朱子年譜

Zhūzǐ niánpǔ 朱子年譜

Annal-Biography of Master Zhū by 王懋竑 (撰)

About the work

The standard Qīng niánpǔ of Zhū Xī 朱熹 (1130–1200), prepared by Wáng Màohóng 王懋竑 (zì Yǔzhōng 予中, 1668–1741, Bǎoyīng 寶應 jìnshì of Kāngxī wùxū = 1718, summoned in Yōngzhèng guǐmǎo = 1723 to Hànlín 翰林). The catalog meta gives the work as 4 juàn; the WYG actually contains Niánpǔ 4 juàn, Kǎoyì 考異 4 juàn, and Lùnxué qièyào yǔ 論學切要語 2 juàn — ten juàn total. Wáng’s compilation responds to a long sequence of SòngYuánMíng Zhūzǐ niánpǔ: Lǐ Fāngzǐ’s 李方子 lost three-juàn original; the Hóngwǔ jiǎxū (1394) re-cut by Zhū Xī’s descendant Zhū Jìng 朱境 (with Wāng Zhònglǔ 汪仲魯’s preface), already departing from Lǐ Fāngzǐ’s original; Dài Xiǎn 戴銑’s Zhèngdé bǐngyín (1506) Zhūzǐ shíjì 朱子實紀 in 12 juàn (a panegyric); Lǐ Mò 李黙 of Jiànyáng’s Jiājìng rénzǐ (1552) reduction in 5 juàn (Wáng Yáng-míng-influenced and so unreliable on the zǎonián / wǎnnián question); and several Qīng Kāngxī recompilations (Hóngshì of Wùyuán; Zhūshì of Jiànníng; Zōushì of Wǔjìn). Wáng Màohóng, “having long meditated on the Master’s surviving writings,” took Lǐ Mò’s and Hóngshì’s pǔ as his base, cross-checked them against the Yǔlèi and Wénjí, corrected and supplemented errors and lacunae, and produced a four-juàn Niánpǔ; he then produced a four-juàn Kǎoyì on the model of Zhū Xī’s own Hánjí kǎoyì 韓集考異, justifying his selections; and two juàn of Lùnxué yàoyǔ 論學要語 as appendix. The work’s principal scholarly thrust is the refutation of the WángYángmíng “wǎnnián dìnglùn” 晚年定論 thesis (that Zhū Xī in his late years converted to a position effectively the same as Lù Jiǔyuān’s 陸九淵): Wáng Màohóng’s biography is structured throughout to display the chronological development of Zhū Xī’s xué and to demolish the zǎoyì wǎntóng 早異晚同 thesis. The Sìkù editors note that the work is exceptionally good as a xuépǔ (a year-by-year intellectual biography) but rather thin on Zhū Xī’s zhèngshì (administrative career): for instance, Zhū’s Chúnxī 9 (1182) impeachment of Táng Zhòngyǒu 唐仲友 (a major and controverted episode) is silently passed over.

