Míngrú xuéàn 明儒學案
Cases of the Schools of Míng-Period Confucian Scholars by 黃宗羲 (撰)
About the work
A 62-juàn genealogical-cum-doctrinal compendium of the schools of Míng-period Confucian scholarship, by Huáng Zōngxī 黃宗羲 (Lízhōu 黎洲, 1610–1695), the great late-Míng / early-Qīng historian, philosopher, and pupil of Liú Zōngzhōu 劉宗周. The work is the foundational xuéàn — the most influential single instance of the genre — and the model for Huáng’s own subsequent SòngYuán xuéàn 宋元學案 (completed posthumously). Its predecessor compilations were Zhōu Rǔdēng’s 周汝登 Shèngxué zōngzhuàn 聖學宗傳 and Sūn Qíféng’s 孫奇逢 Lǐxué zōngzhuàn 理學宗傳 (KR2g0047 is Sūn’s Zhōngzhōu rénwù kǎo); Huáng held both to be coarse and incomplete and so undertook this substitute. The work’s structure — xuéàn by xuéàn, each devoted to a school or lineage — is itself a major innovation. The 19 xuéàn groups cover: Hédōng 河東 (Xuē Xuān 薛瑄’s school, 2 juàn, 15 men); Sānyuán 三原 (Wáng Shù 王恕’s school, 1 juàn, 6 men); Chóngrén 崇仁 (Wú Yǔbì 吳與弼’s school, 4 juàn, 10 men); Báishā 白沙 (Chén Xiànzhāng 陳獻章’s school, 2 juàn, 12 men); Yáojiāng 姚江 (Wáng Shǒurén 王守仁 / Wáng Yángmíng’s school, 1 juàn, 1 man + 2 attached); the Yáojiāng extensions in Zhèzhōng 浙中 (5 juàn, 18 men), Jiāngyòu 江右 (9 juàn, 27+6 men), Nánzhōng 南中 (3 juàn, 11 men), Chǔzhōng 楚中 (1 juàn, 2 men), Běifāng 北方 (1 juàn, 7 men), Mǐnyuè 閩越 (1 juàn, 2 men); Zhǐxiū 止修 (Lǐ Cái 李材’s school, 1 juàn); Tàizhōu 泰州 (Wáng Gěn 王艮’s school, 5 juàn, 18 men); Gānquán 甘泉 (Zhàn Ruòshuǐ 湛若水’s school, 6 juàn, 11 men); Zhūrú shàng / zhōng / xià (independent scholars, 4+7+5 juàn, 15+10+18 men); Dōnglín 東林 (Gù Xiànchéng 顧憲成 etc., 4 juàn, 17 men); Jìshān 蕺山 (Liú Zōngzhōu’s school, 1 juàn, 1 man) — preceded by Liú Zōngzhōu’s Shīshuō 師說 prefixed to the work, with 17 men named therein from Fāng Xiàorú 方孝孺 down. The Sìkù editors’ assessment is mixed: that Huáng was born in the Yáojiāng country, wished to suppress Wáng but could not bring himself to honour Xuē, wished to suppress Xuē but could not honour Wáng — and so balanced ambivalently between the two — but on the yuányuán of Míng-period scholarship his account is sufficiently full to be an enduring reference.
Tiyao
Míngrú xuéàn in 62 juàn. By Huáng Zōngxī of our dynasty. [Detailed enumeration of the 19 xuéàn groups follows: see “About the work.“] Generally: after the ZhūLù schism, by the Míng, Zhū’s lineage descended into the Hédōng, Lù’s lineage into the Yáojiāng; the rest came in or went out of the two streams. Zōngxī, born in the Yáojiāng country, sought to suppress Wáng and honour Xuē, but could not bring himself to do so; sought to suppress Xuē and honour Wáng, but did not dare. So toward Xuē’s followers he is on the surface respectful but secretly subtly negative; toward Wáng’s followers he is on the surface dismissive but inwardly mediating. The two schools each have gains and losses. As their lineages declined, the arguments multiplied, and so the disputes; and from the disputes arose factions; and from the factions, gratitude and resentment, with mutual condemnation and praise. From the Zhèng- and Jiājìng on, even the worthy were drawn in; the trend continued through the Míng-end and the resulting disasters extended to the dynasty itself. The lecturing scholars cannot escape responsibility. Zōngxī’s book still bears the after-vapour of this dynastic factionalism — it is not solely a jiǎngxué book. But on the yuányuán and fēnhé (sources, channels, divisions, conjunctions) of the various scholars, the narration is full enough to allow assessment of their gains and losses, and one can see the source of the day’s factional disasters. This is also a mirror for ten thousand ages. The preface of Qiú Zhàoáo 仇兆鼇 at the head, and Jiǎ Rùn 賈潤’s added evaluation, both are balanced and not partisan; we preserve them both for cross-reference. Reverently presented in the third month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778). Chief Editors: Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. Chief Collator: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
The Míngrú xuéàn is the foundational document of the xuéàn (school-cases) sub-genre — itself the most influential single later-imperial work on the genealogy of Confucian thought. Huáng Zōngxī (CBDB id 30713, 1610–1695) was a Dōnglín affiliate (his father Huáng Zūnsù 黃尊素 was a leading Dōnglín martyr executed by Wèi Zhōngxián in 1626), pupil of Liú Zōngzhōu, soldier in the Lóngwǔ and Lǔwáng loyalist regimes, and after the SòngQīng transition refused all official summons under the Qīng. The Míngrú xuéàn was composed during his late Kāngxī retirement; the standard date is Kāngxī 15 (= 1676) for the manuscript, with revisions through to Huáng’s death in 1695. The catalog meta gives “1610–1695” for the author’s lifedates. The work organizes Míng-period scholarship by school and lineage rather than by chronology; each xuéàn opens with the school’s master and proceeds through his pupils, with extracts from each man’s yǔlù (sayings) attached to each biography. The form has remained the standard for Lǐxué historiography to the present day.
Translations and research
- Wing-tsit Chan, “The Hsing-li ching-i and the Ch’eng-Chu School of the Seventeenth Century,” in Wm. Theodore de Bary, ed., The Unfolding of Neo-Confucianism (Columbia UP, 1975).
- Julia Ching and Chaoying Fang, eds., The Records of Ming Scholars (UHP, 1987) — partial English translation of selected xué-àn with substantial introduction.
- Lynn A. Struve, The Ming-Qing Conflict, 1619–1683: A Historiography and Source Guide (AAS, 1998).
- Tang Mingbang 唐明邦, Huáng Zōng-xī shēng-píng yǔ sī-xiǎng (1989), and similar Chinese-language treatments.
- The standard catalog notice is in Sì-kù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào 史部·傳記類三·總錄之屬.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù editors’ criticism that Huáng’s Yáojiāng native loyalty inflected his treatment is a famous interpretive position; modern scholarship (e.g. Julia Ching’s introduction to The Records of Ming Scholars) tends to see Huáng’s treatment as more even-handed than the Sìkù allows. The work is the foundation of the modern academic study of Míng Lǐxué.
Links
- Wilkinson 2018, Chinese History: A New Manual §49.
- Wikidata: 明儒學案
- CBDB person id 30713 (Huáng Zōngxī 黃宗羲).