Mèngzǐ jíshū 孟子集疏
Sub-commentary on the Mencius (Collected Edition)
蔡模 (Cài Mó, zì Zhòngjué, hào Juéxuān, 1188–1246)
About the work
A 14-juàn sub-commentary on Zhū Xī’s Mèngzǐ jízhù, by Cài Mó — eldest son of Cài Shěn 蔡沈 (1167–1230), Zhū Xī’s premier disciple in the Shūjí zhuàn tradition. The work was composed in the years 1239–1246, beginning while Cài Mó was tending the family scholarly enterprise after his father’s death and continuing until his own death in 1246. Its method: print Zhū Xī’s Jízhù in full, and supplement it section by section with parallel discussions drawn from the LùnMèng jīngyì (KR1h0017), the LùnMèng huòwèn (KR1h0016), Zhāng Shì 張栻 (KR1h0022), Lǚ Zǔqiān 呂祖謙, and the principal Zhū Xī disciples — clarifying Zhū’s “qìxiàng hánxù” elliptical reading-style by drawing in fuller statements from the surrounding tradition. (See 蔡模 for the postface dating and the work’s place in the Cài-family corpus.)
Tiyao
We respectfully submit: Mèngzǐ jíshū in 14 juàn — by Cài Mó 蔡模 of the Sòng. Mó, zì Zhòngjué 仲覺, hào Juéxuān 覺軒, native of Jiànān; son of Cài Shěn 蔡沈 [the Shūjí zhuàn author], elder brother of Cài Háng 蔡杭. Zhào Shùnsūn’s Sìshū zuǎnshū records that Mó composed a Dàxué yǎnshuō, a Lúnyǔ jíshū, and a Mèngzǐ jíshū; only this last survives.
According to the postface by Cài Háng appended at the close: Cài Shěn’s [father’s] view was that Zhū Xī’s LúnyǔMèngzǐ jízhù has its qìxiàng hánxù (“atmosphere of held-back implication”), its language jīngmì 精密 (precise-and-tight), so that even where it merely yǐn ér bù fā 引而不發 (draws but does not loose), it is not easy to read. He had wished to take the Jíyì, the Huòwèn, and the words of Zhāng [Shì], Lǚ [Zǔqiān], and the various sage disciples and high-ranking pupils’ question-answer dialogues — what Zhūzǐ called “gathering miscellaneous flows, attaching the various schools’ explanations” — and arrange them by category, in the hope that yǔmài 語脈 (the thread of the words) would be plain and the zōngzhǐ 宗㫖 (governing point) certain. He had not been able to compile it before he died. Mó, in concert with [his brother] Háng, set about and completed this book.
The book sets out Zhūzǐ’s Jízhù in full, and explicates its sense — hence “jíshū”, as it were a shū attached to a zhù. But Jiǎ [Gōngyàn] 賈[公彦] and Kǒng [Yǐngdá]‘s several shū extend the zhāngjù without omitting anything; this work either supports the note’s argument with citation, or extends the text laterally — without strictly attaching one-to-one. It also conscientiously preserves the doctrine of one school, not, as in shū style, citing far-and-wide.
In general, on the various explanations there are choices and rejections, but few formal disputes. Only on the entry “bù dé yú xīn 不得於心” he expresses doubt about the inconsistency between the Yǔlù and the Jízhù, treating the Jízhù as not yet revised. On “xiào sǐ ér mín wù qù 効死而民勿去” he cites the Yǔlù in saying that the character yì 義 in the note should be jīng 經. On “shì nǎi rén shù yě 是乃仁術也”, the Jízhù glosses shù as “the dexterity of method”; Mó, however, draws on his Cài [-family] reading: “the Yuèjì note: shù means ‘that by which …’; another note: shù is like dào; here rénshù may mean: ‘that whence the rén-mind issues’.” On the “Yǔ shū jiǔhé 禹疏九河” entry, the Jízhù takes jiǎnjié 簡潔 as “two rivers”; Mó draws on the Ěryǎ, “jiǔhé jiǎnjié as one [river]” — saying that the Shūzhuàn and the Jízhù differ slightly, and that the Shūzhuàn, having been emended by his father in old age, should be taken as definitive. (We note: Zhūzǐ’s emendation of the Shūzhuàn extended only to half of the DàYǔmó 大禹謨 chapter; this is Mó’s tactful defence — not authoritative.) On “rén zhī duān yě 仁之端也”, the Jízhù glosses duān as xù 緒 (clue / starting-thread); Cài Yuándìng 蔡元定 [the family patriarch — Cài Mó’s grandfather] glosses duān as wěi 尾 (tail / endpoint); Mó preserves both. The pattern is plain: where another’s reading conflicts with the master’s, he sets aside the other and follows the master; where the master’s reading conflicts with his father’s or grandfather’s, he cannot help setting aside the master and following the elder. This is the natural way of rénqíng 人情.
