越絕書

Yuè Jué Shū 越絕書

Records of the Glory of Yuè by 袁康 (撰) and 吳平 (撰)

About the work

The Yuè Jué Shū, in fifteen juàn (received), is one of the two great Hàn-period narratives of the WúYuè rivalry in the Spring-and-Autumn period (the other being the Wú Yuè Chūnqiū KR2i0001). Where the Wú Yuè Chūnqiū is a continuous narrative, the Yuè Jué Shū is structured as a set of jīng 經 (‘inner records’, nèijīng 內經) and zhuàn 傳 (‘outer traditions’, wàizhuàn 外傳) — eight inner records and seventeen outer traditions in the original recension, of which only twenty-odd survive — covering Yuè geography, statecraft, calendrical and military arts, the lives of King Goūjiàn 句踐, Fàn Lǐ 范蠡, Wén Zhǒng 文種 and Wǔ Zǐxū 伍員, and the diplomacy and warfare between Yuè, Wú, and Chǔ. It is the earliest substantial regional history of southeastern China, of unique value as a witness to early-imperial geographical and antiquarian knowledge of the lower Yangtze.

Tiyao

[Translated from the Sìkù tíyào hosted at Kyoto Zinbun.]

The compiler is unnamed. The Wúdìzhuàn 吳地傳 chapter notes that “from Goūjiàn’s removal to Lángyá 瑯琊 to Jiànwǔ 建武 28 (= 52 CE) is in all 567 years”; the work is therefore by an Early Eastern Hàn hand. The Xù wàizhuàn 敘外傳 at the end of the book hides the compilers’ names in a riddling colophon: “to take qù 去 as a surname, and add yī 衣 to make it whole — that is yuán 袁; the personal name has mǐ 米, covered with gēng 庚 — that is kāng 康; Yǔ came east to inspect, and is buried at his marches — that is, of Kuàijī. And: ‘the writing is set down by my colleague — take kǒu 口 as the surname, with tiān 天 above — that is Wú 吳; he shares his given name with the Chǔ chancellor Qū Yuán — that is Píng 平.‘” The book is therefore the work of 袁康 Yuán Kāng of Kuàijī, edited and finalized by 吳平 Wú Píng of the same commandery. Wáng Chōng’s Lùnhéng (chap. Ànshū 案書) lists “Wú Jūngāo’s 吳君高 Yuèniǔlù 越紐錄” alongside the writings of Yuán Tàibó 袁太伯 and Yuán Wénshù 袁文術 of Línghuái 臨淮; “Wú Jūngāo” is almost certainly Wú Píng (zì Jūngāo), and the Yuèniǔlù almost certainly the present book. Yáng Shèn 楊愼 (Dānqiānlù 丹鉛錄), Hú Shì 胡侍 (Zhēnzhūchuán 珍珠船), and Tián Yìhéng 田藝蘅 (Liúqīng rìzhá 留青日札) all reach the same conclusion. The Suízhì and Tángzhì attribute the book to Zǐgòng 子貢, but this is mistaken. Its prose is loose and exuberant, in the manner of the Wú Yuè Chūnqiū, but more learned and more elegant. Sections such as Jì Ní nèijīng 計倪內經 and Jūnqì 軍氣 are full of the technical-numerological lore of Hàn specialist learning, not the sort of content a later forger could fabricate. The present recension was printed at the Shàoxīnglù school in Dàdé 10 (1306), the same printing as the Wú Yuè Chūnqiū, with a colophon (anonymous; possibly Southern-Sòng) stressing the theme of vengeance. Zhèng Míngxuǎn 鄭明選’s Bìyán 秕言 cites the Wénxuǎn commentary on Qīmìng 七命 quoting the Yuèjué shū on the dimensions of the dàyì 大翼, zhōngyì 中翼, and xiǎoyì 小翼 ships; Wáng Áo’s 王鏊 Zhènzé chángyǔ 震澤長語 cites it on the fēng qǐ Zhènfāng 風起震方 — both passages absent from the present text. The Chóngwén zǒngmù 崇文總目 already records that the original eight inner records and seventeen outer traditions had been reduced to twenty pieces by the early Sòng; the citations above are evidently from those lost sections. There is also a fabricated Xù Yuèjué shū 續越絕書 in two juàn, ascribed by Zhū Yízūn 朱彝尊 (Jīngyìkǎo 經義考) to Qián Jiàn 錢𠷓 (錢曾 is the friend in question and his attribution is reliable); the Sìkù editors flag it as spurious to forestall further confusion.

