Xiāngdǎng túkǎo 鄉黨圖考
Diagram-and-Verification of the “Xiāngdǎng” [Chapter of the Analects]
by 江永 (Jiāng Yǒng, 1681–1762, zì Shènxiū, 撰)
About the work
A 10-juàn monographic kǎojù commentary by Jiāng Yǒng, the leading early-to-mid-Qīng Wǎnpài (Anhui-school) classicist and Sānlǐ specialist, on the Xiāngdǎng chapter of the Lúnyǔ (book 10). The Xiāngdǎng is the Lúnyǔ book most densely loaded with concrete zhìdù (institutions) and míngwù (object-names) — Confucius’s daily ritual conduct in court, ancestral temple, village, and home, his food, dress, posture, ceremonial movements — and is therefore the Sìshū book that reaches farthest into the lǐjīng / Zhōulǐ / Yílǐ terrain Jiāng had spent his life investigating. The work gathers the zhìdù and míngwù of the Xiāngdǎng under nine topical heads: (1) túpǔ 圖譜 (charts and maps), (2) shèngjì 聖蹟 (the Sage’s traces), (3) cháopìn 朝聘 (court audience and diplomatic visit), (4) gōngshì 宫室 (palace and chamber), (5) yīfú 衣服 (dress), (6) yǐnshí 飲食 (food and drink), (7) qìyòng 器用 (utensils), (8) róngmào 容貌 (deportment), (9) zádiǎn 雜典 (miscellaneous regulations). The work is a foundational late-Qing reference for the institutional reading of the Lúnyǔ and is recognised as the Wǎnpài’s principal contribution to the Sìshū corpus.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit: Xiāngdǎng túkǎo in ten juàn — by Jiāng Yǒng of the present dynasty. Yǒng has the Zhōulǐ yíyì jǔyào already separately catalogued. This book takes from the jīngzhuàn the zhìdù míngwù that bear on the Xiāngdǎng, and divides them into nine heads: túpǔ, shèngjì, cháopìn, gōngshì, yīfú, yǐnshí, qìyòng, róngmào, zádiǎn. The kǎohé (verification-investigation) is the most precise. Within it, the shēnyī (deep-robe) and chēzhì (chariot system) and gōngshì (palace-chamber) institution-research is zhuānmén, the equal of which the various authors do not reach. There are points where his investigation is not yet exhausted. For example: he holds that, every-day in the regular court, the king merely stands outside the qǐnmén and exchanges salutations with his assembled officials, and that’s the whole of it; if there is any matter to be discussed, the king then enters the nèicháo. He cites the Zuǒzhuàn Chénggōng 6: “the men of Jìn deliberated on relocating from old Jiàng; Hán Xiànzǐ was newly commander of the Centre Army; the duke saluted him into the chamber, and Xiànzǐ followed and stood in the qǐntíng” — taking this as evidence for nèicháo deliberation of policy. He says that the Zhèng annotation of the Tàipú yàncháo’s drawing is taken on the Zōngrén jiāshì — citing only one corner; not meaning that the Zōngrén is admitted but officials of yìxìng (different surname-clans) are not.
Now examining: Yǒng holds that officials of yìxìng are admitted to the nèicháo — this view is correct. But to say that beyond the lùmén there is no place of deliberation, and that any deliberation must necessarily enter the nèicháo — here Yǒng has not investigated thoroughly. The Lǔyǔ says: “The Son of Heaven and the zhūhóu gather mínshì at the outer-court” — the annotation says: “to assemble with the various officials and verify the people’s affairs at the outer court”. And: “to assemble divine-affairs at the inner court” — the annotation: “the inner court is within the lùmén”. So there is a court outside the lùmén at which the Son of Heaven and zhūhóu gather to verify the mínshì — how can it be said that there is no deliberation there?
[…the tíyào continues with detailed point-by-point disagreement about the placement of the píng (screen) — wàipíng / nèipíng, fúsī / xiāoqiáng — the editors finally accepting Zhèng Xuán’s reading against Jiāng’s at this point. The full passage runs through extensive Sānlǐ reasoning…]
But of the several hundred sections in the entire book, the occasional shūlòu (omission) does not exceed cases of this kind; he can also be called suì yú Sānlǐ (deeply versed in the Three Ritual Classics). — Respectfully revised, twelfth month of the 46th year of Qiánlóng [1781].
