Qīndìng Guózǐjiàn zhì 欽定國子監志
Imperially Approved Gazetteer of the Directorate of Education by 梁國治 (Liáng Guózhì, 奉敕撰)
About the work
The Qīndìng Guózǐjiàn zhì in 62 juǎn is the Qiánlóng-era imperial gazetteer of the Guózǐjiàn 國子監 — the Directorate of Education at the capital, the supreme institution of state Confucian learning, complete with its associated Wén miào 文廟 (Temple of Confucius). The work was begun in Qiánlóng 43 (1778) under imperial command, with Liáng Guózhì 梁國治 (1723–1786) at the head of the editorial bureau. It replaced an earlier Tàixué zhì 太學志 (Gazetteer of the Imperial University) by Lù Zōngkǎi 陸宗楷 et al., which the emperor had judged to “diffuse its account into Tang and Sòng material indiscriminately, losing the proper bracket”; the new edition was ordered to begin with the YuánMíng physical site (the Qīng Guózǐjiàn and Wénmiào having occupied the same compound from the Yuán dynasty’s founding). The 62 juǎn are arranged in fifteen sections: imperial instruction (2 juǎn); imperial poems and prose (7); imperial visits to the school (2); temple structure (2); enshrined deities (2); rites (7); music (6); regulations of the Directorate (1); official posts (5); students (7); finances (4); inscriptions and stone monuments (5); books and printing blocks (2); literary writings (2); and miscellany (2). The catalog meta extent of 62 juǎn matches the Sìkù Tíyào; later, in the Jiāqìng era, an expanded recension reached 82 juǎn.
Tiyao
Next, imperial visits in 2 juǎn, recording the personal sacrifices and presence of the emperor at the school. Next, temple structure in 2 juǎn, with diagrams in front and a chronology of construction in the back. Next, sacrifice positions in 2 juǎn, with details of the central hall and its ancillary chambers, and of the Hall of Veneration of the Sage. Next, rites in 7 juǎn, divided into the shì diàn 釋奠, shì cài 釋菜, shì hè 釋褐, xiàn gōng 獻功, gào jì 告祭 ceremonies, and ritual vessel diagrams. Next, music in 6 juǎn, with sub-sections on music institutions, hymn texts, lǚlǚ musical theory, dance steps, and the diagrams of ritual instruments. Next, Directorate regulations in 1 juǎn. Next, officers and instructors in 5 juǎn, recording the establishment, duties, ceremonies, appointments, and namelists. Next, students in 7 juǎn, recording quotas, examinations, recruitment of those of distinguished birth, and the foreign princely youths who joined. Next, expenditure in 4 juǎn, with imperial bestowals and yearly stipends fully recorded. Next, inscriptions and stone monuments in 5 juǎn, headed by imperial bestowals of bronze ritual vessels and the steles since the Yuán of jìnshì graduates, closing with the Shíguǔ 石鼓 (Stone Drums) diagrams. Next, books and printed editions in 2 juǎn, recording all imperial bestowals and the printing-blocks held. Next, miscellaneous writings in 2 juǎn, listing officials’ memorials, poems, and writings on the institution. Memoranda in 2 juǎn: “records of events” (紀事) and “stitched-together hearings” (綴聞) — gleaning miscellaneous notes for reference. Whether of large concern or small, all is comprehensively recorded; this fittingly memorializes the dynasty’s veneration of the Way and elevation of the Confucian, and its instruction of the people. Compared with the Directorate’s own initial compilation, it is as the change from reed flute and earthen drum to the great Sháo and Jūn music.
Abstract
The Qīndìng Guózǐjiàn zhì is the great Qiánlóng-era institutional history of state Confucian education. The original Lù Zōngkǎi Tàixué zhì of the early Qiánlóng era was rejected because it traced institutional history back through Tang and Sòng — chronologically incoherent in the eyes of the Qiánlóng court, which preferred to date the Qīng Guózǐjiàn from the Yuán founding of the Beijing site (Dàdū). Liáng Guózhì’s reorganization gives the work a tightly bracketed YuánMíngQīng historical chronology and a meticulous topical arrangement that includes (notably) detailed liturgical music and dance choreography for the Confucian sacrifices, the inscriptions of all YuánQīng jìnshì whose names were carved at the Directorate, and a complete account of the institution’s holdings and printing operations. The work was completed and approved in the late 1770s; the WYG version reflects the Qiánlóng-era recension. A later, expanded edition in 82 juǎn was prepared in the Jiāqìng era under different editors and is not the version preserved here.
Translations and research
- Wú Jié 吳潔. 2009. Qīngdài “Qīndìng Guózǐjiàn zhì” yánjiū 清代欽定國子監志研究. PhD diss. (Treats the work’s compilation history.)
- Yáng Xiǎojùn 楊曉軍. Studies on the Confucius Temple liturgy that draw on this work for ritual diagrams.
- The work is a fundamental source for any study of Qīng Confucian state ritual or imperial-academy institutional history.
Other points of interest
The work’s editorial premise — that Tang and Sòng materials should be excluded as not pertaining to the physical site of the Beijing Guózǐjiàn — is a striking instance of the Qiánlóng-era preference for materially-grounded institutional history (the Yuán Dàdū site as the historical anchor) over textual-genealogical institutional history (the Guózǐjiàn as the descendant of the Western Zhōu Bìyōng 辟雍). The decision reflects the same impulse that animated the Sìkù project’s exclusion of works whose pedigrees were judged inauthentic.