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黃氏日抄

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Text ID
KR3a0064
Date
1240–1281
Dynasty
宋

Huángshì rì chāo 黃氏日抄

The Huáng Family Daily Notes by 黃震 (Huáng Zhèn, zì Dōngfā 東發, 1213–1281, 宋)

About the work

A late-Sòng / SòngYuán transition reading-notebook by Huáng Zhèn — comprehensive jīngshǐzǐjí notes plus Huáng’s own writings — originally in 97 juan, now extant in 94 (juan 81, 89, 92 lost). Catalog meta gives composition date 1256 (Huáng’s jìnshì year), but the work is in fact a lifelong project. Structure (per the SKQS tíyào): dú jīng 讀經 (30 juan), dú sānzhuàn jí Kǒngshì shū 讀三傳及孔氏書 (1 + 1 = 2 juan), dú zhūrú shū 讀諸儒書 (13 juan), dú shǐ 讀史 (5 juan), dú záshǐ / dú zhūzǐ 讀雜史讀諸子 (4 + 4 = 8 juan), dú wénjí 讀文集 (10 juan) — making 68 juan of dúshūjì; juan 69 onwards (29 juan) carries Huáng’s own writings (memorials, lecture-notes, examination-questions, letters, prefaces, postfaces, yōngjì, zhùwén, jìwén, xíngzhuàng, mùzhì etc.). The work is a major late-Sòng kǎozhèng-leaning compilation; its substantive position is staunchly Zhūxué but with willingness to depart from Zhū’s positions where evidence requires (Huáng’s note that Zhū Xī’s defence of the Yīnfú jīng and Cān tóng qì “could not be without doubt”). The catalog meta date 1256 is presumably the jìnshì year rather than a composition date; the frontmatter brackets the work to ca. 1240 (Huáng’s mature lecturing years) through to his 1281 death.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that the Huángshì rì chāo in 94 juan was composed by Huáng Zhèn of the Sòng. Zhèn’s Gǔjīn jì yào has been catalogued elsewhere. The work is originally 97 juan: dú jīng 30 juan; dú Sānzhuàn jí Kǒngshì shū each 1 juan; dú zhūrú shū 13 juan; dú shǐ 5 juan; dú záshǐ and dú zhūzǐ each 4 juan; dú wénjí 10 juan — totalling 68 juan, all discussing the ancients. Juan 69 onward, in 29 juan, carries his own zòuzhá, shēnmíng, gōngyí, jiǎngyì, cèwèn, shū jì, xù bá, qǐ zhùwén, jìwén, xíngzhuàng, mùzhì, etc. Of these, juan 81, 89 and 92 are lost in the original, so the extant is 94 juan.

Zhèn is from the same district as Yáng Jiǎn, but Jiǎn followed Lù-school learning; Zhèn made his own Zhū-school learning, not following along. This compilation is biji of his readings of the various books, with judgments by his own meaning. Some items abstract a few essential lines; some preserve the biāomù alone without abstraction; some have neither biāomù nor abstraction but only one or two characters.

The main bearing on learning: he forcefully repels Buddhist-Daoist; from Lù Jiǔyuān and Zhāng Jiǔchéng up through to Yáng Shí and Xiè Liángzuǒ, all are taken as mixed-Chán; even Zhūzǐ’s collation of the Yīnfú jīng and Cān tóng qì — he too does not exclude doubt. On zhìshù (governance technique): he repels gōnglì (utilitarianism) and attacks Wáng Ānshí severely; even Zhūzǐ’s claim that the Zhōu lǐ could bring great peace, he does not dare immediately credit. In other expositions of classical meaning, he sometimes draws on the various schools to support Zhūzǐ; sometimes leaves Zhūzǐ and adopts the various schools — also not holding ménhù fixed. So Zhèn’s learning of Zhū is just like Zhū’s learning of Chéng — back and forth bringing things out, seeking right and wrong — never the appropriating of authority by one with nothing to bring.

[Tíyào continues; abbreviated.]

Respectfully revised and submitted, tenth month of the forty-fifth year of Qiánlóng [1780].

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

Abstract

The Huángshì rì chāo is the principal late-Sòng Zhūxué reading-notebook and one of the most substantial biji of the SòngYuán transition period. The composition window is the working life of Huáng Zhèn, with the lifelong biji-compilation method making the work a continuous accumulation rather than a discrete project. The frontmatter brackets to ca. 1240 (Huáng’s early scholarly maturity) through to his 1281 death.

The substantive position — staunchly Zhūxué loyalist while willing to depart from Zhū’s positions on specific points (the Yīnfú jīng / Cān tóng qì attestation; the Zhōu lǐ utopianism) — is one of the cleanest cases of late-Sòng intra-Mǐnxué sober loyalism. The SKQS tíyào’s programmatic comparison — “Zhèn’s learning of Zhū is just like Zhū’s learning of Chéng” — captures the spirit.

The textual transmission is largely clean from the Sòng to the SKQS, with three lost juan (81, 89, 92). The work is one of the very large Sòng-period biji preserved within the SKQS Zǐbù, comparable in scale only to a few other late-Sòng works.

The bibliographic record: Sòng shǐ yìwén zhì; Wénxiàn tōngkǎo; Wényuāngé shūmù; SKQS Zǐbù — Rújiā lèi (across multiple volumes V707–V708).

Translations and research

  • No substantial English-language secondary literature located specific to Huáng-shì rì chāo.
  • The work is heavily cited in studies of Sòng kǎo-zhèng and late-Sòng Lǐxué; e.g. Charles Hartman, “Bibliographic Notes on Sung Historiographical Sources”.
  • The work has been the subject of significant Chinese-language scholarship (Wáng Yú-tóng 王雨童, etc.).

Other points of interest

The Huáng Zhèn / Yáng Jiǎn pair — same district (Cíxī), opposite Lǐxué affiliations (Mǐn vs Lù) — is a striking late-Sòng case of intra-locality Lǐxué divergence. Their parallel positions in the SòngYuán xué àn are widely cited.

Huáng Zhèn’s late-life refusal to serve the Yuán after 1276, ending in his 1281 self-starvation at Bǎofúshān, makes him one of the yímín 遺民 figures of the SòngYuán transition — the Rì chāo’s closing materials are sometimes read against this biographical arc.

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