Tiyao

Zhūzǐ niánpǔ in 4 juàn, Kǎoyì in 4 juàn, Lùnxué qièyào yǔ in 2 juàn. By Wáng Màohóng of our dynasty. Màohóng, courtesy name Yǔzhōng, was a man of Bǎoyīng. He took the jìnshì in Kāngxī wùxū (1718), was appointed Education Officer of Ānqìngfǔ; in Yōngzhèng guǐmǎo (1723) he was specially summoned to serve in the inner court and changed to Compiler of the Hànlín Academy. The Niánpǔ of Zhūzǐ was originally made in three juàn by Lǐ Fāngzǐ; that text is lost. In Hóngwǔ jiǎxū (1394) Zhūzǐ’s descendant Jìng re-cut another, with a preface by Wāng Zhònglǔ — but already not Lǐ’s original. In Zhèngdé bǐngyín (1506), Dài Xiǎn of Wùyuán cut a Zhūzǐ shíjì in 12 juàn, but this aimed only at parading the imperial honours and panegyrizing Zhū’s renown — not worth speaking of. In Jiājìng rénzǐ (1552), Lǐ Mò of Jiànyáng re-edited the niánpǔ in 5 juàn; his preface speaks of removing the cluttered and erroneous, with the result that he retained perhaps seven-tenths of the older versions. But Lǐ Mò’s learning derived from the Yáojiāng 姚江 (Wáng Yángmíng) school, and he secretly espoused the zǎoyì wǎntóng 始異終同 thesis, which produced many tampering interpolations and increasingly lost touch with the truth. In our dynasty’s Kāngxī gēngchén (1700) the Hóng family of Wùyuán [issued a corrected edition]; subsequently there have been the new edition of the Zhū family of Jiànníng and the Zhèngé běn of the Zōu family of Wǔjìn — all either too detailed or too sketchy, none precisely accurate. Màohóng, having long meditated on Zhūzǐ’s surviving writings, took Lǐ’s and Hóng’s editions and consulted them against each other, cross-checking with the Yǔlù and Wénjí, correcting and filling out, and reduced the result to 4 juàn; he then provided a complete account of his criteria of selection, on the model of Zhūzǐ’s own Hánjí kǎoyì, in 4 juàn of Kǎoyì; and gathered up the principal sayings on learning into the 2 juàn of Lùnxué yàoyǔ attached at the end. His main aim was to discriminate the proper sequence of Zhūzǐ’s xué in order to refute the “Yáojiāng wǎnnián dìnglùn” thesis, and so his treatment of learning is exceptionally detailed and his treatment of administrative affairs rather thin. Thus on the affair of Chúnxī 9 (1182), the impeachment of the prefect of Tāizhōu Táng Zhòngyǒu — over which subsequent commentators have raised serious objections — he simply remains silent. Again, when he discusses the editing of the Xiǎoxué he correctly attributes it to Liú Zǐchéng 劉子澄 on the basis of Zhū’s collected works, but in editing the Gāngmù he fails to note that it was the work of Zhào Shīyuān 趙師淵; the Chǔcí jízhù was prepared on the occasion of Zhào Rǔyú’s 趙汝愚 banishment, but Wáng does not name him — these are all not perfectly thorough. But on Zhūzǐ’s lifelong pursuit of his ends and his discrimination of the difference and identity of competing positions, the work is fundamental and orderly; on the boundary between the Jīnxī and Zǐyáng schools, opening the volume one sees through it at once. Although the work does not perfectly conform to the formal niánpǔ genre, as a xuépǔ of Zhūzǐ it is far above all other compilations. Reverently presented in the fourth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Chief Editors: Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. Chief Collator: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.

Abstract

Wáng Màohóng (CBDB id 35054, 1668–1741) was a Yáng-míng-school Qīng scholar whose career was largely outside the metropolitan establishment. He was a leading Hàn-school 漢學 Zhūxué loyalist of the Yōngzhèng and early Qiánlóng periods. The Zhūzǐ niánpǔ was the principal scholarly product of his career; it took shape over decades and has no single date of composition (the catalog meta gives no date). Plausible inner brackets: not before c. 1706 (Wáng’s earliest serious engagement with Zhūxué, when he began his enforced retirement after his initial jǔrén failures) and not after his death in 1741. The work was first printed posthumously, with most circulation thereafter through the Báitián cǎotáng 白田草堂 imprint of his pupils. The polemical thrust against the Wáng Yángmíng wǎnnián dìnglùn doctrine is the work’s defining feature; the Sìkù editors describe it as fundamentally a xuépǔ (intellectual biography) rather than a strict niánpǔ. The Kǎoyì — modeled on Zhū Xī’s Hánjí kǎoyì — is itself a substantial scholarly contribution of philological interest. The catalog commentedTextid is set to KR2g0024 (Zhū Xī’s Yīluò yuányuán lù), the most closely related ZhūXī biographical text in the catalog.

Translations and research

• Hoyt Cleveland Tillman, Confucian Discourse and Chu Hsi’s Ascendancy (HUP, 1992) — uses Wáng Mào-hóng’s niánpǔ as the standard chronological framework.
• Wing-tsit Chan, Chu Hsi: Life and Thought (Chinese University Press, 1987), and Chan, Chu Hsi: New Studies (HUP, 1989) — likewise rely on Wáng Mào-hóng.
• Modern critical edition: Wáng Mào-hóng, Zhū-zǐ niánpǔ, ed. Hé Zhōng-lǐ 何忠禮 (Beijing: Zhōnghuá shū-jú, 1998).

Other points of interest

The work is a textbook example of xuépǔ (intellectual biography) as a sub-genre of niánpǔ, deliberately differentiated from the standard zhuànjì by its purposeful display of doctrinal development. The Sìkù editors recognize this in their classification rationale and praise the form’s appropriateness even as they note its incompleteness on Zhū Xī’s zhèngshì.

Links

• Wilkinson 2018, Chinese History: A New Manual §49.
• CBDB person id 35054 (Wáng Màohóng 王懋竑).