聞分館君 Ask BunKanKun

素履子

5 min read

Text ID
KR3a0019
Date
850–906
Dynasty
唐

Sùlǚzǐ 素履子

The Master of Plain Tread by 張弧 (Zhāng Hú, 唐)

About the work

A three-juan, fourteen-篇 Late-Táng moral treatise by Zhāng Hú, Confucian-Daoist syncretist and reputed forger of the received Zǐxià Yìzhuàn (KR1a0001). The title takes its character sùlǚ 素履 from the Yìjīng’s Lǚ 履 hexagram (line 1: sùlǚ wǎng wújiù 素履往無咎, “treading plain, going without blame”), denoting the conduct of one who keeps to simplicity. The chapters, all titled “lǚ-X” — lǚxíng 履行, lǚzhōng 履忠, lǚxiào 履孝, lǚrén 履仁, lǚyì 履義, lǚlǐ 履禮, lǚzhì 履智, lǚxìn 履信, lǚzhèng 履正, lǚyuē 履約, lǚjiǎn 履儉, lǚjiè 履誡, lǚzhì 履至, lǚzhì 履至 (sic) — set out a Confucian moral pedagogy supported by classical and historical citation. The same text is also catalogued in Kanripo under the Daoist division as KR5d0050. The work was rare in the Sòng (not in the Xīn Táng zhì, not in Cháo Gōngwǔ, Chén Zhènsūn, or Yóu Mào; only in Zhèng Qiáo’s Tōngzhì yìwén lüè and the Sòng shǐ yìwén zhì) and was little circulated thereafter; the SKQS preserves it from comparative obscurity.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that the Sùlǚzǐ in three juan was composed by Zhāng Hú of the Táng. The book is not entered in the Xīn Táng shū yìwén zhì, Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì, Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí, or Yóu Mào’s Suìchūtáng shūmù. Only Zhèng Qiáo’s Tōngzhì yìwén lüè and the Sòng shǐ yìwén zhì have it. Its wording and meaning are unspectacular and date from a later period; it cannot stand on equal footing with the zǐ-house works of Hàn and Wèi, and so since the Sòng it has not been much current in the world. Sòng Lián 宋濂 in his Zhūzǐ biàn 諸子辨 also fails to mention it. But its citations of the classics and histories root themselves in moral principle, and what they advocate is in every case the bequest of sage and worthy teaching, returning to orthodoxy. It belongs to the Rújiā tradition.

Hú has no Táng-history biography. The Sòng Cháo Yuèzhī 晁說之 holds that the Zǐxià Yìzhuàn in current circulation is a forgery by Hú. The old recension titles his official position as Court Gentleman for Trial in the Bureau of Metropolitan Affairs (將仕郎試大理寺評事 Jiāngshìláng shì Dàlǐsì píngshì), but his native place is no longer recoverable. The Yìwén lüè and Sòng zhì both give one juan; the present text in three juan was probably divided up by later hands.

Respectfully revised and submitted, third month of the forty-fourth year of Qiánlóng [1779].

General Compilers: Jǐ Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. General Reviser: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.

Abstract

The Sùlǚzǐ is one of the more obscure Late-Táng zǐ-style works, restored from near-loss by the SKQS editors. Its chapter-organisation by lǚ-X (treading X) is the most distinctive feature: a programmatic Confucian xiūshēn schema in which each cardinal virtue (xíng, zhōng, xiào, rén, yì, lǐ, zhì, xìn, zhèng, yuē, jiǎn, jiè, zhì) is enacted as lǚ (treading, putting into practice). The structuring metaphor and the title both derive from the Yìjīng — Lǚ hexagram, and reflect the close relation between this work and Zhāng Hú’s reputation as classifier-cum-forger of the Yìzhuàn tradition (the Zǐxià Yìzhuàn attribution by Cháo Yuèzhī).

Composition is bracketed loosely within the late Táng. The catalog meta gives no dates for the author; the work is post-Mid-Táng on stylistic grounds (it makes no impression on the Xīn Táng zhì compilers) and pre-Five Dynasties on prosopographic grounds (the Sòng zhì lists it under Táng); the conventional bracket is roughly 850–906. The frontmatter brackets the work to that range.

The one juan attestation in Tōngzhì yìwén lüè and Sòng zhì against the present three juan SKQS is an evidently post-Sòng subdivision; the substance is unchanged.

The bibliographic record: not in Xīn Táng yìwén zhì; Tōngzhì yìwén lüè (1 juan); Sòng shǐ yìwén zhì (1 juan); SKQS Zǐbù — Rújiā lèi (3 juan). Not catalogued by Cháo Gōngwǔ, Chén Zhènsūn, or Yóu Mào in the Sòng.

Translations and research

  • No substantial secondary literature located in Western languages.
  • The work is mentioned briefly in studies of Late-Táng zǐ-text production but is not the subject of a stand-alone monograph.

Other points of interest

The Cháo Yuèzhī attribution of the Zǐxià Yìzhuàn forgery to Zhāng Hú is one of the standard Late-Táng / Wǔdài forgery cases in classical Chinese textual scholarship; the Sùlǚzǐ’s technique of programmatic moral Yìjīng-derived chapter titles is consistent with such attribution and partially supports it.

The cataloguing of the work both in Kanripo’s Rújiā (KR3a0019) and Dàojiā (KR5d0050) divisions reflects the work’s syncretic Confucian-Daoist character and the unsettled reception in pre-modern bibliography.

Graph View

Backlinks