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近思錄集註

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Text ID
KR3a0044
Date
1740–1762
Dynasty
清

Jìnsī lù jízhù 近思錄集註

Collected Commentary on the Jìnsī lù by 江永 (Jiāng Yǒng, 1681–1762, 清)

About the work

A second mid-Qīng commentary on the Jìnsī lù (KR3a0042), composed by Jiāng Yǒng of Wùyuán — one of the founders of the Wǎnpài kǎozhèng tradition (and Dài Zhèn’s teacher) — independently of and in parallel to the slightly earlier Máo Xīnglái commentary (KR3a0043). The work was occasioned, per the SKQS tíyào, by Jiāng’s reaction against the Míng-period Zhōu Gōngshù 周公恕 recension of the Jìnsī lù, which had introduced fanciful sub-headings, rearranged passages, and conflated body-text with commentary “to the point of being barely readable.” Jiāng’s commentary preserves the original sequence as fixed by Zhū Xī and Yè Cǎi, draws additional material from Zhū Xī’s Wénjí, Huòwèn and Yǔlèi, supplements Yè Cǎi where deficient, and adds Jiāng’s own brief notes. The SKQS tíyào describes it as the work of one “deeply versed in classical learning” applied “with surplus strength” to Lǐxué commentary, distinguishing it from those who “merely talk emptily of revering Zhūzǐ.”

(Note: the WYG source file KR3a0044_000.txt in the Kanripo corpus appears to begin with the text of Máo Xīnglái’s Jìnsī lù jízhù — i.e. with KR3a0043’s tíyào and preface. This is plausibly a Kanripo-side digitisation issue rather than a SòngQīng textual issue. The substantive content of Jiāng Yǒng’s commentary is what is described under this entry, with the Kyoto Zinbun digital Sìkù tíyào used as authoritative for the work’s actual tíyào.)

Tiyao

(Translated from Kyoto Zinbun digital Sìkù tíyào 0190301, the proper tíyào for Jiāng Yǒng’s commentary.)

The Jìnsī lù jízhù in fourteen juan — copy from the Ānhuī Provincial Governor’s submission.

Composed under the present dynasty by Jiāng Yǒng. Yǒng’s Zhōulǐ yíyì jǔ yào has been catalogued elsewhere. The Jìnsī lù, although completed in Chúnxī 2 (1175), was thereafter several times deleted and supplemented; so the transmitted recensions have considerable variation. Within each juan, the order follows the source-book of the citation; no chapter-titles are imposed — and in this respect the various recensions do not differ. Down to Chúnyòu (1241–1252), Yè Cǎi assembled the jíjiě without yet introducing distortions.

In the Míng there was one Zhōu Gōngshù 周公恕, who first arbitrarily divided up the work, set up sub-headings, transposed piān and zhāng; sometimes drops body-text characters or conflates body-text with commentary — wrong throughout, almost unreadable. Yǒng, troubled by the harm to later students, in following the original recension’s sequence, made his own jízhù. Wherever in Zhūzǐ’s Wénjí, Huòwèn, Yǔlèi the wording is mutually elucidating, he draws into the commentary; or where Zhūzǐ’s accounts have not been complete, he draws on Yè Cǎi and other sources to supplement; he also occasionally appends his own meaning. The citation is full and well-grounded. Yǒng was deeply versed in classical learning, his mind set on ancient meaning, bored deep into the texts; though he wrote this book with surplus strength, it still has its editorial structure — distinguishing him from those who merely talk emptily of revering Zhūzǐ.

Abstract

The Jiāng Yǒng Jìnsī lù jízhù is the second of the two principal Qīng commentaries on the Jìnsī lù, parallel to the slightly earlier Máo Xīnglái work (KR3a0043). The two were composed independently and produce slightly different commentaries; the SKQS Rújiā lèi preserves both.

The composition window is bracketed by Jiāng Yǒng’s late working life — the work was prepared “with surplus strength” alongside his major classical-ritual works, and is conventionally dated to his last twenty years (1740s–1760s). The frontmatter brackets to ca. 1740–1762.

The substantive position is somewhat different from Máo’s: Máo’s work is more kǎozhèng-textual (restoring the corrupted Sòng / Yuán / Míng recensions), while Jiāng’s is more methodologically integrated with Zhū Xī’s broader corpus (drawing systematically from the Wénjí, Huòwèn, and Yǔlèi). Jiāng’s kǎozhèng training appears in his methodological care; he does not (as Máo had) make a programmatic argument for the integration of HànTáng exegesis with Lǐxué commentary.

The bibliographic record: SKQS Zǐbù — Rújiā lèi. The work has not been displaced by later commentaries.

Translations and research

  • Wing-tsit Chan, Reflections on Things at Hand (1967), uses Jiāng Yǒng as one of the late-imperial commentary layers.
  • Wing-tsit Chan, Jìn-sī lù xiáng zhù jí píng (1992) — integrates Jiāng with the broader commentary tradition.
  • For Jiāng Yǒng’s broader scholarship: Benjamin A. Elman, From Philosophy to Philology: Intellectual and Social Aspects of Change in Late Imperial China, Harvard, 1984; rev. UCLA Asian Pacific Monographs, 2001 — major treatment of the Wǎn-pài.
  • Hé Pèi-róng 何沛榮 (and others), Jiāng Yǒng nián-pǔ 江永年譜 — modern Chinese chronological biography.

Other points of interest

The pairing of Máo Xīnglái and Jiāng Yǒng Jìnsī lù jízhù’s in the SKQS represents one of the cleaner cases where the SKQS preserves two parallel Qīng-period commentaries on a single Sòng work without choosing between them — methodologically significant for the broader SKQS Lǐxué canon-formation.

Jiāng Yǒng’s role as Dài Zhèn’s teacher makes this commentary one of the methodological bridges between Lǐxué and the high kǎozhèng tradition.

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