問辨錄

Wènbiàn lù 問辨錄

Records of Questions and Discriminations

高拱 (Gāo Gǒng, zì Sùqīng, shì Wénxiāng, 1512–1578)

About the work

A 10-juàn late-Míng Sìshū commentary in question-and-answer form: each entry takes a single passage from Zhū Xī’s Sìshū zhāngjù jízhù, identifies a doubt or query, and offers a resolution. The work is mostly orthodox in spirit but freely diverges from Zhū Xī where the author judges the matter to require it. The author was Gāo Gǒng — chief minister (Wényuān gé Dàxuéshì) under the Lóngqìng emperor, and one of the great political figures of the late Míng. Distinguished from contemporary anti-Zhū-Xī polemics by the Sìkù editors as “zì shū suǒ jiàn, shí yǒu xīndé 自抒所見, 時有心得” — drawing his own views, often with genuine insight.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit: Wènbiàn lù in 10 juàn — by Gāo Gǒng of the Míng. Gǒng, zì Sùqīng 肅卿, native of Xīnzhèng. Jìnshì of Jiājìng xīnchǒu (1541); rose to Lǐbù shàngshū 兼 Wényuān gé Dàxuéshì; on his death awarded Tàishī, posthumous title Wénxiāng 文襄; biography in Míngshǐ. This work takes Zhūzǐ’s Sìshū zhāngjù jízhù doubtful points and discriminates them entry by entry.

E.g., its opening discussion of the Dàxué: “xīn mín 新民” (renewing the people) is itself a thing within “míng dé 明德” (illumining virtue), so should not be split into three principles (the sān gānglǐng 三綱領) — without realising that the three “zài” 在 (in) constructions stand obviously parallel-and-apart. Or on the Lúnyǔ “Xián xián yì sè” four-part chapter (1.7) — Gāo argues that one able-to-do-as-it-says must therefore have wùxué zhī zhì 務學之至 (the perfection of devotion to learning); and the four characters “sense the goodness of native gift” Zhūzǐ might have done without — but on close savouring, Zhūzǐ’s gloss is more yuán (round, complete). Or where Yīchuān [Chéng Yí] says: “the entire Jìng shì ér xìn chapter (1.5) speaks only of preserved-disposition (suǒcún) and does not reach to actual conduct” — Gāo argues: “jié yòng shǐ mín 節用使民 (sparing-use, leading-the-people) — what is that but conduct?” Or: “Confucius’s reproof of Zāng Wénzhòng (5.18) is precisely because of his xián — the worthier the man, the more demanding the criticism.” All such entries have substantive insight; this kind of material can serve to broaden the horizon and supply alternatives.

In the mid-Míng, gentlemen took heretical doctrine as a competitive ground, esteeming Lù Jiǔyuān and attacking Zhū Xī — hence the contradiction. Their excessive lightness and contention is indeed not edifying. As to the jīng texts of the sage-and-worthies — broad-and-deep — students see the zhì in their own way, see the rén in their own way: each illuminates one yì. So long as it brings out the subtle wording’s hidden sense — there is no need to jìnzhì (entirely cast aside) the various other arguments and stand on factional ground. The Yì one Classic: Chéng and Zhū differ frequently; to this day, this does not prevent them being read in parallel. Gāo’s book draws on his own views; he occasionally has xīndé; not by way of factional dispute. We need not bind it by the standards of one school’s argument. — 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 Wènbiàn lù is the chief surviving Sìshū commentary of Gāo Gǒng — the late-Míng chief minister (Lóngqìng 1567–72) and the architect of several of the period’s most consequential administrative reforms. It is therefore both a substantive Lǐxué commentary and an unusual specimen of late-Míng political engagement with the Sìshū: Gāo Gǒng was reading these texts as a senior policymaker, and his readings are sometimes coloured by political-administrative judgment.

The Sìkù editors’ verdict carefully separates Gāo Gǒng from the prevailing late-Míng anti-Zhū-Xī polemic of the Wáng-Yáng-míng-influenced Lù school. They distinguish (1) factional anti-Zhū-Xī polemic (which they reject); (2) substantive engagement with Zhū Xī that may produce genuine insight even where it disagrees (which they accept); and they place Gāo Gǒng in the second category, against the bulk of contemporary polemicists.

Three diagnostic disagreements with Zhū Xī are recorded in the tíyào:

• Dàxué “xīn mín” — Gāo argues against treating it as a separate gānglǐng (the Sìkù editors observe Gāo is wrong: the three zài constructions show the parallel structure).
• Lúnyǔ 1.5 — Gāo argues that jié yòng and shǐ mín are zhèngshì (governance), against Chéng Yí’s reading.
• Lúnyǔ 5.18 (Zāng Wénzhòng) — Gāo argues that the very worthiness of the man explains Confucius’s strict reproof.

The Sìkù editors approve the second and third points, correct the first.

The textual history is straightforward: composed during Gāo Gǒng’s last years (post-1572 retirement); first cut for print posthumously; transmitted through YuánMíng manuscript into the Sìkù WYG.

Translations and research

No English translation. Modern Chinese: 點校本 in Gāo Gǒng quán-jí 高拱全集 (Hé-nán-rén-mín 2008, ed. 嶽天雷). Studies: Cài Fāng-lù 蔡方鹿, Míng-dài Sì-shū xué shǐ; Yuè Tiān-léi 嶽天雷, Gāo Gǒng yánjiū (Hé-nán-rén-mín 2003). Western: Ray Huang, 1587, A Year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty in Decline (Yale, 1981) — biographical context for Gāo Gǒng.

Other points of interest

The work is one of the relatively few late-Míng Sìshū commentaries by a sitting senior statesman (Gāo Gǒng was Wényuān gé Dàxuéshì — chief minister — when most of these readings were drafted). The ‘practical-political’ reading-style of certain entries (e.g. on the Lúnyǔ Jìng shì ér xìn chapter, where Gāo treats “jié yòng shǐ mín” as obviously administrative) reflects this institutional position.

Links

• Míngshǐ 213 (Gāo Gǒng biography).
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §28.7.3.
• 全國漢籍データベース 四庫提要