聞分館君 Ask BunKanKun

郡齋讀書志

10 min read

Text ID
KR2n0002
Date
1151–1250
Dynasty
宋

Jùnzhāi dúshū zhì 郡齋讀書志

Reading Notes from the Commandery Studio

by 晁公武 (Cháo Gōngwǔ, ca. 1105–1180), with continuation by 趙希弁 (Zhào Xībiàn, fl. 1240s)

About the work

The earliest of the three surviving Southern Sòng private library catalogues (with Yóu Mào’s 尤袤 Suìchūtáng shūmù KR2n0003 and Chén Zhènsūn’s 陳振孫 Zhízhāi shūlù jiětí KR2n0005) and — together with the Zhízhāi — the principal surviving Sòng jiětí 解題 (descriptive) bibliography. Cháo Gōngwǔ compiled his original 4-juan catalogue around 1151 while serving as prefect of Róngzhōu 榮州 in Sìchuān, working from a private collection that combined his own family’s books with the library of Jǐng Xiànmèng 井憲孟, Sìchuān fiscal commissioner, who had bequeathed his holdings to Cháo when he retired. The work survives in two recensions, both of which have descendants in the Sìkù transmission: the Yuán 袁 (Yuánzhōu) recension of 1249, edited and supplemented by the imperial clansman Zhào Xībiàn under the patronage of prefect Lí Ānzhāo 黎安朝, and the Qú 衢 (Qúzhōu) recension of 1250, prepared from the manuscript copy of Cháo’s disciple Yáo Yīngjì 姚應績 by prefect Yóu Jūn 游鈞. The Sìkù entry collates the two: 4-juan main text + 2-juan Hòuzhì 後志 (the entries unique to the Qú recension, treated by Zhào as Cháo’s late additions) + 1-juan Kǎoyì 考異 (Zhào’s collation of the YuánQú variants) + 1-juan Fùzhì 附志 (Zhào’s supplement from his own family holdings).

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that Jùnzhāi dúshū zhì in four juan was compiled by Cháo Gōngwǔ of the Sòng. The Hòuzhì in two juan is also Cháo’s; Zhào Xībiàn re-edited it, and the Fùzhì in one juan is Zhào’s continuation. Cháo, zì Zǐzhǐ 子止, was a man of Jùyě 鉅野, son of Chōngzhī 沖之, who rose to Fùwéngé zhíxuéshì 敷文閣直學士 and Línān shàoyǐn 臨安少尹. Yuè Kē’s 岳珂 Tīngshǐ 桯史 records that in the second year of Lóngxīng [1164], when Tāng Sītuì 湯思退 was dismissed from the chancellorship, Hóng Kuò 洪适 drafted the demotion edict in soft language, and the censor Cháo Gōngwǔ impeached him — Cháo too was a man of upright bone. Zhào Xībiàn was a man of Yuánzhōu, an imperial clansman, self-styled “Jiāngxī cáogòng jìnshì, Mìshūshěng jiàokān” 江西漕貢進士祕書省校勘; counted by generational seniority he was a ninth-generation descendant of Tàizǔ.

It began thus: Jǐng Xiànmèng 井憲孟 of Nányáng, when serving as Sìchuān zhuǎnyùn shǐ, had a large private library; he gave the whole of it to Cháo Gōngwǔ. Cháo personally collated the books and noted the gist of each, producing this work — and as he was at that time prefect of Róngzhōu, he named it Jùnzhāi dúshū zhì. Later the books scattered, but the catalogue alone survived. In the jǐyǒu year of Chúnyòu [1249] Lí Ānzhāo of Póyáng 鄱陽, prefect of Yuánzhōu, ordered Zhào Xībiàn to collate the catalogue against his own family’s holdings, deleting duplications and adding what was missing — a further juan, the Fùzhì — and reprinted it: this is the Yuán recension. At that time Yóu Jūn 游鈞 of Nánchōng 南充, prefect of Qúzhōu, took the Shǔ-edition copy compiled by Cháo’s disciple Yáo Yīngjì and printed it as well: this is the Qú recension. The two were in circulation contemporaneously; the Qú recension is divided into 20 juan with substantially more entries, and Cháo’s preface is included; the prefatory texts also differ in degree of detail. Zhào Xībiàn took the additions of the Qú recension to be Cháo’s late acquisitions (not the Jǐng family’s bequest) and so extracted them as the Hòuzhì in 2 juan; he further made a Kǎoyì in 1 juan to record the Yuán/Qú variants and appended it. So the Yuánzhì 4 juan is the Jǐng family’s books, the Hòuzhì 2 juan is the Cháo family’s books — both ending with the southern crossing — while the Fùzhì 1 juan is Zhào’s family library and so includes works after Qìngyuán [1195–].