Abstract

The Yuè Jué Shū is the work of two Eastern-Hàn natives of Kuàijī commandery: 袁康 Yuán Kāng (fl. mid-1st c. CE; the catalog meta gives fl. 40, the standard inferred from the Wúdìzhuàn’s mention of Jiànwǔ 建武 28 / 52 CE) and his fellow-countryman 吳平 Wú Píng (zì Jūngāo 君高), who finalized the redaction. The earlier Suízhì and Tángzhì attribution to Confucius’s disciple Duānmù Cí 端木賜 (Zǐgòng 子貢) is almost universally rejected: it derives from the riddle in the closing Xù wàizhuàn misread as a literal claim, and from the Chóngwén zǒngmù 崇文總目, but Yáng Shèn (Dānqiānlù), Hú Shì (Zhēnzhūchuán), and Tián Yìhéng (Liúqīng rìzhá) all decoded the riddle correctly in the Míng. Wáng Chōng’s reference to Wú Jūngāo’s 越紐錄 (“Yuè register”) confirms Wú Píng’s authorship by an independent first-century witness. The original text had eight nèijīng and seventeen wàizhuàn, of which roughly twenty pieces survive — the Chóngwén zǒngmù already records the loss; Wénxuǎn commentary and Wáng Áo’s Zhènzé chángyǔ preserve fragments from the lost sections. Among the surviving sections, the Wúdìzhuàn 吳地傳 and JìNí nèijīng 計倪內經 are particularly important: the former for early imperial topography of the Wú heartland, the latter as a unique source for Hàn-period military divination and economic theory placed in the mouths of the late Spring-and-Autumn statesmen. The book is also the principal source for the Goūjiàn wéijiǎlìng 句踐維甲令 (a Yuè-language military command transcribed in Chinese characters, partially deciphered by ZhèngZhāng Shàngfāng 鄭張尚芳 1999). The received recension is the Dàdé 10 (1306) Shàoxīnglù school edition, descending from the same printing-shop and the same generation of Yuán scholars as Xú Tiānyòu’s Wú Yuè chūnqiū edition.

Translations and research

• Milburn, Olivia. 2010. The glory of Yue: An annotated translation of the Yuejue shu. Leiden: Brill (Sinica Leidensia 93). — Complete annotated English translation, the standard reference.
• Lǐ Bù-jiā 李步嘉. 2003. Yuè-jué-shū yán-jiū 越絕書研究. Shanghai: Shanghai gǔjí.
• Schuessler, Axel, and Michael Loewe. 1993. “Yüeh chüeh shu 越絕書”. In Loewe (ed.), Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide. Berkeley: SSEC. Pp. 490–493.
• Henry, Eric. 2007. “Yuèjuéshū: Provenance and textual history.” Appendix A in “The submerged history of Yuè.” Sino-Platonic Papers 176.1: 28–33.
• Concordance: ICS Han Concordance 17 (Chinese University of Hong Kong).
• Zhèng-Zhāng Shàng-fāng 鄭張尚芳. 1999. “Goū-jiàn ‘Wéi-jiǎ’ lìng zhōng zhī gǔ Yuè-yǔ de jiě-dú” 句踐’維甲’令之古越語的解讀. Mín-zú yǔ-wén 民族語文 4: 1–14.

Other points of interest

The Yuè Jué Shū is the first historiographical text in Chinese to use the jīng / zhuàn dual structure (inner classics + outer traditions) outside the strict Confucian classical tradition, foreshadowing later regional histories. Its preservation of pre-Qín Yuè-language place-names and at least one transcribed Yuè military command makes it a primary source for historical linguistics of the southeast.

Links

• Wikipedia (Chinese)
• Wikidata: Q4035174
• Sìkù tíyào (Kyoto Zinbun)
• ctext.org