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新序

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Text ID
KR3a0008
Date
-24–-23
Dynasty
漢

Xīnxù 新序

New Compilations by 劉向 (Liú Xiàng, 77–6 BCE, 漢)

About the work

A ten-juan anthology of moral-political anecdotes presented to Chéngdì 成帝 by Liú Xiàng during his imperial-library cataloguing commission, paired with the Shuōyuàn (KR3a0007) by the same author and in the same format. The original recension was thirty juan plus one juan of editorial preface (lù 錄), as recorded in the Suí zhì and the Táng zhì; the received ten-juan / 178-章 text is a Northern Sòng reconstruction by Zēng Gǒng 曾鞏, whose preface (preserved in the SBCK base, KR3a0008_000.txt) is the standard editorial witness. The chapter divisions are Záshì 雜事 (juan 1–5), Cì shē 剌奢 (juan 6), Jié shì 節士 上 / 下 (juan 7–8), Shàn móu 善謀 上 / 下 (juan 9–10). The work concentrates on the Spring-and-Autumn and Warring States periods, with relatively few Hàn anecdotes; many passages parallel the Zuǒ zhuàn, Guóyǔ, Zhànguó cè and Shǐjì, with text-critical implications for those works. Substantively the Xīnxù is somewhat more political — kingship, ministerial conduct, frugality, righteous death, strategic counsel — than the more moral-encyclopaedic Shuōyuàn.

Tiyao

The Xīnxù in ten juan — copy from the Jiāngsū 江蘇 Provincial Governor’s submission.

Composed by Liú Xiàng of the Hàn. Xiàng, zì Zǐzhèng 子政, originally named Gēngshēng 更生, took office yīn 蔭 of his father as Carriage Gentleman (niǎnláng 輦郎), rising in time to Cavalry Colonel of the Central Encampment (Zhōnglěi xiàowèi 中壘校尉). His career is in his Hàn shū biography. By Bān Gù’s Hàn shū yìwén zhì, Liú Xiàng’s compilations totalled sixty-seven 篇: the Xīnxù, Shuōyuàn, Shìshuō 世說, Liènǚ zhuàn 列女傳 sòngtú 頌圖. The Suí shū jīngjí zhì gives the Xīnxù in thirty juan with a one-juan editorial lù; the Táng shū yìwén zhì gives the same. Zēng Gǒng’s collation preface says, “what can now be seen are ten 篇.” Zēng was a contemporary of Ōuyáng Xiū, and the disparity in juan-count is striking: the Yìwén zhì figure rests on Táng-period complete copies, while what Zēng collated was a Northern-Sòng-period defective recension. Cháo Gōngwǔ’s claim that Zēng Zǐgù “stitched together what had been scattered, so that the Xīnxù recovered its completeness” is mistaken.

The present text is Záshì in five juan, Cì shē in one, Jié shì in two, Shàn móu in two — Zēng Gǒng’s old collation. The Chóngwén zǒngmù says that what is recorded is in every case Warring States and QínHàn matter; in fact, examination shows that Spring-and-Autumn matters predominate, and Hàn matters are no more than a handful of passages. The work generally draws on the Hundred Schools’ transmissions, arranged thematically; hence it overlaps significantly with the Chūnqiū inner and outer commentaries, the Zhànguó cè and the Shǐjì. Gāo Sìsūn’s 高似孫 Zǐlüè 子略 says: “Of the pre-Qín ancient books, freshly emerged from the ash and incense — once they fell under [Liú] Xiàng’s pen, no scrap was missed in the gathering. As to upholding jìgāng 紀綱, advancing jiàohuà 教化, distinguishing the upright from the perverse, dismissing heterodoxies, and serving as Hàn-period regulator — it is all in this book.” This is excessive praise. But for taking ancient teachings, weighing them against virtue and rightness, and producing among the Hundred Masters a work that does not betray the Rújiā word, the verdict stands.

Yè Dàqìng’s Kǎo gǔ zhì yí picks out the passage where Zhāo Xīshù 昭奚恤 replies to the Qín envoy: the Sīmǎ Zǐfǎn there mentioned was two hundred and twenty years before Xīshù; Yègōng zǐgāo and the Lìngyǐn Zǐxī were one hundred and thirty years before — none of them his contemporaries. Yè further picks out the misattribution of Mèngzǐ’s discussion of fondness for sex and fondness for valour as a reply to King Liáng Huì 梁惠王 [the Mèngzǐ gives it as a reply to King Xuān of Qí 齊宣王]. These hits are well-placed. As to Yè’s claim that the Shūlí 黍離 is a Zhōu Shī and the Xīnxù misascribes it to the son of Wèi Xuāngōng, Shòu 壽, who composed it in pity at his elder brother’s impending murder — that is not so. Liú Xiàng was originally trained in the Lǔshī 魯詩 tradition; Yè wishes to gauge him by the Máoshī 毛詩, and naturally finds disagreement. Yè has not understood the specialised Hàn-Confucian discipleship.

