Zhūzǐ dúshū fǎ 朱子讀書法
Master Zhū’s Method of Reading co-edited by 張洪 (Zhāng Hóng, zì Bódà 伯大, 宋, 編) and 齊𤇸 (Qí Xī, zì Chōngfǔ 充甫, 宋, 編)
About the work
A four-juan thematic anthology of Zhū Xī’s positions on reading method, compiled by Zhāng Hóng and Qí Xī during Zhāng’s late-Xián-chún (1265–1274) tenure as instructor at Sìmíng. The work has a complex editorial genealogy: the original was the Zhūzǐ dúshū fǎ of Fǔ Guǎng 輔廣 (a senior Zhū Xī disciple); Bāchuān Dù Zhèng 巴川度正 commissioned Yú Hézhī 于和之 of Suìníng to collate and print it; the Póyáng Wángshì then composed a hòubiān (continuation); Zhāng Hóng and Qí Xī then collated and corrected, taking Fǔ Guǎng’s original as the upper juan and the continuations as the lower juan. The final product, drawing systematically from Zhū Xī’s Wénjí and Yǔlèi by topic, was printed at the Yínpàn (Yín-county academy). The Yuán-period plates were lost; in the Yuán Zhìshùn era (1330–1333) the Jiāngnán xíngtái yùshǐ Zhào Zhīwéi 趙之維 reprinted at Jíqìnglù xué (Jīnlíng / Nánjīng). The Yǒnglè dàdiǎn preserved the complete text; the SKQS editors organised it into 4 juan.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that the Zhūzǐ dúshū fǎ in 4 juan was co-edited by Zhāng Hóng and Qí Xī of the Sòng. Hóng, zì Bódà; Xī, zì Chōngfǔ; both Póyáng men. Their careers are not recoverable. Hóng’s self-preface: in Xiánchún he was instructor at Sìmíng; Xī happened to be travelling in Zhèdōng; they then together discussed and made this book, printing it at the Yínpàn.
The book is rooted in Fǔ Guǎng’s compilation, prepared earlier by his ZhūXī disciple. Bāchuān Dù Zhèng commissioned Yú Hézhī of Suìníng to collate and print. The Póyáng Wángshì made a hòubiān. Hóng and Xī then revised and corrected, taking Fǔshì’s original recension as the upper juan and the continuations as the lower juan; both arranged systematically from the Wénjí and Yǔlèi, classified by category, attached to subordinate headings.
Although taking and trimming from old text, not enough to call original zhùshù, the careful classification — orderly throughout — on Zhūzǐ’s family-school study, may be called penetrating research. In the Yuán the woodblocks were no longer extant. In the Zhìshùn period (1330–1333) the Jiāngnán xíngtái yùshǐ Zhào Zhīwéi reprinted at the Jíqìnglù school. So the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn in its complete recension preserves the original; the original juan-sequence cannot now be ascertained. We have apportioned the text into 4 juan, so that those studying the Xīnān [ZhūXī] learning have a reference.
[Tíyào continues; abbreviated.]
Respectfully revised and submitted, ninth 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 Zhūzǐ dúshū fǎ is a useful late-Southern-Sòng thematic anthology of Zhū Xī’s positions on reading method, distilling the lengthy Yǔlèi sections on reading into a more accessible zhuān shū. The composition window is the late Xiánchún era of the Sòng (1265–1274), specifically Zhāng Hóng’s tenure at Sìmíng. The frontmatter brackets to ca. 1265–1274.
The substantive content provides a systematic Lǐxué-aligned dúshū fǎ (reading method): how to approach each classical genre, what reading-pace to maintain, how to balance memory and reflection, how to distinguish levels of meaning, etc. The work parallels Chéng Duānlǐ’s slightly later Chéngshì jiāshú dúshū fēnnián rìchéng (KR3a0033) — the Yuán-period systematic schedule of Lǐxué-orthodox study — but is more theoretical and less prescriptive in form.
The bibliographic record: Sòng shǐ yìwén zhì; Wénxiàn tōngkǎo; Yǒnglè dàdiǎn; SKQS Zǐbù — Rújiā lèi.
Translations and research
- Daniel K. Gardner, Learning to Be a Sage (1990) — extensively uses Zhū Xī’s reading-method materials.
- Patricia Ebrey and others on the Sòng dú-shū tradition.
- Standard modern Chinese reproductions of the SKQS WYG.
Other points of interest
The four-stage editorial genealogy — Fǔ Guǎng → Wángshì → Zhāng/Qí — is unusually well-documented through Zhāng Hóng’s preface and the SKQS tíyào. The Póyáng (Jiāngxī) editorial centre of the work is geographically interesting: Póyáng was a major late-Sòng Lǐxué centre, with overlapping Wáng / Zhāng / Qí lineages.
Links
- Zhū Xī, Yǔlèi (KR3a0047) — the source-corpus from which the work draws.
- Chéngshì jiāshú dúshū fēnnián rìchéng (KR3a0033) — the parallel Yuán prescriptive schedule.
- Yǒnglè dàdiǎn (the preserving source).
- Kyoto Zinbun, Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào
- Wikidata