 大人造也, which Liú Xīn cites as “jù” 聚; “jūn zǐ tǐ rén” 君子體仁, which Dǒng Yù’s cut writes as “xìn” 信. The tenth covers tóng yīn yì yì 同音異義 (homophonic ambiguity) — such as tuàn 彖 originally meaning “swine running”; in the Yì it means “to judge”, though the sound is unchanged. Dú 毒 originally meaning “harm”; Wáng Bì’s annotation of the Shī hexagram’s “dú tiān xià” reads it as “to put to use”.

The eleventh covers yì yīn yì yì 易音易義 (changed sound, changed sense) — such as the yuán hēng 元亨’s hēng, which in Wáng yòng hēng yú Qí shān 王用亨于岐山 is read as xiǎng 饗; qián 乾 of the qiánkūn hexagrams, which in Shì hé qián zǐ 噬嗅乾胏 is read as gān 干 — the sound being changed alongside. Appended: yì zì tóng yì 異字同義 (different characters, same sense) — such as the Yì’s shí shǔ 鼫鼠 = Shī’s shuò shǔ 碩鼠; the Yì’s niè wù 臲卼 = Shū’s wùniè 杌&KR1150;.

The twelfth juàn covers zhù jiě chuán shù rén 註解傳述人 (annotators and their lineages). His lining-up and cross-checking is exceedingly careful and exact; one can use the variant graphs to investigate the merits and faults of xùngǔ. To classical learning the work is solidly meritorious.

Only the closing juàn on annotators and lineages copies wholesale from Lù Démíng’s Jīngdiǎn shìwén without adding investigation, merely padding the volume — and we may set it aside as a sixth-toe excrescence. Respectfully collated and submitted in the seventh month of the forty-fifth year of Qiánlóng (1780). — Editors-in-chief: your servants Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. — Chief proof-reader: your servant Lù Fèichí.

Abstract

The Jiǔ jīng biàn zì dú méng is one of the more methodologically sophisticated mid-Qing graphic-philology compendia. Three points of distinction:

(1) The 12-fold typology. The work’s structural innovation is the systematic categorization of graphic and phonetic variation into 12 mutually exclusive classes — a distinctly more precise framework than Yamai Kanae’s 5-class scheme (KR1g0020) or Shěn Tíngfāng’s 5-class certainty-grading (KR1g0026). The framework anticipates the methodological apparatus of high-Qing xiǎo xué (Duàn Yùcái, Wáng Niànsūn, Wáng Yǐnzhī).

(2) The Sìkù tíyào’s principal critique. The closing juàn on annotator-lineages is identified by the compilers as a wholesale copy from Lù Démíng’s Jīngdiǎn shìwén without added investigation — “pián mǔ zhī zhǐ” 駢拇支指 (a sixth-toe excrescence). This is fair: the lineage juàn adds nothing to Lù.

(3) The dating. The compositional bracket runs from Shěn’s mature classical career (post-1720) through his death (1738). The work was first cut posthumously and was incorporated into the Sìkù in 1780.

The work’s “dú méng” 瀆蒙 (for the younger sort) framing is characteristic Qing-period self-deprecation: Shěn presents the work as a primer, but the methodological sophistication far exceeds primer-level work.

Translations and research

  • Húzhōu fǔ zhì 湖州府志 — local gazetteer with biographical entry on Shěn Bǐngzhèn.
  • Elman, Benjamin A. From Philosophy to Philology. HUP, 1984; rev. UCLA 2001.
  • Hummel, Arthur W., ed. Eminent Chinese of the Ch’ing Period. Library of Congress, 1943; repr. SMC, 1991. Brief entry on Shěn Bǐngzhèn.

Other points of interest

The 12-fold typology is the work’s most enduring contribution; even where individual readings have been superseded by Qing-mid evidential scholarship, the analytical framework remains useful for sorting variant readings and understanding the structure of canonical-textual variation. It is a useful piece of methodological kit for any working classical philologist.

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