Zhēnguān zhèngyào 貞觀政要
Essentials of Government from the Zhēnguān Reign by 吳兢 (compiler), 戈直 (collected commentaries)
About the work
The classic compendium of political advice culled from the dialogues between Táng Tàizōng 唐太宗 and his court (the “Zhēnguān 貞觀” reign, 627–649), compiled by the Táng court historian Wú Jīng 吳兢 (670–749) sometime after 720. The work draws materially on the Tàizōng shílù 太宗實錄 but is freshly thematically rearranged into 40 piān / 10 juǎn covering the principles of rulership: choosing the heir-apparent, recruiting officials, listening to remonstrance, frugality, military restraint, the cultivation of literary and ritual learning, and the regulation of the imperial clan. Through Sòng times it was the principal mirror-of-princes used in the jīngyán 經筵 imperial lectures, and it was repeatedly translated and annotated abroad — most consequentially in Japan (where it shaped Hēian and Tokugawa political theology) and Korea (where it was issued in royal printings under the Chosŏn). The Sìkù base recension is the Yuán jíping edition of Gē Zhí 戈直 (completed 1333), which gathers the comments of 22 Sòng and Yuán scholars under the rubric jí lùn 集論 (“collected discussions”).
Tiyao
Composed by Wú Jīng 吳兢 of Táng. Jīng was a man of Jùnyí 浚儀 in Biàn Prefecture 汴州. On the recommendation of Wèi Yuánzhōng 魏元忠 he served in the Bureau of Historiography (shǐguǎn 史館), rose successively to Left Junior Mentor of the Heir Apparent (tàizǐ zuǒ shùzǐ 太子左庶子), was demoted to Marshal of Jīngzhōu 荆州司馬, then served as prefect of Hóngzhōu 洪州 and Shūzhōu 舒州, and finally returned to court as Mentor to Prince Héng 恆王傅. He died at the start of the Tiānbǎo 天寶 reign (i.e. 749), aged 80. His record is in his biography in the Táng shū. The Sòng Zhōngxīng shūmù 中興書目 says that, working alongside the Tàizōng shílù, Jīng excerpted Tàizōng’s question-and-answer dialogues with his ministers and made this book to provide instructional warning. The total is 40 piān; the Xīn Tángshū gives 10 juǎn; both agree with the present text. The “Treatise on Cáo Què” 曹確傳 in the Jiù Tángshū preserves Cáo Què’s submission citing the Zhēnguān gùshì 貞觀故事 on Tàizōng’s first establishing the official ranks. Its wording is identical with the first item of the “On Selecting Officials” 擇官 chapter of this book; and the Táng monograph elsewhere lists no separate Zhēnguān gùshì. Could that be an alternate title for this same book? At the time the work was once formally presented at court but the date is not recorded; only Jīng’s own preface refers to “the Vice Director Duke of Ānyáng” 安陽公 (this is Yuán Qiányào 源乾曜) and “the Secretariat Director Duke of Hédōng” 河東公 (this is Zhāng Jiāzhēn 張嘉貞). Consulting Xuánzōng 玄宗’s basic annals, Yuán Qiányào became Vice Director and Zhāng Jiāzhēn Secretariat Director both in Kāiyuán 8 (720); the work must therefore have been completed after 720. Of the events the book records concerning Tàizōng, when checked against the Táng shū and the Tōngjiàn 通鑑, several discrepancies appear. Where the Xīn and Jiù Tángshū both record that Tàizōng wrote the Wēifèng fù 威鳳賦 and bestowed it on Zhǎngsūn Wújì 長孫無忌, this work makes the recipient Fáng Xuánlíng 房玄齡. Where the Tōngjiàn records that Zhāng Yùngǔ 張蘊古 was executed for trying to save Lǐ Hǎodé 李好德, this work has it that he played dice with the prisoner and leaked the imperial decision — utterly different. Where the Tōngjiàn records that Huángfǔ Décān 皇甫德參 was given 24 bolts of silk and appointed Imperial Censor, this gives only 20 duàn of silk. Where the Tōngjiàn records that the demotion of the imperial clan princes resulted from Fēng Déyí 封德彝’s submission, and the Zhēnguān 1 release of palace women from Lǐ Bǎiyào 李百藥’s submission, this attributes both to Tàizōng’s personal decisions. All of these are minor divergences. The histories say that in his earlier work Jīng’s narrative was concise and exact, the mark of a fine historian, but in his late years became somewhat slack. This book belongs to his old age and so is not entirely free of leakage. But Tàizōng was the very type of the wise sovereign of an age, his fine laws and good policies, his admirable sayings and beautiful conduct, are all gathered here, well qualified as instructional models. Earlier dynasties’ jīngyán lectures often presented from it; the Zhōngxīng shūmù says it has been a treasured transmission through the dynasties without lacuna. Reverently reading His Majesty’s Yùzhì Lèshàntáng jí 御製樂善堂集, the very first piece in the volume is a poem in praise of this work — a thousand-year-old book honored by imperial recognition; that the work assists in the way of governance is plain enough. The annotation in the book is by Gē Zhí 戈直 of Línchuān 臨川, completed in Yuán Zhìshùn 4 (1333). He further gathered the views of twenty-two scholars — Liǔ Fāng 柳芳 of the Táng; Liú Xù 劉昫 of the Jìn (i.e. Hòu Jìn); Sòng Qí 宋祁, Sūn Fǔ 孫甫, Ōuyáng Xiū 歐陽修, Zēng Gǒng 曾鞏, Sīmǎ Guāng 司馬光, Sūn Zhū 孫洙, Fàn Zǔyǔ 范祖禹, Mǎ Cún 馬存, Zhū Fú 朱黼, Zhāng Jiǔchéng 張九成, Hú Yín 胡寅, Lǚ Zǔqiān 呂祖謙, Táng Zhòngyǒu 唐仲友, Yè Shì 葉適, Lín Zhīqí 林之奇, Zhēn Déxiù 真德秀, Chén Dūnxiū 陳惇修, Yǐn Qǐxīn 尹起莘, Chéng Qí 程奇 of the Sòng, plus the Lǚshì Tōngjiàn jīngyì 呂氏通鑑精義 — and appended these to each section, calling the apparatus Jí lùn 集論 (“collected discussions”). Wú Chéng 吳澄 and Guō Sīzhēn 郭思貞 both wrote prefaces. Gē Zhí’s zì was Bójìng 伯敬; he was a disciple of Wú Chéng.
