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儒言

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Text ID
KR3a0036
Date
1112–1112
Dynasty
宋

Rú yán 儒言

Confucian Words by 晁說之 (Cháo Yuèzhī, zì Yǐdào 以道, hào Jǐngyū 景迂, 1059–1129, 宋)

About the work

A one-juan polemical biji by Cháo Yuèzhī, dated by his preface to yuán mò zhí xú 元黓執徐 (the 60-year cycle’s rénchén — Zhènghé 2, 1112), composed against the Wáng Ānshí 王安石 Xīnfǎ faction’s classical-political project, especially the Xīnjīng yì 新經義 and Zìshuō 字說. The work is included in the Jǐngyūshēng jí 景迂生集 (Cháo’s collected works) but circulated separately, as Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì attests. The work attacks: (i) Wáng Ānshí’s abolition of the Chūnqiū from the official curriculum; (ii) Wáng’s Zhōulǐ exegesis; (iii) the Chángshèng 紹述 faction’s revival of the Xīnfǎ under Cài Jīng; (iv) Wáng’s elevation of the Mèngzǐ (Cháo argues against) and his forcing onto the Mèngzǐ of his own positions. The SKQS tíyào judges the work uneven: principled in its anti-Xīnfǎ polemic, but tendentious in its rejection of the Zhōulǐ and the Mèngzǐ simply because Wáng Ānshí had elevated them.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that the Rú yán in one juan was composed by Cháo Yuèzhī of the Sòng. Yuèzhī, zì Yǐdào, was a man of Jùyě. In his youth he admired Sīmǎ Guāng’s character; Guāng late in life styled himself Yūsǒu 迂叟; Yuèzhī accordingly took his own hào as Jǐngyū 景迂. Jìnshì of Yuánfèng 5 (1082); Sū Shì recommended him in the Zhùshù kē. In Yuánfú (1098–1100) he was placed in the xiéděng (heterodox) for memorialising. At the start of Jìngkāng (1126) he was summoned as Zhùzuò láng, served as Zhōngshū shèrén with concurrent Tàizǐ zhānshì. At the start of Jiànyán he was promoted to Huīyóugé dàizhì. Gāozōng, displeased with his Fēi Mèngzǐ, ordered him into compulsory retirement.

This book is included in the Jǐngyūshēng jí, but Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì already catalogues it separately — apparently it circulated separately at the time. Gōngwǔ takes the book as composed against the deviance of Wáng Ānshí’s learning. Looking at the discussions, the bulk concerns the Xīnjīng yì and the Zìshuō, with the opening centring on Ānshí’s abolition of the Chūnqiū — Gōngwǔ’s account is correct.

The preface gives the date as yuánmò zhíxú — Huīzōng’s Zhènghé 2, rénchén (1112). This is after Chóngníng 2 (1103) when Ānshí was given a place in the Confucian temple alongside the sages; hence the KǒngMèng item, the Míngshèng item, and the Sì shèng item all directly attack the matter — really not simply against Ānshí but against the Sháoshù 紹述 followers as well. Likewise the Bù duó 不奪 item, the Xīn jì 心迹 item, and a number of Liú pǐn 流品 items, criticise both Ānshí’s heart and his deeds — not merely on academic grounds.

When the Sháoshù tide was high and he stood firm without yielding, his words are truly worthy of Rúzhě. But where he attacks the Zhōulǐ simply because Ānshí accommodated himself to it, and dismisses the Mèngzǐ simply because Ānshí honoured it — that is animated talk forced into opposition, treating personal grudge as truth — and is not, in the strict sense, instructive. The Yuányòu people did sometimes overdo their polemic and stoke up dǎnggù 黨錮; the worthies’ faults need not be apologised away.

[Tíyào continues; abbreviated.]

Respectfully revised and submitted, [date].

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

Abstract

The Rú yán is a precisely datable polemical work — Cháo Yuèzhī’s preface gives Zhènghé 2 (1112) — composed deep in the CháoCài Jīng faction’s renewed dominance, against the consolidation of Wáng Ānshí’s posthumous canonisation (his Confucian-temple placement of 1103 and the surrounding institutional moves). The frontmatter brackets the work to 1112–1112.

The substantive position has two layers: a principled defence of pre-Xīnfǎ classical and political reading (the Chūnqiū tradition, the orthodox Lǐxué line of Sīmǎ Guāng and the Yuányòu faction); and a tendentious rejection of works simply because Wáng Ānshí had used them (notably the Mèngzǐ — Cháo’s Fēi Mèngzǐ later cost him Gāozōng’s favour). The first is recognised by the SKQS as worthy of Rúzhě; the second is judged “treating personal grudge as truth” and not instructive.

The Cháo Yuèzhī attack on the Mèngzǐ — paired here with his attack on the Zhōulǐ — is one of the late-Northern-Sòng moments resisting the canonisation of the Mèngzǐ into the Sìshū; the canonisation was completed under Zhū Xī in the late twelfth century, against Cháo’s grain.

The bibliographic record: included in Jǐngyūshēng jí (the collected works); separately in Jùnzhāi dúshū zhì; Sòng shǐ yìwén zhì; SKQS Zǐbù — Rújiā lèi.

Translations and research

  • No substantial English-language secondary literature located.
  • The work is treated within studies of late-Northern-Sòng anti-Xīn-fǎ polemic and within studies of the Mèngzǐ canonisation process; the Fēi Mèngzǐ tradition (Sīmǎ Guāng’s Yí Mèngzǐ, Cháo’s Fēi Mèngzǐ, Lǐ Gòu’s parallel polemic) has been treated by John Berthrong and others.
  • Liú Yùnyù 劉允禹, Cháo Yuèzhī Rú-yán yánjiū 晁說之儒言研究 — modern Chinese article-length treatment.

Other points of interest

The Rú yán date in the preface — yuánmò zhíxú — uses the Tàiyī 60-year cycle notation rather than the dynastic reign-year, an antiquarian choice of register that fits Cháo’s anti-Xīnfǎ posture. The cycle decoding: yuánmò (壬, rén) + zhíxú (辰, chén) = rénchén, which under Huīzōng falls only on Zhènghé 2 (1112), the date the SKQS tíyào gives.

Cháo Yuèzhī’s diagnosis of the received Zǐxià Yìzhuàn as a Tang forgery by Zhāng Hú (KR3a0019) — discussed under that entry — places him among the more textually sharp critics of the late Northern Sòng.

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