Gǔjīn tōnglùn 古今通論
General Discourse on Ancient and Modern (Times) by 王嬰 (Wáng Yīng, fl. Jìn, dates obscure)
About the work
A lost Jìn 晉 historical-philosophical compilation by Wáng Yīng 王嬰. Reconstructed from quotations in 《意林》, 《太平御覽》, and from Qútán Xīdá’s 瞿曇悉達 Kāiyuán zhàn jīng 開元占經 (the early Táng astronomical-omenological compendium, which preserves astronomical/cosmological passages). Not in the Sìkù quánshū; sourced from CHANT (CH2a1390).
Abstract
The Gǔjīn tōnglùn — also cited in some sources as Gǔjīn tōngyǔ 古今通語 — is one of several Jìn-period works that survived only through citation in Mǎ Zǒng’s 馬總 Táng-era Yìlín 意林. The fragments are eclectic: a substantial fraction are astronomical-cosmological (cited by Kāiyuán zhàn jīng for early imperial speculation on planetary motion and yīnyáng correlations); others are aphorisms on the rise and fall of dynasties — the gǔjīn 古今 frame in the title — and a few on moral psychology. The author Wáng Yīng is otherwise unrecorded in the standard histories; some Sòng catalogs treat him as a WèiJìn figure, others assign the title to a southern Jìn (SòngQí) author of the same name. The date-bracket here is conservative — the Jìn-period spread — pending more secure attribution. The received recension is a 19th-century jíyì.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located. The fragment-compilation is 嚴可均 Quán Jìn wén 全晉文 j. 144.
Links
- Yìlín 意林 (Mǎ Zǒng, Táng).
- Kāiyuán zhàn jīng 開元占經 (Qútán Xīdá, Táng, fl. 718).