Zhōushēngzǐ yàolùn 周生子要論
Essential Discussions of Master Zhōushēng by 周生烈 (Zhōushēng Liè, fl. mid-3rd century, 魏)
About the work
A lost CáoWèi 曹魏 Rújiā 儒家 treatise transmitted only in fragments. The received text is a Qing-era jíyì 輯佚 reconstruction assembled from quotations preserved in 《意林》, 《太平御覽》, 《北堂書鈔》, 《藝文類聚》, 《白居易六帖》 and related leishu. It is not in the Sìkù quánshū; the Kanripo entry derives from the CHANT corpus (CH2a1372).
Abstract
The Zhōushēngzǐ yàolùn is attributed to Zhōushēng Liè 周生烈 (compound surname 周生, míng Liè), a Wèi-period classicist whose biographical record is thin. The Sānguó zhì, Wèi shū j. 13 mentions him only obliquely; the Suí shū 經籍志 lists him as the author of a Lúnyǔ yìshuō 論語義說 and several other classical and zǐbù titles, of which only this Yàolùn survives as a reconstructed compilation. The fragments are aphoristic and moralistic, framed around statecraft maxims (御天下失節 四海失墜), the reading of men (賢哲不可以色貌誘之), and conventional Confucian themes of governance and litigation (聽訟…). Many of the longer passages are recovered from 《意林》 j. 5 — Mǎ Zǒng’s 馬總 Táng-era epitome — supplemented by short citations from 《太平御覽》 and 《北堂書鈔》. The composition window is bracketed to the author’s plausible career under Wèi (220–265); the received recension is a 19th-century jíyì.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located. The fragmentary survival has attracted occasional notice in Wèi-Jìn intellectual histories but no dedicated monograph or critical edition outside of Mǎ Guóhàn’s 馬國翰 Yùhán shānfáng jíyì shū 玉函山房輯佚書 collection.
Links
- Sānguó zhì 三國志 (《魏書》卷十三, 王肅傳附 注).
- Suí shū 隋書, jīngjí zhì 經籍志.