Shígǔ Lúnyǔ dáwèn 石鼓論語答問
by 戴溪 (Dài Xī, zì Xiàowàng / Shàowàng 肖望/少望, 1144–1215, 永嘉)
About the work
A three-juan question-and-answer commentary on the Lúnyǔ 論語 (KR1h0004) by Dài Xī, growing out of his tenure as 山長 (head) of the Shígǔ Academy 石鼓書院 in Héngzhōu 衡州 (Húnán) in the mid-Chúnxī 淳熙 years. A commentary in the literal sense — Dài’s principled, ethical readings of Lúnyǔ passages framed as classroom dialogues with Xiāng-region students.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Shígǔ Lúnyǔ dáwèn in three juan, by Dài Xī of the Sòng (whose Xù Lǚshì jiāshú dúshī jì 續呂氏家塾讀詩記 has already been catalogued), bears in its old text a preface by Xǔ Fùdào 許復道 dated the first year of Bǎoqìng 寶慶 [1225], which states that during the BǐngwǔDīngwèi years of Chúnxī [1186–1187] Dài Xī, then heading the Shígǔ Academy, gathered with the students of Xiāngzhōng what they had heard and made this book. Zhū Xī 朱熹 saw it once and considered it “close to the Way” (近道). The entry in Chén Zhènsūn’s 陳振孫 Shūlù jiětí 書錄解題 agrees with the preface.
The book glosses the moral sense of the text with measured and orthodox judgement, although its philological evidence is sometimes loose. For example, in commenting on the Zī yī 緇衣 (“Lamb’s-fleece”) section (the line “羔裘”), Dài says: first one puts on the inner garment 明衣 next to the body, then the zhōngyī 中衣 over it, in winter then the fur 裘, then the xī yī 裼衣 over the fur, and over that the court robes. He bases this on Cuī Língēn 崔靈恩, which is not without warrant. But Kǒng Yǐngdá’s 孔穎達 sub-commentary on the Shī “Gāoqiú” 羔裘 cites the Yùzǎo 玉藻 (“the ruler wears a white-fox fur and a brocade outer to xī it”) and adds “to wrap brocade over linen is contrary to ritual”; Zhèng Xuán’s 鄭玄 note explains that with the 冕 ceremonial robes the zhōngyī is silk, with the court robes it is linen, and that under the leather biàn cap one xīs with brocade — i.e. the brocade is over the linen, hence the zhōngyī lies above the xī yī. The text is plain enough; Dài evidently did not consult it deeply. Again on “in the first month one must wear court dress and attend court,” Dài (citing the Yùzǎo “the Son of Heaven in xuánduān attends the day-rising ritual outside the eastern gate”) thinks one need not follow Zhèng’s emendation of duān to miǎn. Since duān in this context covers both crown and headdress, his reading also has merit. The Yuèjì 樂記 phrase “duānmiǎn and listen to ancient music” is read by Zhèng as making duān the dark robes and by Kǒng’s sub-commentary as the dark miǎn — all miǎn robes are cut in straight panels, hence called duān. But the Yùzǎo contrasts “the Son of Heaven in xuánduān attends the day-rising ritual outside the eastern gate” with the next line “in xuánduān in residence”, and the contrast shows the difference: hence at the day-rising the xuánmiǎn cannot be glossed as xuánduān, which is why Zhèng decided that the miǎn had been wrongly written duān. Here too Dài failed to consult.
Yet philological glossing and moral exposition have always been two distinct schools of Jīng interpretation, each with its strengths, and neither should be set aside. Dài was able to investigate the meaning of the classics and to draw out their subtle words; he is of no small benefit to the student. There is no need to hold him to the precise standards of philology and antiquarian reference.
Respectfully revised and submitted, second month of the fifty-fourth year of Qiánlóng [1789].
General Compilers: Jǐ Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. General Reviser: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
Dài Xī (zì Xiàowàng / Shàowàng, hào Mín’yǐn 岷隱, 1144–1215, native of Yǒngjiā 永嘉; grand-nephew of Dài Shù 戴述, one of the Yǒngjiā jiǔ xiānsheng 永嘉九先生) topped the shěngshì 省試 of Chúnxī 5 (1178), the same cohort as Yè Shì 葉適. He served as 山長 of the Shígǔ Academy in 1185 (his Sìkù entry compresses this with the dates of the preface and gives 1186–1187). The book was compiled from his lectures and exchanges there, and survived in manuscript long enough for Xǔ Fùdào to write the preface dated 1225 and for Chén Zhènsūn to record it in the Shūlù jiětí. Zhū Xī’s reported approval (“近道”) gave the book a tradition of citation in SòngYuán Lúnyǔ scholarship. Dài’s later career took him to the office of 太子詹事 兼 秘書監 (1207) and, on retirement, the rank of 龍圖閣學士 (1215); his posthumous title is 文端.
The Sìkù editors fairly summarise the work’s character: doctrinally sound and morally serious in its ethical readings, but uneven on philological-ritual detail (their two examples drawn from the Zī yī and Yùzǎo passages on ceremonial costume). The base text used by the Sìkù editors was the 江蘇巡撫 submitted copy. Apart from the WYG, the text also circulated through the Qing 通志堂經解 of Xú Qiánxué 徐乾學, which is its principal pre-Sìkù printed transmission.
Translations and research
No English translation exists. There is no standalone modern punctuated edition; punctuated digital text is available on identifiable scholarly resources (e.g. Shídiǎn gǔjí SK0544, ctext.org work id wb317460). The work is treated, briefly, in surveys of Sòng Lúnyǔ hermeneutics — e.g. as an example of “近便明白” (“close, accessible, lucid”) Lúnyǔ commentary in the chapter “南宋其他學人的《論語》詮釋” of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Lúnyǔ-xué shǐ 論語學史 series — but no monograph is devoted to it. Western scholarship treats it only obliquely, in the context of the Shígǔ Academy itself.
Other points of interest
The book is one of relatively few extant specimens of 書院 classroom Lúnyǔ exegesis from the Southern Sòng, taking the form of recorded student questions answered by the master rather than the more usual continuous gloss; in this it is comparable in genre (if not in school affiliation) to Zhāng Shì’s 張栻 and Yuán Fǔ 袁甫 Lúnyǔ writings, with which it is often reprinted in modern composite Sòng-Lúnyǔ collections.