Sìshū zuǎnjiān 四書纂箋
Compiled Annotations on the Four Books
詹道傳 (Zhān Dàochuán, fl. early 14th century)
About the work
A 28-juàn sub-commentary on Zhū Xī’s Sìshū jízhù, modelled on Lù Démíng’s Jīngdiǎn shìwén: brief notes fixing pronunciations (yīndú), identifying named persons-and-things (míngwù) and institutional usage (dùshù), and tracing the canonical sources of Zhū Xī’s quotations and incidental allusions. A representative example of the Yuán zuǎnjiān genre — pithy, reference-oriented, source-attentive.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit: Sìshū zuǎnjiān in 28 juàn — by Zhān Dàochuán of Línchuān, Yuán. This book broadly imitates the fánlì (general regulations) of Lù Démíng’s Jīngdiǎn shìwén: taking Zhūzǐ’s zhāngjù, huòwèn, and jízhù, fixing the yīndú (pronunciation-readings), examining the míngwù dùshù (names-and-objects, institutional measurements), and occasionally explicating Zhūzǐ’s adopted phrases — e.g. “zhēn jí lì jiǔ 真積力久” (genuinely-accumulated, sustained-in-time) traces to the Xúnzǐ Quànxué (Encouragement of Learning) chapter; “xiàozǐ àirì 孝子愛日” (the filial son cherishes time) traces to the Yángzǐ Xiào zhì. All such are entered as verifications of chūchù (provenance). Hú Yīzhōng 胡一中 once praised it as “yǔyì Zhūzǐ 羽翼朱子” (winged adjunct to Zhūzǐ) — that praise is not unfounded.
The citations also have occasional discrepancies. As on the HúLiǎn note (5.4): Zhūzǐ originally followed Bāo Xián’s reading. Dàochuán cites the Lǐjì Míngtángwèi “Xiàhòushì zhī sì Liǎn, Yīn zhī liù Hú” 夏后氏之四璉, 殷之六瑚 to discriminate the divergence; but then asserts “xià yuē Hú, shāng yuē Liǎn” 夏曰瑚, 商曰璉 — basing this on the Ěryǎ Shìqì. On examination, the Ěryǎ originally has no such words. So Dàochuán is dùzhuàn fùhuì (fabricating-and-attaching).
This book on Zhūzǐ’s cited Confucians always supplies míngzì (full given name) and lǐjū (residence). Yet on Mèngzǐ Jìnxīn shàng (7A.20) the citation “Chén shì shuō, yàn yú dímǔ 厭于嫡母” (the elder-mother displeased) — this is from Chén Qíqīng’s 陳耆卿 Mèngzǐ jìméng 孟子記蒙 zhōng yǔ (medial discussion); Qíqīng, zì Shòulǎo 壽老, native of Línhǎi 臨海 (note: cf. Yè Shì’s 葉適 Shuǐxīn jí) — Dàochuán alone misses recording this, his only failure of careful scrutiny. Yet broadly the work has its gēnběn (root-foundation), still being one of the Yuán Confucians’ substantive-learning works — far ahead of the empty-words-shuffling streams. — Respectfully revised, sixth month of the 43rd year of Qiánlóng [1778].
General Compilers: Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Reviser: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The Sìshū zuǎnjiān is a particularly clean specimen of the Yuán zuǎnjiān genre: brief, reference-oriented sub-commentaries that follow Lù Démíng’s Jīngdiǎn shìwén model in concentrating on philological precision rather than yìlǐ expansion. Its principal strength, fairly assessed by the Sìkù editors, is its careful tracing of Zhū Xī’s quotations to their canonical sources — Xúnzǐ, Yángzǐ, Lǐjì, Mèngzǐ jìméng, etc. — making it a working tool for the Yuán-period student. Its principal weaknesses are scattered citation errors (the HúLiǎn / Ěryǎ fabrication is diagnostic) and one notable omission (the missing attribution of the yàn yú dímǔ citation to Chén Qíqīng’s Mèngzǐ jìméng).
The Sìkù verdict — “shàng yīyī zǎi qí míngzì 尚一一載其名字, pō zú yǐ zī dìngzhèng 頗足以資訂證” — that the work’s systematic recording of cited Confucians’ names and residences is a real aid to later philological verification — places this work in the same orbit as Zhāng Cúnzhōng’s Sìshū tōngzhèng (KR1h0035), but with a sharper philological discipline.
The textual history is the standard early-Yuán pattern: composed in the early 14th century; cut for print in the mid-Yuán (Hú Yīzhōng’s preface); transmitted through YuánMíng manuscript into the Sìkù WYG.
Translations and research
No English translation. Modern Chinese: 點校本 in Yuán-rén Sì-shū wén-xiàn jí-chéng (Hé-nán-rén-mín 2005). Studies: Cài Fāng-lù 蔡方鹿, Sòng-Yuán Sì-shū xué shǐ. Western: brief notice in Daniel K. Gardner, Zhu Xi’s Reading of the Analects (Columbia, 2003).
Other points of interest
The work’s careful tracing of Zhū Xī’s quotations to their canonical sources gives it independent value as a provenance reference for the Sìshū jízhù: even where it errs, the discipline of citation-tracking is a useful inheritance to Qing kǎozhèng scholarship. Compare KR1h0030 LùnMèng jízhù kǎozhèng of Jīn Lǚxiáng for the same project, less broadly executed but more accurately.
Links
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §28.7.3.
- 全國漢籍データベース 四庫提要