Wénxiàn Tōngkǎo 文獻通考
Comprehensive Examination of Authoritative Documents by 馬端臨 (撰)
About the work
The third and largest of the Sāntōng 三通—the canonical trio of encyclopedic institutional histories begun by Dù Yòu’s Tōngdiǎn and continued by Zhèng Qiáo’s Tōngzhì—and the work that most directly extends Dù Yòu’s framework. Compiled by Mǎ Duānlín 馬端臨 (1254–1323), son of the late-Sòng grand councilor Mǎ Tíngluán 馬廷鸞, over some forty years and presented to the throne in Dàdé 11 (1307; printing approved 1319). In 348 juǎn divided into 24 kǎo (treatises), with 19 derived directly from the Tōngdiǎn and 5 added new (bibliography 經籍, imperial genealogy 帝系, nobility 封建, astronomy 象緯, portents 物異), it covers the period from earliest times to 1224, with particular density for the Sòng. The title’s wénxiàn draws on a famous Lúnyǔ passage: wén 文 = textual evidence (classics, histories, huìyào); xiàn 獻 = the testimony of the wise (memorials, opinions, debates).
Tiyao
By Mǎ Duānlín of the Yuán. Duānlín, zì Guìyǔ 貴與, of Lèpíng in Jiāngxī, son of the Sòng grand councilor Mǎ Tíngluán 馬廷鸞. In the Xiánchún era he placed first in the cáoshì examinations. When his father, having opposed Jiǎ Sìdào, withdrew from court, Duānlín stayed behind to attend him and never travelled to take the jìnshì. In the early Yuán he was appointed Director of the Kěshān 柯山 Academy, finally ending his career as Education Officer (rúxué jiàoshòu) of Táizhōu.
The work comprises 24 treatises: Tiánfù 7 juǎn, Qiánbì 2, Hùkǒu 2, Zhíyì 2, Zhēngquè 6, Shídí 2, Tǔgòng 1, Guóyòng 5, Xuǎnjǔ 12, Xuéxiào 7, Zhíguān 21, Jiāoshè 23, Zōngmiào 15, Wánglǐ 22, Yuè 21, Bīng 13, Xíng 12, Jīngjí 76, Dìxì 10, Fēngjiàn 18, Xiàngwěi 17, Wùyì 20, Yúdì 9, Sìyì 25. The book takes Dù Yòu’s Tōngdiǎn as its template; the first 19 kǎo are Tōngdiǎn categories restructured. The five kǎo on jīngjí, dìxì, fēngjiàn, xiàngwěi, and wùyì are entirely new additions.
The author’s preface explains: “When I cite the old Classics and Histories, I call this wén (textual). When I add to it the memorials of officials and the discussions of scholars from Táng and Sòng down, I call this xiàn (evidential). Hence the title Wénxiàn Tōngkǎo.”
[The Sìkù editors then enumerate at length the work’s omissions: in Tiánfù, the Táng huìyào’s record of the post-Kāiyuán-16 reforms and the Five Dynasties’ reformed taxation system from the Wǔdài huìyào are missing, as is Yáng Yán’s 楊炎 critical memorial on the liǎngshuì system. In Zhíyì, the poll-tax abolition decree of Yǒngjiàn 4 is missing. In Zhēngquè, the salt-and-iron transport regulation of Chángxīng 4 is missing. In Guóyòng, key Hàn-period transport-corps abolitions are missing. In Xuǎnjǔ, Yuánfēng 4, Shǐyuán 1, and Yǒngguāng 1 selection edicts are not preserved. In Xuéxiào, the Zhènguān 21 sage-teacher distinction is missing. Zhíguān essentially copies Tōngdiǎn and treats the Five Dynasties only sparsely—Wáng Pǔ’s Wǔdài huìyào and Sūn Fēngjí’s Zhíguān fēnjì would have given perhaps tenfold the material. Jiāoshè often draws only on canonical commentary, missing the Yì Zhōushū, Báihǔ tōng, and Sānfǔ huángtú on the Zhōu Míngtáng; the Lǐyùn sacrifice-and-burial passage; and so on. Zōngmiào, Wánglǐ, Yuè, Bīng, Jīngjí, Yúdì each have similar pockets of omission, all enumerated in detail.]
In sum, the categories are many, the volumes heavy, and to cover one place is to miss another. Even so, the article-by-article division allows the historian-reader to consult by topic. The Sòng coverage is the fullest of all the Sāntōng, much surpassing the Sòngshǐ treatises. The case-comments (àn) are perceptive, weaving past and present into balanced conclusions. Compared to the Tōngdiǎn’s severe concision, the Tōngkǎo is somewhat looser, but in detail and depth it surpasses the Tōngdiǎn; Zhèng Qiáo’s Tōngzhì does not approach it.
Abstract
The Wénxiàn Tōngkǎo was begun in the 1270s under the Yuán-reunification—Mǎ’s preface dates the work as twenty years’ labor “in the Zhìyuán era and after”—and was completed and presented to the throne in 1307. The first imperial printing was authorized in 1319, the date often given for “publication.” Its dating bracket here (1280–1319) reflects this lengthy compilation history; Mǎ continued to revise until publication.
Wilkinson (Chinese History: A New Manual, §51.2.3) treats the Tōngkǎo as the most influential of the Sāntōng for the Sòng and emphasizes the methodological precision of Mǎ’s xushì / lùnshì / àn three-tier arrangement (chronological narration in the main register; cited contemporary opinion set one character lower; Mǎ’s own commentary set one further character lower)—a layout reproduced in all later printings and a model for evidential historiography. The Sìkù editors, while critical of specific omissions, conclude that “in detail and amplitude it surpasses [the Tōngdiǎn]; the Tōngzhì of Zhèng Qiáo cannot approach it.”
The catalog meta does not give Mǎ Duānlín’s birth year; CBDB and Wikidata both give 1254–1323. Wilkinson uses 1254–1323. We follow this.
Translations and research
The standard punctuated edition is the 1986 Zhōnghuá shūjú printing (in Scripta Sinica; based on the 1987 Táiwān Shāngwù reprint of the 1935 Shítōng set). For the Sòng portions, the most-used reference is Wénxiàn Tōngkǎo 文獻通考, ed. Shàng-Hǎi Shīfàn Dàxué Gǔjí Zhěnglǐ Yánjiū-suǒ, 14 vols. (Zhōnghuá, 2011), the new collated edition. Major Western-language scholarship: Hilde De Weerdt, “The Encyclopedia as Textbook: Selling Private Chinese Encyclopedias in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries,” Extrême-Orient Extrême-Occident 32 (2007); Tillman, Hoyt C., Utilitarian Confucianism: Ch’en Liang’s Challenge to Chu Hsi; Lǐ Lùlù 李路路, Mǎ Duānlín pǔlùn yánjiū 馬端臨譜論研究 (Běijīng dàxué, 2011), and a sustained body of Japanese scholarship from Toyoshima Hideaki 豊島秀明 and Aoyama Kazuyuki 青山一行. Gerhard Schreiber’s Forschungen zum Wenxian tongkao (Bochum, 1988) is the principal German monograph.
Other points of interest
The Jīngjí kǎo (76 juǎn) is by far the longest treatise in the work and effectively functions as an independent bibliography of pre-1224 Chinese books, in some respects supplementing the Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì. The five new kǎo (bibliography, imperial genealogy, nobility, astronomy/portents, freaks of nature) became standard in all later Sāntōng-style works.