Lúnyǔ zhùshū 論語注疏
Annotations and Subcommentary on the Analects
何晏 (Hé Yàn, ca. 195–249) — jíjiě; 陸德明 (Lù Démíng, 556–627) — yīnyì; 邢昺 (Xíng Bǐng, 932–1010) — shū; 陸宗楷 (?–1773), 呂熾 (?–1778) — kǎozhèng
About the work
The Northern-Sòng zhùshū on the Lúnyǔ in 20 juàn: Hé Yàn’s Wèi-period jíjiě set under the canonical text, with Lù Démíng’s Táng-period Jīngdiǎn shìwén 經典釋文 yīnyì glossing pronunciations and select graphs, and Xíng Bǐng’s Sòng-period zhèngyì (sub-commentary) — all formally fixed at imperial command in the second year of Xiánpíng (999) and presented to the throne in 1010. The standard Lúnyǔ component of the Shísānjīng zhùshū. The WYG copy adds a kǎozhèng by Lù Zōngkǎi 陸宗楷 and Lǚ Chì 呂熾.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit: Lúnyǔ zhùshū in 20 juàn — collected commentary by Hé Yàn 何晏 of the Wèi, sub-commentary by Xíng Bǐng 邢昺 of the Sòng. Bǐng was first ranked in the Jiǔjīng 九經 examination; in the second year of Xiánpíng [999], when the office of Hànlín shìjiǎng xuéshì 翰林侍講學士 was first established, he was made its incumbent and received imperial command, with Dù Hào 杜鎬, Shū Yǎ 舒雅 and others, to fix the yìshū of the various Classics. The Táng-period scholars had only made shū for the Five Classics, not for the Xiàojīng 孝經 or Lúnyǔ; here at last these were completed.
What Hé Yàn collected — Kǒng Ānguó 孔安國 and the rest — were ancient glosses, all of them; Bǐng, in turn, drew on Huáng Kǎn’s 皇侃 anthology of various Confucian explanations [i.e. on KR1h0006] and made the shū, which is detailed on the side of zhāngjù 章句, xùngǔ 訓詁, míngqì shìwù 名器事物. Zhū Xī’s Jízhù came later and is, in yìlǐ 義理, of greater philosophical depth; but it actually rests on this foundation. As Zhū himself remarked: “wherever a thing is in the zhùshū, I do not go on to detail it again” — precisely so.
The old cutting did not include Lù Démíng’s Shìwén glosses; the present text supplies them. — Respectfully revised, fifth month of the 41st year of Qiánlóng [1776].
General Compilers: Jǐ Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. General Reviser: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
The Northern-Sòng Lúnyǔ zhèngyì was the third of three classical sub-commentary projects launched by Sòng Tàizōng and completed under Zhēnzōng: in the same imperial commission of Xiánpíng 2 (999), Xíng Bǐng was put in charge of fixing the yìshū not only of the Lúnyǔ but also of the Xiàojīng and the Ěryǎ — three short Classics that the Táng Wǔjīng zhèngyì of Kǒng Yǐngdá 孔穎達 (see Wilkinson §28.7.2) had passed over.
Xíng Bǐng’s method, as the Sìkù tíyào notes, was to take Huáng Kǎn’s Lúnyǔ jíjiě yìshū (KR1h0006) — then still extant in China — and rework it into a tighter, more philological zhèngyì in the format of Kǒng Yǐngdá’s Wǔjīng zhèngyì. The result is broader and lighter on Liáng-period metaphysical-Buddhist discussion than Huáng Kǎn’s, but stronger on textual variants, glossing, and míngwù. As Zhū Xī himself acknowledged, his own Lúnyǔ jízhù — which would replace the zhùshū as the standard Lúnyǔ commentary from the Yuan onward — rests philologically on the Xíng Bǐng zhèngyì: “wherever a thing is in the zhùshū, I do not detail it again.”
The Lúnyǔ zhùshū in this 20-juàn division (one juàn per piān) was the standard Lúnyǔ component of the Shísānjīng zhùshū down through the Sòng, Yuán, and Míng. The Ruǎn Yuán 阮元 1816 (Jiāqìng 21) Nánchāngfǔxué cutting of the Shísānjīng zhùshū used the WYG-line text of this work as its base for the Lúnyǔ volume, with collation against the early-printed witnesses (the Bāxíng běn 八行本, the Mín 閩 cutting, etc.) recorded in the Jiàokān jì 校勘記.
The “Lúnyǔ zhùjiě chuánshù rén” 論語注解傳述人 chapter (preserved here at the head of the WYG, after the imperial readings) is itself a precious early-Táng bibliographical document: Lù Démíng’s catalogue of the entire pre-Táng Lúnyǔ commentarial tradition, listing — with brief biographical notes — Zhèng Xuán’s, Wáng Sù’s, Yú Fān’s, Hé Yàn’s, Qiáo Zhōu’s, Wèi Guàn’s, Cuī Bào’s, Lǐ Yǔn’s, Sūn Chuò’s, Yíngshì’s, Mèng Zhěng’s, Liáng Jì’s, Yuán Qiáo’s, Yǐn Yì’s, Jiāng Xī’s, Zhāng Píng’s, Kǒng Chéngzhī’s, Yú Xiá’s, Wáng Bì’s, Luán Zhào’s, Xú Miǎo’s and Huáng Kǎn’s Lúnyǔ commentaries — most of which are now lost.
The kǎozhèng by Lù Zōngkǎi 陸宗楷 and Lǚ Chì 呂熾 (note: the catalog reads 陸宗楷; the 呂熾 collaboration is recorded in the WYG appendix) is a brief Qing-period note-form supplement on textual variants, prepared in-house at the Sìkùguǎn.
Translations and research
The Xíng Bǐng zhèngyì was largely superseded in scholarly use by Liú Bǎo-nán’s 劉寶楠 great Qing critical commentary, Lúnyǔ zhèngyì 論語正義 (1865, posthumously completed by his son Liú Gōng-miǎn 劉恭冕; Zhōng-huá repr. 1990) — but the medieval zhèngyì itself remains the principal Sòng-period testimony to early-Sòng Lúnyǔ scholarship and the textual base for all later “zhù-shū”-style readings. Punctuated typographic editions: Běi-jīng-Dà-xué chū-bǎn-shè 1999 Shí-sān-jīng zhù-shū zhěng-lǐ běn (for the Lúnyǔ volume, edited by Li Xueqín 李學勤). On Xíng Bǐng’s method specifically, see John Makeham, Transmitters and Creators, ch. 6.
Other points of interest
The “Lúnyǔ zhùjiě chuánshù rén” preface signed by Lù Démíng — reproduced at the head of the WYG copy — is one of the most important early bibliographical witnesses for the lost Six Dynasties Lúnyǔ commentaries. Its enumeration of more than twenty Wèi-Jìn-Six Dynasties Lúnyǔ commentaries, with surviving juan-counts and brief biographical notes on each commentator, is the principal source for the textual history of the Lúnyǔ in this period. The Sìkù note that the old cutting did not include Lù Démíng’s Shìwén glosses but that the present text supplies them is a typical Qiánlóng emendation.
Links
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §28.4.4 and §28.7.2.
- John Makeham, Transmitters and Creators (HUP, 2003), ch. 6.
- Sòngshǐ 431 (Xíng Bǐng 邢昺 biography); Jīngdiǎn shìwén preface.