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格物通

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Text ID
KR3a0094
Date
1525–1528
Dynasty
明

Gé wù tōng 格物通

A Comprehensive Account of Investigating Things by 湛若水 (Zhàn Ruòshuǐ, hào Gānquán 甘泉, 1466–1560, 明)

About the work

A 100-juan major Mid-Míng Lǐxué-statecraft compendium, presented by Zhàn Ruòshuǐ to Jiājìng 7 (1528) during his tenure as Nánjīng Lǐbù shìláng. The work is a Lǐxué-tradition response to imperial commission — Jiājìng 4 / 7th month / 4th day (1525) — that Hànlín officials prepare commentaries on the imperial Lǐshū texts (Yì, Shī, Zhōng yōng, Shàng shū).

Structure follows Zhēn Déxiù’s Dàxué yǎnyì (KR3a0058) but with notable differences: Zhàn unites zhì zhī into gé wù, and uses gé wù as the threading principle for the entire Dàxué eight-fold structure. Six main gé: chéng yì gé 誠意格 (10 juan, 8 sub-categories: shěn jǐ, lì zhì, móu lǜ, gǎn yìng, jǐng jiè, jìng tiān, jìng zǔkǎo, wèi mín); zhèng xīn gé 正心格 (3 juan, no sub-categories); xiū shēn gé 修身格 (9 juan, 3 sub-categories: zhèng wēiyí, shèn yányǔ, jìn déyè); qí jiā gé 齊家格 (13 juan, 7 sub-categories); zhì guó gé 治國格 (14 juan, 7 sub-categories); píng tiānxià gé 平天下格 (44 juan, 3 sub-categories: gōng hǎoè 公好惡, yòng rén 用人, lǐ cái 理財 — with extensive nested sub-categories on personnel and finance).

The work is broadly comparable to Qiū Jùn’s Dàxué yǎnyì bǔ (KR3a0080) but methodologically distinct: where Qiū draws old historical events as fǎ jiè (model and warning), Zhàn draws prior thinkers’ qián yán (former statements) as jiǎng xí (lecturing-aids). The pair complement each other.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that the Gé wù tōng in 100 juan was composed by Zhàn Ruòshuǐ of the Míng. Ruòshuǐ’s Chūn qiū zhèng zhuàn has been catalogued elsewhere. This compilation was during Jiājìng 7 (1528) when Ruòshuǐ served as Nánjīng Lǐbù shìláng — presented to court. In structure it broadly imitates the Dàxué yǎnyì, with zhì zhī united into gé wù, and gé wù threading through chéngyì zhèngxīn xiūshēn qíjiā zhìguó píngtiānxià — six conditions. Chéng yì gé 10 juan, divided into 8 sub-categories: shěn jǐ, lì zhì, móu lǜ, gǎn yìng, jǐng jiè, jìng tiān, jìng zǔkǎo, wèi mín. Zhèng xīn gé 3 juan, without sub-categories. Xiū shēn gé 9 juan, divided into 3: zhèng wēiyí, shèn yányǔ, jìn déyè. Qí jiā gé 13 juan, divided into 7: jǐn fēipǐ, zhèng díshù, shì qīn cháng, yǎng tàizǐ, yán nèiwài, xù gū yòu, yù chén qiè. Zhì guó gé 14 juan, divided into 7: shì jūn, shǐ chén, lì jiào xìng huà, shì cháng cí yòu, shǐ zhòng lín mín, zhèng cháotíng, zhèng bǎiguān, zhèng wànmín. Píng tiānxià gé 44 juan, divided into 3 sub-categories: gōng hǎoè, yòng rén, lǐ cái. Within yòng rén, further divided into 6: xuéxiào, jǔ cuò, kè gōng, rèn xiàng, rèn jiàng, liù guān. Within lǐ cái, further divided into 14: xiū yúhéng, yì fúmò, chì bǎigōng, túntián, mǎzhèng, cáoyùn, quàn kè, jìn duó shí, shěng guófèi, shèn shǎngcì, juān zū bóliǎn, xù qióng zhènjì.

All draw various Confucians’ words, with the Zǔxùn (Ancestral Instructions) confirmed, and his own opinion brought out at each. Roughly close to Qiū Jùn’s Dàxué yǎnyì bǔ, but Jùn’s book mostly cites old events as fǎjiè resource; this book mostly cites qián yán (former discussions) as jiǎng xí (lecturing) aid. The two books xiāng fǔ ér xíng (mutually supporting in operation) — both useful to the way of governance.

[Tíyào continues; abbreviated.]

Respectfully revised and submitted, ninth month of the forty-third year of Qiánlóng [1778].

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

Abstract

The Gé wù tōng is the principal Mid-Míng Gānquán xuépài statecraft compendium and the most comprehensive Mid-Míng Lǐxué-statecraft work of its scope. Composition window: precisely datable. Imperial commission Jiājìng 4 (1525); presentation to throne Jiājìng 7 (1528). The frontmatter brackets to 1525–1528.

The substantive position — Zhàn’s suí chù tǐ rèn tiānlǐ applied to the full eight-fold Dà xué structure with gé wù as threading principle — gives the work a distinctive methodological signature. Substantively the work pairs with Qiū Jùn’s Dàxué yǎnyì bǔ (KR3a0080) and Zhēn Déxiù’s Dàxué yǎnyì (KR3a0058) — the late-imperial Lǐxué-statecraft trilogy.

The Píng tiānxià gé’s 44 juan with extensive sub-categories on personnel (xuéxiào, jǔ cuò, kè gōng, rèn xiàng, rèn jiàng, liù guān) and finance (14 sub-categories from xiū yúhéng through xù qióng zhènjì) make it the most detailed Mid-Míng treatment of statecraft administrative categories.

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

Translations and research

  • Liu Mingang 劉勉鋼, Zhàn Ruòshuǐ Gé wù tōng yánjiū — modern Chinese monograph.
  • Theodore de Bary, Neo-Confucian Orthodoxy and the Learning of the Mind-and-Heart (1981) — context for Mid-Míng Lǐxué-statecraft.
  • Kandice Hauf, The Confucian Cult and Social Memorial Discourse: Local Society and the Emergence of the Late Ming Wang Yangming Movement, dissertation Yale, 1987 — context for Zhàn’s relation to the Yáo-jiāng school.

Other points of interest

The Zhàn / Wáng Yángmíng joint Nánjīng lecture-circuit relationship (Lǚ Nán was the third member) is one of the cleaner Mid-Míng Lǐxué / xīnxué / HéDōng triangulations. Zhàn’s suí chù tǐ rèn tiānlǐ doctrine — closer to Wáng’s liáng zhī in methodological openness, while remaining nominally within the Lǐxué mainstream — makes him an interesting bridge figure.

Zhàn’s longevity (95 suì) — outliving Wáng Yángmíng (d. 1529) by 30+ years — makes him the senior surviving figure of the Mid-Míng Lǐxué / xīnxué generation.

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