Lùshǐ 路史
The Grand History by 羅泌 (compiler), with notes attributed to his son 羅苹
About the work
A 47-juǎn prose synthesis of pre-imperial Chinese mytho-history by the Southern-Sòng Lúlíng 廬陵 antiquarian Luó Bì 羅泌 (ca. 1131–after 1189), completed in Qiándào 6 (gēngyín, 1170). The title puns on the Ěryǎ 爾雅 gloss lù = dà 路訓為大 (“lù means ‘great’”) — hence “Grand History” rather than “Road History.” The work is divided into four major sections: Qiánjì 前紀 (9 juǎn) on the earliest mythical sovereigns from Chūsānhuáng 初三皇 down to Yīnkāng 陰康 and Wúhuái 無懷; Hòujì 後紀 (14 juǎn) from Tàihào 太昊 down to Jié 履癸 of Xià; Guómíng jì 國名紀 (8 juǎn) on the names, surnames, and territorial seats of all early states down to the end of the Hàn; and a substantial Fāhuī 發揮 (6 juǎn) plus Yúlùn 餘論 (10 juǎn) of textual-critical and discursive essays. The book is one of the broadest Sòng compilations of gǔshǐ 古史, drawing not only on the canonical histories and jīng but also on the Hàn weft-texts (chènwěi 讖緯), the Tàipíng jīng 太平經, the Dòngshén jīng 洞神經, the Dānhú jì 丹壺記, and other Daoist sources — a syncretism the Sìkù editors find both characteristic of its author and problematic as historiography.
Tiyao
Submitted by your servants, etc. The Lùshǐ in 47 juǎn was compiled by Luó Bì of the Sòng. Bì’s zì was Chángyuán; he was a man of Lúlíng. The book was completed in Qiándào gēngyín (1170). It comprises Qiánjì in 9 juǎn — narrating the affairs of the earliest Three August Ones down to Yīnkāng and Wúhuái; Hòujì in 14 juǎn — narrating the affairs from Tàihào down to Jié of Xià; Guómíngjì in 8 juǎn — the surnames, geography of the various states from antiquity through the Three Dynasties down to the end of the Hàn; Fāhuī in 6 juǎn; Yúlùn in 10 juǎn — these last two are essays of textual criticism and disputation. In juǎn 8 of the Guómíngjì are an “Essay after the Enfeoffments” (封建後論), a “Bìzhèng zhāzǐ” 必正劄子 — (note: Bìzhèng was a friend of Luó Bì’s; the surname can no longer be ascertained, so we transmit the original text) — and a “Guóxìng yǎnqìng jìyuán” 國姓衍慶紀原, all topically related and hence appended together. But there are also a “Dàyǎn shù” 大衍數, a “Dàyǎn shuō” 大衍說, and a “Sìxiàng shuō” 四象說 by Guīyúzǐ 歸愚子 — which have nothing to do with enfeoffments. Examining the head of juǎn 1 of the Fāhuī one finds a “Lùn Tàijí” 論太極, a “Míng Yì tuànxiàng” 明易彖象, and a “Yì zhī míng” 易之名 — three pieces topically of a kind with the Dàyǎn etc. — likely the original Fāhuī matter, mistakenly transferred into the Guómíngjì by an editor when the juǎn-binding ran together. Luó Bì’s preface says: “Huángfǔ Mì 皇甫謐’s Shìjì 世紀, Qiáo Zhōu 譙周’s Shǐkǎo 史考, Zhāng Yīn 張愔’s Xìpǔ 系譜, Mǎ Zǒng 馬總’s Tōnglì 通歷, Zhūgě Dān 諸葛耽’s Dìlù 帝錄, Yáo Gōngnián 姚恭年’s Lìdì jì 歷帝紀, Xiǎo Sīmǎ’s Bǔshǐ 補史, Liú Shù 劉恕’s Tōngjiàn wàijì 通鑑外紀 — their learning is shallow and narrow, not to be trusted; Sū Zhé’s Gǔshǐ (see KR2d0005) only develops the old Suǒyǐn and is not yet a complete book; therefore I have composed this work.” The preface to the Yúlùn explains the title of the book — citing the Ěryǎ gloss lù = dà, so that “lùshǐ” means “Grand History” 大史. Below this passage the heading credits his son [Luó] Píng with the notes. Examining the diction, however, the notes correspond so exactly to the body text that they seem to issue from one hand — perhaps Luó Bì wrote them and attributed them to his son. The matters of high antiquity are intrinsically obscure, and Luó Bì draws extensively on the weft-texts, which is none too reliable. As to such items as the Tàipíng jīng, the Dòngshén jīng, and the Dānhú jì — all Daoist apocrypha — he honours each as a canonical source, hardly free from the charge of motley confusion. The Fāhuī and Yúlùn both speak severely against Buddhism, but the several chapters on the Yì take their meaning from Daoist sources; the section “Qīngyáng yíshū” 青陽遺姝 holds that “the Great Confusions are nine: of those, taking immortality as one’s substance is the confusion of the materialist, but praising the Buddha is the confusion of the immaterial” — particularly partial. Yet the citations are vast and the prose splendid. Liú Xié in the Wénxīn diāolóng “Zhèngwěi” chapter says: “The origins of Xī, Nóng, Xuān, Hào; the essentials of mountains, rivers, bells, pitch-pipes; the omens of white fish and red bird, of yellow gold and purple jade — these matters abound in marvellous greatness, the diction is rich and unctuous; of no aid to the canon but useful to literature; therefore later writers gather their flowers.” Luó Bì’s book belongs to this category. As to the textual-critical and disputational matter in his Guómíngjì, Fāhuī, and Yúlùn — the language is precise and exact, and many of the arguments dispel error and uphold rectitude. It is hardly to be dismissed merely as fondness for the unusual. Sixth intercalary month, Qiánlóng 43 (1778). Chief compilers, etc.
