Shuǐjīng zhù jíshì dìngé 水經注集釋訂訛
Collected Glosses and Errata on the Shuǐjīng zhù by 沈炳巽 (Shěn Bǐngxùn, fl. early 18th c.) — zhuàn 撰
About the work
A 40-juan early-Qīng critical edition of KR2k0058 Shuǐjīng zhù, working from the Míng Jiājìng-era Huáng Shěngzēng 黃省曾 woodblock as base, supplemented by parallel-text collation against the Shǐjì and Hànshū topographical treatises and other standard histories, with prefectural-county successions glossed in contemporary place-names. Predates the more celebrated Quán Zǔwàng / Zhào Yīqīng / Dài Zhèn editions of the mid-eighteenth century but lacks their access to the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn materials. Composed over nine years, working initially without sight of the Zhū Móuwěi 朱謀㙔 collation; on later obtaining it, Shěn found his own conclusions largely concordant.
Tiyao
We respectfully note: the Shuǐjīng zhù jíshì dìngé is the work of Shěn Bǐngxùn 沈炳巽 of our dynasty. Bǐngxùn, zì Yìzhān 繹旃, of Guīān 歸安. The work is based on the Shuǐjīng zhù edition produced by Huáng Shěngzēng of the Míng Jiājìng era; he has revised and corrected by his own judgment, with much rectification. Further, since the works cited by Lì Dàoyuán are extremely abundant and rich, and the manuscript transmission has been long, errors have followed one upon another; he therefore comprehensively examined the Shǐjì and Hànshū monographs and tables, and the various histories’ geographical treatises, recording the textual variants in the lower register for cross-reference. Where no other text was available for collation, he simply left a lacuna. He occasionally appended the kǎodìng commentary of various authors. As to prefectural-county successions, all are explicated by their present-day names.
In matters of geographical orientation, however, there are recurrent passages where he could not in detail and exactness investigate, but rather conjectured at large. For example, the Zhāngshuǐ commentary states that the Jiàngdú 絳瀆 passes south of the Jiǔmén 九門 city, and again southeastward passes north of the Nángōng 南宮 city. Bǐngxùn glosses: “the Jiǔmén city is now twenty lǐ northwest of Gǎochéng County,” not knowing that there are two cities of this name — one south, one north of the Hūtuó River — separated by the Xīnhé, Níngjìn, Shùlù, Jìnzhōu, and at considerable distance.
The Shuǐjīng text “Qìnshuǐ passes east of Gǔyuǎn County, and southward passes east of Yǐshì County”: this Yǐ 陭 is in Túnliú County, southwest of Lùānfǔ — the BèiWèi Jìshì 寄氏. Yǐ 陭 is a corruption for Yī 猗. Bǐngxùn glosses: “Now in Píngyángfǔ” — failing to recognize that the Hànshū yìwénzhì records Yǐshì 陭氏 of Shàngdǎng, not the same as Yīshì 猗氏 of Hédōng. There are similar errors elsewhere. Yet Bǐngxùn worked nine years on this book — laboring over red ink and lead-character marginalia, personally collating without rest. Initially he had not seen Zhū Móuwěi’s edition; afterward he sought it out, and what he found was largely the same as his own results. We may thus know the diligence of his application. Although he cannot be said wholly to surpass his predecessors’ work, his investigative and evidentiary labors must not be effaced.
Abstract
Shěn Bǐngxùn 沈炳巽 (zì Yìzhān 繹旃; alt. Shīshān 詩山), of Guīān 歸安 (Húzhōu, Zhèjiāng), was the elder brother of the Yōngzhèng-era polymath Shěn Bǐngzhèn 沈炳震 (1679–1737). His birth and death dates are not recorded. The Shuǐjīng zhù jíshì dìngé was completed ca. 1737–1745 (nine years’ labor, completed not long before submission to the Sìkù through the Zhèjiāng provincial submission channel). It represents the early-Qīng provincial-scholar tradition of Shuǐjīng zhù criticism — independent of the high kǎojù circle of Quán Zǔwàng / Dài Zhèn / Zhào Yīqīng but reaching, via a different route, similar conclusions on many specific passages.
The Sìkù tíyào is on balance favorable, though noting Shěn’s unfamiliarity with the geography of the central plain (Héběi, Hédōng) — illustrated by his confusion of the two Jiǔmén cities and his conflation of Shàngdǎng Yǐshì with Hédōng Yīshì. The work is preserved in the Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū (vol. 574.1). It was largely superseded by Zhào Yīqīng’s Shuǐjīng zhù shì (KR2k0060) and the Sìkù official edition based on the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn, but remains a witness to a distinctive lineage of mid-eighteenth-century Shuǐjīng zhù scholarship.
Translations and research
No English translation. Cited in: Hu Shih, Hu Shi quanji (Anhui jiaoyu, 2003) vol. 13, in his Shuǐjīng zhù monograph as a comparand to the Dài Zhèn / Zhào Yīqīng controversy. Chén Qiáoyì 陳橋驛, Lì xué xīn lùn 酈學新論 (Shānxī rénmín, 1997) treats Shěn’s editorial methodology in an early-Qīng historical context.
Other points of interest
The work is one of the only major Shuǐjīng zhù editions of the early eighteenth century not produced within the Zhū Móuwěi / Quán Zǔwàng / Dài Zhèn lineage of scholarly transmission. Shěn’s nine-year labor in isolation, only later finding his conclusions concordant with Zhū Móuwěi’s, is presented in the Sìkù tíyào as exemplary of independent textual scholarship.