聞分館君 Ask BunKanKun

木鍾集

6 min read

Text ID
KR3a0056
Date
1200–1230
Dynasty
宋

Mù zhōng jí 木鍾集

The Wood-Bell Collection by 陳埴 (Chén Zhí, zì Qìzhī 器之, 潛室陳氏 Qiánshì Chénshì, 宋)

(Note: the catalog meta gives the author’s name as 陳植 — a typographical slip 植 for 埴. Both characters are pronounced zhí; 植 is “to plant”, 埴 is “clay”. The correct character 埴 is preserved in the WYG source itself, in the SKQS tíyào, and in the Wǔ jīng dàquán’s reference to him as Qiánshì Chénshì 潛室陳氏. The catalog typo is corrected in the wikilink target.)

About the work

An eleven-juan yǔlù-style classical commentary by Chén Zhí, a direct Yǒngjiā 永嘉 disciple of Zhū Xī, organised by classic: Lúnyǔ (1 juan), Mèngzǐ (1), Liù jīng zǒnglùn 六經總論 (1), Zhōu yì (1), Shàng shū (1), Máo shī (1), Zhōu lǐ (1), Lǐjì (1), Chūnqiū (1), Jìnsī zá wèn 近思雜問 (1), Shǐ 史 (1). The format is question-and-answer (shè wèn ér dá zhī 設問而答之). The title is from Chén’s self-preface: drawing on the Lǐjì “He who questions well is like one attacking hard wood; he who responds well to questioning is like one striking the bell” — hence mùzhōng (the bell that the wooden mallet strikes). The Dà xué and Zhōng yōng are placed within the Lǐjì juan rather than separately — reflecting the work’s pre-canonical date relative to Zhū Xī’s Sìshū jízhù’s formal canonisation. The work was lost in printing for a period; recovered by Dèng Huái 鄧淮, Prefect of Wēnzhōu, in Hóngzhì 14 (1501), with juan 5 onward titled X juan xià 下 — the shàng halves apparently missing in the recovered text.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that the Mù zhōng jí in eleven juan was composed by Chén Zhí of the Sòng. Zhí, zì Qìzhī, was a man of Yǒngjiā. He passed the jìnshì; was appointed Tōngzhí láng and retired. His learning issued from Zhūzǐ. In the Yǒnglè period the Wǔ jīng dàquán refers to Qiánshì Chénshì — that is Zhí.

This compilation, though titled jí (collection), is in fact his yǔlù. Lúnyǔ 1 juan; Mèngzǐ 1; Liù jīng zǒnglùn 1; Zhōu yì 1; Shàng shū 1; Máo shī 1; Zhōu lǐ 1; Lǐjì 1; Chūnqiū 1; Jìnsī zá wèn 1; Shǐ 1. His exposition of Dà xué and Zhōng yōng are listed within the Lǐjì — at the time, Zhūzǐ’s Sìshū zhāngjù jízhù though completed was still a private book, not hung up at the imperial school nor put under the gōnglìng. So they retain the old text. The historical commentary covers only Hàn and Táng — the YīLuò transmission did not stress historical study and only touched on it incidentally; not a specialist concern. The format is in every case to set up a question and reply to it — hence the head’s self-preface: “Take the Lǐjì’s ‘one who questions well is like one attacking hard wood; one who responds well to questioning is like one striking the bell’ — the meaning is Mù zhōng (the wood-bell).”

The printing was long lost. In Hóngzhì 14 (1501) of the Míng, Dèng Huái, Prefect of Wēnzhōu, obtained the old text and reprinted it. From juan 5 to juan 11 all are titled “X juan xià” — perhaps each lost its shàng half. Examining what is included: the Shū begins with Èr diǎn 二典, the Shī with Bǐxìngfù 比興賦, the Chūnqiū with Yǐn yuánnián 隱元年, the Jìnsī zá wèn with Lǐ qì 理氣, the Shǐ with Hàn — none of these looks as if it had earlier material. Only the Zhōu lǐ does not begin with Tiān guān but with Fǔ shǐ 府史; the Lǐjì does not begin with Qū lǐ 曲禮 but with Wáng zhì 王制 — these look as if there were losses. But “fǔ shǐ” already appears in the Xù guān 序官; and Wáng zhì is the third 篇 of the Lǐjì and entrusted as the start, also not impossible. The Sòng original being unrecoverable, we should leave the doubt as it stands.

[Tíyào continues; abbreviated.]

Respectfully revised and submitted, fifth 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.

Abstract

The Mù zhōng jí is a useful witness to early-thirteenth-century Yǒngjiā Lǐxué as a direct Mǐnxué transmission. Composition window: bracketed by Chén Zhí’s working life. The catalog meta gives a date of 1214 (early Jiādìng era); given Zhū Xī’s death in 1200, Chén’s compositional period most likely covers ca. 1200–1230. The frontmatter brackets to ca. 1200–1230.

The substantive position is Mǐn-orthodox Lǐxué: the work follows Zhū Xī’s general approach, with no deviation from the master’s positions on major doctrinal points. The treatment of Dà xué and Zhōng yōng within Lǐjì (rather than separately) is a textually significant marker of pre-canonical Sìshū arrangement.

The textual transmission has a partial-loss layer: juan 5 onwards in the recovered Hóngzhì 1501 printing carry “xià” markers suggesting missing shàng halves; the SKQS editors investigated and were unable to determine definitively whether the loss was real.

The bibliographic record: Sòng shǐ yìwén zhì; Wényuāngé shūmù; SKQS Zǐbù — Rújiā lèi.

Translations and research

  • No substantial English-language secondary literature located.
  • The work is treated within studies of the Yǒng-jiā Mǐn-xué lineage (Wú Pèi-zhōng, etc.).

Other points of interest

The Mù zhōng jí’s placement of Dà xué and Zhōng yōng within Lǐjì gives a clean witness to the early-thirteenth-century state of Sìshū canonisation: although Zhū Xī’s Sìshū zhāngjù jízhù was completed (1190), the Sìshū had not yet acquired the institutional canonical status that would come with the Yuán imperial Hànlín curriculum imposition. Chén Zhí, a direct Zhū-school student, simply preserved the older arrangement.

Graph View

Backlinks