Cài Háng’s postface says the work was begun in Jiāxī jǐhài (1239), and that even by bǐngwǔ (1246, the year of Mó’s death) he had not yet dared release the manuscript. The pruning was therefore done with great care; what is taken is concise, but the major yìlǐ are all comprehended — quite different from the later chāocuō 鈔撮 (“scrape-and-skim”) works that piled up on Zhūzǐ’s words and competed in fánfù 繁富 (excess). One can see the depth of his lineage and the precision of his selection. — 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 Mèngzǐ jíshū is one of the foundational Lǐxué sub-commentaries on Zhū Xī’s Sìshū jízhù. It is the principal surviving witness to the Cài family’s distinctive Mèngzǐ readings — frequently in tension with Zhū Xī’s own Jízhù but careful to preserve the master’s text intact while inserting alternative readings under careful citational protocol. The Cài family’s Lǐxué trajectory ran through three generations: Cài Yuándìng 蔡元定 (1135–98, the founder, friend of Zhū Xī), Cài Shěn 蔡沈 (1167–1230, the Shūjí zhuàn author and Zhū Xī’s foremost Shū disciple), and Cài Mó 蔡模 (1188–1246, this author).
The Sìkù editors carefully diagnose the work’s most distinctive feature: where it conflicts with Zhū Xī’s Jízhù, it is almost always to follow Cài Yuándìng’s or Cài Shěn’s reading rather than the master’s. The four diagnostic cases are: Mèngzǐ 2A.2 (bù dé yú xīn); 4A.27 (xiào sǐ ér mín wù qù, with the yì / jīng emendation); 1A.7 (shì nǎi rén shù yě, with the Yuèjì gloss of shù); and 3A.4 (Yǔ shū jiǔhé, with the Ěryǎ one-river gloss); plus the duān / xù / wěi set on 2A.6. In each case, family-tradition trumps master-tradition. The Sìkù editors note this with no censure — indeed they observe that “this is the natural way of human feeling”.
The textual history is well-attested: the work was first cut for print under Cài Háng’s auspices after Cài Mó’s death in 1246; the Sìkù WYG copy descends through YuánMíng manuscript transmission. The 14 juàn preserve the standard ZhūXī chapter divisions of the Mèngzǐ jízhù.
Translations and research
No English translation. Modern Chinese: included in 朱漢民 ed., Sòng-dài Lǐ-xué Sì-shū wén-xiàn jí-chéng (Hú-nán-rén-mín 2011). Studies: Shū Jǐng-nán 束景南, Cài Yuán-dìng yǔ Cài-shì jiā-xué (Huá-dōng-shī-dà 2002); Cài Fāng-lù 蔡方鹿, Sòng-dài Sì-shū xué yánjiū; Bryan Van Norden’s Mengzi: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries (Hackett, 2008) cites Cài Mó in passing.
Other points of interest
The Cài-family choice to systematically over-rule the master in favour of family tradition at four diagnostic Mèngzǐ passages is one of the more striking phenomena in late-Sòng Cheng-Zhu commentary: it shows how jiāxué 家學 (family learning) operated as a competing source of authority even within an officially-orthodox lineage. This pattern of Cài-family deviation is one of the principal threads in modern scholarship on 13th-century Sòng Lǐxué (esp. Shū Jǐngnán’s monograph above).
Links
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §28.7.3.
- Sòngshǐ 434 (Cài-family附傳 in Dàoxué zhuàn).
- 全國漢籍データベース 四庫提要