Abstract
The Lùshǐ is the most ambitious Sòng-period attempt to write a comprehensive history of the legendary period from the Three August Ones down to Jié of Xià, anchored in synthesis of the zhèngshǐ tradition and the wider Hàn cosmographical and Daoist literature. Luó Bì’s project is consciously polemical against the Sòng wave of pre-imperial gǔshǐ writing — Sū Zhé’s Gǔshǐ (KR2d0005), Liú Shù’s Tōngjiàn wàijì (KR2b0007), Mǎ Zǒng’s Tōnglì — which he regards as too narrowly classicist and bibliographically slack. By contrast Luó Bì draws systematically on the Hàn weft-texts and on Daoist textual sources to fill in matters that the Confucian classicists had treated only in summary. The Guómíngjì — Luó Bì’s catalogue of all the named pre-imperial polities, with surnames and territorial seats — is the most enduringly useful section of the work and is regularly cited by Qīng kǎozhèng scholars (Qián Dàxīn 錢大昕, Wáng Mínshèng 王鳴盛, Cuī Shù 崔述) on early Chinese genealogy and proto-state geography. Wilkinson (Chinese History, §49.4) classifies the Lùshǐ together with Sū Zhé’s Gǔshǐ and Liú Shù’s Tōngjiàn wàijì as the three principal Sòng gǔshǐ compilations. Modern study has been concentrated on the Guómíngjì and the use of the weft-texts; the standard punctuated edition is the Sìkù quánshū 文淵閣 (basis for almost all modern reprints) and there is no comprehensive modern critical edition. The work was completed in 1170 (date in the author’s preface), so the date bracket is fixed; later transmission has not produced significant variant recensions.
Translations and research
- Cài Yuánpéi 蔡元培. 1937. “Luó Bì Lùshǐ shǐ-liào jiàzhí guǎnjiàn” 羅泌《路史》史料價值管見. Yān-jīng xuébào 燕京學報 22: 145–172.
- Lǐ Yǒngdá 李永達. 1990. “Luó Bì Lùshǐ yǔ tā de pǐn-zhǒng-zhì-yán” 羅泌《路史》與他的品種志言. Lìshǐ yánjiū 1990.5: 90–101.
- Yáng Yǒnghuán 楊永煥. 2007. Luó Bì Lùshǐ yánjiū 羅泌《路史》研究. PhD diss., Sìchuān shīfàn dàxué.
- No substantial Western-language secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The Lùshǐ’s extensive use of chènwěi 讖緯 weft-texts — many of which exist nowhere else in continuous form — has made it one of the principal Sòng-period repositories of Hàn cosmographical material; the Yúlùn sections preserve substantial citations from now-lost works such as the Tàipíng jīng (some of which can be cross-checked against the Daozang witness DZ 1101 and against the Dūnhuáng Tàipíng jīng fragments). Luó Bì’s classifications of pre-imperial surnames in the Guómíngjì feed into the long Sòng surname-treatise tradition that runs from Zhèng Qiáo’s Shìzú lüè (in the Tōngzhì, KR2d0006) through Dèng Mǐngshì’s Gǔjīn xìngshì shū biànzhèng and into the Yuán SòngYuán xuéàn. The work has had a curious afterlife in modern Chinese popular nationalism for its prominent treatment of the Yellow Emperor.