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性理大全書

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Text ID
KR3a0078
Date
1414–1415
Dynasty
明

Xìnglǐ dà quán shū 性理大全書

Imperial Compendium of Nature-and-Principle Studies imperially commanded (胡廣 (Hú Guǎng, 1369–1418, 明) supervisor) — Yǒnglè 13 (1415)

About the work

The 70-juan official imperial compendium of Lǐxué (SòngYuán daoxué) commissioned by the Yǒnglè emperor (Chéngzǔ, Zhū Dì) and produced under Hú Guǎng’s supervision, completed and presented to the throne in Yǒnglè 13 / 9th month (1415) — together with the parallel Wǔ jīng dà quán and Sì shū dà quán, the three forming the consolidated official Míng Lǐxué curriculum. The total Yǒnglè compilation, across the seven bù of the three works, runs to 229 juan. Drawing on 120 Sòng zhūrú, the Xìnglǐ dà quán combines stand-alone reproductions of the major Northern Sòng daoxué texts with thematic biji-style anthologies. Structure: juan 1–26 reproduce nine major Northern Sòng works in extended form — Zhōu Dūnyí’s Tàijí tú shuō (1 juan), Tōng shū (2), Zhāng Zǎi’s Xī míng (1) and Zhèng méng (2), Shào Yōng’s Huángjí jīngshì shū (7), Zhū Xī’s Yì xué qǐ méng (4) and Jiā lǐ (4), Cài Yuándìng’s Lǜlǚ xīn shū (2), Cài Shěn’s Hóng fàn huángjí nèi piān (2). Juan 27–70 are arranged into 13 thematic divisions: Lǐ qì 理氣, Guǐ shén 鬼神, Xìng lǐ 性理, Dào tǒng 道統, Shèng xián 聖賢, Zhū rú 諸儒, Xué 學, Zhū zǐ 諸子, Lì dài 歷代, Jūn dào 君道, Zhì dào 治道, Shī 詩, Wén 文.

The SKQS tíyào — sharply critical of the work as “lóng zá rǒng màn” (jumbled, prolix and rambling) — notes that the Kāngxī emperor commissioned a much-trimmed Xìnglǐ jīngyì (KR3a0107, the official 12-juan abridgment) under Lǐ Guāngdì’s supervision, which retains the essence and discards the dross. The SKQS preserves the Yǒnglè-period Dà quán as the source-base of which all subsequent Xìnglǐ compilations are derived.

Tiyao

(Translated from Kyoto Zinbun digital Sìkù tíyào 0192501.)

The Xìnglǐ dà quán shū in 70 juan — copy from the Bīngbù shìláng Jǐ Yún’s family library.

By imperial command of the Míng, Hú Guǎng et al. compiled. The book, with the Wǔ jīng and Sì shū Dà quán, was completed and presented in Yǒnglè 13 (1415) / 9th month. So Chéngzǔ’s yùzhì preface refers to “229 juan” — counting the 7 sections together.

Examining: from Hàn onward, disciples recorded their masters’ words — beginning with the Zhèng jì and Zhèng zhì — that is the precursor of later yǔlù. Gathering various Confucians’ words to make one book — there was no such precedent in antiquity; the Jìnsī lù was its origin. In Sòng Jǐngdìng and Duānpíng (1260–1264, 1234–1236), Zhōu, Chéng, Zhāng, Zhū various Confucians all received imperial honours; Zhēn Déxiù further was famed for jiǎngxué and joined the high government. The realm followed the court’s mood, and compositions multiplied daily. Wáng Xiàoyǒu made a Xìnglǐ yí xùn in 3 juan; Néng Jié [Xióng Jié] made a Xìnglǐ qúnshū jùjiě in 23 juan (= KR3a0067) — and so the name xìnglǐ came into broad use.

