Sìshū tōngzhǐ 四書通旨
A Synthesis of the Governing Ideas of the Four Books
朱公遷 (Zhū Gōngqiān, zì Kèshēng, fl. 1320–1370)
About the work
A 6-juàn topical-encyclopedic Sìshū synthesis: the editor takes the entire Sìshū text and reorganises it under 98 thematic headings (e.g. tiānrén 天人, xìng 性, xué 學, jiào 教, xiào 孝, lǐ 禮, zhèng 政, etc.); each Classic passage is grouped with related passages, and brief discriminations of yìtóng (similarities-and-differences) follow. Each thematic group closes with a yòu míng X yì 右明某義 (“the foregoing illustrates the yì of X”) gloss. Methodologically descended from a Chéng Yí (Chéngzǐ) pedagogical practice; expanded by Zhū Gōngqiān into a full-fledged synthesising apparatus.
Tiyao
(From the Kyoto Zinbun digital Sìkù tíyào.*)
We respectfully submit: Sìshū tōngzhǐ in 6 juàn — by Zhū Gōngqiān 朱公遷 of the Yuán. Gōngqiān has the Shī zhuàn shūyì (KR1c) already catalogued. This work takes the text of the Sìshū, tiáofēn lǚxī (parses-and-divides) by category, mutually grouping kindred items: 98 mén (gates) in all. Within each mén, items are linked-and-arranged by closeness of sense, and their yìtóng discriminated. Each closes with “yòu míng mǒu yì” — the zōngzhǐ (governing intent) declared.
Of old Chéngzǐ taught students in this method; Gōngqiān pushed-the-method to its full extent in this book. The mén are many, and there is some clutter of small categories — Zhū Yízūn’s Jīngyì kǎo says “the reader is slightly displeased by its excess.” For instance: Fán Chí qǐng xué jià (13.4 — Fan Chi requested to learn farming) — only a mòyè (incidental craft) — is set under the yìduān (heretical-extremes) gate, alongside Xǔ Xíng — also reproached. Shàngshì yī wèi / zhōngshì yī wèi / xiàshì yī wèi (Mèngzǐ 5B.2 — the noble ranks) — originally the Zhōu bānjué zhī zhì (rank-system-of-ennoblement) — is set under the shì (士) gate, on a level with chǔshì (gentleman-recluse) — also a zhǔnbó (mismatch).
The YáoShùnYǔTāngWénWǔZhōugōngKǒngzǐ gates, plus the Kǒngmén dìzǐ, Zǐsī, Mèngzǐ gates — using person to subordinate event — approach the lèishū (encyclopedia) genre, and have nothing especially to fāmíng (illuminate). Yet on the subtleties of tiānrén xìngmìng (Heaven-and-man, nature-and-mandate) and the essentials of dàodé xuéwèn (virtue-and-learning), the work often discriminates apparent-from-real, details-arranges-the-sequence — letting the reader, by this proof of that, huànrán bīngshì (with relief-and-satisfaction). It could not speak so cleanly without rónghuì guàntōng (digesting-and-penetration).
The cited schools — only Ráo Lǔ 饒魯 is called “Ráozǐ” 饒子; the yuányuán (lineage-flow) is plain. Hé Yīng’s 何英 Shīzhuàn shūyì xù of the Míng Zhèngtǒng era says: “in Yǒnglè yǐyǒu (1405) I read the Sìshū tōngzhǐ and asked about the Shūyì” — i.e. this book had been in circulation before the Shūyì. Yet from the Míng onward, Sìshū commentators rarely cite it; only the Tōngzhìtáng jīngjiě (Qing-period reprint series) has at last cut it for printing. So it had long been hidden and now resurfaces. — (Date: late Qiánlóng.)
Abstract
The Sìshū tōngzhǐ is a distinctive topical reorganisation of the Sìshū: rather than glossing the text in canonical sequence, Zhū Gōngqiān regroups the entire corpus under 98 thematic mén (gates), placing each passage with kindred passages and discriminating yìtóng. The method is a development of a Chéng Yí pedagogical practice — using thematic juxtaposition to clarify meaning — pushed to encyclopedic scale.
The Sìkù editors’ assessment is mixed but ultimately favourable: the mén system has weak spots (the Fán Chí qǐng xué jià gate-assignment, the shì gate-assignment); the entries on persons-as-subjects have only encyclopedic value; but the gates on metaphysical-moral subjects (tiānrén, xìngmìng, dàodé, xuéwèn) constitute genuine analytical work. The closing remark — that “without rónghuì guàntōng (digestion-and-penetration), one could not write so cleanly” — is high praise.
The dating: Zhū Gōngqiān was active across the YuánMíng transition; his Shīzhuàn shūyì — for which Hé Yīng wrote the 1405 preface — was a later work; the Sìshū tōngzhǐ therefore precedes 1405 and is most plausibly a mid-Yuán composition.
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: peripheral notice in Wm. Theodore de Bary, Neo-Confucian Orthodoxy and the Learning of the Mind-and-Heart (Columbia, 1981).
Other points of interest
The 98-gate scheme is the most ambitious topical synthesis of the Sìshū corpus before the Míng-period Xìnglǐ dàquán and Sìshū dàquán; even later orthodox compendia did not pursue topical reorganisation of the Sìshū itself with comparable methodological commitment. The work is a useful index of which conceptual categories the late-Yuán Lǐxué community took as load-bearing.
Links
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §28.7.3.
- 全國漢籍データベース 四庫提要