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經義考

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Text ID
KR2n0011
Date
1695–1709
Dynasty
清

Jīngyì kǎo 經義考

An Investigation of the Meaning of the Classics

by 朱彝尊 (Zhū Yízūn, 1629–1709)

About the work

The most extensive surviving bibliography of Chinese classical commentary literature: a 300-juan compendium (3 juan are lost: Xuānjiǎng lìxué 宣講立學, Jiāxué 家學, Zìshù 自述, present only as title-listings) covering virtually every commentary on the Confucian Classics from the Hàn down through Yuán and Míng. The work began as the Jīngyì cúnwáng kǎo 經義存亡考 — limited to a “extant / lost” bipartite distinction — and was expanded in Zhū’s Pùshūtíng 曝書亭 retirement to a quadripartite system (cún 存, quē 闕, yì 佚, wèijiàn 未見) with the present title. The arrangement is by classic: 1 juan of imperially commissioned and -annotated works at the head, then 70 juan on Yì 易, 26 on Shū 書, 22 on Shī 詩, 10 on Zhōulǐ 周禮, 8 on Yílǐ 儀禮, 25 on Lǐjì 禮記, 4 on TōngLǐ 通禮, 1 on Yuè 樂, 43 on Chūnqiū 春秋, 11 on Lúnyǔ 論語, 9 on Xiàojīng 孝經, 6 on Mèngzǐ 孟子, 2 on Ěryǎ 爾雅, 13 on Qún jīng 群經 (multi-classic works), 8 on Sì shū 四書, 3 on Yìjīng 逸經 (lost classics), 5 on Bìwěi 毖緯 (apocrypha), 13 on Nǐjīng 擬經 (imitations of the classics), 5 on Chéngshī 承師 (teacher-disciple lineages), 1 on Xuānjiǎnglìxué (lost), 5 on Kānshí 刊石 (stelae texts of the classics), 1 each on Shūbìlòubǎn 書壁鏤版 (mural and block-print) and Zhùlù 著錄 (catalogue notices), 4 on Tōngshuō 通說 (general theories), 1 each on Jiāxué and Zìshù (lost). For each entry: compiler, title, juan-count, marker (extant / lacunose / lost / unseen), original prefaces and postfaces, scholars’ discussions, the compiler’s biography (rank and locality), and Zhū’s own ànyǔ 案語 (case-notes) of evidential research.

The work is the largest single classical bibliography ever produced in pre-modern China and the indispensable reference for the historiography of classical commentary. Cited in every later Qing study on the Yìjīng, Shàngshū, Shī jīng, Lǐ, Chūnqiū, etc.

Tiyao

Compiled by Zhū Yízūn of the present (Qing) dynasty. Yízūn, zì Xīchàng, hào Zhúchá, was a man of Xiùshuǐ. Recommended in the jǐwèi year of Kāngxī [1679] for the bóxué hóngcí examination, summoned, examined, granted jiǎntǎo 檢討, and entered service in the Nèiqín 內廷. His prose is deeply elegant; while he was still in commoner’s clothes he already stood at the price-level of Wáng Shìzhēn 王士禎; in breadth of learning and depth of root, he stood eye to eye with Gù Yánwǔ 顧炎武 and Yán Ruòqú 閻若璩. Whatever he composed was rooted in evidence.

This work surveys the bibliography of classical scholarship across the dynasties. Originally titled Jīngyì cúnwáng kǎo, it had only the two distinctions cún and wáng. Later he separated the four — cún, quē, yì, wèijiàn — and changed to the present title.

In all: 1 juan of imperial annotation and imperially commissioned works; 70 juan on Yì, 26 on Shū, 22 on Shī, 10 on Zhōulǐ, 8 on Yílǐ, 25 on Lǐjì, 4 on TōngLǐ, 1 on Yuè, 43 on Chūnqiū, 11 on Lúnyǔ, 9 on Xiàojīng, 6 on Mèngzǐ, 2 on Ěryǎ, 13 on Qún jīng, 8 on Sì shū, 3 on Yìjīng, 5 on Bìwěi, 13 on Nǐjīng, 5 on Chéngshī, Xuānjiǎnglìxué together 1 juan, 5 on Kānshí, 1 on Shūbì lòubǎn and 1 on Zhùlù, 4 on Tōngshuō, 1 each on Jiāxué and Zìshù. The three of Xuānjiǎnglìxué, Jiāxué, and Zìshù preserve only the title-list, with no body — the compilation was unfinished.

For each book, the head gives compiler, title, juan-count; where juan-counts differ between sources, “such-and-such book gives N juan” is noted. Then the marker cún / yì / quē / wèijiàn; then the original prefaces and postfaces, the discussions of various scholars, and the compiler’s rank and locality. Where Zhū has done his own evidential checking, an ànyǔ is appended. But for prefaces and postfaces with no bearing on the work itself, full reproduction is rather over-extensive.

Furthermore, the Suí Yìwénzhì practice for treatises on a single chapter of a complete classic — such as Yì class Xìcí zhù 繫辭註, QiánKūn yì 乾坤義; Shū class Hóngfàn wǔxíng zhuàn 洪範五行傳, Gǔwén Shùndiǎn 古文舜典; Lǐ class Xià xiǎozhèng 夏小正, Yuèlìng zhāngjù 月令章句, Zhōngyōng zhuàn 中庸傳, etc. — is to interleave them with whole-classic commentaries by date, so the principle is easily followed. Zhū’s book attaches the single-chapter-only commentaries at the end of the whole-classic listing — and so the chronology is broken up. The principle is also not well-handled.

