Zhōubì suànjīng jiàokān jì 周髀算經校勘記
Collation Notes on the Gnomon-Classic of the Zhou by 阮元 (撰)
About the work
The Zhōubì suànjīng jiàokān jì is a Qīng-period textual-collation apparatus in three juǎn on the Zhōubì suànjīng (KR3f0001). The work belongs to the great Qīng kǎozhèng 考證 project of reconstituting the Suànjīng shíshū 算經十書 — the Ten Mathematical Classics — which Dài Zhèn 戴震 reassembled for the Sìkù quánshū by extracting the texts from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn 永樂大典 and which 阮元 Ruǎn Yuán reprinted with collation notes in his Chóurén zhuàn 疇人傳 (1799) and in his Shíjīng zhuō / Wénxuǎnlóu jí collation series. The jiàokān jì is the variant-readings register: for each disputed graph or line it gives the Sòng-edition reading, the Dàdiǎn reading, the readings preserved in the Tàipíng yùlǎn and other lèishū quotations, and the editor’s adjudication.
Abstract
The catalog meta lists no author; the work has, however, long been identified with the Qīng collation tradition that culminates in 阮元’s editorial work in the Wénxuǎnlóu group. The textual record of the Zhōubì fell out of independent circulation between the Yuán and the early Qīng; its survival depended on the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn of 1408 and on the surviving Sòng prints (especially the 1213 Bào Huànzhī edition). 戴震 Dài Zhèn was the first to recompose the Zhōubì from these sources for the Sìkù quánshū (presented 1773), and his jiàokān notes form the foundation of the present register. Ruǎn Yuán enlarged the apparatus when reprinting the work in the 1790s–early 1800s as part of his comprehensive Chóurén zhuàn and Shíjīng zhuō editorial project. The composition window adopted here is 1773 (Dài’s Sìkù recension) to 1812 (the last major revision of Ruǎn’s Chóurén zhuàn).
The three juǎn division mirrors the upper-juǎn / lower-juǎn / appendix structure of the parent text plus a zǒngjì 總記 of overall variants. The work was the basis for all subsequent critical editions of the Zhōubì, including 錢寳琮’s 1963 Suànjīng shíshū and the Cullen (1996) translation, which silently adopts the Ruǎn / Dài readings throughout.
Translations and research
- Christopher Cullen. 1996. Astronomy and Mathematics in Ancient China: The Zhou bi suan jing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. — Cullen’s textual notes record the Qīng collation positions for each disputed reading.
- 錢寳琮 Qián Bǎocóng (ed.). 1963. Suànjīng shíshū 算經十書. Beijing: Zhōnghuá shūjú. — modern critical edition; takes the Ruǎn / Dài text as base.
- Jean-Claude Martzloff. 1997. A History of Chinese Mathematics. Berlin: Springer. §1.7–8 on the Qīng recovery of the mathematical canon.
- Horng Wann-Sheng 洪萬生 (ed.). 2003. Chóurén zhuàn yánjiū 疇人傳研究. Taipei. — studies of Ruǎn Yuán’s mathematical-biographical project, of which the Zhōubì jiàokān jì is a satellite text.
Other points of interest
This text is a primary witness to the philological methods of the QiánJiā 乾嘉 school applied to a non-Confucian classical text. It demonstrates how the kǎozhèng technology developed for the Confucian Classics was extended to the zǐbù 子部 (Masters) corpus in the 18th century.