Mǎ Duānlín’s 馬端臨 Jīngjí kǎo 經籍考 was made wholly from this book and Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí. Comparing this text against the Jīngjí kǎo, however, we find frequent disagreements: thus for Jīng Fáng Yìzhuàn 京房易傳 the present text gives only thirty-odd characters, but Mǎ’s quotation runs ten times as long; for the Sòng Tàizǔ shílù 宋太祖實錄, Tàizōng shílù 太宗實錄, Jiànkāng shílù 建康實錄, and the Jízhǒng Zhōushū 汲冢周書 the present text records only the compiler, era, and juan-count, but Mǎ’s quotation includes substantial discussion. Such differences in length and wording are too numerous to count. Again, Zhào Xībiàn’s Kǎoyì notes that the Yuán recension reads “Pílíng Yìzhuàn 毗陵易傳” where the Qú reads “Dōngpō Yìzhuàn 東坡易傳”, and “Yúngé xiānshēng Yìjiě 芸閣先生易解” where the Qú reads “Lǚshì zhāngjù 呂氏章句” — and in the Jīngjí kǎo both conform to the Qú reading, suggesting Mǎ Duānlín worked from a Qú-recension source. Yet for the Jìngōng tánlù 晉公談錄 and the Liùzǔ tánjīng 六祖壇經 — entries Zhào’s Kǎoyì attributes to the Yuán recension and absent from the Qú — the Jīngjí kǎo nevertheless quotes Cháo’s notes. So Mǎ used both recensions concurrently. We therefore suspect the present text has been further abridged by later hands: not only is the Qú recension no longer recoverable, but the Yuán recension itself is no longer wholly intact, and that is why Mǎ’s quotations and the extant text cannot be made to agree.

Furthermore, in the Masters-section preface, the text says “ninth: Xiǎoshuō 小說; tenth: Tiānwén lìsuàn 天文歷算; eleventh: Bīngjiā 兵家; twelfth: Xíngjiā 刑家; thirteenth: Záyì 雜藝; fourteenth: Yījiā 醫家; fifteenth: Shénxiān 神仙; sixteenth: Shìjiā 釋家.” But within the body of the catalogue, the Xiǎoshuō section ends with the Jīzhí jí 雞跖集, and is immediately followed by Qúnxiān huìzhēn jì 羣仙會眞記, Wángshì shénxiān zhuàn 王氏神仙傳, and Géhóng shénxiān zhuàn 葛洪神仙傳 — so categories ten through fourteen are entirely missing, and the Shénxiān category itself has lost its category-label. The remaining categories are presumably damaged in similar fashion. Yet though the book is no longer the original, the outline survives — it remains an indispensable resource for textual research.

Abstract

The Jùnzhāi dúshū zhì is the earliest of the great Sòng private jiětí catalogues and Cháo Gōngwǔ’s principal contribution to bibliography. The catalog meta date “fl. 1140–1171” understates Cháo’s lifespan; CBDB and Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, both give 1105–1180, followed here. Cháo’s preface is dated Shàoxīng 21 (1151); the text was finished while he was prefect of Róngzhōu in Sìchuān, working from his own family library plus the holdings of Jǐng Xiànmèng 井憲孟, fiscal commissioner of Sìchuān, who had transferred his books to Cháo around 1147. After Cháo’s death the catalogue circulated in two recensions:

  • the Yuán 袁 recension (1249), reprinted at Yuánzhōu 袁州 by prefect Lí Ānzhāo, who ordered Cháo’s distant collateral relative Zhào Xībiàn — a Sòng imperial clansman descended in the ninth generation from Sòng Tàizǔ — to add a Fùzhì 附志 (1 juan) of further Cháo-family and Zhào-family holdings, with a Kǎoyì 考異 (1 juan) collating his recension against the Qú text;
  • the Qú 衢 recension (1250), printed at Qúzhōu 衢州 by prefect Yóu Jūn from the Shǔ 蜀 edition of Cháo’s disciple Yáo Yīngjì 姚應績, in 20 juan with many additional entries.

