Sìshū shèngyán 四書賸言
Surplus Sayings on the Four Books
by 毛奇齡 (Máo Qílíng, 1623–1716, zì Dàkě, hào Qiūqíng / Xīhé, 撰); with the front two juàn compiled by Wáng Xī 王錫 of Shèngtáng, the rear two juàn by Máo’s son Máo Yuǎnzōng 毛遠宗, and the supplementary 2 juàn by Máo’s disciple Zhāng Dàlái 章大來.
About the work
A 4-juàn Sìshū miscellany — with 2 supplementary juàn (bǔ) — composed of zálùn (miscellaneous remarks) by Máo Qílíng on the Sìshū, recorded and edited posthumously by his disciples and family. The contents are not arranged by jīng-text order or by which of the four books they belong to: each juàn records a tally — so many sections on the Lúnyǔ, so many on the Dàxué, so many on the Zhōngyōng, so many on the Mèngzǐ — without sequencing within or among them. The form is a yǔlù-like assemblage; the Sìkù editors note that, given the multiplicity of editorial hands, the supplementary 2 juàn are particularly composite — Zhāng Dàlái’s preface concedes the contributions are gè yǒu jìyì, qiě yì lùxù chéng cǐ shū (each contributor has his own recollection, and the work was completed piecemeal). Doctrinally it is of one piece with Máo’s other anti-Cheng-Zhu Sìshū writings (KR1h0060, KR1h0062).
Tiyao
We respectfully submit: Sìshū shèngyán in four juàn, with bǔ in two juàn — Máo Qílíng of the present dynasty’s miscellaneous Sìshū remarks, gathered and recorded by his ménrén zǐzhí (disciples and sons-and-nephews). The front two juàn were edited by Wáng Xī of Shèngtáng; the rear two juàn by his [Máo’s] son Yuǎnzōng; the supplementary two juàn by Zhāng Dàlái. The book records material miscellaneously following the run of the text, without taking jīng-order as primary, and not separating the four books in editorial sequence — each juàn’s table-of-contents simply states Lúnyǔ, X sections; Dàxué, X sections; Zhōngyōng, X sections; Mèngzǐ, X sections. Qílíng’s jīng-explication is good at kǎozhèng and fond of disputation; hence in expounding yìlǐ he often turns and re-turns the proof, diǎnjí zhù qí bójié (using the canonical books to assist his rebuttal-arguments), to the point of zhīlí mànyǎn bù gù qí ān (becoming branching-and-creeping without regard to whether the reading is settled). As to the kǎohé of factual matters and the citation of xùngǔ glosses — the piānpì (lopsided) cases are indeed many, but the jīnghé (essentially-checked) cases are also not few: e.g., his discussion that the twenty-eight characters supplemented by Yáo Fāngxìng are forgery, [originally] sound in itself — but examining his Gǔwén Shàngshū yuāncí he insists with full force that the same twenty-eight characters are genuine, and adduces histories with stamping firmness; is this not the case where his disputation-energy carries him into self-contradiction in pursuit of victory? At the same time: e.g., reading wèi Kuāng as a place-name in Zhèng; the proof that Gōngshān Fúrǎo’s revolt did not occur in Dìnggōng 12 — these zhèngjù are firmly established, and lie genuinely beyond the Jízhù’s purview. Tài duǎn qǔ cháng (paring the short and taking the long), the work is not unworthy to be transmitted alongside Yán Ruòqú’s Sìshū shìdì KR1h0063. The bǔ two juàn contain much material from Máo’s ménrén zǐzhí; one suspects [Wáng] Xī and others have done some pruning-and-polishing — it is no longer purely Qílíng’s old text. Dàlái’s preface says: “[the disciples’] supplementations are remembered each in his own way, and even so the work was made piecemeal — we cannot reach a single rut” — so it is plain that the work is zá chū zhòngshǒu rú yǔlù zhī lèi (mixed-coming-out-of-many-hands, on the model of yǔlù). — Respectfully revised, eighth month of the 43rd year of Qiánlóng [1778].
