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上蔡語錄

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Text ID
KR3a0039
Date
1090–1168
Dynasty
宋

Shàngcài yǔlù 上蔡語錄

Recorded Sayings of Master Shàng-cài sayings of 謝良佐 (Xiè Liángzuǒ, zì Xiǎndào 顯道, 1050–1103, 宋, 撰); recorded by 曾恬 (Zēng Tián, d. 1152, 宋, 錄) and 胡安國 (Hú Ānguó, 1074–1138, 宋, 錄); abridged by 朱熹 (Zhū Xī, 1130–1200, 宋, 刪定)

About the work

A three-juan yǔlù of Xiè Liángzuǒ, one of the Sì xiānshēng of the second-generation Chéng-school transmission, edited by Zhū Xī from two parallel disciple-records (Zēng Tián and Hú Ānguó). Zhū Xī first compiled the work in Shàoxīng 29 (1159) at age 30 — making this the earliest of his major yǔlù editions, predating his work on the ÈrChéng yíshū by a decade. Zhū’s editorial method was unusually severe: he abridged the available material substantially, removing some fifty-plus passages he deemed corrupt or non-Xiè (Hú Xián’s later discovery confirmed at least some of these as in fact passages from Jiāng Mínbiǎo’s 江民表 Biàn dào lù 辨道錄 misattributed to Xiè). The 1159 first edition was revised in Qiándào wùzǐ (1168) — the same year Zhū finished the ÈrChéng yíshū — adding several of Xiè’s letters to Hú Ānguó. Substantively the work is the principal source for Xiè’s distinctive emphasis on xīn 心 — sometimes seen as anticipating the LùWáng “xīnxué” tradition.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that the Shàngcài yǔlù in three juan was recorded by Zēng Tián and Hú Ānguó of the Sòng — sayings of Xiè Liángzuǒ — and again abridged by Zhūzǐ. Liángzuǒ, zì Xiǎndào, was a man of Shàngcài. He passed the jìnshì; at the start of Jiànzhōngjìngguó (1101) he held office at the capital, was summoned to court audience, offended in his words, and was sent out as Supervisor of the Xījīng Bamboo and Timber Yard. Again, charged with an offence, he was demoted to the people’s status. His career is in the Sòng shǐ Dàoxué zhuàn. Tián, zì Tiānyǐn, was a man of Wēnlíng. Ānguó’s Chūnqiū chuán has been catalogued elsewhere.

This book was completed in Shàoxīng 29 (1159), when Zhūzǐ was thirty years old and supervising the Nányuè Temple at Tánzhōu — earliest of his lifetime’s compositions. Per Zhūzǐ’s postface: he first obtained Wú Rèn of Kuòcāng’s transcription of two 篇, all recorded by Zēng Tiānyǐn; later he obtained Hú Wéndìnggōng’s [Hú Ānguó’s] transcription of two 篇, total four 篇, and collated them. Húshì’s upper篇 in fifty-five 章 records Wéndìnggōng’s question-and-answer; the lower篇 in forty-nine 章 is similar to the bǎnběn 版本 / Wúshì recension but with minor differences. He retained their old form and edited up two 篇. The bǎnběn uniquely has over a hundred extra 章 — some have lost the original bearing or are mixed with other works; the most extreme fifty-some 章 even attack the Chéngshì in Buddhist style. He cut and discarded these. He also cut out the rest more lightly, and obtained over thirty 章 of the master’s bequeathed sayings, separately constituting a third 篇 — three 篇 in all.

So Zhūzǐ pruned this work especially severely. Later in Qiándào wùzǐ (1168) he re-edited it again, adding several pieces of Liángzuǒ’s letters to Ānguó, fixing the present text. He also wrote a postface saying: Hú Xián 胡憲 obtained Jiāng Mínbiǎo’s Biàn dào lù 辨道錄 from Lǚ Zǔqiān’s family, and saw the very fifty-some 章 he had cut — head-and-tail order without a single character of difference. Then he knew these were really Jiāng’s, not Xiè’s. So the cutting was indeed careful.

[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 Shàngcài yǔlù is the principal source for Xiè Liángzuǒ’s teaching and the earliest of Zhū Xī’s major editorial works on the yǔlù genre. The composition spans two layers: (i) the original sayings recorded by Zēng Tián and Hú Ānguó during Xiè’s lifetime (ca. 1090s–1102); (ii) Zhū Xī’s editorial recension first completed in Shàoxīng 29 (1159) and revised in Qiándào 4 (1168). The frontmatter brackets the work to ca. 1090–1168.

The text-critical situation is unusually well-documented: the SKQS tíyào (drawing on Zhū Xī’s two postfaces) records the editorial discovery that fifty-some 章 attributed to Xiè in the bǎnběn recension were in fact passages from Jiāng Mínbiǎo’s Biàn dào lù. The sequence — Zhū’s prior diagnosis based on doctrinal incompatibility (“attacking Chéngshì in Buddhist style”), followed by Hú Xián’s later confirmation through direct comparison with Jiāng’s text — is methodologically a classic case in pre-modern Chinese editorial philology.

The substantive position recorded in the yǔlù — Xiè’s emphasis on xīn 心 over lǐ 理 in self-cultivation, his jué 覺 (awareness) doctrine, and his closeness in places to Buddhist xīnxué terminology — has been read since the Sòng both as a heterodox departure from Chéng daoxué and as anticipating the LùWáng xīnxué tradition. The Chinese reception remains divided on this point.

The bibliographic record: Sòng shǐ yìwén zhì; Wénxiàn tōngkǎo; Zhízhāi shūlù jiětí; Huìān jí (Zhū Xī’s two postfaces); SKQS Zǐbù — Rújiā lèi. Modern critical text in Wáng Xiùhuá 王秀華’s Xiè Liángzuǒ jí 謝良佐集.

Translations and research

  • A. C. Graham, Two Chinese Philosophers (1958, rev. 1992) — discusses Xiè’s relation to the Chéng brothers.
  • Yú Yīngshí, Zhū Xī de lìshǐ shìjiè (2003) — context for Zhū Xī’s editorial project.
  • Wáng Xiùhuá 王秀華, Xiè Liángzuǒ jí 謝良佐集, modern Chinese critical edition.
  • Liú Zōng-zhōu 劉宗周’s Xiè Shàngcài xué àn 謝上蔡學案 chapter in Sòng-Yuán xué àn 宋元學案 — the standard pre-modern xué-àn treatment.

Other points of interest

The Shàngcài yǔlù is unique within the Sòng yǔlù corpus for the explicit presence of a known forgery layer subsequently diagnosed: Zhū Xī’s fifty-plus-章 cut, later confirmed via Hú Xián’s discovery of Jiāng Mínbiǎo’s Biàn dào lù, is one of the cleanest pre-modern fǎn jìn (rejection) cases. The SòngYuán xué àn’s discussion of Xiè within the broader Chéngmén 程門 transmission centres on this work.

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