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先聖大訓

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Text ID
KR3a0063
Date
1180–1226
Dynasty
宋

Xiānshèng dà xùn 先聖大訓

The Great Instructions of the Former Sage by 楊簡 (Yáng Jiǎn, hào Cíhú xiānsheng 慈湖先生, 1141–1226, 宋)

About the work

A six-juan compilation by Yáng Jiǎn — the principal Lù Jiǔyuān disciple — of Confucius’s bequeathed sayings drawn from miscellaneous zǐ and záshuō sources, arranged into 55 篇 with Yáng’s annotation. According to Qián Shí 錢時’s xíngzhuàng of Yáng, the work was composed during Yáng’s fourteen-year retirement (after departing from the Imperial Academy duties) at Yuèrùnhú 德潤湖 (renamed Cíhú by Yáng), where he “took the bequeathed instructions of the Former Sage scattered through the various záshuō, removed errors, distinguished forgery, gathered them into six juan and annotated them.” The substantive position is the Lù-school xīnxué: Yáng’s annotation, as the SKQS tíyào notes, often “borrows the text to expand his xīnxué — sometimes forced.” But the editorial work itself — separating spurious from genuine Confucius-attributions in the diffuse pre-Sòng zǐ tradition — is methodologically significant. The work is more diǎnhé (canonical and substantive) than the rough comparable Xuē Jù 薛據’s Kǒngzǐ jí yǔ 孔子集語 (KR3a0069), which it preceded.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that the Xiānshèng dà xùn in 6 juan was composed by Yáng Jiǎn of the Sòng. Jiǎn’s Cíhú yì zhuàn has been catalogued elsewhere. This compilation gathers Confucius’s bequeathed words, arranged in 55 篇, with annotation for each. Qián Shí’s xíngzhuàng says: “When he returned home from the Imperial Academy, he was at home for fourteen years, built a chamber on Dérùn lake, renamed it Cíhú; and only then took the Xiānshèng dà xùn scattered in the various záshuō, corrected errors and distinguished spuriousness, gathered six juan and made the gloss.” That is this book.

Jiǎn’s learning issued from Lù Jiǔyuān. His Jiātài 2 (1202) memorial on departing the audience says: “I beg Your Majesty take this empty-clear unstirred-will mind to act, neither subtracting nor adding — naturally there is nothing it does not illuminate.” His Jiādìng 3 (1210) audience says: “Shùn says ‘Dào xīn’; the bright mind is the dào. Confucius says ‘the heart-mind’s refined spirit is sage-hood’ — note: the cited line is in the Shàng shū dà zhuàn and is not Confucius’s; the spurious Kǒng cóngzǐ steals the text and rides Confucius’s name; this should be flagged. Mencius says ‘rén is the human heart.’ This heart is empty-clear without body, vast without bound, in daily action there is nothing not transformed; without thought, without action, all things shine.” His statement of the bearing already anticipates the XīnYúyáo lineage [Wáng Yángmíng’s later xīnxué school].

So in glossing this book he often borrows it to bring out xīnxué — sometimes forced. Yet, of the various wild and contrived discourses since the QínHàn — wěihòu prophetic chicanery, marvelously contrived sayings — there is none that does not appropriate the Former Sage to gain weight. The mixed and weed-like materials harm the dào deeply, and students fond of the strange cannot all distinguish. Jiǎn’s book cuts off the false and absurd and takes the pure; pares away the trivial and preserves the true and great. Where wording differs, where text is corrupt, he also collates and weighs to bring it to one rightness. Compared to Xuē Jù’s Jí yǔ, this is more substantive. He who would seek the bequeathed text of the ZhūSì may take this as the dragon-pool [the deepest source].

[Tíyào continues; abbreviated.]

Respectfully revised and submitted, first 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.

Abstract

The Xiānshèng dà xùn is the principal Lù-school xīnxué compilation of pre-Sòng Confucius materials. The composition window is bracketed by Yáng Jiǎn’s working life. Per the xíngzhuàng, the work was composed during his Cíhú retirement period; he held office from his 1169 jìnshì and resigned in 1202. The fourteen-year retirement period centred on Dérùn / Cíhú most likely began after his early-1180s court service and ended before his 1226 death. The frontmatter brackets the work to ca. 1180–1226.

The substantive contribution: a careful editorial selection, distinguishing genuine pre-Sòng Confucius citations from the heterodox accumulations of wěihòu literature. The 55-篇 structure orders the material thematically. Yáng’s annotation, while polemically xīnxué-aligned, preserves the textual material faithfully.

The work and Xuē Jù’s later Kǒngzǐ jí yǔ (KR3a0069) form a Sòng pair of comprehensive Confucius-saying compilations. The Yáng / Xuē methodological contrast — Yáng’s xīnxué annotation versus Xuē’s more kǎozhèng approach — is recognised by the SKQS tíyào as a substantive choice.

The bibliographic record: Sòng shǐ yìwén zhì; Wénxiàn tōngkǎo; Zhízhāi shūlù jiětí; SKQS Zǐbù — Rújiā lèi.

Translations and research

  • For Yáng Jiǎn’s xīn-xué: Theodore de Bary’s discussions in Neo-Confucian Orthodoxy; Wing-tsit Chan’s treatments of the Lù-Wáng line.
  • No substantial English-language secondary literature located specific to Xiān-shèng dà xùn.

Other points of interest

The Yáng Jiǎn / Lù Jiǔyuān relationship is one of the cleanest documented late-twelfth-century master-disciple bonds in Sòng Lǐxué. Yáng’s xīnxué development of Lù’s positions becomes the bridge to Wáng Yángmíng three centuries later, with the Mou Tsung-san-style genealogical reading making Yáng a key figure in the LùWáng tradition’s continuity.

The SKQS tíyào’s critical note on the Kǒng cóngzǐ (KR3a0003) — that it “stole the Shàngshū dàzhuàn line and rode Confucius’s name” — is one of the cleaner pre-modern Chinese textual-critical diagnostics of the Kǒngshì pseudepigrapha tradition.

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