Zhōngyōng shuō (cán) 中庸說 (殘)
Discussion of the Doctrine of the Mean (fragmentary)
張九成 (Zhāng Jiǔchéng, zì Zǐsháo, hào Wúgòu jūshì, 1092–1159)
About the work
The surviving 3-juàn fragment of Zhāng Jiǔchéng’s lost Zhōngyōng shuō — composed during his fourteen-year exile to Nánānjūn (1141–1155). Companion piece to his Mèngzǐ zhuàn (KR1h0013). The original was likely 5 juàn (per the contemporary Wénxiàn tōngkǎo listing of “Zhōngyōng shuō by Zhāng Jiǔchéng — 5 juàn”); only 3 juàn survive in the SBCK reprint of a Sòng Shàoxīng-era cutting from the Hánfēnlóu 涵芬樓 collection.
About the work — extended note
The Sìkù quánshū did not preserve this text in the zhèngbù (main collection); only the much later, identically-titled Zhōngyōng shuō of Máo Qílíng 毛奇齡 (in the Cúnmù catalog-listed section, see Sìkù tíyào at http://kanji.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/db-machine/ShikoTeiyo/0077702.html) carries the same title. Zhāng Jiǔchéng’s Zhōngyōng shuō is therefore not represented in WYG — the present SBCK third-series reprint is the principal modern witness.
Abstract
Zhāng Jiǔchéng’s Zhōngyōng shuō is the third pillar of his Sòng-loyalist Lǐxué trilogy on the Confucian canon — alongside the Mèngzǐ zhuàn (29 juàn, KR1h0013) and the lost Lúnyǔ shuō. All three were composed during his Nánān exile (1141–1155) under the Qín Huì administration, and all three exhibit the same characteristic combination of Cheng-school Lǐxué method (via Yáng Shí 楊時) and Chán Buddhist Xīn doctrine (via Dàhuì Zōnggǎo 大慧宗杲).
The Zhōngyōng shuō in particular treats the Zhōngyōng’s metaphysical centre — the doctrines of xìng 性 (nature), chéng 誠 (sincerity), and zhōnghé 中和 (the equilibrium-and-harmony) — as continuous with the Chán doctrine of the xīnyuán 心源 (mind-source). This brings him into direct conflict with Zhū Xī’s reading; Zhū Xī attacked Zhāng Jiǔchéng’s Zhōngyōng readings sharply in his Záxué biàn 雜學辨, treating them as proof that Zhāng was outside the dàotǒng.
The fragmentary state: the original work was 5 juàn (per Wénxiàn tōngkǎo); the surviving 3 juàn in the SBCK Sòng Shàoxīng-era cutting cover roughly the first three-fifths of the Zhōngyōng — through the Āigōng wèn zhèng 哀公問政 chapter, with the Chéng zhě tiān zhī dào and beyond largely lost.
The textual history: the work was widely circulated in the Southern Sòng (Zhū Xī’s Záxué biàn attests this), but was thereafter eclipsed by the Cheng-Zhu orthodoxy. It survived as a Sòng Shàoxīng cutting until it was acquired by the Hánfēnlóu library in Shanghai; the Sìbù cóngkān sānbiān (Third Series) reproduced it in 1936. The Sìkù editors, despite preserving Zhāng Jiǔchéng’s Mèngzǐ zhuàn as the more disciplined of his works, declined to include the Zhōngyōng shuō — perhaps reflecting a felt incompatibility with Zhū Xī’s orthodox reading.
Translations and research
No English translation. Modern Chinese: 點校本 in Zhāng Jiǔchéng quán-jí 張九成全集 (Hú-nán-rén-mín 2010, ed. 朱漢民). Studies: Cài Fāng-lù 蔡方鹿, Sòng-dài Sì-shū xué yánjiū, ch. 5; Sòng Mào-rán 宋茂然, Zhāng Jiǔchéng yánjiū (Tái-běi 2002); Zhū Xī, Zá-xué biàn 雜學辨 (the principal Sòng-period rebuttal). Western: peripheral notice in surveys of Sòng Neo-Confucianism.
Other points of interest
The work’s preservation through SBCK transmission only — not through WYG — is a textual-cultural marker: it is one of the non-orthodox Sòng-period commentaries that the Sìbù cóngkān editorial committee of the early 20th century recovered for the modern scholarly community, against the mainline of late-imperial Cheng-Zhu suppression. Its place in modern Sòng Lǐxué studies is accordingly peculiarly important.
Links
- Zhū Xī, Záxué biàn (in Zhūzǐ wénjí).
- Sòngshǐ 374 (Zhāng Jiǔchéng biography).
- 全國漢籍データベース 四庫提要