御定月令輯要

Yùdìng yuèlìng jíyào 御定月令輯要

Imperially Authorized Compendium of the Monthly Ordinances by 李光地

About the work

A 24-juan plus 1-juan-of-illustrations imperially-commissioned encyclopedic compilation on the calendar, the seasons, the festivals, phenology, agronomy, governance and divinatory practice of the year, ordered by month and by category. Compiled at the imperial court by a large editorial team headed by Grand Secretary 李光地 (1642–1718) under direct commission from the Kāngxī emperor, with a personal imperial preface dated Kāngxī 54.4.9 (12 May 1715). The work supersedes and re-edits Féng Yìngjīng’s 馮應京 late-Míng Yuèlìng guǎngyì 月令廣義 — pruning what the Sìkù editors regarded as accumulated errors and disorderly material, and rebuilding the apparatus on a fresh editorial template (biéqǐ yìlì 別起義例). With Suìshí guǎngjì (KR2j0001) it is one of only two titles the Sìkù admitted to the shǐbù shílìng (Seasonal Ordinances) category — and is by a wide margin the more elaborate of the pair, in scope, in printing, and in courtly polish (Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §39.15.1).

Tiyao

We respectfully note: the Yuèlìng jíyào in 24 juan, with one juan of illustrations, was imperially fixed in Kāngxī 54 by the Sage-Forefather Benevolent Emperor (Shèngzǔ Rén Huángdì 聖祖仁皇帝, i.e. Kāngxī), with 李光地 and other Grand Secretaries undertaking compilation and collation by imperial order.

In the past, those who took up the yuèlìng genre as the basis for full-scale compositions are too many to enumerate. Lǐ Jùchuān’s 李巨川 Cǎi qí 采奇 has, for each season, an overall preface; for each month, monthly ordinances; for each day, miscellaneous notes; and is supplemented with theories of the five-phase cycles of waxing-and-waning, of regimen, and of seasonal divination — its rubrics rather worth observing — but its book has not been transmitted. The present compilation derives from the Míng official Féng Yìngjīng 馮應京 and Dài Rèn 戴任’s Yuèlìng guǎngyì 月令廣義 by deleting the overgrown matter and supplying the lacunae, and by setting up a fresh editorial template. For everything it cites, it begins with the canonical instruction-of-the-classics; next, with the histories and transmissions; below them, with the philosophers and the hundred schools, regional dialect-records, and gazetteers — none is left out. By means of it one may examine the seasons of the husbandman and verify the phenological signs: it may, above, contribute to reverently complying with [Heaven]; below, to instructing labour and rest. It is by no means merely a meandering year-by-year chronicle.

Reverently collated and submitted, tenth month of Qiánlóng 45 (late 1780). Editors-in-chief: Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. General collation officer: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.

Imperial preface

In antiquity, in the Hall of Light (Míngtáng 明堂), the ordinances of the twelve months were promulgated — taking up and extending the Yáodiǎn principle of “delegating the seasons to the people” (shòu shí 授時). What is now received as the Xià xiǎo zhèng 夏小正 chapter of the DàDài lǐ 大戴禮 and the Yuèlìng 月令 chapter of the XiǎoDài lǐ 小戴禮 conveys, broadly, the textual residue of the Three Dynasties. Although the Yuèlìng originated in the Lǚ shì chūnqiū 呂覽 [Lǚlǎn], Cài Yōng 蔡邕 ordered its sections and Kǒng Yǐngdá 孔穎達 fixed its standard exegesis, drawing out the regulative thought of the Duke of Zhōu and including it among the canonical books. From the Hàn and Jìn down — works such as Sìmín yuèlìng 四民月令, Sìshí zuǎnyào 四時纂要, the Qiānjīn 千金 (yuèlìng), the Jǐndài 錦帶, the Suìhuá jìlì 歲華紀麗 and the Suìshí zá jì 歲時雜記 — every age has had its compositions, but none has been comprehensive. At the close of the previous Míng, Féng Yìngjīng and Dài Rèn began to compile their Yuèlìng guǎngyì in 24 juan for general literate-and-commoner use; observed in its source, it draws on the canonical instruction and inferentially extends from one item to another by category — its purpose is industrious indeed. But its gathering and selection are too many, and overgrown matter intermittently obtrudes. We accordingly commissioned the Confucian ministers to compile and edit it again — successively presenting drafts for inspection — and personally fixed its arrangement, correcting errors and pruning duplications, returning everything to elegant uniformity. Distinct items of arrangement (yìlì 義例) were established; what was missing was supplemented; what was breadth-of-view chosen-down to essentials. The aim is to conform to the substance and bear on the practical, so as to approximate the legacy of the yuèlìng of the antique Hall of Light. The book completed, it was named Yuèlìng jíyào 月令輯要. The illustrations and verbal explanations of the older recension were also collated and corrected and arranged at the head of the book. By the times of Heaven one calibrates the work of governance; by examining the phenological tokens one fulfills the affairs of men. From the political ordinances of the State down to the work-and-rest of the common people, all may be referred to and verified — and the learning of broad-vision and full-knowledge of things has its uses here too. Hereafter, those speaking of season-recording books must take this as their starting point.

