Tōngjiàn Hú zhù jǔ zhèng 通鑑胡注擧正
Corrections to Hú Sānxǐng’s Commentary on the Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance by 陳景雲 (Chén Jǐngyún, 1670–1747, zhuàn 撰)
About the work
A 1-juan collection of 63 corrigenda to Hú Sānxǐng’s standard Yīn zhù commentary on the Zī zhì tōng jiàn (KR2b0007); the surviving residue (about 1/10) of an originally 10-juan compilation, the bulk of which was lost during Chén’s lifetime. Predominantly geographical corrections.
Tiyao
Tōngjiàn Hú zhù jǔ zhèng, 1 juǎn. (Zhèjiāng Provincial Governor’s submitted copy.) By Chén Jǐngyún of the present dynasty. Jǐngyún’s place of origin is already noted under the Sān guó biàn wù entry. The book throughout collates Hú Sānxǐng’s Zī zhì tōng jiàn yīn zhù errors — sixty-three items in all, with geographical corrections most numerous, and quite finely worked. However, e.g.: under Zhōu Nǎnwáng 57, “the Dàliáng Yímén jiānzhě,” the note has Yímén as the north gate of Dàliáng — but the Shǐjì Xìnlíngjūn zhuàn originally writes “east gate.” Again, under Suí Yángdì Dàyè 1, Qízhānggōng Niú Hóng — the note cites only the Suí shū and Xīn Táng shū as writing Qízhāngxiàn, missing that the Jiù Táng shū originally writes Qízhāng (奇章), explained as named after the Qízhāng mountain eight lǐ east of the prefecture. Again, under Hòu Hàn Míngdì Yǒngpíng 14, the Suìxiāng — the name appears in the Hàn shū dìlǐ zhì under the Tàishān Shéqiū xiàn entry. Under Táng Gāozǔ Wǔdé 3, Zhēnzhōu — see the Suí shū Yángdì jì Dàyè 1, and the Dìlǐ zhì Rǔnánjùn entry. Under Hòu Jìn Gāozǔ Tiānfú 4, Kānghuà jūn — see Lù Yóu’s Nán Táng shū Lièzǔ běn jì. Yet the Yīn zhù in each case says “no record.” Such cases are not exhausted here.
On examining the funeral epitaph by Wáng Jùn appended to the back of the book, Jǐngyún is said to have made a Tōngjiàn Hú zhù jǔ zhèng in 10 juǎn. The postface at the end of the book by Jǐngyún’s son Huángzhōng also says the original was 10 juǎn, and that “in the wake of leaking-roof and rat-gnawed times, only one in ten survives.” So this compilation is the residue of a damaged manuscript — its many lacunae natural enough. But what survives is in any case useful for textual research.
Abstract
The Tōngjiàn Hú zhù jǔ zhèng is the principal Qing-period polemical apparatus to Hú Sānxǐng’s Yīn zhù commentary on the Tōng jiàn. Chén Jǐngyún belonged to the Hé Chuò 何焯 (1661–1722) circle of early-Qing critical-philological scholars; the work is methodologically of a piece with that group’s terse, evidentially-anchored corrigenda style.
The 63 surviving entries are predominantly geographical and prosopographical: corrections to Hú Sānxǐng’s place-name identifications, prefecture locations, and personal-name identifications, often by counter-citation of the standard histories or earlier topographies. As the Sìkù tíyào notes (citing Wáng Jùn’s epitaph and Chén Huángzhōng’s postface, both appended to the WYG text), the original work was 10 juǎn, the bulk of which was lost — by the editors’ arithmetic — to “leaking-roof rat-gnawed” decay; this 1-juan WYG residue is approximately 1/10 of the original. Even so, the editors note that Chén missed several errors clearly visible in standard sources (e.g. in the Yímén / east-gate-versus-north-gate identification, where the Shǐjì Xìnlíngjūn zhuàn gives the answer directly).
The dating bracket here is set to Chén Jǐngyún’s adult scholarly career (ca. 1700–1747); no firmer date is recoverable.
Translations and research
No translation. No substantial monograph. Treated in the broader Hé Chuò / Chén Jǐng-yún school context in:
- Tang Zhì-jūn 湯志鈞, Jīng-xué shǐ lùn lù 經學史論錄 (Shanghai shudian, 2002).
- Yǒng Róng 永瑢 et al., Sìkù quánshū zǒng mù tíyào 四庫全書總目提要 — the work’s transmission is recorded together with the larger Chén Jǐng-yún corpus.
Other points of interest
The work is the principal Qing-period evidence for the limits of Hú Sānxǐng’s geographical apparatus, and for the existence of a continuous Sòng-to-Qing line of Tōng jiàn corrigenda scholarship. As the residue of a much larger lost compilation it is also a poignant reminder of the precarity of private kǎojù manuscripts in the early eighteenth century.
Links
- Wikidata Q11084091
- Kyoto Zinbun Sìkù tíyào 0103002.