Zhào Xībiàn judged the Qú additions to be Cháo’s own late acquisitions — books accumulated after the original Jǐng-bequest manuscript — and extracted them as a 2-juan Hòuzhì 後志, attached behind the original 4 juan. The Sìkù WYG entry combines all four units (4 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 8 textual juan presented as the Yuán-recension Sìkù text). The Qú-only material is therefore present, but secondhand and reorganized.

The catalogue’s importance lies in three things: (i) it is one of only two surviving Sòng jiětí bibliographies (the other is Chén Zhènsūn’s Zhízhāi shūlù jiětí KR2n0005); (ii) Mǎ Duānlín 馬端臨 (1254–1323) drew his Wénxiàn tōngkǎo jīngjí kǎo 文獻通考經籍考 — the encyclopaedic Yuán-era bibliography — chiefly from Cháo and Chén; and (iii) it gives, for thousands of Sòng-era and earlier titles now lost, the only contemporary jiětí-style description that survives. The Sìkù editors note explicitly that comparison with the Tōngkǎo shows the present recension to be incomplete — Mǎ’s quotations are often ten times longer than what survives — and that the Sìkù text is therefore a witness to a damaged transmission, not the full Cháo–Zhào catalogue.

The standard modern critical edition is Sūn Měng 孫猛, Jùnzhāi dúshū zhì jiàozhèng 郡齋讀書志校證 (Shànghǎi gǔjí, 1990; rev. 2011 in 2 vols.), which collates both recensions in parallel.

Translations and research

No full English translation. Studies and editions:

  • Sūn Měng 孫猛, Jùnzhāi dúshū zhì jiàozhèng 郡齋讀書志校證, 2 vols. (Shànghǎi: Shànghǎi gǔjí chūbǎnshè, 1990; rev. 2011) — the standard collated edition, prints Yuán and Qú recensions with extensive notes.
  • Sūn Měng 孫猛, Jùnzhāi dúshū zhì yánjiū 郡齋讀書志研究 (Shànghǎi gǔjí, 2024) — monographic study of the textual transmission and Cháo’s bibliographical method.
  • Hǎo Rùnhuá 郝潤華, “晁公武郡齋讀書志與崇文總目之關係考辨”, Shǐlín 史林 (2006) — the relation between Cháo’s catalogue and the Chóngwén zǒngmù.
  • Western scholarship: Hilde De Weerdt, Information, Territory, and Networks: The Crisis and Maintenance of Empire in Song China (Harvard Asia Center, 2016), discusses Cháo’s catalogue in the context of Southern Sòng knowledge production. See also relevant chapters in Lucille Chia and Hilde De Weerdt (eds.), Knowledge and Text Production in an Age of Print: China, 900–1400 (Brill, 2011).
  • Yves Hervouet (ed.), A Sung Bibliography (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1978) repeatedly cites Cháo as the principal Sòng-era witness for individual works.

Other points of interest

The base edition of the present digital text is Sìbù cóngkān (SBCK), reproducing the Yuán recension as transmitted; the Sìkù WYG copy follows the same family. Endymion Wilkinson notes (Chinese History, ch. on bibliographic catalogs) that Cháo’s first mention of the Thirteen Classics (Shísān jīng 十三經) makes the Jùnzhāi dúshū zhì the terminus a quo for the canonical 13-Classics enumeration as a fixed corpus; he also introduced the shǐpíng 史評 (historiographical-criticism) sub-category for the first time, including Liú Zhījī’s 劉知幾 Shǐtōng 史通 there. Cháo’s evaluation of the Nán shǐ/Běi shǐ of Lǐ Yánshòu 李延壽 — that Lǐ “cut out the repetitive and added what was missing” (刪煩補闕), surpassing the source Histories — was reproduced verbatim by Mǎ Duānlín and became canonical.

Graph View

Backlinks