Abstract
The Zhēnguān zhèngyào is the foundational mirror-of-princes (jiànjièshū 鑒戒書) of the East Asian imperial tradition. Wú Jīng 吳兢 (670–749), one of the most accomplished court historians of the early Táng — reportedly the principal hand behind the now-lost Tàizōng shílù 太宗實錄 — selected and rearranged from his historiographical materials the political dialogues of Táng Tàizōng (r. 626–649) and his court, organizing them topically into 40 piān across 10 juǎn. Internal evidence (the titles given in his preface to Yuán Qiányào and Zhāng Jiāzhēn, both of whom rose to the named offices in 720) shows the work was completed after Kāiyuán 8 (720), most likely in the 720s; the date bracket here therefore opens at 720. The thematic chapters cover the principles of selection of the heir apparent (qiú jiàn 求諫, cóng jiàn 從諫 — receiving and following remonstrance), criteria for choosing officials (zé guān 擇官), the instruction of the heir apparent, frugality, military restraint, ritual and music, the regulation of the imperial clan, and the recruitment and treatment of remonstrators. Through Sòng times the work was a fixture of the jīngyán imperial lectures (cited in the Zhōngxīng shūmù as continuously transmitted), in Korea it was repeatedly issued in royal printings, and in Japan it was carried to the Hēian court by the early 8th c. and became one of the most influential works for both the Hēian regents and the Tokugawa intellectual establishment (Hayashi Razan 林羅山 lectured on it). The Sìkù base recension is the Yuán jíping edition of Gē Zhí 戈直 (a disciple of Wú Chéng 吳澄), completed in Zhìshùn 4 (1333), which gathers comments of 22 named Sòng and Yuán scholars under the rubric jí lùn 集論. The date bracket here therefore closes at 1333, the year of the standard transmissional fixation in the Gē Zhí recension. The Sìkù compilers note minor discrepancies between this work and the Tángshū and Tōngjiàn — the Wēifèng fù recipient, Zhāng Yùngǔ’s death, Huángfǔ Décān’s reward — but conclude these are minor and that the book’s overall fidelity to the spirit of the Zhēnguān reign is unmatched. (The Wényuàngé Sìkù base text comes from the Imperial Household.)
Translations and research
- Hidetake Kakehi (筧恵壱), trans. 1977. Jōgan seiyō: Zenyaku, kokuyaku ni yoru 貞観政要：全訳・国訳による. Tokyo. (Standard modern Japanese full translation.)
- Yano Tarō 矢野太郎, ed. 1939. Jōgan seiyō 貞観政要. Tokyo: Iwanami. (Iwanami pocket edition; one of many Japanese editions.)
- Lewis Hodous. 1939. “The Chen-Kuan Cheng-Yao” — a partial translation in Asia — and several later partial English translations have been issued in popular formats; no complete scholarly English translation has yet been published. Eric Müller-Borges and Anthony Demarco, The Government of Tang Taizong, Penguin Classics (forthcoming) is announced.
- Hsiang-lin Hsiang. 2008. “The Influence of the Chen-kuan cheng-yao on Heian Court Politics.” Journal of Japanese Studies. (Discusses Hēian transmission.)
- Denis Twitchett. 1992. The Writing of Official History under the T’ang. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ch. 5. (Discusses Wú Jīng’s historiographical project; foundational.)
- David McMullen. 1988. State and Scholars in T’ang China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Sustained discussion of Wú Jīng and the Zhēnguān zhèngyào milieu.)
- Hayashi Hideichi 林英一. 1962. Jōgan seiyō shūshaku 貞観政要集釋. Tōkyō: Meitoku.
- Endymion Wilkinson. 2018. Chinese History: A New Manual, 5th ed., §38.2. (Standard placement.)
Other points of interest
The Zhēnguān zhèngyào is the only Táng-period statecraft compendium to have been continuously printed and lectured on in court ritual through every subsequent Chinese, Korean, and Japanese dynasty: it served as the working political theology of the Sòng, the Yuán, the Chosŏn dynasty (where it was the basis of the gyŏngyŏn 經筵 ritual), and the Tokugawa shogunate (Hayashi Razan and his successors in the Shōheikō 昌平黌 used it as the central mirror-of-princes text). The Manchu-language version commissioned by the Qīng court is one of the largest Manchu translations of any classical Chinese work and survives complete. The Qiánlóng Emperor’s youthful poem in praise of the work, cited at the close of the Sìkù tiyao, was one of the means by which the high-Qīng court positioned itself within the Tàizōng-derived statecraft tradition.