Mèngzǐ 孟子 (Zhào shì zhù 趙氏注)
The Mencius, with the annotations of Mr Zhào
attributed to 孟軻 (Mèng Kē, ca. 372–289 BCE), with annotations by 趙岐 (Zhào Qí, zì Bīnqīng, d. 201)
About the work
The seven piān of the Mèngzǐ in Zhào Qí’s 趙岐 (d. 201) Hàn-period zhāngjù 章句 commentary, divided in 14 juàn (each piān split into shàng 上 / xià 下). The Sìbù cóngkān (SBCK) reproduces the Sòng dàzì běn 宋大字本 from the Hánfēnlóu 涵芬樓 collection in Shanghai, which preserves the line-arrangement of the early Sòng print and is the principal pre-Sìkù witness for the un-subcommentaried Hàn-text edition. Includes Zhào Qí’s own Mèngzǐ tící 孟子題辭 as front matter — the earliest extant biographical-bibliographical preface to the work.
Abstract
Zhào Qí’s commentary, composed in hiding at Běihǎi during the Yánxī period (158 CE onward), is the earliest extant complete commentary on the Mèngzǐ and the basis of all subsequent exegesis. Its character — as the Sìkù editors observe (see the tíyào under KR1h0003) — is unusual among Hàn classical commentaries: rather than concentrating on lexical glosses (xùngǔ 訓詁) or on names and institutions (míngwù 名物), Zhào Qí paraphrases each section into clear narrative-prose, explicating the logical and moral sense of the dialogues. The model is the Lúnyǔ commentaries of Kǒng Ānguó 孔安國, Mǎ Róng 馬融, and Zhèng Xuán 鄭玄 (later collected by Hé Yàn 何晏 in KR1h0005 and KR1h0006) rather than the dense gǔwén 古文 line-by-line tradition of the Wǔ jīng.
The Tící 題辭 (preserved at the head of every transmission, including this SBCK reprint) is the principal early source for Mencius’s biography: his LǔMèngsūn descent, his “three movings” upbringing under his widowed mother, his study under disciples of Zǐsī 子思, his itinerant counselling of Liáng, Qí and Téng, and his retirement to compose — with disciples Wàn Zhāng 萬章 and Gōngsūn Chǒu 公孫丑 — the seven piān. The Tící also asserts a four-piān “outer” Mèngzǐ wàishū 孟子外書, “shallow and not corresponding to the inner piān”, which Zhào Qí already rejected; later Mèngzǐ wàishū circulating today are Míng-period fabrications.
Zhào Qí’s commentary survived the Six Dynasties without subcommentary; under the Northern Sòng, Sūn Shì 孫奭 produced the Mèngzǐ yīnyì 孟子音義 (KR1h0009) glossing pronunciations and select graphs in Zhào’s text. The zhèngyì 正義 zhùshū combining Zhào, Sūn, and a sub-commentary later attributed to Sūn but already doubted in the Sòng — see Zhū Xī’s Yǔlù 語錄 and the Sìkù tíyào at KR1h0003 — is the principal medieval reception of Zhào’s work.
Translations and research
The Zhào Qí commentary is translated and analysed in the punctuated Mèngzǐ zhèngyì 孟子正義 (Zhōnghuá, 1987) of Jiāo Xún 焦循 (1763–1820), which collects the entire pre-modern philological tradition. Modern philological treatments include Li Xueqín 李學勤, Mèngzǐ zhèngyì jíshì 孟子正義集釋, and the analytical chapters in Yang Bojun 楊伯峻, Mèngzǐ yìzhù 孟子譯注. Western-language studies on Zhào Qí specifically include Kandel, B., Taiping jing: The Origin and Transmission of the “Scripture on General Welfare” (1979) — peripheral; more directly Erik Tigerstedt’s brief notice in HJAS, and the discussion of Zhào Qí’s exegetical method in J. Lewis Mast, “The Mengzi in Han Commentary” (PhD diss., Univ. of Michigan, 1989). For the SBCK textual base specifically, see the editorial colophon to the Sìbù cóngkān edition.
Other points of interest
Zhào Qí’s Tící opens the SBCK volume and includes the famous etymology “Mèng is a surname, Zǐ is the common appellation for males, and this book is one Mencius made himself, hence it is called Mèngzǐ in toto” — the standard Hàn justification for the work’s title. The dating of Zhào Qí’s commentary is conventionally to the years 158–168 (Yánxī through Jiànníng), during his concealment in Sūn Bīn’s house. See further KR1h0003 for the Sòng zhùshū edition combining Zhào Qí, Sūn Shì yīnyì, and the disputed Sòng zhèngyì.
Links
- SBCK volume bibliography: 商務印書館《四部叢刊初編》目錄.
- HòuHàn shū 後漢書 64 (Zhào Qí biography)
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §28.4.4.