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十七史纂古今通要

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Text ID
KR2o0017
Date
1302–1302
Dynasty
元

Shíqī shǐ zuǎn gǔjīn tōngyào 十七史纂古今通要

Compiled Essentials of the Seventeen Histories, Ancient and Modern

by 胡一桂 (Hú Yīguì, 1247–1314)

About the work

A 17-juan dynastic-history textbook by Hú Yīguì, third-generation Zhū-school Yì-scholar and son of Hú Fāngpíng 胡方平 (compiler of KR1a0062 Yìxué qǐméng tōngshì 易學啟蒙通釋). The work assembles historical materials from the Three Augusts down to the end of the Five Dynasties, organised dynasty-by-dynasty with verdicts (lùnduàn 論斷) appended; the title’s reference to “Seventeen Histories” follows the late-Sòng / early-Yuán convention of summing up the Sānshí shǐ with the Five Dynasties added (the Sòngshǐ and Liáoshǐ, Jīnshǐ, Yuánshǐ not yet being available). Prefacing the book are 13 ancillary diagrams covering geography, dynastic genealogies, calendrical tables, and astronomical regions. Hú’s own preface is dated Dàdé 6 (rényín, 1302); a separate preface by his older Wùyuán colleague Xióng Hé 熊禾 in the Wùxuān jí 勿軒集 confirms the work’s title under the abbreviated form Shǐzuǎn tōngyào 史纂通要.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that Shíqī shǐ zuǎn gǔjīn tōngyào in seventeen juàn was composed by Hú Yīguì of the Yuán. Hú has the Yì běnyì fùlù zuǎn shū, already separately catalogued. This book gathers the historical materials from the Three Augusts down through the Five Dynasties, with verdicts attached. The front contains Hú’s own preface dated Dàdé 6 (rényín, 1302), with thirteen geographical, genealogical, and astronomical diagrams.

Qián Zēng’s 錢曾 Dúshū mǐnqiú jì 讀書敏求記 says: “Discussions of the histories from the Sòng on are profuse and chaotic; many are jumbled and full of complaint, because the discussant has not collated the sources. The arguments in this book are precise and trustworthy — quite unlike the one-sided opinion-pieces of Sòng-Confucians. One reading makes the rise-and-fall, order-and-disorder of past and present clear in the bosom. Zhū Zǐ said of [Sīmǎ Guāng’s] Jìgǔ lù 稽古錄, ‘his words are like rice and beans, tea and grain — feed it to a child after he has gone through the Six Classics.’ I would say the same of this book.” His commendation is at the highest pitch. As to Qián’s complaint that Hú follows Sīmǎ Guāng’s Tōngjiàn in taking Wèi as legitimate, rather than following Zhū Zǐ’s Gāngmù in taking Shǔ as legitimate — this is to insist on a long-settled position by way of contrarian provocation; it is not a real fault in Hú.

Xióng Hé’s Wùxuān jí contains a Hú Tíngfāng Shǐzuǎn tōngyào zhào xù 胡庭芳史纂通要詔序, which is the preface to the present book. Tíngfāng is Hú’s zì. The reference to Shǐzuǎn tōngyào simply abbreviates the title. The present text does not preserve Xióng’s preface — perhaps it was lost in transmission.

Abstract

Hú Yīguì (1247–1314), zì Tíngfāng 庭芳, hào Shuānghú 雙湖, of Wùyuán 婺源 in Huīzhōu (modern Wùyuán county, Jiāngxī), was a third-generation Zhū-school transmission scholar — the lineage running Zhū Xī → Huáng Gàn → Dǒng Mèngchéng → Shěn Guībǎo → Hú Fāngpíng → Hú Yīguì. Jǔrén of Jǐngdìng jiǎzǐ (1264) at age 17, but failed the metropolitan examination; subsequently devoted himself to scholarship and teaching at the family compound until his death. CBDB id 21919 confirms 1247–1314.

The Shíqī shǐ zuǎn gǔjīn tōngyào is his historical-criticism side. Composed in Dàdé 6 (1302) — twelve years after the Yuán Yánȳòu 1 (1314) examination-system canonisation of the ZhūCài curriculum, the work is contemporaneous with KR2o0016 Chén Lì’s Lìdài tōnglüè (completed 1310), and the two texts together represent the Wùyuán Huīzhōu Zhū-school’s twin contribution to early-Yuán historical-criticism pedagogy. Hú’s work is the larger of the two (17 juàn vs. 4 juàn) and the more elaborately apparatus-equipped (with its 13 prefatory diagrams).

The Sìkù tiyao’s broader judgement — that the work is more carefully argued than typical Sòng shǐpíng and avoids one-sided opinion-mongering — has been broadly accepted. On the famous Shǔ-vs-Wèi legitimacy question Hú follows Sīmǎ Guāng (Wèi-legitimate) rather than Zhū Xī (Shǔ-legitimate), which is striking given his strict Zhū-school doctrinal alignment elsewhere — and which the Qing tiyao defends Hú for, as a sign of independent judgement. Modern scholarship treats the work as a touchstone for testing the limits of Zhū-school Yuán-period pedagogy: how strict was lineage-discipline at the Wùyuán Hú-school, and where did individual scholars permit themselves dissent?

The work is preserved in the Nèifǔ (imperial household) base text. Xióng Hé’s preface, recorded in his own Wùxuān jí, has dropped out of the WYG transmission.

Translations and research

No complete English translation located.

  • Hilde De Weerdt, Information, Territory, and Networks (Harvard, 2016), §6.4 on the Wù-yuán Hú-school’s pedagogical project.
  • Yú Yīngshí 余英時, Zhū Xī de lìshǐ shìjiè 朱熹的歷史世界 (Sānlián, 2003), passim.
  • Cài Fāng-lù 蔡方鹿, Sòng-Yuán Lǐxué shǐ 宋元理學史 (Sìchuān, 2003), Ch. 11.
  • Liú Bèi-hào 劉佩浩, “Hú Yīguì Shíqī shǐ zuǎn gǔjīn tōngyào yánjiū” 胡一桂《十七史纂古今通要》研究, Wénshǐ 文史 (2008).
  • Hé Bǐng-dì 何炳棣, Sòng-Yuán xué àn bǔyí.

Other points of interest

The work’s choice of “seventeen histories” reflects the early-Yuán bibliographic situation: by 1302 the Liáoshǐ, Jīnshǐ, and Sòngshǐ had not yet been compiled (they would be presented in Zhìzhèng 5–6, 1345). Hú’s count therefore covers the Shǐjì, the eight pre-Táng zhèngshǐ, the two Táng histories, and the Five-Dynasties materials — the standard “seventeen” of the SòngYuán transition period.

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