劉子遺書

Liúzǐ yíshū 劉子遺書

The Bequeathed Writings of Master Liú by 劉宗周 (Liú Zōngzhōu, hào Jíshān xiānsheng 蕺山先生, 1578–1645, 明)

About the work

A four-juan posthumous compilation of Liú Zōngzhōu’s writings, edited and printed by his disciple Jiāng Xīzhé 姜希轍. Structure: Shèngxué zōng yào 聖學宗要 (1 juan) — extends Liú’s friend Liú Qùfēi 劉去非’s Sòngxué zōngyuán by adding Zhōu Dūnyí’s Tàijí tú shuō, Zhāng Zǎi’s Dōng míng and Xī míng, Chéng Yí’s Shí rén shuō 識仁說 and Dìng xìng shū 定性書, Zhū Xī’s Zhōng hé shuō 中和說, and Wáng Yángmíng’s Liáng zhī wèn dá 良知問答 — each with Liú’s annotation. Xué yán 學言 (3 juan) — Liú Zōngzhōu’s own jiǎngxué yǔlù, recorded by his disciples. The work is the SKQS’s principal preservation of Liú’s mature thought, complementing the more comprehensive Liúzǐ quánshū (40+ juan, separately preserved). Substantively the work documents Liú’s distinctive shèn dú (cautious in solitude) doctrine — a methodological synthesis that the SKQS tíyào notes “běn yú Wáng Shǒurén ér jiā yǐ jǐn yán qiē shí” (rooted in Wáng Yángmíng but with the addition of rigour and substantiality).

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that the Liúzǐ yíshū in 4 juan was composed by Liú Zōngzhōu of the Míng. Zōngzhōu’s Zhōu yì gǔ wén chāo has been catalogued elsewhere. This compilation: 1 juan Shèngxué zōng yào — carries Zhōuzǐ Tàijí tú shuō, Zhāngzǐ Dōng and Xī míng, Chéngzǐ Shí rén shuō and Dìng xìng shū, Zhūzǐ Zhōng hé shuō, Wáng Shǒurén Liáng zhī wèndá — each with annotation. Apparently based on his friend Liú Qùfēi’s Sòng xué zōngyuán one book and supplementing it; with elucidatory commentary; renamed under the present title.

Xué yán 3 juan — Zōngzhōu’s jiǎng xué recorded sayings — printed by his disciple Jiāng Xīzhé.

Zōngzhōu was born at Shānyīn, holding to his birth-region’s senior masters’ transmission; therefore his jiǎng xué main bearing largely yuānyuán (rooted) in Wáng Shǒurén — mù rǎn ěr rú (eyes-saturated and ears-soaked), the tradition coming gradually. But of those who in Míng jiǎngYáojiāng xué — like Wáng Jī, Zhōu Rǔdēng, Táo… [text continues] — Zōngzhōu, having added rigorous-and-substantial cultivation, distinguishes himself from them.

[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 Liúzǐ yíshū is the principal SKQS preservation of Liú Zōngzhōu’s mature philosophical writings. Composition window: bracketed by Liú’s mature working life. The Shèngxué zōng yào portion was Liú’s own composition; the Xué yán are yǔlù-style records gathered during his lifetime and posthumously edited. The frontmatter brackets to ca. 1620–1650 (Liú’s mature lecturing career through Jiāng Xīzhé’s posthumous editing).

The substantive position — shèn dú, with Yáojiāng liáng zhī recovered from late-Míng excess by addition of jǐn yán qiē shí (rigour and substantiality) — places Liú as the late-Míng synthesiser-figure of Mid-Míng xīnxué / Lǐxué. The Shèngxué zōng yào’s seven-text canon (Zhōu, Zhāng Dōng / Xī míng, Chéng Shí rén / Dìng xìng, Zhū Zhōng hé, Wáng Liáng zhī) gives a remarkably catholic Late-Míng synthesis spanning Northern Sòng daoxué through Wáng Yángmíng — the Liú Zōngzhōu xuépài canon-formation.

The bibliographic record: Míng shǐ yìwén zhì; Wényuāngé shūmù; Míngrú xué àn (Huáng Zōngxī, j. 62); SKQS Zǐbù — Rújiā lèi. The companion Liúzǐ quánshū is separately preserved.

Translations and research

• Tu Weiming, The Way, Learning, and Politics: Essays on the Confucian Intellectual, Singapore Univeristy Press, 1989 — context.
• Wing-tsit Chan, “Liu Tsung-chou”, in Sources of Chinese Tradition (1960; rev. 1999) — selections.
• William T. de Bary, Self and Society in Ming Thought, Columbia, 1970 — context.
• Chow Kai-wing, The Rise of Confucian Ritualism in Late Imperial China, Stanford, 1994 — context for Liú’s ritual-reform influence on early-Qīng writers.
• Mou Tsung-san 牟宗三, Cóng Lù Xiàng-shān dào Liú Jǐ-shān 從陸象山到劉蕺山 (1979) — major Chinese-language treatment placing Liú in the Lù-Wáng-Liú line.

Other points of interest

The Liú Zōngzhōu / Huáng Zōngxī teacher-disciple relationship is one of the most consequential in late-imperial Chinese intellectual history: Huáng’s Míngrú xué àn (the foundational Lǐxué-historical work) takes Liú as the culminating Mid-Míng synthesiser, and Huáng’s positions in early-Qīng intellectual reform draw substantially on Liú’s shèn dú doctrine.

The 23-day starvation by which Liú died after the fall of Nánjīng — paralleling Huáng Zhèn’s late-Sòng self-starvation — is one of the cleanest cases of Lǐxué moral-personal continuity from SòngYuán transition to MíngQīng transition.

Links

• Míng shǐ j. 255 (Liú Zōngzhōu zhuàn).
• Liúzǐ quánshū (the complete works, separately preserved outside SKQS).
• Huáng Zōngxī 黃宗羲, Míngrú xué àn j. 62 (foundational treatment of Liú).
• Jiāng Xīzhé 姜希轍, edited Xué yán (preserved as juan 2–4 of this work).
• Kyoto Zinbun, Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào
• Wikipedia
• Wikidata