讀書錄

Dú shū lù 讀書錄

A Reading-Record by 薛瑄 (Xuē Xuān, hào Jìngxuān 敬軒, posthumously Wénqīng 文清, 1389–1464, 明)

About the work

A 23-juan yǔlù-style notebook by Xuē Xuān (the foundational early-Míng Zhūzǐxué loyalist), divided into a Dú shū lù (11 juan) and Dú shū xù lù 讀書續錄 (12 juan). The work records, in entries arranged by reading-occasion, Xuē’s gōngxíng xīndé (insights gained from personal practice and meditation): the methodological premise, stated in his self-prefaces, draws on Chéngzǐ’s “the heart-mind without thought is closed off” — Xuē records what comes to him in moments of insight to enable repeated review. The Wàn-lì-period editor Hóu Hèlíng 侯鶴齡 produced a deduplicated Dú shū quán lù 讀書全錄, but Hóu’s editorial cuts often miss Xuē’s intent; the SKQS-base preserves the original 23-juan record. The work is the principal early-Míng Zhūzǐxué devotional notebook, paralleling Cáo Duān’s Tàijí tú shuō shùjiě (KR3a0023) and the later Hú Jūrén’s Jū yè lù (KR3a0081) as the three foundational early-Míng pure-Confucian texts.

The Qiánlóng emperor’s yùzhì (preserved at the head of the WYG-base) places Xuē above Hú and Cáo and is one of the more substantial Qiánlóng-period imperial endorsements of an early-Míng Confucian.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that the Dú shū lù in 11 juan and the Xù lù in 12 juan was composed by Xuē Xuān of the Míng. Xuān, zì Déwēn, was a man of Héjīn. Jìnshì of Yǒnglè xīnchǒu (1421); rose in office to Lǐbù yòu shìláng, entered the cabinet sharing in confidential affairs; granted posthumous Lǐbù shàngshū and titled Wénqīng. His career is in the Míng shǐ biography. The book is throughout the words of his personal practice and heart-attainment.

The two records’ heads each have his self-record stating that, on the basis of Chéngzǐ’s “if the heart-mind has [thought], it opens; if it does not think, it closes” line, he therefore recorded by occasion what came to him to enable repeated reflection. Later in the Wànlì period, one Hóu Hèlíng, finding the records mixed and disordered, reordered and deleted duplicates, naming it Dú shū quán lù. But in the taking-and-leaving he often misses Xuān’s bearing. We here record the original to preserve the old.

Xuān once said: “Music has yǎ and zhèng (refined and degenerate); books also have them. The Xiǎo xué, Sì shū, Liù jīng, the LiánLuòGuānMǐn writings of various sages — these are the yǎ. Those who relish them have always been few, because of their plain taste. The miscellaneous schools, vulgar tales, ornate-seductive language, fantastical-unorthodox books — these are the zhèng. There is none who does not enjoy speaking of and pleasure in them. They take the bait without instruction, because their flavour is sweet. Plain — then the human heart is at peace and the tiān lǐ preserved. Sweet [the rest, abbreviated]”

[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 Dú shū lù is the foundational early-Míng Zhūzǐxué devotional-philosophical notebook and one of the three principal early-Míng daoxué loyalist texts (with Cáo Duān’s Tàijí tú shuō shùjiě and Hú Jūrén’s Jū yè lù). The composition window is the working life of Xuē Xuān, from his 1421 jìnshì through to his 1464 death. The frontmatter brackets to ca. 1421–1464.

The substantive position is staunchly Zhūzǐxué loyalist, with the yǎ / zhèng distinction expressing the methodological commitment to plain (Lǐxué-canonical) reading over the indulgent-attractive (Buddhist / Daoist / biji-fantastical) registers. The work was foundational to the development of the HéDōng xuépài lineage that Xuē founded, with his student Lǚ Nán 呂柟 and others continuing the tradition into the Jiājìng era.

The textual situation is well-documented: the original 23-juan Dú shū lù + Xù lù, with Hóu Hèlíng’s Wànlì Dú shū quán lù abridgment, both preserved. The SKQS preserves the original.

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

Translations and research

• No substantial English-language secondary literature located specific to this work.
• For Xuē Xuān generally: M. Theresa Kelleher, “Personal Reflections on the Pursuit of Sagehood: The Life and Journal of Wu Yübi” (1982) — context.
• Wing-tsit Chan, “The Hsing-li ching-i and the Ch’eng-Chu School of the Seventeenth Century”, Comparative Studies in Society and History — context.
• Standard modern Chinese reproductions of the SKQS WYG.

Other points of interest

The Qiánlóng yùzhì (preserved as KR3a0079_000.txt) — placing Xuē above Cáo Duān and Hú Jūrén in the early-Míng daoxué sequence — is one of the more substantial Qiánlóng imperial-poetic engagements with a single Míng Confucian, comparable to the imperial yùzhì on Yáng Xióng’s Fǎ yán (KR3a0009) for an earlier period.

Links

• Míng shǐ j. 282 (Rúlín zhuàn / Xuē Xuān).
• Cáo Duān’s Tàijí tú shuō shùjiě (KR3a0023) and Hú Jūrén’s Jū yè lù (KR3a0081) — the parallel early-Míng daoxué loyalist works.
• Qiánlóng emperor’s yùzhì dú Xuē Wénqīng dú shū lù (preserved at the head of the WYG-base).
• Hóu Hèlíng 侯鶴齡, Dú shū quán lù (Wànlì abridgment, separately catalogued).
• Kyoto Zinbun, Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào
• Wikipedia
• Wikidata