General Compilers: Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Reviser: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The Xiāngdǎng túkǎo is the principal Wǎnpài contribution to the Sìshū corpus and the most thoroughgoing kǎojù monograph on a single Lúnyǔ book ever written. Jiāng Yǒng — by the time of its composition the leading Sānlǐ (Zhōulǐ, Yílǐ, Lǐjì) specialist of the high-Qīng — turned his ritual-institutional method onto the Xiāngdǎng chapter, the Lúnyǔ book most freighted with concrete zhìdù. The work’s nine-fold topical scheme is itself a methodological statement: it dissolves the Xiāngdǎng’s narrative-portraiture into nine institutional sub-domains, treats each by kǎojù method (Zhōulǐ + Yílǐ + Lǐjì + the histories + the Erya and other lexica), and re-assembles the result with charts (túpǔ) where appropriate. The gōngshì (palace-chamber) institution and the chēzhì (chariot system) are the two domains the Sìkù editors single out as zhuānmén-level — beyond what other contemporary authors reach.
The composition date is unrecorded in the WYG front matter; the bracket runs broadly from Jiāng’s mature Sānlǐ period (post-1730) through to his death in 1762. The work was submitted to the Sìkù programme in the early 1770s and admitted under the Sìshū lèi èr of jīngbù. Jiāng’s biographical position — Wùyuán native, founding figure of the Wǎnpài, teacher of Dài Zhèn — places the work at the heart of the Wǎnpài / Wúpài / Yángzhōu triangulation of mid-Qing kǎozhèng. Read alongside Jiāng’s Zhōulǐ yíyì jǔyào, Lǐjīng gāngmù, and Yílǐ shìlì, the Xiāngdǎng túkǎo shows the same Sānlǐ method applied to a Sìshū problem.
The Sìkù tíyào devotes nearly all its body to a single contested Sānlǐ dispute: where exactly the píng (screen) stands at the cháotíng — wàipíng before the yìngmén (Jiāng) or wàipíng before the lùmén (Zhèng Xuán); whether the xiāoqiáng / fúsī are the same item or different; whether the Tiānzǐ wàipíng / zhūhóu nèipíng distinction is geometrical (Jiāng) or fictive (the editors). The editors painstakingly cite the Erya-shū, the Qǔlǐ-shū, the Jìnyǔ, the Yuèyǔ, the Lùnyǔ Kǒng Ānguó gloss, the Shìmíng, the Cuī Bào Gǔjīnzhù, the Sānfǔ huángtú, the Wǔxíngzhì, and the Jìnlǐ — to conclude that Zhèng Xuán’s reading is correct and Jiāng’s is here over-ingenious. The verdict is the rare case of a Sìkù tíyào explicitly siding with Hànxué against a high Wǎnpài authority on a specific contested point. But the editors close with the strong endorsement: suì yú Sānlǐ — Jiāng is deeply versed in the Three Ritual Classics; the shūlòu are no more than occasional. The work’s overall kǎojù authority is left untouched.
The Xiāngdǎng túkǎo is the only Sìshū commentary in the WYG by a major Wǎnpài / kǎozhèng figure of Jiāng’s stature — Dài Zhèn, his student, did not write a Sìshū book — and represents the high-water mark of high-Qing kǎojù-mode Sìshū exegesis.
Translations and research
No English translation. Modern Chinese: 點校本 of Jiāng Yǒng’s Sān-lǐ corpus including the Xiāng-dǎng tú-kǎo in the Hùī-pài kǎo-jù xué-pài cóng-shū (Huáng-shān-shū-shè, ongoing); the Wényuān-gé Sì-kù-quán-shū photo-reprint is the standard scholarly text. Studies: Benjamin Elman, From Philosophy to Philology (Harvard, 1984/2001), is the principal English-language placement of Jiāng Yǒng in the Wǎn-pài / kǎozhèng movement; on Jiāng and Dài Zhèn see Yú Yīng-shí 余英時, Lùn Dài Zhèn yǔ Zhāng Xué-chéng (Sān-lián, 1976). Specialised: Tāng Zhì-jūn 湯志鈞, Jiāng Yǒng yánjiū (Yúnnán-rén-mín, 1995); on the Xiāng-dǎng chapter and its commentary tradition see Daniel K. Gardner, Zhu Xi’s Reading of the Analects (Columbia, 2003).
Other points of interest
The work is the first systematic kǎojù monograph on a single chapter of the Sìshū. By dissolving the Xiāngdǎng into nine institutional sub-domains and treating each by Sānlǐ method, Jiāng turns the Lúnyǔ’s most ritual-dense chapter into a Sānlǐ sub-text — effectively annexing it to the institutional-history terrain that Wǎnpài kǎozhèng claimed as its own. The Sìkù editors’ decision to side openly with Zhèng Xuán against Jiāng on the píng dispute is a rare and precise case of the editors’ commitment to Hànxué method even when it crosses a major Wǎnpài authority — and yet endorsing Jiāng’s overall Sānlǐ mastery in the same breath.
Links
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §28.4.4 and §27 on Qing classical kǎozhèng; §28.5 on the Three Ritual Classics.
- Daniel K. Gardner, Zhu Xi’s Reading of the Analects (Columbia, 2003).
- Qīngshǐgǎo 481 (Jiāng Yǒng biography).