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求古錄

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Text ID
KR2n0036
Date
1660–1682
Dynasty
清

Qiúgǔ lù 求古錄

A Search for Antiquity

by 顧炎武 (Gù Yánwǔ, 1613–1682)

About the work

A 1-juan early-Qing jīnshí compendium by Gù Yánwǔ — the founding figure of evidential scholarship — gathering 56 stelae personally collected during his decades of itinerant scholarship across the empire. Coverage runs from the Hàn Cáo Quán bēi 曹全碑 down through the Míng Jiànwén Huòshān bēi 建文霍山碑 (Jiànwén era 1399–1402). For each piece, Gù reproduces the full inscription text, on Hóng Kuò’s Lìshì KR2n0017 model — a methodological extension of Hóng’s full-transcription practice into the early-Qing context. Each stele has its location recorded and its erection circumstance researched. Ancient zhuànlì characters are glossed yīyī zhùjiě (one by one). Official titles, dates, names, and other documentary detail are correlated with the dynastic histories. Some characters in the inscriptions (chá 茶 / chá 荼, zhǔn 準 / zhǔn 准, zhānghù 張弡, etc.) are noted as evidence for character-form variation supplementing standard dictionaries.

Gù’s editorial principle is selective: works already covered in surviving local gazetteers, or in commonly available rubbings, or in Míng-era literary collections, are not included — only material outside those circuits.

Tiyao

[Translated and condensed from the Sìkù tíyào]

Compiled by Gù Yánwǔ of the present (Qing) dynasty. Yánwǔ is also the author of Zuǒzhuàn Dùjiě bǔzhèng 左傳杜解補正 (already catalogued). Yánwǔ was passionate about distant travel; his footprints almost covered the empire. He gathered jīnshí writings, transcribing by his own hand. Items already in local gazetteers he did not record. Items with currently available rubbings he did not record. Items in still-circulating modern literary collections he did not record. From the Hàn Cáo Quán bēi down to the Míng Jiànwén-era Huòshān bēi, 56 pieces in all. For each cutting, the full text is reproduced — Hóng Kuò’s Lìshì model. With the location noted and the erection circumstance researched. Ancient zhuànlì characters glossed one by one. Official titles, dates, all correlable with the standard histories. Chá 茶 / chá 荼, zhǔn 準 / zhǔn 准, Zhānghù 張弡 — characters that supplement and correct dictionary errors.

Yánwǔ also has a Jīnshí wénzì jì 金石文字記 KR2n0037; that work records colophons only, not the body text — not as full or as clear as the present book.

The Cáo Quán bēi is dated Zhōngpíng 2 (185), tenth month, bǐngchén. Cross-checking the HòuHàn shū: the Língdì běnjì says that month had a gēngyín (26 days before bǐngchén); the Tiānwén zhì says that month had a guǐhài (7 days after bǐngchén) — there could not also be a bǐngchén on the same date. So the stele looked like a forgery.

But Qián Dàxīn’s Qiánjyántáng jīnshí wén báwěi 潛研堂金石文跋尾, using the chánglì (long calendar), recovered: that month’s shuò (1st) was bǐngshēn; bǐngchén was the 21st; guǐhài was the 28th; the gēngyín should be gēngyǎn (a different reading of the same character). Cross-checked with Qiáo Mǐn bēi 譙敏碑 (dated Zhōngpíng 2 third month wùyín) and the Língdì běnjì and Wǔxíng zhì (both dating Zhōngpíng 3 fifth month rénchénhuì) — every gānzhī day-count matches. The běnjì error, not the stele being forged. Yánwǔ had not investigated this far. A small lapse in evidential research.

Abstract

The Qiúgǔ lù is one of the foundational Qing evidential-tradition jīnshí works, by the most important Qing classical-evidential scholar Gù Yánwǔ. The catalog meta dates 1613–1682 are Gù’s lifespan; the work is from his post-1660 itinerant period after his Míng-loyalist withdrawal, set notBefore 1660 / notAfter 1682 here.

The work’s contributions:

  1. Hóng-Kuò-style full transcription of 56 stelae, focused on material not in extant gazetteers, rubbings, or Míng literary collections — i.e. genuinely new finds.
  2. Empirical method. Gù’s correlation of inscription data with the dynastic histories typifies early-Qing evidentialism. The Cáo Quán bēi date-anomaly Gù flagged (which Qián Dàxīn later resolved) is exemplary.
  3. Character-form supplementation. Stele-character variation as evidence for dictionary correction is one of the methodological foundations of late-Qing xiǎoxué (philology) discipline.

The companion Jīnshí wénzì jì KR2n0037 in 6 juan adds colophons-only material on a much larger corpus.

CBDB confirms Gù Yánwǔ 1613–1682.

Translations and research

No English translation of the Qiúgǔ lù itself. Studies:

  • Hummel (ed.), Eminent Chinese of the Ch’ing Period, s.v. “Ku Yen-wu”.
  • John Henderson, The Development and Decline of Chinese Cosmology (Columbia UP, 1984), with material on Gù’s evidentialism.
  • Qián Dàxīn 錢大昕, Qiánjyán-táng jīnshí wén bá-wěi — extensive cross-references and corrections.
  • Endymion Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, 6th ed., on early-Qing evidentialism.

Other points of interest

The Sìkù editors’ preservation of Gù Yánwǔ’s Cáo Quán bēi date-anomaly note alongside Qián Dàxīn’s resolution illustrates the evidential-school principle that errors are corrected by collation, not by dismissal — and that even the founding figures’ lapses are part of the discipline’s record.

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