Kāngxī 54.4.9 (12 May 1715).

Abstract

The Yuèlìng jíyào is the principal Qīng imperial-court compilation in the yuèlìng tradition — the lineage of canonical and quasi-canonical “monthly ordinances” running from the Yuèlìng chapter of the Lǐjì (itself adapted from the Lǚshì chūnqiū), through Cài Yōng’s exegesis and the medieval agro-festival manuals (Sìmín yuèlìng, Sìshí zuǎnyào), to late-Míng household-encyclopedic adaptations. Its proximate base is the late-Míng Yuèlìng guǎngyì 月令廣義 of Féng Yìngjīng 馮應京 (1555–1606) and Dài Rèn 戴任, also in 24 juan, which the editors describe as adequate in conception but cluttered in execution. The Kāngxī revision retains the 24-juan structure and the FéngDài material as raw input but rebuilds the editorial template and replaces or supplements many entries.

The work was undertaken under the chief directorship (zǒng yuè 總閱) of 李光地 Wényuāngé dàxuéshì and 王掞 Wényuāngé dàxuéshì jiān Lǐbù shàngshū. The collation team (xiào kān guān 校勘官) included 蔣廷錫 (1669–1732), 勵廷儀 (1669–1732), 張廷玉 (1672–1755), 陳邦彥 (1678–1752), 趙熊詔 (1663–1721), 楊名時 (1661–1736), Wáng Túbǐng 王圖炳, 張照 (1691–1745), and Bó Hǎi 薄海 — most of them the rising generation of late-Kāngxī Hànlín officials who would dominate the early Yōngzhèng and Qiánlóng courts. The senior compilers (zuǎnxiū guān 纂修官) included Wú Tíngzhēn 吳廷楨, Lú Xuān 盧軒, Wú Shìyù 吳士玉, Zhōu Yí 周彝, Liào Gēngmó 廖賡謨, Yáng Kāiyuán 楊開沅, Gōng Hónglì 宮鴻歷, Yáng Shìhuī 楊士徽, Wāng Hào 汪灝, Gāo Bùqiān 高不騫, and 陳鵬年 (1663–1723); the proof-collation team included 何焯 (1661–1722), the celebrated bibliographer-textual-critic. The list of names was promulgated by imperial order on Kāngxī 55.3.29 (April 1716), one year after the imperial preface. The block-printing was supervised at the imperial Wǔyīngdiàn 武英殿 printing office by Zhāng Chángzhù 張常住 and others.

The book opens with a juàn shǒu 卷首 of 18 illustrations and verbal explanations covering: the Tàijí — Liǎngyí — Sìxiàng — Bāguà diagram; the early-heaven 64-hexagrams allotted to the 24 qì (Shào Yōng tradition); the 12 bì hexagrams allotted to the 12 months; the five-phases-as-rulers-of-the-four-seasons diagram; the 12-month sun-position, moon-establishment, 24 qì and 72 phenological signs (hòu 候); the full diagram of the ecliptic-and-equator intersection; the spring-and-autumn-equinox view; the southern-and-northern-celestial-route long-day-and-short-day diagram; the five-planet circumtelestial-orbits diagram; the lunar phase-quartering diagram; the 12 lǜlǚ (pitch pipes) corresponding to the 12 months; the five-tones-and-eight-timbres correspondences with the eight winds; the Tàisuì heavenly-stem and earthly-branch terminology diagrams; the yuèjiàn 月建 stem-and-branch terminology; and the Yuèlìng master-correlate diagram. The illustrated apparatus draws on Sòng Yìxué (Yīchuán xìcí, Zhōu Dūnyí, Shào Yōng, Zhū Xī) and on the Hàn–Táng exegesis of the Yuèlìng — the Kāngxī editors are explicit (note at the end of the phenology table) that the table follows the Qīng Shíxiàn lì 時憲曆 calendar and “differs slightly from the Yuèlìng.”

