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御批資治通鑑綱目前編

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Text ID
KR2o0021
Date
1273–1708
Dynasty
元

Yùpī Zīzhì tōngjiàn gāngmù qián biān 御批資治通鑑綱目前編

The Imperially Annotated Tongjian Gangmu, Earlier Compilation

by 金履祥 (Jīn Lǚxiáng, 1232–1303), with annotations (pī 批) by 聖祖 (Qīng Shèngzǔ / Kāngxī)

About the work

A pre-Zhōu prequel to Zhū Xī’s KR2o0020 Tōngjiàn gāngmù, written by Jīn Lǚxiáng of the Wùzhōu Northern-Mountain School (the Hé Jī—Wáng Bǎi—Jīn Lǚxiáng—Xǔ Qiān BěiShān sì xiānsheng 北山四先生 lineage of late-Sòng / early-Yuán Zhū-school transmission). The work was composed against the perceived deficiencies of Liú Shù’s 劉恕 KR2j0009 Tōngjiàn wàijì 通鑑外紀 — which Jīn judged “fond of the broad and the strange” — and replaces it as the orthodox prequel running from Yáo down to King Wēilíè of Zhōu (the Tōngjiàn’s starting point). Drawing chiefly on the Classics and the canonical commentaries, with Hú Hóng’s 胡宏 Huángwáng dàjì 皇王大紀 as a structural model, Jīn writes pre-Zhōu history in gāngmù form to match Zhū Xī’s main work. Appended at the end is a Jǔyào 擧要 (compendium of essentials) summarising the entire Gāngmù programme; an Wàijì 外紀 prefacing the front gathers high-antiquity legendary materials.

The 18-juan structure of the WYG combines: (1) the Wàijì 外紀 (high-antiquity legendary supplement), 1 juàn; (2) the main Qián biān (Yáo–Wēilíè), the largest portion; (3) the Jǔyào 擧要, 3 juàn. Chén Rénxī of the late Míng altered the format by pairing the Qián biān with Zhū Xī’s Gāngmù main body in a single integrated print, and re-titling the prequel Tōngjiàn gāngmù qián biān. The Kāngxī imperial annotations (1708) cover the Chén Rénxī text.

Tiyao

(See the joint tiyao under KR2o0020; the relevant section: “Jīn Lǚxiáng, finding Liú Shù’s Tōngjiàn wàijì fond of breadth and the strange, gathered evidence from Classics and commentaries; opening with Yáo above and ending with King Wēilíè of Zhōu below, he composed the Tōngjiàn qiánbiān. He also gathered the whole work’s outlines and summary, composing a Jǔyào (compendium of essentials), placing it at the end. Further, he compiled the lost reports of high antiquity, composing a Wàijì, placing it at the front. Chén Rénxī slightly altered the format and re-titled it Tōngjiàn gāngmù qián biān, joining the print to the Gāngmù itself, to supplement what Zhū Zǐ did not address. Following the old print, the imperial brush also annotated this.“)

Abstract

Jīn Lǚxiáng’s Qián biān belongs to the early-Yuán moment when the Wùzhōu Zhū-school was systematising its programme of high-antiquity historiography on a Gāngmù-orthodox base. Liú Shù’s earlier Tōngjiàn wàijì — written under Sīmǎ Guāng’s general supervision in the Yuánfēng 1080s — was the standard pre-Zhōu chronicle, but its inclusion of legendary materials and its acceptance of certain mythological narratives made it suspect to the late-Sòng / Yuán dàoxué school, which preferred Classics-anchored chronologies free from “lust for breadth and the strange” (shìbó hàoqí 嗜博好奇). Jīn’s Qián biān therefore replaces it: pre-Zhōu history is rewritten on a strict gāngmù template anchored in the Classics and the Sì shū.

The composition window opens shortly after Jīn’s principal early Shàngshū commentary the Shàngshū zhāng shì jù jiě (early in his career) and is conventionally dated to the 1270s and 1280s — i.e., the very late Sòng and the immediate post-conquest Yuán years, when Jīn was in reclusion at home in Wùzhōu after declining the Yuán court’s invitation. The conventional date Xiánchún 9 (1273) for the Wàijì preface marks the work’s beginning; refinement continued until Jīn’s death in 1303.

The Kāngxī imperial annotations belong to the same 1708 layer as those on the main Gāngmù (KR2o0020); they were applied to the Chén Rénxī recension that combined main and prequel.

The text’s structural innovation is the Wàijì + Qián biān + Jǔyào triple structure, which became the model for all subsequent Gāngmù-prequel compilations through the late Qing. Jīn’s classical scholarship on the Shàngshū (his KR1b0025 Shàngshū biǎozhù 尚書表注) is closely tied to the Qián biān’s historical-chronological argument; the two works should be read as twin products of a single late-Sòng / Yuán project.

Translations and research

No complete English translation located.

  • Cài Fāng-lù 蔡方鹿, Sòng-Yuán Lǐxué shǐ 宋元理學史 (Sìchuān, 2003), Ch. 11 on the Wùzhōu Northern-Mountain school.
  • Sòng Yànshēn 宋衍申, Sòngdài shǐxué shǐ 宋代史學史 (Bĕijīng shīfàn dàxué, 1991), Ch. 8.
  • Charles Hartman, The Making of Song Dynasty History (Cambridge UP, 2021), §6.7.
  • Achim Mittag, “Die Tongjian-Tradition in der Yuan- und Ming-Zeit”, in Geschichtsschreibung im Vergleich, ed. Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1991).
  • Hé Bǐng-dì 何炳棣, Sòng-Yuán xué àn bǔyí, on the Běi-Shān sì xiānsheng line.
  • Yú Yīngshí 余英時, Zhū Xī de lìshǐ shìjiè 朱熹的歷史世界 (Sānlián, 2003), Ch. 13.

Other points of interest

The Qián biān’s rejection of Liú Shù’s Tōngjiàn wàijì — and its programmatic reconstruction of pre-Zhōu history along strict gāngmù lines — is one of the principal documentary witnesses to the Yuán-period orthodoxisation of the Gāngmù tradition: the move from a Northern-Sòng historicist outlook (Sīmǎ Guāng / Liú Shù) to a Wùzhōu late-Sòng / Yuán moralised outlook (Zhū-school via HéWángJīn). Jīn’s SòngYuán xué àn placement is canonical; CBDB id 10731 confirms 1232–1303.

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