Xìnglǔ Shèngdiǎn 幸魯盛典
Grand Record of the Imperial Visit to Lǔ by 弘毓圻 (撰), 金居敬 (撰)
About the work
A documentary record of Kāngxī’s imperial visit to Qūfù 曲阜 (the Quēlǐ 闕里 of Confucius) in Kāngxī 23 (1684), where he personally sacrificed at the Confucius Temple, performed the nine-prostration ritual, left an imperial qǔbǐng parasol in the temple courtyard, composed a stele text, and instituted ritual continuity at the Zhōugōng, Mèngzǐ, and other temples of the surrounding holy ground. Compiled at the petition of Kǒng Yùqí 孔毓圻 (1657–1723, the duke Yǎnshènggōng, hereditary head of the Kǒng lineage; the catalog meta variant 弘毓圻 reflects an early-Qīng / Sìkù transcription of the same person, retained here for index consistency), with an editorial team headed by Jīn Jūjìng 金居敬 (Kāngxī-period jìnshì) and seven others. The work was first presented in 18 juǎn in 1688 and revised through 1707 to its final 40-juǎn form (20 juǎn of xiūchéng shìjī events; 20 of yìwén literary records).
Tiyao
By Kǒng Yùqí, hereditary Duke Yǎnshèng, et al., presented to the throne. Earlier, in Kāngxī 23 (1684), Kāngxī personally visited Quēlǐ, sacrificed at the Confucius Temple, performed the nine-prostration ritual, left a qǔbǐng parasol in the temple courtyard, personally composed a stele inscription, and dispatched officials to engrave it on the left of the Confucius Temple’s Dàchéngmén. Imperial inscriptions were composed and engraved at the Zhōugōng, Mèngzǐ, and other shrines, and descendants of the sages and worthies were recorded and granted hereditary office to maintain the sacrifices. A great event, magnificent—the rejoicing reached every corner of the realm.
Kǒng Yùqí, holding that this honoring of teachers and authority transcends past and present, ought to be set down in a definitive book to be transmitted to the future, in Kāngxī 24 (1685) memorialized to compile it; recommended as compilers Jīn Jūjìng jìnshì and seven others; received the imperial assent. By Kāngxī 27 (1688), the book was completed in 18 juǎn and presented. The emperor pointed out 28 places to be revised, and noted that some literary works of officers should still be selected for inclusion; he instructed Kǒng Yùqí and his colleagues to revise. Soon afterward an edict released treasury funds for the rebuilding of the temple complex; imperial Kuízhāng compositions were copied and engraved on stone; the rituals of veneration grew further. Kǒng Yùqí continued the editorial work, expanding to completion: 20 juǎn of xiūchéng events, 20 of yìwén. The carved version was then presented—this is the present text.
Our Sage Ancestor Emperor Rén (Kāngxī), inheriting the line of Fúxī and Xuānyuán, his mind from the springs of ZhūSì (Confucius’s home rivers), brought the highest honor to the Sage Doctrine and rituals beyond all antiquity. No narrow vision can describe it. But Kǒng Yùqí could record what he saw and heard, with full enumeration. Reverently reading this volume, one may see at least a glimpse of the sage emperor’s deepest meaning of “honoring the Confucians and weighing the Way.” This work belongs in the imperial archives, to bear witness to the unceasing.
Abstract
The Xìnglǔ Shèngdiǎn was begun in 1685 (Kǒng Yùqí’s memorial), first completed in 1688 (18 juǎn), and brought to its 40-juǎn final form by approximately 1707 (the date of Kāngxī’s second southern progress through Shāndōng, when further temple renovations were documented). The dating bracket reflects this. The catalog meta gives Kǒng Yùqí’s life-dates as 1657–1723 (consistent with CBDB).
The work is the principal documentary record of the late-Kāngxī Confucius-cult imperial activity—an essential primary source for the Qīng-period reconfiguration of the Kǒng-lineage / Quēlǐ relationship to the imperial center. Wilkinson does not single it out, but Thomas Wilson’s Genealogy of the Way (1995) draws on it for the Qīng-Kǒng-lineage Confucian-cult relationship. The Kǒng Yùqí name is given in Sìkù with the Manchu-era Aisin-Gioro-style avoidance writing as 弘毓圻 (the Hóng prefix being a generation-marker borrowed from imperial-clan naming); modern scholarship uses the standard 孔毓圻.
Translations and research
Standard editions: Wényuāngé Sìkù. Thomas A. Wilson, Genealogy of the Way: The Construction and Uses of the Confucian Tradition in Late Imperial China (Stanford, 1995); Wilson, ed., On Sacred Grounds: Culture, Society, Politics, and the Formation of the Cult of Confucius (Harvard, 2002), uses the Xìnglǔ Shèngdiǎn as a key documentary source. Chinese: Lǐ Cháng-lì 李長莉, Qīng-dài Quē-lǐ Kǒng-shì gòng zōng 清代闕里孔氏共宗 (Bēi-dà chū-bǎn-shè, 2008), is the standard treatment of the imperial-Kǒng lineage relationship.
Other points of interest
The 23-year compilation history (1685–1707) of the Xìnglǔ Shèngdiǎn is itself documented in the Sìkù tíyào—a model of late-Kāngxī imperial editorial process, with Kāngxī personally identifying 28 revisions in the 1688 first version.