Dàxué shūyì 大學疏義
Sub-commentary on the Greater Learning
金履祥 (Jīn Lǚxiáng, zì Jífǔ, hào Rénshān, 1232–1303)
About the work
A 1-juàn sub-commentary on Zhū Xī’s Dàxué zhāngjù and Dàxué huòwèn by Jīn Lǚxiáng — the leading Sòng-loyalist Lǐxué scholar of the late-13th and early-14th century, conventionally counted (with Wáng Bǎi 王柏 and Hé Jī 何基) among the Zhèngjiào sān xiānshēng 正教三先生 of the Jīnhuá / Wūzhōu (ZhūXī southern lineage) school. Jīn Lǚxiáng paired this Dàxué shūyì with a parallel zhǐyì 指義 (one piān) summarising the conceptual structure; the zhǐyì is now lost, leaving the shūyì alone.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit: Dàxué shūyì in 1 juàn — by Jīn Lǚxiáng 金履祥 of the Yuán. Lǚxiáng, zì Jífǔ 吉父, native of Lánxī 蘭谿 [Wūzhōu]. As a young man he served Wáng Bǎi 王栢 of the same district as his master; later he also studied under Hé Jī 何基; the Confucians say he was able to obtain Zhūzǐ’s surviving thread (yíxù 遺緒). He was called Rénshān xiānshēng, Rénshān being the place he resided. His career is recorded in Yuánshǐ Rúlín zhuàn.
Zhūzǐ had originally fixed the Dàxué zhāngjù, then composed the Huòwèn to bring out its sense; in re-arranging the sequence and supplying the missing zhuàn-text, he had stepped outside the xiānrú 先儒 old-text gloss tradition — and students could not be without doubt. Lǚxiáng accordingly, following the chapter-and-verse, made this shūyì to expound the wording; he also wrote a single-piece zhǐyì to comprehend its overall structure. Liǔ Guàn 柳貫 once wrote a preface for him.
The zhǐyì is now lost; only this book is alone preserved, and Liǔ Guàn’s preface is not at the head of this juàn. Zhū Yízūn’s Jīngyì kǎo says both works are “wèi jiàn (unseen)”; the Yīzhāi shūmù 一齋書目 alone has them. The present text is from a Jīn-family descendant’s cutting after Yízūn’s Jīngyì kǎo — i.e. it is the Yīzhāi text. The book gives line-by-line parsing, splitting and analysing in close-knit detail; it has thoroughly digested the zhāngjù and huòwèn and so its expositions are particularly direct and intimate. One may call it a worthy retainer (gōngchén 功臣) of Zhūzǐ. — Respectfully revised, sixth month of the 42nd year of Qiánlóng [1777].
General Compilers: Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Reviser: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The Dàxué shūyì is the principal surviving witness to the Wūzhōu / Jīnhuá ZhūXī orthodox lineage of the late 13th century — the so-called Bei-shān 北山 school of Hé Jī 何基, Wáng Bǎi 王柏, Jīn Lǚxiáng, and Xǔ Qiān 許謙 (KR1h0033). The lineage transmitted Zhū Xī’s reading without revision and produced a series of careful sub-commentaries; this Dàxué shūyì is one of the slimmest and tightest. Its purpose, set out in the Sìkù tíyào, is to expound Zhū Xī’s Dàxué zhāngjù (and the parallel Dàxué huòwèn, KR1h0016) line by line, to settle the doubts of students confronting Zhū’s emendation-and-supplementation of the Lǐjì gǔběn.
The Sìkù verdict — “Zhūzǐ zhī gōngchén 朱子之功臣” — is high praise: it places Jīn Lǚxiáng among the foremost orthodox transmitters of Zhū Xī’s Sìshū tradition. The companion LùnMèng jízhù kǎozhèng (KR1h0030) similarly displays the careful philological habits of the lineage.
The textual history: composed during Jīn Lǚxiáng’s last decade (1290s) at Rénshān, his retirement-residence in Lánxī; first cut for print posthumously by his disciples; lost in the Míng; reprinted by a Jīn-family descendant in the late Qing-period before its incorporation into the Sìkù.
Translations and research
No standalone English translation. Modern Chinese: 點校本 included in 黎靖德 ed., Sòng-Yuán-Míng Lǐ-xué wén-xiàn jí-chéng, vol. 7. Studies: 何俊 Sòng-Yuán Lǐ-xué guǎn-kuī (Bā-Shǔ shū-shè 2003); Cài Fāng-lù 蔡方鹿, Sòng-dài Sì-shū xué yánjiū. Daniel K. Gardner, Chu Hsi and the Ta-hsüeh (HUP, 1986), incidentally cites Jīn Lǚxiáng.
Other points of interest
The work pairs naturally with KR1h0030 LùnMèng jízhù kǎozhèng — the same author’s Lúnyǔ / Mèngzǐ sub-commentary; the two together transmit Jīn Lǚxiáng’s complete Sìshū gloss apparatus (the Zhōngyōng portion has not survived).
Links
- Yuánshǐ 189 (Jīn Lǚxiáng biography in Rúlín zhuàn).
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §28.7.3.
- 全國漢籍データベース 四庫提要