General Compilers: Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Reviser: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The Sìshū shèngyán is the third of Máo Qílíng’s three Sìshū-related works admitted into the Sìkù, after the Lúnyǔ jīqiú piān (KR1h0060) and ahead of the Dàxué zhèngwén (KR1h0062). It is the most loosely-formed of the three: a posthumous yǔlù-like compendium of Máo’s Sìshū remarks, unedited by Máo himself, compiled in three layers by Wáng Xī of Shèngtáng (front juàn 1–2), Máo’s son Máo Yuǎnzōng (rear juàn 3–4), and Máo’s disciple Zhāng Dàlái (supplement 1–2). Composition spans the late-Kāngxī decades of Máo’s life (post-1679 Bóxué hóngcí, terminating with his death in 1716); the editorial layers post-date his death. The Sìkù editors single out the supplement as particularly composite, suspect editorial polishing, and note Zhāng Dàlái’s own preface acknowledges the multiplicity of hands.
The Sìkù verdict is the same finely-calibrated balance the editors apply to the Lúnyǔ jīqiú: Máo is kǎozhèng-strong and disputation-fond; some of his Cheng-Zhu-attacking moves are over-clever and self-contradicting (the editors illustrate with the Gǔwén Shàngshū twenty-eight-characters case where Máo argues both sides in different works to win the argument before him); but other kǎozhèng moves are genuinely correct and beyond the Jízhù’s reach (the editors illustrate with Máo’s reading of Lúnyǔ 9.5 wèi Kuāng as a place-name in Zhèng, and with Máo’s correction of the Gōngshān Fúrǎo revolt chronology against Dìnggōng 12). The closing endorsement-clause — tài duǎn qǔ cháng, wèi cháng bù kě yǔ Yán Ruòqú “Sìshū shìdì” bìng chuán — pairs Máo’s work explicitly with Yán Ruòqú’s Sìshū shìdì (KR1h0063) as the two principal early-Qīng kǎozhèng-style Sìshū miscellanies, kǎo over yì. The pairing is striking because Yán Ruòqú is otherwise the gold-standard early-Qīng kǎozhèng exegete and Máo is famously his polemical antagonist on the Gǔwén Shàngshū question.
The work’s yǔlù form means there is no single composition-date; doctrinal positions across the four juàn and the supplement are not always consistent (a feature which also reflects the multi-hand editorial process).
Translations and research
No English translation. Modern Chinese: 點校本 in Máo Qí-líng quán-jí / Xī-hé hé jí 西河合集 (Hú-běi-jiāo-yù 2007); the Wényuān-gé Sì-kù-quán-shū photo-reprint is the standard scholarly text. Studies: Cài Fāng-lù 蔡方鹿, Qīng-dài Sì-shū xué shǐ (Bā-Shǔ-shū-shè, 2014); Benjamin Elman, From Philosophy to Philology (Harvard, 1984/2001) on Máo’s place in the kǎozhèng movement; for Máo’s polemic against the Gǔ-wén Shàng-shū and Cheng-Zhu orthodoxy, see Hung-lam Chu’s articles on early-Qīng Hàn-xué.
Other points of interest
The work is the yǔlù-genre member of Máo’s Sìshū triad — a composite, multi-hand posthumous compilation rather than an authored treatise. The Sìkù editors’ explicit pairing of Máo Qílíng’s Sìshū shèngyán with Yán Ruòqú’s Sìshū shìdì (KR1h0063) is the high-Qing canonisation of the early-Qīng kǎozhèngSìshū genre — a small but distinctive corner of the jīngbù in which philological kǎo takes priority over doctrinal yì. Read together with KR1h0060 and KR1h0062, the work completes the picture of Máo’s Sìshū output.
Links
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §28.4.4.
- Qīngshǐgǎo 481 (Máo Qílíng biography).