Shǐzhuàn sān biān 史傳三編
Three-Part Compilation of Historical Biographies by 朱軾 (撰)
About the work
A 56-juàn large-scale early-Qīng prosopography of distinguished figures from the Hàn through the Yuán, organized into three categories: Míngrú zhuàn 名儒傳 (Eminent Confucians) in 8 juàn; Míngchén zhuàn 名臣傳 (Eminent Officials) in 35 juàn (with a 5-juàn Xùbiān 續編 supplement); and Xúnlì zhuàn 循吏傳 (Model Officials) in 8 juàn. Compiled under the general direction of Zhū Shì 朱軾 (1664–1736), the YōngzhèngQiánlóng Grand Secretary, in collaboration with Cài Shìyuǎn 蔡世遠 (字 Wénzhī 聞之, of Zhāngpǔ 漳浦, 1681–1734), who together had been commissioned by the Yōngzhèng emperor to compile the work. The actual drafting was distributed among a team of younger scholars: the Míngrú zhuàn by Lǐ Qīngzhí 李清植 (Lǐ Guāngdì’s grand-nephew of Ānxī 安溪); the Míngchén zhuàn by Zhāng Jiāng 張江 (字 Bǎichuān 百川, of Nánchéng 南城), Lán Dǐngyuán 藍鼎元 (字 Yùlín 玉霖, of Zhāngpǔ 漳浦), and Lǐ Zhōngqiáo 李鍾僑 (李世豳, Ānxī 安溪 lineage); and the Xúnlì zhuàn by Zhāng Fúchāng 張福昶 (字 Jìcháng 季長, of Nánjìng 南靖). Cài Shìyuǎn coordinated the editorial work; Zhū Shì made the final cuts. The format follows Sīmǎ Qiān’s Shǐjì (specifically its 儒林 / 循吏 grouped-biography style), but the editorial intent is Cheng-Zhū and corrective: the HànTáng Yìzhuàn 義疏 grammarians (Tián Hé 田何, Fú Shēng 伏生, Shēngōng 申公, Gāotáng Shēng 高堂生) are credited for transmitting the classics, but Yáng Xióng 揚雄, Mǎ Róng 馬融, Wáng Bì 王弼, Hé Yàn 何晏, Kuāng Héng 匡衡, and Wáng Ānshí 王安石 are deliberately excluded as having compromised either through lìlù (career advancement) or through xuánxū (Daoist abstraction).
Tiyao
Shǐzhuàn sān biān in 56 juàn, by Zhū Shì of our dynasty. Shì has Zhōuyì zhuànyì hédìng (KR1a0142), already separately catalogued. This compilation has Míngrú zhuàn in 8 juàn, Míngchén zhuàn in 35 juàn with Xùbiān in 5 juàn, and Xúnlì zhuàn in 8 juàn. It was completed in Yōngzhèng wùshēn (1728); since the Míng shǐ was at that time not yet finished, the entries reach only to the Yuán. Míng-period biographers of míngrú mostly took the Sòng as the lineage and demoted the Hàn and Táng, and within the Sòng cut off everything below LiánLuò (Zhōu Dūnyí and the Chéng brothers). Shì’s biographies, by contrast, trace upward to Tián Hé, Fú Shēng, Shēngōng, and Gāotáng Shēng without disowning their merit in transmitting the classics; in the middle they include Dǒng Zhòngshū and Hán Yù among others without minimizing their merit in clarifying the Way; for the Sòng, Hú Yuàn 胡瑗, Sūn Fù 孫復, Shí Jiè 石介, Liú Chǎng 劉敞, and Chén Xiāng 陳襄 — though their tracks somewhat diverge from the orthodox lineage — are likewise admitted, without preserving sectarian exclusions: this may be called possessing the gōng (impartiality) of sages and worthies. As for excluding Yáng Xióng and Mǎ Róng on the grounds of lìlù-trimming (compromising for advancement), excluding Wáng Bì and Hé Yàn for yuánxū (mystical Daoism), and excluding Kuāng Héng and Wáng Ānshí for jiǎjiè jīngshù (using the classics as a screen) — this too is fair-minded. Only in the case of Hú Yín 胡寅, who harboured resentment against his birth-mother, and Wáng Bǎi 王柏, whose wild presumption went so far as to alter Confucius’s sacred classic — both are admitted: this seems somewhat lax. Also, taking Wáng Fúzhì’s 王福畤 fictitious words at face value to compose a zàn for Xuē Shōu 薛收 likewise reflects insufficient kǎo (verification). The Míngchén zhuàn lists 180 men in total, with quite cautious selection. The Xùbiān lists another 39 men. The fánlì (compilation guidelines) explain: “What is the Xùbiān? Those of secondary rank, selected; or those for whom the chapter-arrangement was already complete and so were appended afterward.” Yet to take “ranked slightly lower” as one ground and “having been omitted by oversight” as another, and to mix them without distinction — this is also somewhat careless. The Xúnlì zhuàn lists 121 men in