Guǎng et al.’s adopted Sòng zhūrú sayings: 120 schools in all. Of these, those constituting their own juànzhì (whole-book sections) total 26 juan: Zhōuzǐ Tàijí tú shuō 1, Tōng shū 2, Zhāngzǐ Xī míng 1, Zhèng méng 2, Shàozǐ Huángjí jīngshì 7, Zhūzǐ Yì xué qǐ méng 4, Jiā lǐ 4, Cài Yuándìng Lǜlǚ xīn shū 2, Cài Shěn Hóng fàn huángjí nèi piān 2.

From juan 27 onward, gathering the various sayings, divided into 13 mù: Lǐ qì, Guǐ shén, Xìng lǐ, Dào tǒng, Shèng xián, Zhū rú, Xué, Zhū zǐ, Lì dài, Jūn dào, Zhì dào, Shī, Wén. Largely lóng zá rǒng màn (jumbled, prolix, rambling) — all cut and stitched together to make text — not really able to truly distinguish Dàoxué yuányuán. Shèngzǔ Rénhuángdì (Kāngxī) specially commanded the Confucian officials to delete the irrelevant and preserve the gāngyào, fixed it as the Xìnglǐ jīng yì one book. The jīnghuá (essence) having been gathered, what remains here is mere dross.

But all subsequent Xìnglǐ prints — vast in volume — derive their source from this book. Where one would lift up the branch, one must have the root. We retain it to record where the line begins.

Abstract

The Xìnglǐ dà quán shū is the foundational official Míng Lǐxué compendium and one of the great Yǒng-lè-period scholarly compilations. Composition window: precisely datable. Imperially commissioned in Yǒnglè 12 (1414); completed and presented in Yǒnglè 13 / 9th month (1415). The frontmatter brackets to 1414–1415.

The substantive role: the work is the official imperial Lǐxué canon of the Yǒnglè court, used as the basis of Lǐxué education throughout the MíngQīng Guózǐjiàn and guānxué (provincial school) systems. Its canonical authority extended over Korean Sǒngnihak, Japanese Shushigaku, and Vietnamese Tống-Nho. The 26-juan reproduction of the foundational Northern Sòng daoxué corpus made the work a one-stop reference for the master texts; the 13-mù thematic anthology made it a comprehensive Lǐxué topical reference.

The SKQS tíyào’s sharply critical position — that the work is “jumbled, prolix and rambling” and the Kāngxī Xìnglǐ jīng yì abridgment retains the essence while the Dà quán preserves only the dross — reflects the Qīng court’s position favouring its own imperial Lǐxué canon-formation over the Míng. The SKQS preserves the Dà quán as a source-text but presents it as essentially superseded.

The bibliographic record: Míng shǐ yìwén zhì; Wényuāngé shūmù; SKQS Zǐbù — Rújiā lèi.

Translations and research

  • Hung Wu, The Wu Liang Shrine: The Ideology of Early Chinese Pictorial Art, Stanford UP, 1989 — context.
  • Theodore de Bary, Neo-Confucian Orthodoxy and the Learning of the Mind-and-Heart (1981) — context.
  • Benjamin Elman, A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China (2000) — extensive use.
  • For the parallel Yǒng-lè compilations: Joseph Adler, Reconstructing the Confucian Dao (2014); Daniel K. Gardner, Chu Hsi: Learning to Be a Sage (1990); Wing-tsit Chan, Reflections on Things at Hand (1967).
  • Standard modern Chinese reproductions: SKQS reprints, plus the modern Zhōnghuá Shūjú / Yǒng-lè dà-diǎn integrated editions.

Other points of interest

The Xìnglǐ dà quán is one of the cleanest cases of imperial canon-formation in pre-modern China: an emperor’s instruction (Yǒnglè), a Hànlín supervisor (Hú Guǎng), and a defined corpus (Sòng Lǐxué) were combined to produce an official compendium that defined the doctrinal canon for the next several centuries. The Kāngxī-period Xìnglǐ jīng yì abridgment under Lǐ Guāngdì is the principal Qīng-period reformulation; the SKQS’s preservation of the original Dà quán alongside the abridgment shows the late-imperial scholarly practice of preserving source-base alongside canonical revision.

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