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準齋雜說

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Text ID
KR3a0066
Date
1200–1244
Dynasty
宋

Zhǔnzhāi zá shuō 準齋雜說

Master Zhǔn-zhāi’s Miscellaneous Discussions by 吳如愚 (Wú Rúyú, zì Zǐfā 子發, hào Zhǔnzhāi 凖齋, 1167–1244, 宋)

About the work

A two-juan Lǐxué biji by Wú Rúyú, recovered by the SKQS editors from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn in 40-some 篇. Wú studied Buddhist qīngjìng (purity-and-quietude) doctrines for three or four years in his youth before turning decisively to Lǐxué; his work consequently bears traces of Chán terminology even where its substance is solidly Lǐxué. His distinctive position — that gé wù 格物 should be glossed zhèng 正 (rectify) rather than zhì 至 (reach), with géwù understood as “rectifying things” on the model of Mencius’s gé jūnxīn 格君心 — anticipates by some three centuries Wáng Yángmíng’s Chuán xí lù gloss of gé wù. The SKQS tíyào notes this with neutrality. Wú’s general method — tǐyòng jiānbèi (substance-and-function complete) and not falling into Daoist xūwú — places his work as a genuine SòngLǐxué piece despite the Buddhist youth.

The work was lost from circulation; only the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn preserved 40-some 篇.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that the Zhǔnzhāi zá shuō in 2 juan was composed by Wú Rúyú of the Sòng. Rúyú, zì Zǐfā, was a man of Qiántáng. In his youth, by inheritance of his father’s office, he was given Chéngxìn láng with assignment as Supervisor of Liánjiāng commercial taxes in Fúzhōu; transferred to Chángshú; resigned and returned home. In Jiāxī 2 (1238), on Chancellor Qiáo Xíngjiǎn’s recommendation, he was reassigned Chéngxìn láng with appointment as Mìgé jiàokān. He memorialised three times to refuse and was specially promoted to Bǐngyì láng with a cí sinecure. His official record appears in the Guǎngé xùlù and Zhào Xībiàn’s Dúshū fù zhì; the Sòng shǐ gives him no biography, so his career and conduct cannot be seen in detail.

Now examining: Xú Yuánjié’s Méiyě jí contains the xíngzhuàng of Rúyú, with full record of his deeds — broadly that Rúyú was filial, friendly, loyal, generous; content in poverty and pleasure in the Way; clear in lǐ and accomplished in conduct. His writings have yìshuō, shīshūshuō, dàxué, zhōngyōng, lúnyǔmèngzǐ, and yīnfú jīng jiě etc. — all lost. This book likewise had no current edition; only in the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn the scattered finding of 40-some 篇.

Largely all are yánjiū lǐxué wén — research-of-lǐxué essays. Yuánjié further says: Rúyú in his early years gave attention to qīngjìng (Buddhist purity-quietude) for three or four years; later abruptly cast off all he had learnt and devoted himself to discussion of the Dào — so Rúyú’s learning at first did somewhat touch Chán delight. His gloss of gé wù takes zhèng as the gloss; the Míng Wáng Shǒurén’s Chuán xí lù — what is called “gé wù like Mencius’s gé jūnxīn’s gé” — that doctrine in fact began with Rúyú; he seems to want to walk firmly on his own doctrine.

But Rúyú in his ordinary speech often said: “What fills Heaven-and-Earth is all real principle; what acts in ten-thousand generations is all real use; only by jìnxīn zhīxìng does real principle blend and real use thread through” — his application of effort takes tǐyòng jiānbèi (substance-and-function complete) as principle, and does not fall into xūwú (empty void). Hence in distinguishing principle and meaning — the discrimination of tiānlǐ from rényù, of sān wèi (three respects) from sì kǒng (four fears), and in his gloss of the Dà xué “sìyǒu (four cases of having)” with the Lúnyǔ “sì wú (four absences)” — all of these are extracted from the lines and placed beside, with the jīng itself made manifest, so as to assist effort in jìng (mindfulness).

[Tíyào continues; abbreviated.]

Respectfully revised and submitted, [date].

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

Abstract

The Zhǔnzhāi zá shuō is a useful late-Southern-Sòng Lǐxué witness, partially recovered through the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn. The composition window is bracketed by Wú Rúyú’s mature working life from his early-Lǐxué turn (after his Chán-Buddhist phase) through to his death. The frontmatter brackets to ca. 1200–1244.

The substantive contribution is methodologically interesting: Wú’s gé wù = zhèng wù gloss is one of the cleanest pre-Wáng-Yáng-míng anticipations of the Yángmíng gé wù doctrine, but composed by a Lǐxué loyalist still firmly in the Zhū-Xī-orthodox tradition. The work’s preservation through the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn is an instance of SKQS-period rescue.

The bibliographic record: not in Sòng shǐ yìwén zhì; Guǎngé xùlù; Dúshū fù zhì (Zhào Xībiàn); Yǒnglè dàdiǎn; SKQS Zǐbù — Rújiā lèi. Modern critical text: limited.

Translations and research

  • No substantial English-language secondary literature located.
  • The work is occasionally cited in studies of pre-Wáng-Yáng-míng gé-wù anticipations and within studies of late-Sòng Lǐxué.

Other points of interest

The Wú Rúyú géwù = zhèng wù anticipation of Wáng Yángmíng — recognised by the SKQS tíyào — is a significant Lǐxué-historical detail. The fact that a Zhū-Xī-orthodox loyalist could arrive at this gloss three centuries before Wáng Yángmíng’s celebrated independent doctrine speaks both to the openness of the Sòng Lǐxué technical vocabulary and to the substantial debate over géwù glossing within the orthodox tradition.

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