Lúnyǔ 論語 (Hé Yàn jíjiě 何晏集解)
The Analects, with the collected commentaries of He Yan
孔丘 (Confucius, 551–479 BCE), with the jíjiě of 何晏 (Hé Yàn, zì Píngshū, ca. 195–249)
About the work
The earliest extant Lúnyǔ commentary, in 10 juàn (the conventional medieval division). The SBCK reprint reproduces the Japanese Shōhei 正平 cutting (1364, by 唐土堺浦道祐 居士), which transmits a pre-Sòng witness of Hé Yàn’s jíjiě uncontaminated by the Northern Sòng zhèngyì tradition (for which see KR1h0007).
Abstract
The Lúnyǔ jíjiě was compiled at the Wèi court ca. 240–248 by Hé Yàn 何晏 (with collaborators Sūn Yōng 孫邕, Zhèng Chōng 鄭沖, Cáo Xī 曹羲 and Xún Yǐ 荀顗 named in the prefatory matter), as a comprehensive Lúnyǔ primer for an aristocratic readership. Its method — jíjiě “collected commentaries” — was new to Lúnyǔ scholarship: rather than offering a continuous gloss, Hé Yàn excerpted from the existing HànWèi commentaries, citing each by name (Bāo Xián 包咸, Kǒng Ānguó 孔安國, Mǎ Róng 馬融, Zhèng Xuán 鄭玄, Chén Qún 陳群, Wáng Sù 王肅, Zhōu Shēngliè 周生烈, Zhōu shì 周氏 — the so-called “Eight Hé Yàn collected”), and supplying his own jiě 解 where existing glosses fell short.
Hé Yàn opens with a long preface (preserved in this SBCK at the head of juan 1) reproducing Liú Xiàng’s 劉向 (77–6 BCE) account of the textual history of the Lúnyǔ: the three branches Lǔ 魯 (20 piān), Qí 齊 (22 piān, with the additional Wèn wáng 問王 and Zhī dào 知道 piān), Gǔ wén 古文 (21 piān, recovered from the wall of Confucius’s house under Lǔ Gōngwáng 魯恭王); and the consolidation by Zhāng Yú 張禹 (the “Zhānghóu lùn” 張侯論) and Zhèng Xuán’s collation against the Lǔ recension.
The jíjiě preserves the Hàn commentarial tradition — much of which is now lost in its primary form — and is therefore both a primary source for the late-Western/Eastern Hàn Lúnyǔ commentaries (Bāo, Kǒng, Mǎ, Zhèng) and an important testimony to early Wèi xuánxué readings of Confucius. Hé Yàn’s own glosses, in particular, occasionally inflect the text with Daoist-metaphysical vocabulary (e.g. on Lúnyǔ 7.6, zhì yú dào 志於道), foreshadowing the Wáng Bì–style readings that would dominate the Six Dynasties.
The Japanese Shōhei edition (景日本正平本) used by SBCK is a Kamakura-period kōen-ki 校點 cutting that preserves a Tang-period text-form, antedating the Northern Sòng zhùshū of KR1h0007 and frequently differing from it in matters of attribution and wording. It is the principal witness for the un-subcommentaried jíjiě.
Translations and research
The jíjiě survives complete and was the standard Lúnyǔ commentary throughout the Six Dynasties; its place was eventually displaced in the Sòng by Zhū Xī’s Lúnyǔ jí-zhù 論語集注. Modern punctuated editions: Lúnyǔ jíjiě in the Sì-bù bèi-yào 四部備要 and the Sì-bù cóng-kān 四部叢刊 (the present base) series; analytical study in Daniel K. Gardner, Zhu Xi’s Reading of the Analects (Columbia, 2003), which sets the jíjiě against Zhū Xī’s later commentary; Makeham, John, Transmitters and Creators: Chinese Commentators and Commentaries on the Analects (HUP, 2003), the standard English-language treatment of the Lúnyǔ commentarial tradition (esp. ch. 3 on Hé Yàn). For the Shōhei edition specifically: 王素 Hé Yàn Lúnyǔ jíjiě jiàoshì 何晏論語集解校釋 (Bā-Shǔ shū-shè 1992).
Other points of interest
The Shōhei edition’s textual divisions occasionally preserve readings — and even gloss-attributions — different from the Sòng zhùshū witness in KR1h0007. For example, the Shōhei witnesses several “Bāo (Xián) 苞氏曰” attributions where the Sòng zhùshū reads “Bāo Xián 包咸曰” (note also the orthographic variant 苞 / 包) — a small pointer to the textual independence of the Japanese transmission.
Links
- Lúnyǔ jíjiě on Chinese Text Project
- John Makeham, Transmitters and Creators (HUP, 2003).
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §28.4.4.