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辨惑編

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Text ID
KR3a0073
Date
1341–1370
Dynasty
元

Biàn huò biān 辨惑編

A Compilation Distinguishing the Confusions by 謝應芳 (Xiè Yìngfāng, zì Zǐlán 子蘭, hào Guīcháo 龜巢, 1296–1392, 元)

About the work

A four-juan polemical compilation by Xiè Yìngfāng, with a one-juan appendix, composed during the Zhìzhèng era (1341–1370) against fifteen specific categories of popular Wú-region superstitious practice: sǐ shēng 死生, yì lì 疫癘, guǐ shén 鬼神, jì sì 祭祀, yín sì 淫祀, yāo guài 妖怪, wū xí 巫覡, bǔ shì 卜筮, zhì sàng 治喪, zé zàng 擇葬, xiàng fǎ 相法, lù mìng 祿命, fāng wèi 方位, shí rì 時日, yì duān 異端 (Buddhism / Daoism). Each category receives item-by-item treatment, citing classical and historical exemplars and Confucian xiānrú (former Confucians’) discussions. The closing appendix juan adds 8 shū (letters) and zá zhù (miscellaneous compositions) elaborating the same anti-heterodox-customs position. The work parallels and extends Chǔ Yǒng 儲泳’s earlier (Sòng) Qū yí shuō 袪疑說 (only an excerpt now extant in Zuǒ Guī’s Bǎichuān xuéhǎi); the SKQS tíyào judges Xiè more substantive than Chǔ, particularly because Xiè’s positions are tied to actual Wú-region popular practice.

The work is one of the most-cited late-Yuán Lǐxué polemical works against popular superstition. SòngYuánMíng Lǐxué educational manuals draw on it routinely. Its critical reception is mixed: Yè Shèng 葉盛’s Shuǐdōng rì jì approves the substance but criticises Xiè’s reported burning of family ancestral shrine portraits as excessive — Xiè’s strict anti-yínsì logic carried into private practice in a way that broke convention.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that the Biàn huò biān in 4 juan with 1 juan of appendix was composed by Xiè Yìngfāng of the Yuán. Yìngfāng’s Sī xián lù has been catalogued elsewhere. This compilation was made in the Zhìzhèng era. Because Wú custom believed in spirits and held many jū jì (superstitious avoidances), he drew on the deeds of the ancients and the discussions of xiānrú, item by item, to distinguish and dispute. His categories are 15: 1) sǐ shēng, 2) yì lì, 3) guǐ shén, 4) jì sì, 5) yín sì, 6) yāo guài, 7) wū xí, 8) bǔ shì, 9) zhì sàng, 10) zé zàng, 11) xiàng fǎ, 12) lù mìng, 13) fāng wèi, 14) shí rì, 15) yì duān. The closing one juan of appendix carries 8 letters and zá zhù, all forcefully open up vulgar views, holding firmly to lǐ in argument — illuminating with the body of the work.

In old times the Sòng Chǔ Yǒng made the Qū yí shuō; the original is long lost, only the abridged version preserved in Zuǒ Guī’s Bǎichuān xuéhǎi. Yìngfāng’s discussions are similar in seeming shallowness, but he can take popular custom and treat it as physician treats illness — useful for guiding the foolish and confused. Its benefit in quànjiè is equal to Chǔ’s; and his arguments are more upright and substantive than Chǔ’s. One must not, by reason of plain accessibility, dismiss it.

Cáo Ān’s Lányán chángyǔ says: “Líng [Chángzhōu] Xiè Zǐlán took the question-and-reply words of the sages and worthies and, against heterodoxy, made the book Biàn huò biān. The classics, zǐ-books, and histories’ Confucian words supporting orthodox and suppressing perverse, are fully recorded — truly may straighten people’s hearts. Hence I have taken it deeply.” Only Yè Shèng’s Shuǐdōng rì jì says: “Línglíng Xiè Zǐlán’s Biàn huò biān one book is indeed pì xié zhí zhèng (refuting heterodoxy and standing the orthodox), beneficial to the world. Within, his citation of classical method deeply marvels at the world’s confusion in yínsì — quite right. But he says: ‘after my late father’s death, the spirit-portraits I served — I burnt because they violated rite’ — this alone I regret as excessive. The Chūnqiū’s record ‘destroyed Quántái’ — the gentleman judged the tower’s destruction” — and so on, pointing out a moderation Xiè missed.

[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 Biàn huò biān is a substantial late-Yuán polemical work against popular superstitious practice, organised into fifteen categories and thoroughly grounded in classical citation. Composition window: bracketed by the Zhìzhèng era of late Yuán (1341–1370), with the work circulated to influence Yè Shèng (Míng) and Cáo Ān (Míng) commentary. The frontmatter brackets to ca. 1341–1370.

The substantive position — strict Lǐxué-orthodox anti-yínsì polemic, applied to specific Wú-region customs — places Xiè in the line of late-Yuán Lǐxué social-reform writers. The sharp critique of bǔ shì / xiàng fǎ / lù mìng — the divinatory practices the late-imperial shìdàfū class commonly engaged with — is methodologically thoroughgoing. The closing appendix’s reported burning of family ancestral portraits exemplifies the rigorousness Yè Shèng objects to.

The bibliographic record: not in Yuán shǐ yìwén zhì (composed late in life); Wényuāngé shūmù; SKQS Zǐbù — Rújiā lèi.

Translations and research

  • No substantial English-language secondary literature located on the Biàn huò biān specifically.
  • The work is treated within studies of Yuán-Míng Lǐxué social-reform polemic and within studies of pre-modern Chinese popular religion.
  • Cáo Ān 曹安, Lán-yán cháng-yǔ 讕言長語 (the principal contemporary endorsement).
  • Yè Shèng 葉盛, Shuǐ-dōng rì jì 水東日記 (the principal contemporary qualification).

Other points of interest

The work’s sharp polemical focus on Wú-region popular custom — rather than on abstract Lǐxué doctrine — makes it methodologically distinctive within the late-Yuán Lǐxué corpus and is one of the most useful primary sources for late-Yuán Wú-region popular religious practice. The Yè Shèng / Cáo Ān reception in the early-Míng shows the work’s continuing late-imperial relevance.

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