Abstract

The composition window for Xīnxù is the imperial-library commission under Chéngdì. The Xīnxù xùlù preface (preserved by Zēng Gǒng) gives the date of presentation as Yángshuò 1 (24 BCE); the conventional bracket is therefore late Hóngjiā 鴻嘉 / early Yángshuò 陽朔 of Chéngdì’s reign, ca. 24–23 BCE — a few years before the Shuōyuàn (presented 17 BCE). The frontmatter brackets the work to that range.

Zēng Gǒng’s editorial role in the recovery of the work is comparable to the Shuōyuàn’s but cleaner, since the loss was greater (thirty juan in the Suí zhì down to ten 篇 in the Sòng) and there was no need to consult Korean copies — Zēng simply preserved what he had. Cháo Gōngwǔ’s claim that Zēng “made it complete again” is refuted by Zēng’s own preface, which explicitly says he could only present what he had seen.

Yè Dàqìng’s textual diagnosis (chronological dislocations, Mèngzǐ misattribution) is roughly that for the Shuōyuàn: Liú Xiàng gathered thematically from the imperial library, did not always cross-check his anecdote sources, and in places allowed parallel anecdote-traditions to slip through unconciliated — the Gùsāng / boatman Gǔchéng and Chǔ Wénwáng / Chǔ Gòngwáng parallel pairs split between Shuōyuàn and Xīnxù are the cleanest examples. The SKQS tíyào’s defence of Liú against Yè’s Shūlí objection — that Liú was a Lǔshī specialist not a Máoshī one — is one of the stronger pieces of Hàn-tradition philological care in the SKQS work.

The bibliographic record: Hàn shū yìwén zhì (subsumed under “suǒxù sixty-seven 篇”); Suí shū jīngjí zhì (新序 三十卷, 錄一卷); Jiù Táng shū jīngjí zhì, Xīn Táng shū yìwén zhì (likewise); Chóngwén zǒngmù; Zēng Gǒng Yuánfēng lèigǎo 校書序; Zhízhāi shūlù jiětí; SKQS Zǐbù — Rújiā lèi.

Translations and research

  • Olivia Milburn, The Empress in the Pepper Chamber: Zhao Feiyan in History and Fiction, University of Washington Press, 2021 — uses Xīnxù as primary source for Hàn court anecdote.
  • David R. Knechtges, “The Composition of Xinxu and Shuoyuan of Liu Xiang”, in his Wenxuan or Selections of Refined Literature introductory volume; and entry in Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide, Brill, 2014, s.v. “Xinxu”, 1764–1769.
  • Shǐ Guǎngyǔ 石光瑜, Xīnxù jiào shì 新序校釋, Běijīng: Zhōnghuá Shūjú, 2001 (Xīn biān zhūzǐ jíchéng). The standard scholarly edition.
  • Zhào Shàn-yí 趙善詒, Xīnxù shū zhèng 新序疏證, Shànghǎi: Huádōng Shīfàn Dàxué Chūbǎnshè, 1989. Comprehensive source-tracing.
  • Lú Yuánjùn 盧元駿, Xīnxù jīn-zhù jīn-yì 新序今註今譯, Tabei: Shāngwù Yìnshūguǎn, 1975.
  • Michael Loewe (ed.), Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide, 1993, s.v. “Hsin hsü”, 165–166 (entry by D. R. Knechtges).

Other points of interest

The five-juan Záshì division is the longest single thematic category in the early Liú Xiàng corpus and is the principal source for many Spring-and-Autumn-era anecdotes that survive nowhere else. The Jié shì 節士 division is the Liú Xiàng nucleus of the later “righteous death” (sǐ jié 死節) anthological tradition, particularly influential on the late-imperial jiéliè discourse.

The split between Xīnxù and Shuōyuàn on the same anecdote (sometimes with different protagonists) is a methodologically important test case for the practice of Hàn-period thematic anthologising and is widely cited in studies of pre-Imperial Chinese narrative-traditions.

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