XuéYōng zhèngshuō 學庸正說
Right Discussions of the Greater Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean
趙南星 (Zhào Nánxīng, zì Mèngbái, hào Cháihè, 1550–1627)
About the work
A 3-juàn late-Míng Dōnglín 東林 commentary on the Dàxué (1 juàn) and Zhōngyōng (2 juàn). Each section is given an oral-discussion-style (kǒuyì 口義) exposition phrase by phrase, with additional remarks appended at the close — broadly in the format of contemporary jiǎngzhāng 講章 (lecture-handouts). The Sìkù editors place the work as one of the period’s models of disciplined Dōnglín orthodoxy: against the surrounding rise of kuángChán 狂禪 (wild-Chán) WángYángmíng dissidence, Zhào Nánxīng held firmly to the mainstream Cheng-Zhu reading.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit: XuéYōng zhèngshuō in 3 juàn — by Zhào Nánxīng of the Míng. Nánxīng, zì Mèngbái 夢白, hào Cháihè 儕鶴, native of Gāoyì 高邑. Jìnshì of Wànlì jiǎxū (1574); rose to Lìbù shàngshū 吏部尚書; posthumous title Zhōngyì 忠毅; biography in Míngshǐ. This work in all has Dàxué 1 juàn, Zhōngyōng 2 juàn. Each jié (section) is given an oral-discussion expansion, expounding sentence by sentence; the leftover sense is appended below — broadly like recent jiǎngzhāng. The wording-and-purport is chúnzhèng (pure-and-correct), the explanation detailed-and-clear.
His treatment of the Dàxué does not follow the Yáojiāng [Wáng Yángmíng] doctrine of “zhī běn” 知本 (knowing the root), but follows Zhūzǐ’s géwù-and-supplementary-chapter, providing his own xùnjiě. His treatment of the Zhōngyōng does not employ wúshēng wúxiù 無聲無臭 (no-sound, no-smell — i.e. the void) and xūnǐ xìngtiān 虛擬性天 (the void imagining of nature-and-Heaven), but throughout returns to shèndú 慎獨 (vigilance-when-alone) as its base. Both stand firmly in the older Confucians’ tradition.
Nánxīng was a yīdài míngchén (one-generation eminent minister), holding to the upright without bending — this from his nature. Hence at a time when kuángChán was overflowing wide, he was able to zhuórán zìlì 卓然自立 (stand outstandingly on his own). Although not an academic jiǎngxué by name, what he says is dǔshí guò yú jiǎngxuézhě duō yǐ (substantial-and-real, far more so than the jiǎngxué school). It cannot be dismissed because of its closeness [to the lecture-genre]. — Respectfully revised, fifth month of the 45th year of Qiánlóng [1780].
General Compilers: Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Reviser: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The XuéYōng zhèngshuō is a high-quality late-Míng Dōnglín commentary, methodologically conservative-orthodox in opposition to the prevailing Xīnxué and kuángChán currents of the day. Its two diagnostic doctrinal commitments — refusing Wáng Yángmíng’s “zhī běn” gloss of the Dàxué and refusing the “wúshēng wúxiù xūnǐ xìngtiān” reading of the Zhōngyōng — place Zhào Nánxīng squarely in the line of Xuē Xuān 薛瑄 → Lǚ Nán (KR1h0045) → the Dōnglín school of Gù Xiànchéng and Gāo Pānlóng.
The Sìkù verdict is unusually warm: they distinguish the jiǎngzhāng genre (a Míng-period lecture-handout style they generally regard as decadent) from Zhào Nánxīng’s substantive engagement, and note that his dǔshí (substance) “far surpasses the jiǎngxué writers”. Coupled with the recognition of Zhào Nánxīng’s political martyrdom under Wèi Zhōngxián, the XuéYōng zhèngshuō emerges as a doubly-canonised work: orthodox in scholarship and exemplary in jīngshén (moral spirit).
The dating: composed during Zhào Nánxīng’s mature middle period (1600–1625), before his 1625 demotion to Shānxī. The author’s preface — preserved at the head of the WYG copy — speaks of his elder-respected father commanding him to study a qiǎnshuō (simple discussion) work in his youth, and of writing this work for his sons in the changed intellectual world of the late Wànlì.
Translations and research
No English translation. Modern Chinese: 點校本 in Zhào Nánxīng quán-jí 趙南星全集 (Hé-nán-rén-mín 2010, ed. 嶽天雷). Studies: Cài Fāng-lù 蔡方鹿, Míng-dài Sì-shū xué shǐ. Western: John W. Dardess, Blood and History in China: The Donglin Faction and Its Repression, 1620–1627 (UHP, 2002), the standard biographical-political account of Zhào Nánxīng.
Other points of interest
The work is one of the few late-Míng Sìshū commentaries by a major Dōnglín martyr — and is therefore a primary source for the political-cultural texture of the Dōnglín Lǐxué. Coupled with KR1h0051 Lúnyǔ xuéàn of Liú Zōngzhōu (Zhào Nánxīng’s contemporary, similarly martyred by the Qing conquest), it illustrates the close Dōnglín relation between political opposition and orthodox-conservative Lǐxué.
Links
- Míngshǐ 243 (Zhào Nánxīng biography).
- John W. Dardess, Blood and History in China (UHP, 2002).
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §28.7.3.