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大學衍義

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Text ID
KR3a0058
Date
1229–1234
Dynasty
宋

Dàxué yǎnyì 大學衍義

Extension of the Meaning of the Dà xué by 眞德秀 (Zhēn Déxiù, 1178–1235, 宋)

About the work

A 43-juan imperial-pedagogical extension of the Dà xué (the Sìshū’s shortest and most programmatic member), composed by Zhēn Déxiù in Shàodìng 2 (1229) and presented to Lǐzōng in Duānpíng 1 (1234) — the year before Zhēn’s death and at the height of his political authority. The work covers six of the Dà xué’s eight tiáomù (with zhì guó and píng tiānxià deliberately deferred): Gé wù 格物, Zhì zhī 致知, Zhèng xīn 正心, Chéng yì 誠意, Xiū shēn 修身, Qí jiā 齊家. The work opens with two programmatic gāng — Dìwáng wéizhì zhī xù 帝王為治之序 (the order of imperial governance) and Dìwáng wéixué zhī běn 帝王為學之本 (the foundation of imperial study). Each tiáomù is then divided into sub-topics — Gézhì into 4 (Míng dào shù 明道術, Biàn réncái 辨人材, Shěn zhìtǐ 審治體, Chá mínqíng 察民情); ZhèngChéng into 2 (Chóng jìngwèi 崇敬畏, Jiè yìyù 戒逸欲); Xiū shēn into 2 (Jǐn yánxíng 謹言行, Zhèng wēiyí 正威儀); Qí jiā into 4 (Zhòng fēipǐ 重妃匹, Yán nèizhì 嚴內治, Dìng guóběn 定國本, Jiào qìshǔ 教戚屬) — only Xiū shēn without further sub-topics. The work’s main bearing is zhèng jūnxīn (rectifying the ruler’s mind), sù gōngwéi (purifying the imperial household), yì quánxìng (suppressing favourites and consorts) — pointed at Lǐzōng’s actual late-Sòng court conditions. The work was extended by Qiū Jùn 邱濬 (Míng) into the Dàxué yǎnyì bǔ (KR3a0080).

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that the Dàxué yǎnyì in 43 juan was selected by Zhēn Déxiù of the Sòng. Déxiù’s Sìshū jí biān has been catalogued elsewhere. This book extends the Dà xué’s meaning. Opens with Dìwáng wéizhì zhī xù and Dìwáng wéixué zhī běn; next four great gāng — Gé wù, Zhì zhī, Zhèng xīn, Chéng yì, Xiū shēn, Qí jiā — each with sub-topics. Gézhì’s sub-topics are 4: Míng dào shù, Biàn rén cái, Shěn zhì tǐ, Chá mín qíng. Zhèng xīn — Chéng yì’s sub-topics are 2: Chóng jìng wèi, Jiè yì yù. Xiū shēn’s sub-topics are 2: Jǐn yánxíng, Zhèng wēiyí. Qí jiā’s sub-topics are 4: Zhòng fēipǐ, Yán nèizhì, Dìng guóběn, Jiào qìshǔ. Only Xiū shēn has no sub-topics. The remaining sub-topics divide into 44 subordinate categories, all citing classical instruction, verifying historical events, drawing on the senior Confucians’ arguments to clarify model and warning, with his own bearing brought out in each.

The main bearing is to rectify the ruler’s mind, purify the imperial household, suppress the favourites. Although Lǐzōng affected the name of daoxué he was inwardly full of desires; powerful ministers and consort-clans worked together to corrupt — at last the dynasty’s yuánqì withered and within fifty years the Sòng fell. Déxiù completed the book in Shàodìng 2 (1229) and presented it in Duānpíng 1 (1234), throughout cuttingly addressing the present situation and setting up his words to first remove what hampered the achievement of zhìpíng, taking it as the foundation of zhìpíng. So of the Dà xué’s eight tiáomù he uses only six. From of old, the zhèng běn chéng yuán zhī dào (way of rectifying root and clarifying source) of imperial governance is in fact in just this. As to organising the hundred offices, comprehending the ten thousand ends, cháng biàn jīng quán, responding to circumstance, looking into the truth and falsehood — though all reasons run together, there must be order in their execution and substance in their action; this is not what mere kōng tán xīn xìng (empty discussion of mind and nature) can achieve. So Qiū Jùn supplied a continuation, supplementing what was missing.

[Tíyào continues; abbreviated.]

Respectfully revised and submitted, fifth month of the forty-sixth year of Qiánlóng [1781].

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

Abstract

The Dàxué yǎnyì is the principal Southern-Sòng imperial-pedagogical work and one of the central canonical texts of the late-imperial Lǐxué-statecraft tradition. Composition window: precisely datable. Composed in Shàodìng 2 (1229), presented to Lǐzōng in Duānpíng 1 (1234). The frontmatter brackets the work to 1229–1234.

The deliberate omission of zhì guó and píng tiānxià — the two outer tiáomù of the Dà xué’s eight — is the most distinctive structural feature. Zhēn Déxiù’s argument (per the SKQS tíyào) is that the inner six form the zhèng běn foundation, and that systematic treatment of the outer two requires a separate larger work. Qiū Jùn’s Dàxué yǎnyì bǔ (KR3a0080, 160 juan) supplied this in the Míng. The Zhēn / Qiū pair together became the canonical imperial-instructional dyad of late-imperial China, with parallel reception in Korea and Japan.

The substantive position — pointed at Lǐzōng’s actual court — gives the work a fairly direct political-rhetorical character beneath its classical-extension form. Zhēn’s account of zhèng jūnxīn / sù gōngwéi / yì quánxìng is among the most pointed pre-modern Chinese imperial-court remonstrances, framed canonically.

The bibliographic record: Sòng shǐ yìwén zhì; Wénxiàn tōngkǎo; SKQS Zǐbù — Rújiā lèi. Modern critical text: standard reproductions of the SKQS WYG; recent Chinese editions integrate Zhēn’s writings with Qiū Jùn’s continuation.

Translations and research

  • Theodore de Bary, Neo-Confucian Orthodoxy and the Learning of the Mind-and-Heart, Columbia University Press, 1981 — major treatment of Zhēn Déxiù.
  • Charles Hartman and Anthony DeBlasi (eds.), Daxue yanyi and related work — articles in T’oung Pao, Journal of Sung-Yuan Studies.
  • Yú Yīngshí, Zhū Xī de lìshǐ shìjiè (2003) — context.
  • John W. Chaffee, The Thorny Gates of Learning in Sung China — context.
  • Korean Sǒngnihak literature treats the Dà-xué yǎn-yì as foundational; cf. JaHyun Kim Haboush.

Other points of interest

The Dàxué yǎnyì’s lasting influence — through the Yuán imperial Hànlín, Míng Sìshū dàquán, Qīng imperial-instructional system, and its reception in Korea and Japan — makes it among the most influential Sòng Lǐxué works in pre-modern East Asia.

Zhēn Déxiù’s Wénzhāng zhèng zōng 文章正宗 — a parallel literary canonicising work — and Xīn jīng 心經 (KR3a0060) and Zhèng jīng 政經 (KR3a0061) form a Lǐxué-aligned five-work imperial-cultural canon (with Xīshān dúshū jì KR3a0059), of which the Dàxué yǎnyì is the centerpiece.

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