Sānguó zhì bǔzhù 三國志補注
Supplements to the Commentary on the Sānguó zhì by 杭世駿 (Háng Shìjùn, 1696–1773); appended: Zhū shǐ rányí 諸史然疑 (1 j.).
About the work
A 6-juǎn supplement to Péi Sōngzhī’s commentary on the Sānguó zhì (KR2a0012) — Wèi zhì 4 juǎn, Shǔ zhì 1, Wú zhì 1 — by the Qiánlóng-era kǎozhèng scholar Háng Shìjùn 杭世駿 (1696–1773). Composed in the second half of Háng’s life, after his impeachment and rustication of Qiánlóng 8 (1743) had freed him for full-time scholarship. Appended (1 juǎn): Zhū shǐ rányí 諸史然疑, a separate set of kǎozhèng notes on the Hòu Hànshū, Sānguó zhì, Jìnshū, Sòngshū, Wèishū, Běi shǐ, Chénshū.
Tiyao
By Háng Shìjùn of the present dynasty. Shìjùn is the author of the Xù Fāngyán 續方言, already catalogued. This work supplements omissions in Péi Sōngzhī’s commentary: 4 juǎn on the Wèi zhì, 1 each on Shǔ and Wú. Péi’s commentary is rich in citation and detailed in kǎodìng — no one has disputed it. Shìjùn revisits the leftover scraps and tries to outdo Péi by sheer breadth; hence neither great nor small is omitted, and merits and flaws are both visible. Such-and-such a person’s residence in such-and-such a village; such-and-such a person’s tomb at such-and-such a hamlet — the format is wholly that of a tújīng. Yú Lì’s 虞荔 Dǐng lù 鼎錄, Táo Hóngjǐng’s 陶宏景 Dāo jiàn lù 刀劍錄, are inserted entry by entry by year. In the Zhōng Yáo etc. biographies, shūpíng and shūpǐn appraisals run on for whole pages — the format is then that of a zájì. As to the supernatural and the strange — like Jī Kāng meeting a ghost or Zhūgě Liàng sacrificing for the wind — the bàiguān fictions accumulate page after page, particularly preposterous and unsuitable.
(The tíyào then enumerates other faults: redundancy with Péi’s commentary on Wèi Wéndì’s juéjīn dànqí; duplication on Cáo Cāo’s grave-robbing reference; misattributions of citation source for the Cuī Wǎn 崔琬 and Zhāng Fēi bàoyuèwū 豹月烏 anecdotes; missing essential citations for Wáng Càn’s identification of yǔ shí and for Zhūgě Liàng’s Liángfǔ yín. But it then enumerates eighteen entries — Wèi Wéndì jì on Wáng Líng’s Xiètíng marquisate, Mǐng dì jì on Kǒng Yànyì, Chén Tài’s age 36, Zāng Hóng zhuàn on Xú Zhòng, Cuī Wǎn zhuàn on Chén Wěi, Huá Xīn zhuàn on the Dōnghǎijùn note, Yán Bāo’s mutual contact, Jiǎng Jì zhuàn on the bì miǎn, Zhāng Liáo zhuàn on the great shouting of names, Chǔwáng Biāo zhuàn on the transfer of fief to Báimǎ; Shǔzhì Xiānzhǔ on Qiáo Zhōu as cóngshì, Hòuzhǔ on the absence of historiographers, Zhūgě Liàng on the cultivation at Nányáng, Dèng Zhī on Liào Huà as Xiāngyáng man; Wúzhì Sūn Xiū on the names of the two princes, Tàishǐ Cí on Shéntíng, Huáng Gài on Huáng Zǐlián, Hè Qí on Xú Shèng losing his spear — all checked against parallel sources, decidedly precise. Other items — the Huángchū five-classic examination ordinance, Wáng Chǎng’s five points on official assessment, Sīmǎ Zhī’s proposal on currency restoration, Wáng Sù’s memorial on the Mìshū jiàn, Wáng Xiàng and Móu Xí’s compilation of the Huánglǎn; citations of the Zhèngyì refuting Zhèng Xuán’s jìgǔ tóngtiān gloss, of the Hòu Hànshū zhù explaining zōng zéi, of the Fēngsú tōng establishing Zhōushēng as a compound surname, of the Kùnxué jìwén establishing Kuàng Chángníng as a Shǔ man — also serve kǎozhèng. So the work, though scattered, is not to be dismissed.)
The appended Zhū shǐ rányí is also Háng’s; it picks at lapses in the zhèngshǐ — 14 entries on the Hòu Hànshū, 6 on the Sānguó zhì, 3 on the Jìnshū, 3 on the Sòngshū, 8 on the Wèishū, 6 on the Běi shǐ, 3 on the Chénshū. (The tíyào gives extensive corrections of Háng’s misreadings of Liú Zhījī’s Shǐtōng, Tànzé 探賾 chapter, on Xí Záochǐ’s treatment of LiúShǔ as the legitimate succession, and on the Niú jì Mǎ hòu anecdote, both of which Háng based on a defective text of the Shǐtōng — Pǔ Qǐlóng’s contemporary Qing edition of the Shǐtōng had already corrected the readings; Háng was apparently unaware. Yet the work corrects much.)
Abstract
Háng Shìjùn’s Sānguó zhì bǔzhù is the principal Qing-era supplement to Péi Sōngzhī’s commentary on the Sānguó zhì — a major kǎozhèng enterprise of the late Qiánlóng era, carried out by one of the most learned figures of the High Qing kǎozhèng tradition. Composition window: after Háng’s impeachment and rustication in 1743 (which freed him for full-time scholarship); before his death in 1773. The Sìkù appendix gives the date as 1 juǎn, but the actual extent is closer to the figure given in the catalog meta. The Sìkù appraisal is mixed but ultimately positive: Háng’s range is vast and his net contribution to the Sānguó zhì tradition is real, even if the work is uneven and at times credulous of bàiguān anecdote. The 18 most-cited entries identified in the tíyào itself are the principal scholarly contribution.
The Zhū shǐ rányí 諸史然疑 (1 juǎn), appended to the WYG copy, is a separate compendium of Háng’s kǎozhèng notes on seven of the zhèngshǐ. It survives only because the WYG includes it.
Both works are direct precursors of the comprehensive Qing tradition of zhèngshǐ kǎozhèng — Qián Dàxīn 錢大昕’s Niàn’èr shǐ kǎoyì (1782), Wáng Mínshèng 王鳴盛’s Shíqī shǐ shāngquè (1787), and Zhào Yì 趙翼’s Niàn’èr shǐ zhájì (1799) — and is regularly cited by all three.
Translations and research
No translation. Cited extensively in Lú Bì 盧弼, Sānguó zhì jí jiě 三國志集解 (1936). The standard modern punctuated edition of Háng Shìjùn’s collected works is the Háng Shìjùn jí 杭世駿集 (Zhèjiāng Gǔjí, 12 vols., 2017–). Studies: Pān Yìfǔ 潘益夫, “Sānguó zhì bǔ zhù yánjiū”, Wénxiàn 2010.4; Lǐ Bóchóng 李伯重, “Háng Shìjùn yǔ YōngQián zhī jì de zhèjiāng kǎojù xué” (in his Cóng Hángzhōu kàn Zhōngguó shǐxué de qūyù chuántǒng, Zhèjiāng Gǔjí, 2014).