The body of the work is organized in a four-tier hierarchy of time-units: annual (suìlìng 歲令, j. 1–2); generic-monthly (měiyuè lìng 每月令, j. 3); seasonal (chūn / xià / qiū / dōng lìng, j. 4, 8, 13, 17); month-specific (zhèngyuè through shíèryuè lìng, j. 5–7, 9–11, 14–16, 18–20); intercalary-month (rùnyuè lìng 閏月令, j. 21); day-and-night (zhòuyè lìng, j. 22–23); and hour-and-quarter (shíkè lìng 時刻令, j. 24). Each juan is sub-divided into the recurring rubrics: tiāndào 天道 (heavenly motions), wùhòu 物候 (phenology), mínyòng 民用 (popular practice), jiéxù 節序 (festival sequence), rìcì 日次 (day-counting), zhànyàn 占驗 (divination and verification), zhèngdiǎn 政典 (governance ordinances), and zájì 雜紀 (miscellany). A separate juan is devoted to the tǔ wáng 土王 (earth-phase-as-ruler) interregnum between the four seasons (j. 12) — a Yīnyáng wǔxíng preoccupation absent from the Lǐjì Yuèlìng but central to Hàn correlative cosmology and to the Yuèlìng guǎngyì tradition.

In its content the Yuèlìng jíyào is at once a state-ritual handbook (the zhèngdiǎn sections record imperial sacrificial calendar and statutory observances), a phenological-agronomic almanac (the wùhòu and mínyòng sections record planting, harvesting, and weather-forecast customs), an astronomical primer (the juàn shǒu and tiāndào sections), a divination compendium (zhànyàn), and a literary-festival anthology (jiéxù). The compilers’ instruction was that citations should descend in priority from canonical exegesis through histories and transmissions to philosophers, regional sources, and gazetteers — a hierarchy reflecting the moral-philosophic-classical orientation of the late-Kāngxī court rather than the bàiguān eclecticism of the Sòng Suìshí guǎngjì.

The work has had a substantial afterlife as a reference: it was the standard imperial-Qīng yuèlìng repository, reprinted in numerous Qīng and Republican collectanea, and remains the most accessible single point-of-entry to the yuèlìng tradition for late-imperial-China research.

Translations and research

• Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A New Manual. 6th ed. 2022. §39.15.1 — places Yuèlìng jíyào in the Sìkù shílìng category alongside Suìshí guǎngjì.
• Bodde, Derk. Festivals in Classical China: New Year and Other Annual Observances during the Han Dynasty, 206 B.C. – A.D. 220. Princeton University Press, 1975. The standard English-language reference for the underlying Hàn yuèlìng substratum the Yùdìng yuèlìng jíyào draws on.
• Kalinowski, Marc. Cosmologie et divination dans la Chine ancienne. EFEO, 1991. Treats the Yuèlìng / yīn-yáng wǔ-xíng correlative tradition that organizes the work’s zhàn-yàn sections.
• Knechtges, David R., and Taiping Chang, eds. Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide. Brill, 2010–2014. Includes entries on the Yuèlìng and the early yuèlìng corpus the Jíyào compiles.
• Yuèlìng guǎngyì 月令廣義 of Féng Yìngjīng 馮應京 and Dài Rèn 戴任 (Wàn-lì 30 / 1602) survives — for any deeper study of the Jíyào the Guǎngyì must be consulted as its base text. (Sìkù cún-mù lists the Guǎngyì but does not include it in the canon.)

Other points of interest

The Yuèlìng jíyào was supervised by an unusually distinguished editorial cohort: in addition to its two Grand-Secretary directors (李光地 and 王掞), its rolls include 張廷玉, at the time only a jiǎngguān / shìjiǎng xuéshì but later the great YōngzhèngQiánlóng Grand Secretary; 何焯, the foremost philological textual critic of the Kāngxī Hànlín; 蔣廷錫 and 陳鵬年, both significant Kāngxī provincial administrators in their own right; and 張照, later the leading calligrapher of the YōngzhèngQiánlóng court. The book is therefore also a documentary witness to the late-Kāngxī Hànlín xuétáng ecosystem and to the pipeline of Hànlín careers that staffed the Wǔyīngdiàn imperial-publishing programme.

The instruction-list at j. 24 (“according to the Shíxiàn lì — slightly different from the Yuèlìng”) makes explicit a methodological tension that runs through the whole work: the yuèlìng tradition is canonical-and-correlative, but the operating Qīng calendar is the Jesuit-reformed Shíxiàn; the editors do not silently overwrite the canonical phenology, but neither do they pretend it is the calendar in current force.

Links

• Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11140571 (御定月令輯要)
• ctext.org Wikisource
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual (6th ed., 2022).