Lúnyǔ lèikǎo 論語類考
Categorical Investigation of the Analects
陳士元 (Chén Shìyuán, zì Xīnshū, hào Huánzhōngzǐ / Guīyún, 1516–?)
About the work
A 20-juàn topical-philological study of the Lúnyǔ, organised under 18 mén (gates) with 494 zǐmù (sub-headings). Where the orthodox commentary tradition (Zhū Xī, Sìshū dàquán KR1h0043, Cài Qīng KR1h0044) concentrates on yìlǐ, Chén Shìyuán focuses on kǎozhèng 考證 (philological-source verification): identifying míngwù, diǎngù (typical events / institutions), and personal-and-historical references in the Lúnyǔ. Methodologically follows Jīn Lǚxiáng’s LùnMèng jízhù kǎozhèng (KR1h0030) but more comprehensively. Each entry sets out the old explanation, then under “Yuán àn 元案” (a Yuán-period case-record) adds the editor’s own analysis. Dated 1544.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit: Lúnyǔ lèikǎo in 20 juàn — by Chén Shìyuán of the Míng. Shìyuán has the Yìxiàng gōujiě (KR1a corpus) already catalogued. This work is throughout an investigation of Lúnyǔ míngwù diǎngù, organised under 18 mén, with 494 zǐmù in all.
After Zhūzǐ, the Sìshū explainers — Zhēn Déxiù 真德秀, Cài Jié 蔡節 etc. — focused on fāmíng yìlǐ. Jīn Lǚxiáng was the first to compose the LùnMèng jízhù kǎozhèng (KR1h0030); after came Dù Yīng’s YǔMèng pángtōng, Xuē Yǐnnián’s Sìshū yǐnzhèng, Zhāng Cúnzhōng’s Sìshū tōngzhèng (KR1h0035), Zhān Dàochuán’s Sìshū zuǎnjiān (KR1h0038) — these for the first time investigated diǎngù to bring out the jīng sense.
Today Dù’s and Xuē’s books are not transmitted. Only Jīnshì’s, Zhāngshì’s, and Zhānshì’s books are still transmitted in the world. The three are all firm believers in Zhūzǐ; yet Jīnshì, on the jízhù’s use of old text where it has occasional uncorrected slips, must analyse them in detail; Zhāngshì and Zhānshì all conceal-and-not-mention the slips. Their use of intent therefore differs slightly.
Shìyuán’s book broadly follows Jīn Lǚxiáng’s example: on the jízhù it does not lightly agree, but on each entry first sets out the old gloss, then in sōutǎo (search-and-investigate) the various books’ mutual collation — all distinguished by “Yuán àn” 元案 (case-record) two characters.
All [pretentious] dùzhuàn fútán (concocted, floating chatter) — like Xuē Yīngqí 薛應旂’s Sìshū rénwù kǎo claim that Yǒu Ruò has a zì “Zǐyǒu” — Shìyuán jiūzhèng (corrects) all these. Compared with the various Míng schools’ books, this has a real gēnběn (root-foundation). Only because it concentrates on the Lúnyǔ and does not cover the whole Sìshū, it is not as widely circulated as Yīngqí’s book — but in substance it is much its superior. — Respectfully revised, twelfth month of the 45th year of Qiánlóng [1780].
General Compilers: Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Reviser: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The Lúnyǔ lèikǎo is one of the most thorough mid-Míng kǎozhèng-style Lúnyǔ commentaries — a methodological forerunner of the Qing Hànxué movement applied within the orthodox-broadly-Cheng-Zhu framework. Chén Shìyuán’s project is to identify, classify, and verify the míngwù and diǎngù in the Lúnyǔ: each entry is set out under a thematic mén, with the old gloss recorded first and his own Yuán àn (case-record) analysis appended.
The Sìkù editors place Chén Shìyuán in a continuous kǎozhèng lineage running from Jīn Lǚxiáng (KR1h0030) through Dù Yīng (lost), Xuē Yǐnnián (lost), Zhāng Cúnzhōng (KR1h0035), Zhān Dàochuán (KR1h0038) to himself — and they distinguish him from the latter three (Zhāng Cúnzhōng, Zhān Dàochuán) by his willingness to acknowledge Zhū Xī’s textual slips rather than conceal them. He thus aligns more closely with Jīn Lǚxiáng’s earlier model.
The companion piece is the Mèngzǐ zájì (KR1h0048), of similar method but biographical-historical rather than philological-categorial cast.
The textual history: composed in 1544 (Jiājìng 23); cut for print by Chén Shìyuán himself in his hometown of Yīngchéng 應城 (Húběi); transmitted through manuscript into the Sìkù WYG.
Translations and research
No English translation. Modern Chinese: 點校本 in Míng-rén Sì-shū wén-xiàn jí-chéng (Hé-nán-rén-mín 2007). Studies: Cài Fāng-lù 蔡方鹿, Míng-dài Sì-shū xué shǐ; Wáng Bīng-yú 王炳煜, Chén Shìyuán Lúnyǔ-xué yánjiū. Western: brief notice in Daniel K. Gardner, Zhu Xi’s Reading of the Analects (Columbia, 2003).
Other points of interest
The work’s methodological alignment with Qing-period Hànxué, two centuries before Yán Ruòjù 閻若璩 (KR1h0063) and the proper Qing kǎozhèng movement, shows that the philological reaction against Cheng-Zhu yìlǐ was already incubating in the mid-Míng — well before the institutional Qing breakthrough.
Links
- Míngshǐ 287 (Chén Shìyuán biography).
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §28.7.3 and §28.7.4.
- 全國漢籍データベース 四庫提要