ÈrChéng wàishū 二程外書
The Outer Writings of the Two Chéng sayings of 程顥 (Chéng Hào, 1032–1085, 宋, 撰) and 程頤 (Chéng Yí, 1033–1107, 宋, 撰); edited by 朱熹 (Zhū Xī, 1130–1200, 宋, 編)
About the work
A twelve-juan companion volume to the ÈrChéng yíshū (KR3a0030), edited by Zhū Xī in Qiándào guǐsì 癸巳 (1173) — five years after the Yíshū (1168). Where the Yíshū drew on the most reliable disciple-records as wholes, the Wàishū gathers from sources of varying reliability — Zhū Guāngtíng 朱光庭, Chén Yuān 陳淵, Lǐ Cān 李參, Féng Zhōngshù 馮忠恕, Luó Cóngyàn 羅從彥, Wáng Píng 王蘋, Shí Zǐzhī 時紫芝 (seven sources), plus Hú Ānguó 胡安國 and Yóu Zuò family copies and the Jiànyáng dàquán jí printing (three more), plus 152 transmitted-anecdote items from sources like Wángshì Zhǔ shǐ 麈史 down to Kǒng Wénzhòng 孔文仲’s memorial. As Zhū Xī’s preface acknowledges, “what is gathered is mixed and sometimes the source cannot be confirmed; relative to the Yíshū, students should be especially discriminating in selection.”
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that the ÈrChéng wàishū in twelve juan is also recorded by the disciples of the Two Chéngzǐ and edited by Zhūzǐ. It was completed in the sixth month of guǐsì of Qiándào (1173), five years after the Yíshū. The postface says: “the Yíshū in twenty-five 篇 is the complete records of the disciples at the time, sufficient to correct the errors of vulgar recensions’ alterations. But it cannot be without something missed of the Two Masters’ words. So I have taken the various men’s collections and, by mutual subtraction and combination, obtained these twelve 篇 as Wàishū.”
It draws from the records of seven men — Zhū Guāngtíng, Chén Yuān, Lǐ Cān, Féng Zhōngshù, Luó Cóngyàn, Wáng Píng, Shí Zǐzhī — and from three further sources: the family copies of Hú Ānguó and Yóu Zuò, and the Jiànyáng Dàquán jí print. It further draws from miscellaneous transmitted notes — Wángshì Zhǔ shǐ down to Kǒng Wénzhòng’s memorial — 152 items. All marked at the head of each juan with shíyí 拾遺. The title Wàishū — Zhūzǐ’s own words: “what is gathered is mixed; sometimes the source cannot be confirmed; relative to the previous book, students should be especially discriminating.”
The book contains in places transmitted divergent reports, not free of confusion. The Chéngshì xué shíyí juan-internal item glossing wàng dào wèi jiàn 望道未見 as “looking for the Way of governance, the Tàipíng” — Huáng Zhèn’s Rì chāo says it adds something to the original text. The Shíshìběn shíyí juan-internal item taking the Lǎozǐ line “Heaven and Earth are not benevolent, the myriad things are straw dogs” as correct — Zhèn says it is highly suspect. Both are cases where the Wàishū records what the recorder put down without further check.
[Detailed editorial discussion follows; abbreviated.]
Respectfully revised and submitted, [date].
General Compilers: Jǐ Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅.
Abstract
The Wàishū is the secondary recension of the Chéng yǔlù — sources of less established reliability that Zhū Xī wished to preserve but flagged as needing critical reading. Composition window: same two layers as the Yíshū (disciples’ records 1080–1107; Zhū Xī’s editorial work in 1173). The frontmatter brackets to ca. 1085–1173.
The substantive position of the Wàishū in modern scholarship: it preserves materials of philosophical interest absent from the Yíshū, but Zhū Xī’s caution is taken seriously — passages from the Wàishū are cited only with the further philological work that Zhū invited. The Huáng Zhèn Rì chāo diagnostic remarks remain the standard test of doubtful passages.
The bibliographic record: as for KR3a0030. Modern critical text in Wáng Xiàoyú’s Èr Chéng jí (1981, rev. 2004).
Translations and research
- Substantively as for KR3a0030 (Graham, Chan, Wáng Xiàoyú).
- Specific Wài-shū analysis appears in Yú Yīngshí’s Zhū Xī de lìshǐ shìjiè (2003) — on Zhū’s editorial attitude.
Other points of interest
The Wàishū’s explicit two-tier evidentiary structure — accepting materials of varying reliability while flagging the lower tier — is methodologically more sophisticated than most pre-modern Chinese editorial practice. Zhū Xī’s Yíshū / Wàishū dyad together form the Sòng-period model of yǔlù editorial practice that subsequent collections (e.g. the Zhūzǐ yǔlèi) would imitate without always achieving the same evidentiary care.
Links
- ÈrChéng yíshū 二程遺書 (KR3a0030 — the parent / primary recension).
- Kyoto Zinbun, Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào
- Wikipedia / Wikidata: as for KR3a0030.