Zūn Mèng biàn 尊孟辨
A Defence of Honouring the Mencius
余允文 (Yú Yǔnwén, zì Yǐnzhī, fl. 1163–1172)
About the work
A polemical defence of Mencius, in three parts: Zūn Mèng biàn proper (3 juàn) — point-by-point rebuttal of Sīmǎ Guāng’s 司馬光 Yí Mèng 疑孟 (11 entries, with one supplementary on the Shǐshàn 史剡), Lǐ Gòu’s 李覯 Chángyǔ 常語 (17 entries), and Zhèng Shūyǒu’s 鄭叔友 Yìpǔ zhézhōng 藝圃折衷 (10 entries); Xùbiàn 續辨 (2 juàn) — rebuttal of Wáng Chōng’s 王充 Lùnhéng cìMèng 論衡刺孟 (10 entries) and Sū Shì’s 蘇軾 Lúnyǔ shuō 論語說 (8 entries); and Biélù 別錄 (1 juàn) — three YuánMèng 原孟 essays summarising and re-stating the principal arguments. The companion piece (in defence of the same project but from the Cheng-Zhu side) is Zhāng Jiǔchéng’s Mèngzǐ zhuàn (KR1h0013).
Tiyao
We respectfully submit: Zūn Mèng biàn in 3 juàn, Xùbiàn 2 juàn, Biélù 1 juàn — by Yú Yǔnwén 余允文 of the Sòng. Yǔnwén, zì Yǐnzhī, native of Jiànān. Chén Zhènsūn’s Zhízhāi shūlù jiětí records the work in juàn counts that match the present text. Zhū Yízūn’s Jīngyì kǎo says only that it is appended to the Zhūzǐ quánjí 朱子全集; the entry-line is annotated quē 闕 (“missing”), so from the mid-Míng onwards no complete copy was extant.
The present text is gathered from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn 永樂大典. It contains: 11 entries against Sīmǎ Guāng’s Yí Mèng, with one supplementary against the Shǐshàn 史剡; 17 entries against Lǐ Gòu’s Chángyǔ; 10 entries against Zhèng Shūyǒu’s Yìpǔ zhézhōng. The Xùbiàn contains: 10 entries against Wáng Chōng’s Lùnhéng cìMèng; 8 entries against Sū Shì’s Lúnyǔ shuō. After these, three YuánMèng 原孟 essays summarise and reiterate the broad import. The titles Zūn Mèng biàn, Xùbiàn, Biélù are clearly arranged — the book is essentially complete. We have approximated the juàn divisions: Zūn Mèng biàn in 3 juàn, Xùbiàn in 2, Biélù in 1, with the original preface placed first and Zhū Xī’s “Dú Yúshì Zūn Mèng biàn shuō” 讀余氏尊孟辨說 attached at the end. Head and tail are complete; old form restored. Indeed, the work may be called a long-buried but now-resurfaced rare treasure.
Examination of the Zhūzǐ jí 朱子集 shows a letter to Liú Gòngfù 劉共父 saying: “Yǔnwén interferes in the property affairs of the Sòng [household] and speaks immoderately. I fear lest he draw the Fāng family back to make trouble. Now Mistress Chén and Mistress Wú have made a deposition, brought to the prefecture and reported.” So Yǔnwén was a man of arbitrary conduct in his hometown — his personal character is not particularly worthy of respect. Again, Zhōu Mì’s 周密 Guǐxīn záshí 癸辛雜識 records that Cháo Shuōzhī 晁說之 wrote a Fēi Mèngzǐ 非孟子, and that during Jiànyán [Gāozōng’s reign], when the Chief Minister entered him to be appointed to office, Gāozōng said: “Mèngzǐ expounds the Way of the [legitimate] kings — what kind of man is Cháo Shuōzhī to dare attack him?” — and dismissed him to retirement. So our [Yú Yǔnwén’s] book, in turn, has the appearance of catching the imperial intent, going with the wind of the day; perhaps not truly a “pìxié wèidào” 闢邪衛道 banner-bearer.
Yet at a moment when many doubts had risen up like swarming bees, to discriminate truth from error and fix one true sense in the books — that is no small service. Looking just at the book as such, it is indeed an unimpeachable argument. — Respectfully revised, ninth month of the 46th year of Qiánlóng [1781].
General Compilers: Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Reviser: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The Zūn Mèng biàn is the most thorough surviving work of the pro-Mencian polemic of the mid-12th century, paralleled only by Zhāng Jiǔchéng’s near-contemporary Mèngzǐ zhuàn (KR1h0013). Where Zhāng Jiǔchéng wrote a continuous commentary, Yú Yǔnwén wrote a focused rebuttal of five named critics: Sīmǎ Guāng (the most influential), Lǐ Gòu (the earliest of the major critics, Chángyǔ ca. 1040), Zhèng Shūyǒu (Zhèng Hòushū 鄭厚叔, his Yìpǔ zhézhōng), the Hàn-period Wáng Chōng (whose Lùnhéng 26 “Cì Mèng” 刺孟 was the original anti-Mencian template), and Sū Shì (whose Lúnyǔ shuō contained eight scattered anti-Mencian glosses).
The book was lost in the mid-Míng. Its recovery is an early triumph of the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn 永樂大典 jíyì 輯佚 method, executed by the Sìkù editors — the biélù of three YuánMèng 原孟 essays survives at the close of the recovery and gives the most condensed statement of Yú’s position.
The connection with Zhū Xī is decisive for the work’s survival. Zhū Xī’s Dú Yúshì Zūn Mèng biàn shuō 讀余氏尊孟辨說, preserved at the close of the WYG copy, gives Yú Yǔnwén’s defence of Mencius the imprimatur of Lǐxué orthodoxy: the book is in all editions thereafter typeset in the Lǐxué corpus despite its author’s marginal personal standing. The Sìkù editors’ note on Yú Yǔnwén’s character is therefore an unusually candid case of a Sìkù entry distinguishing the moral worth of a book from the moral worth of its author.
The dating window 1163–1172 follows from Zhū Xī’s reading-engagement with the work — his Dú Yúshì shuō and Liú Gòngfù letter are both datable to the LóngxìngQiándào period.
Translations and research
No English translation. Modern critical edition: 朱瑞熙 Zūn Mèng biàn jiào-zhù 尊孟辨校注 (Wén-shǐ-zhé 1990). Studies: Cài Fāng-lù 蔡方鹿, Sòng-dài Sì-shū xué yánjiū; Yú Yīng-shí 余英時, Zhū Xī de lì-shǐ shì-jiè (Yún-chén 2003), ii.6, on Zhū Xī’s reception of Yú Yǔn-wén; Sòng Mào-rán 宋茂然, “Yú Yǔn-wén yǔ Sòng-dài Mèng-xué” 余允文與宋代孟學, Lì-shǐ jiào-xué 2008.
Other points of interest
The book gives the only surviving connected sense of the sustained Northern-Sòng anti-Mencian movement — Lǐ Gòu’s, Sīmǎ Guāng’s, and Zhèng Hòushū’s anti-Mencian works are preserved only fragmentarily, and most of what we know of them comes through Yú Yǔnwén’s sustained quotation. In this respect it is a primary source for the lost critical tradition that, if it had won out, might have prevented Mencius’s elevation to Sìshū status under Zhū Xī.
Links
- Zhūzǐ jí 「答劉共父」 (Liú Gòngfù letter)
- Cài Fānglù 蔡方鹿, Sòngdài Sìshū xué yánjiū.
- 全國漢籍データベース 四庫提要 (parallel reference)