all; though its standards are strict, it is rather not comprehensive: the likes of Hé Yìyú 何易于 and similar conspicuous figures are mostly cut, and the criteria for inclusion are not explicitly stated, which is somewhat puzzling. The general thrust — to set forth exemplary models and show what later generations should emulate — together with the appended lùnduàn (judgments), all of which are sound and orthodox, certainly does not fall short of being a book that aids public moral instruction. There are prefaces by Shì and Cài Shìyuǎn at the front. On examination: the Míngrú zhuàn was drafted by Lǐ Qīngzhí 李清植; the Míngchén zhuàn by Zhāng Jiāng 張江, Lán Dǐngyuán 藍鼎元, and Lǐ Zhōngqiáo 李鍾僑; the Xúnlì zhuàn by Zhāng Fúchāng 張福昶. Shìyuǎn coordinated and discussed (商榷); Shì made the final editorial determination. Reverently presented in the twelfth month of Qiánlóng 46 (= January 1782). 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 Shǐzhuàn sān biān was projected by the Yōngzhèng emperor in conversation with Cài Shìyuǎn (then a Shàngshūfáng 上書房 court tutor) and given over to Zhū Shì for execution. According to Cài’s preface (dated Yōngzhèng 4 = 1726), the emperor proposed compiling separate collections of míngrú, míngchén, and xúnlì biographies “from HànTáng through SòngYuán” — a project Cài had already privately begun while at the Áofēng shūyuàn 鼇峰書院. The drafting team consisted of Zhū’s and Cài’s Ānxī lineage protégés (Lǐ Qīngzhí, Lǐ Zhōngqiáo) and Zhāngpǔ-Fújiàn associates (Lán Dǐngyuán, Zhāng Fúchāng, Zhāng Jiāng); Cài coordinated the discussion, and Zhū made the final cuts. Zhū’s own preface is dated Yōngzhèng 7 (= 1729 winter solstice). The work was thus essentially complete by 1728 (per the Sìkù notice’s “成于雍正戊申”), with prefaces dated 1726 and 1729 — hence a defensible composition window of 1726–1729.
The Sān biān is methodologically interesting as a Yōngzhèng-court counterpart to Zhū Xī’s twin Sòng works — Wǔcháo míngchén yánxíng lù and the YīLuò yuányuán lù tradition — but extended diachronically across the entire imperial period (limited at the upper end by the not-yet-complete Míng shǐ). It exemplifies the YōngzhèngQiánlóng court’s preference for the Cheng-Zhū synthesis but, as the Sìkù notice observes, departs from late-Míng xuépài parochialism by re-admitting the HànTáng classicists and refusing to exclude Lǐxué synthesizers like Hú Yuàn and Sūn Fù. The deliberate exclusion of Yáng Xióng (for compromise with Wáng Mǎng), Wáng Bì (for xuánxué), and Wáng Ānshí (for instrumentalist classicism) sets out the Yōngzhèng court’s normative criteria for a míngrú. The work was used widely as an officially-endorsed handbook of biographical models in the eighteenth century.
Translations and research
- For Zhū Shì’s biography and Yōngzhèng-court career, see Arthur W. Hummel, Eminent Chinese of the Ch’ing Period (Library of Congress, 1943), s.v. Chu Shih.
- The Sì-kù tíyào notice is in 史部·傳記類三·總錄之屬.
- No substantial English-language secondary literature located specifically on this work; treated in passing in studies of early-Qīng Cheng-Zhū revival (e.g. Wing-tsit Chan, “The Hsing-li ching-i and the Ch’eng-Chu School of the Seventeenth Century”).
Other points of interest
The work’s editorial structure — three categorical biographies running diachronically from Hàn to Yuán — anticipates the arrangement of the Qiánlóng-era Guóshǐ lièzhuàn 國史列傳 categories and reflects the Yōngzhèng court’s interest in producing officially-endorsed prosopographical handbooks for educational use. The fánlì (凡例) explicitly notes that Zhōu Dūnyí, the two Chéngs, Zhāng Zǎi, and Zhū Xī are uniquely styled “zǐ” (子) per a precedent established by Kāngxī (聖祖仁皇帝所定), reflecting their canonization as Sòng Lǐxué sages — a useful early-Qīng marker of the new orthodoxy.
Links
- Wilkinson 2018, Chinese History: A New Manual §49.
- CBDB person id for Zhū Shì can be located via Zhū Shì 朱軾 (1664–1736).