Jīnshí wénzì jì 金石文字記
Notes on Inscriptions in Bronze and Stone
by 顧炎武 (Gù Yánwǔ, 1613–1682)
About the work
A 6-juan compendium of ~300 stelae from Hàn through Míng, arranged chronologically, by Gù Yánwǔ. Each entry is followed by a colophon (bá); for stelae without colophons, year, location, and compiler/calligrapher are still recorded. Coverage is much wider than the Qiúgǔ lù KR2n0036 but the present work gives only colophons, not full text. The work is a classic of the evidential genre: Gù correlates inscriptions with classics and histories, identifies and corrects errors in both directions, and supplies many character-form notes. Pān Lěi 潘耒 (Wújiāng), Gù’s disciple, supplied a 20-piece bǔyí 補遺 (supplement) at the end. As Hóng Kuò’s Lìshì recorded variant readings under each stele, the Jīnshí wénzì jì records characters of variant form under each piece.
Qián Dàxīn’s Qiánjyántáng jīnshí wén báwěi lists six errors in Gù’s readings: misidentification of a Qí stele as a Hàn Guō Jù 郭巨 stele; mistaken date on the Tang Jìzhào héshàng bēi 寂照和上碑 (Gù gave Kāichéng 6 month 1, but Kāichéng has only 5 years); mistaken non-signature observation on the HòuTáng Lì cì míngfúchányuàn dìtǔdié 賜冥福禪院地土牒; misidentified script and missing calligrapher on the Zhōu Zhōngshūshìláng píngzhāngshì Jǐng Fàn bēi 景範碑; misjoining of jì 旣 and qiě 且 to jì 曁 in the HòuHàn Dàngyīnlìng Zhāng Qiān sòng 蕩陰令張遷頌; misreading of Jùlù 鉅鹿 as Jùlǔ 鉅鏕 in the HòuHàn Yǐn Zhòu bēi 尹宙碑. Gù’s other lapses: rejection of the Stone Drums as forgery (an over-bold position for the time); and overly tight reading of the Xiàoguān bēi 校官碑 to assign the xiàoguān office to Eastern Hàn alone. But for systematic bāběn yuányuán (root-and-branch tracing) of jīnshí materials, no Qing-era work surpasses it.
Tiyao
[Translated and condensed from the Sìkù tíyào]
Compiled by Gù Yánwǔ of the present dynasty. There is a self-preface saying: “I have dug into the historical records and brought out the classical canon, with materials that the Jígǔ and Jīnshí records of the ŌuyángZhào pair did not have.”
Now examining: the work gathers what he had personally seen in stelae from Hàn onward, organised chronologically; under each entry he appends a colophon. For stelae without a colophon, he gives erection year, compiler / calligrapher names. He correlates the records with present and past, distinguishes errors and corrections — distinctly more refined than the Jígǔ and Jīnshí records. He is not over-confident.
About 300+ pieces in all. At the end is a 20+ piece bǔyí by Gù’s disciple Pān Lěi of Wújiāng. Variant character readings between stelae are also separately extracted at the end — on Hóng Kuò’s Lìshì practice of “X character is the variant of Y character”.
[Detailed list of Qián Dàxīn’s six corrections, as summarised above.]
The Sìkù editors note: the Zhāng Qiān sòng rubbing’s jì 旣 and qiě 且 are clearly disjoined characters, not a single jì 曁 — so Gù’s reading is wrong; but the disjoined reading also yields no clear sense, so we should leave it as quēyí (unsolved). Qián Dàxīn’s correction is also not entirely settled. As for Jùlù 鉅鹿: from Shǐjì onward classical books all use 鹿 not 鏕; the Shuōwén has no 鏕 entry; Yùpiān first records it as a vulgar form. So the jīnrén 金人 (metal-radical) form is itself a popular form. The Yánshì jiāxùn 顏氏家訓 already remarked that Northern dynasties used many vulgar characters; the present book also notes their errors. Wèi-period stele inscriptions therefore should not be taken as canonical. The Guǎngyùn gloss is even less reliable.
But Gù’s rejection of the Stone Drums and his strict treatment of the Xiàoguān bēi are minor yìduàn (over-confident) errors. For bāběn yuányuán clarity, no recent work has surpassed it.
Abstract
The Jīnshí wénzì jì is the principal Qing-era jīnshí compendium by Gù Yánwǔ and the most important early-Qing model for the evidential method applied to inscription scholarship. The catalog meta dates 1613–1682 are Gù’s lifespan; the work is from his post-1660 itinerant period, set notBefore 1660 / notAfter 1682 here.
The work’s contributions:
- Comprehensive evidential-method jīnshí. ~300 stelae chronologically arranged, with colophons combining inscription details, historical correlation, and character-form analysis.
- Pān Lěi bǔyí. A 20-piece supplement by Gù’s disciple Pān Lěi (1646–1708, boxue hongci of 1679) at the end.
- Foundational evidential-tradition status. Cited as the model by every later Qing jīnshí scholar: Qián Dàxīn, Wáng Niànsūn, Zhāng Yìzhì 章譽志, etc.
CBDB confirms Gù Yánwǔ 1613–1682.
Translations and research
No English translation. Studies:
- Hummel (ed.), Eminent Chinese of the Ch’ing Period, s.v. “Ku Yen-wu”.
- 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., §58, on Qing jīnshí.
- John Henderson, The Development and Decline of Chinese Cosmology (Columbia UP, 1984).
Other points of interest
Gù’s Jīnshí wénzì jì and Qiúgǔ lù together constitute his contribution to the jīnshí genre — different in apparatus (full text vs. colophons) but methodologically continuous. The companion Shíjīng kǎo KR2n0038 is the third leg of his jīnshí-related output, narrowly focused on the stone-classics tradition.
Links
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu_Yanwu
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15914131