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北溪字義

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Text ID
KR3a0065
Date
1216–1223
Dynasty
宋

Běixī zì yì 北溪字義

Master Běixī’s Glossary of Terms sayings of 陳淳 (Chén Chún, zì Ānqīng 安卿, hào Běixī xiānsheng 北溪先生, 1159–1223, 宋, 撰); recorded by 王雋 (Wáng Jùn, of Qīngyuán 清源, 宋, 錄)

About the work

The standard Sòng Lǐxué terminological lexicon, in two juan, organised into 26 mén (categories) — each taking a single key term (xìng 性, mìng 命, xīn 心, qíng 情, cái 才, zhì 志, yì 意, rényìlǐzhìxìn 仁義禮智信, zhōng 忠, shù 恕, yīguàn 一貫, chéngjìng 誠敬, Tàijí 太極, huángjí 皇極, zhōnghé 中和, zhōngyōng 中庸, lǐyìlì 禮義利, guǐshén 鬼神, fólǎo 佛老 etc.) — and providing for each a careful exposition tracing the term back through Sìshū, the Northern-Sòng daoxué corpus, and Zhū Xī’s writings. The work was recorded by Chén Chún’s disciple Wáng Jùn from Chén’s lectures, with the four-section Yánlíng jiǎngyì 嚴陵講義 (Chén’s 1216 lectures at Yánlíng / Jiàndé prefecture under Prefect Zhèng Zhītì 鄭之悌) appended.

The work’s substance is a foundational pre-modern Chinese philosophical terminology. It is one of the most-cited Sòng Lǐxué texts in YuánMíngQīng tradition and continues to be the standard reference for the Lǐxué technical vocabulary; in twentieth-century Western and Japanese scholarship it has been used as a pre-modern Chinese philosophical-dictionary baseline. The Hóngzhì gēngxū (1490) reprint by Fēng Qìng 豐慶 of Sìmíng — the SKQS-base — is the standard transmitted form.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that the Běixī zì yì in 2 juan was composed by Chén Chún of the Sòng. Chún, zì Ānqīng, hào Běixī, was a man of Lóngxī. In Jiādìng 10 (1217) he was appointed Dígōng láng with assignment as Quánzhōu Ānxī Zhǔbù; before taking up office he died. His career is in the Sòng shǐ biography.

This compilation was recorded by his disciple Wáng Jùn of Qīngyuán. Taking the Sìshū’s zìyì, divided into 26 mén, each picking one zì and discussing the original and the development in detail, with broad citation and roundabout verification, drawing out his arguments. First printed at Yǒngjiā by the Zhào family. There is also a Qīngzhāng jiācáng běn printed in Sòng Chúnyòu — the Jiǔhuá Yè Xìnhòu 葉信厚 base. The old plates were lost. In Míng Hóngzhì gēngxū (1490) it was reprinted; this present text is the Sìmíng Fēng Qìng-collated print, with four pieces of the Yánlíng jiǎngyì attached: Dàoxué tǐtǒng 道學體統, Shīyǒu yuānyuán 師友淵源, Yònggōng jiémù 用工節目, Dúshū cìdì 讀書次第 — these being Chún’s Jiādìng 9 (1216) post-trial-return passage through Yánlíng prefecture, where Magistrate Zhèng Zhītì invited him to lecture at the prefecture-school.

Examining Zhào Fǎng’s Dōngshān jí there is a “Reply to Wāng Démào on Xìnglǐ zìyì” letter saying: “Master Chén’s Xìnglǐ zìyì takes the senior Confucians’ Zhōu / Chéng / Zhāng / Zhū’s jīngsī miàoqì essence and extends and elaborates — apparently set up for the elementary student” — not knowing whether this is the alternative title of this book, or whether outside this work there was also a Xìnglǐ zìyì. The text not having been seen, the matter cannot be settled.

[Tíyào continues; abbreviated.]

Respectfully revised and submitted, fourth 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 Běixī zì yì is the foundational Sòng Lǐxué terminological lexicon, composed in lecture form by the senior ZhūXī disciple Chén Chún and recorded by his disciple Wáng Jùn. The composition window: bracketed by Chén’s Yánlíng lectures (Jiādìng 9 / 1216) and his death (Jiādìng 16 / 1223). The frontmatter brackets to ca. 1216–1223.

The substantive content sets out the technical vocabulary of Sòng Lǐxué with rare clarity and precision. The work has functioned as the central pre-modern reference for the Lǐxué terms, with its 26 mén providing a complete topical map of SòngMíng doctrinal vocabulary. Yuán Hú Bǐngwén 胡炳文’s Sìshū tōng and Míng Yáng Yīqīng 楊一清’s Sìshū dàquán both draw heavily on it; Korean Sǒngnihak texts treat it as foundational.

The textual transmission has multiple printings: the original Yǒngjiā Zhào-family print, the Sòng Chúnyòu Qīngzhāng / Jiǔhuá Yè family print (which the SKQS tíyào mentions but did not use), the 1490 Fēng Qìng re-edition (the SKQS-base), and the Míng Xìnglǐ dàquán’s integrated extracts.

The bibliographic record: Sòng shǐ yìwén zhì; Wénxiàn tōngkǎo; Zhízhāi shūlù jiětí; SKQS Zǐbù — Rújiā lèi. Modern critical text: Xióng Jiànyáng 熊建楊 and Wú Lǎyāo 吳辣搖 et al., Běixī zì yì (Zhōnghuá Shūjú, 1983; rev. 2009).

Translations and research

  • Wing-tsit Chan, Neo-Confucian Terms Explained: The Pei-hsi tzu-i of Ch’en Ch’un, 1159–1223, Columbia University Press, 1986. The complete English translation, with extensive critical apparatus.
  • Hoyt Cleveland Tillman, Confucian Discourse and Chu Hsi’s Ascendancy (1992) — context.
  • Standard modern Chinese reproductions: Xióng Jiànyáng et al. (Zhōnghuá Shūjú).
  • Korean reception: JaHyun Kim Haboush, Heritage of Mind (1985).

Other points of interest

The Běixī zì yì is one of the most teachable pre-modern Chinese philosophical works — its glossary-form structure makes it the canonical entry-point into Sòng Lǐxué terminology. Wing-tsit Chan’s 1986 translation has made it the foundational English-language reference for the technical vocabulary, used in introductory courses on Chinese philosophy.

The pairing with the Yánlíng jiǎngyì — Chén’s brief programmatic statements on the four foundational topics — gives the work a complete pedagogical structure: terminology at the front, programmatic guidance at the back.

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