But across the two thousand years up and down, root and branch, the lineage of every classical work is fully recoverable — that is full and rich indeed. As to the yì / quē / wèijiàn designations: collating with the Sìkù holdings, his books are often actually still extant, and his statements are not always reliable. But the imperial archives’ holdings are not what an outsider could fully glimpse. And we now humbly rejoice that our sage emperor, exalting antiquity and revering literature, gathers the lost and stranded — Lánghuán’s strange volumes and Wǎnwěi’s precious cases, none missing the appointed gathering. The richness of the imperial holdings is unprecedented. A scholar in private life, defending a damaged volume, eyes overworked and hands cataloguing, exhausting the strength of one life, can never measure the sea of learning’s reach. That is the way of things — not Zhū’s fault.

Abstract

The Jīngyì kǎo is the greatest work of pre-modern Chinese classical bibliography, and Zhū Yízūn’s principal scholarly monument. Composed in his retirement at the Pùshūtíng 曝書亭 (Sun-the-Books Pavilion) in Xiùshuǐ during 1696–1699, with revisions thereafter; the printed version (preface dated Kāngxī 35 / 1696) circulated from c. 1701; the WYG draws from the tōngxíngběn 通行本. The catalog meta date “1629–1709” is Zhū’s lifespan; notBefore here is set to 1695 (the period of active Pùshūtíng compilation following his 1693 dismissal from imperial service) and notAfter to his death (1709). Three of the planned 300 juan — Xuānjiǎnglìxué 宣講立學, Jiāxué 家學, Zìshù 自述 — were left unfinished and survive only as section-titles; the catalog meta therefore correctly records the work as “存 297 卷” (297 juan extant).

The structural achievements are several:

  1. Quadripartite extant-status system. The four-marker apparatus (cún extant / quē lacunose / yì lost / wèijiàn unseen) is the first systematic attempt at a four-way “survival score” for the entire classical corpus. It became the model for Lú Wénchāo 盧文弨, Wáng Niànsūn 王念孫, and other Qianlong-Jiaqing classicist bibliographers, and ultimately for the modern cúnyì (extant-and-lost) studies of the 20th century.
  2. Comprehensive coverage by classic. The juan-allocation per classic (Yì 70, Chūnqiū 43, Shū 26, etc.) reflects the commentary tradition’s actual size, not equal partition; and the tail-end categories (Yìjīng, Bìwěi, Nǐjīng, Chéngshī, Kānshí) bring under one roof every kind of classical-text-related material.
  3. Complete reproduction of original prefaces, postfaces, and ànyǔ. Many lost works survive only through Zhū’s quotation of their prefaces — for fragmentary reconstruction this is the single richest pre-modern resource.
  4. The Chéngshī 承師 chapters (juan 264–268). A systematic prosopography of teacher-disciple lineages parallel to (and largely extending beyond) Zhū Mùzhì’s Shòujīng tú yìlì KR2n0008.

The Sìkù editors’ criticisms are technical: (i) prefaces with no substantive bearing on the work being catalogued are reproduced in full when summary would do; (ii) single-chapter commentaries are sometimes appended at the end rather than interleaved chronologically with whole-classic commentaries (per Suí Yìwénzhì practice), breaking chronological clarity; (iii) Zhū’s “lost” / “unseen” markers are sometimes inaccurate by Sìkù-era holdings — though, as the editors generously add, the imperial holdings of the 1770s contained material no private scholar of the 1690s could have known.

The Jīngyì kǎo is the immediate descendant of Zhū Mùzhì’s much smaller Shòujīngtú yìlì KR2n0008 (acknowledged by Zhū Yízūn) and the principal source for Wēng Fānggāng’s 翁方綱 Jīngyì kǎo bǔzhèng 經義考補正 (1772) and Lú Wénchāo’s 盧文弨 corrections. The standard modern critical edition is Lín Qìngzhāng 林慶彰 et al. (eds.), Jīngyì kǎo xīnjiào 經義考新校 (Shànghǎi gǔjí, 2010, 7 vols), which collates the work against all available sources and adds modern apparatus.

CBDB 66032 confirms 1629–1709 for Zhū Yízūn.

Translations and research

No full English translation. Standard editions and studies:

  • Lín Qìngzhāng 林慶彰 et al. (eds.), Jīngyì kǎo xīnjiào 經義考新校, 7 vols (Shànghǎi: Shànghǎi gǔjí, 2010) — the standard modern critical edition.
  • Wēng Fānggāng 翁方綱, Jīngyì kǎo bǔzhèng 經義考補正 (1772) — major Qianlong-era supplement and correction.
  • Lú Wénchāo 盧文弨, Jīngyì kǎo bǔ 經義考補 — corrections and supplements.
  • Lín Qìngzhāng 林慶彰, Zhū Yízūn jí qí Jīngyì kǎo zhī yánjiū 朱彝尊及其經義考之研究 (Táiběi: Wénshǐzhé, 1980s) — biographical and bibliographical monograph.
  • Liú Yùjùn 劉玉珺 et al., articles on the Jīngyì kǎo’s bibliographical method, in Wénxiàn 文獻 and Zhōngguó diǎnjí yǔ wénhuà 中國典籍與文化.
  • Hummel (ed.), Eminent Chinese of the Ch’ing Period, s.v. “Chu I-tsun”.
  • Endymion Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, on classical-tradition bibliography.

Other points of interest

The work is one of the very few pre-modern Chinese bibliographies to systematically distinguish quē 闕 (lacunose) from yì 佚 (entirely lost) — a refinement that for the Yìjīng commentary tradition (with its many partly preserved Hàn fragments) is essential. Zhū’s Pùshūtíng library passed after his death to his grandson Zhū Kūntián 朱昆田 and ultimately scattered. The catalogue is also a witness to the texts available to a major late-17th-century Jiāngnán scholar — comparative reading against later catalogues shows the Sìkù era recovered substantially more than Zhū could find.

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