Huángjí jīngshì suǒyǐn 皇極經世索引
Index-Searching of the Huángjí jīngshì by 張行成 (Zhāng Xíngchéng, fl. 1132–1166, 宋, zhuàn 撰)
About the work
Zhāng Xíngchéng’s 2-juan elaboration of Shào Yōng’s KR3g0005 Huángjí jīngshì shū — supplementing Shào Bótāo’s 邵伯溫 (Shào Yōng’s son) earlier commentary by explicating the xiàngshù 象數 (image-and-number) cosmological-numerical apparatus that Shào Bótāo had not addressed in detail. The work is one of the seven Yìshuō studies (Yìshuō qīzhǒng) that Zhāng Xíngchéng presented to the throne in Qiándào 2 (1166); the imperial acceptance and the awarding of the Zhí Huīyóu Gé honor established Zhāng Xíngchéng as the principal Southern-Sòng heir of the Shàoshì cosmological school.
The work’s structure (per the 提要):
- An overall序 xù (preface) and 兩 liǎng (two) cosmological-summary diagrams: 總要圖 Zǒngyào tú (Comprehensive-Essentials Diagram) and 機要圖 Jīyào tú (Operational-Essentials Diagram)
- Topical commentary on Shào Yōng’s Guānwù piān 觀物篇 (Observing-Things Chapter) — interspersed throughout the corresponding sections of Shào Bótāo’s commentary
The Sìkù editors note that the original Yǒnglè dàdiǎn-derived recension had Zhāng Xíngchéng’s commentary “disorderedly attached under each section of Shào Bótāo’s commentary, severely losing its old [arrangement]“. The Sìkù-recension restores Zhāng Xíngchéng’s commentary to its original sequential ordering as a complete-and-self-standing 2-juan work.
The 提要 articulates the work’s intellectual position: Shào Yōng’s Yì-tradition descends from Chén Tuán 陳摶 (the foundational Northern-Sòng cosmographer-and-mystic), via Lǐ Tǐngzhī 李挺之 and Mù Xiū 穆修, “to the Yì of Xī, Wén, Zhōu, and Kǒng [the canonical Confucian Yì-tradition], its principles are clearly different paths”. Therefore Shào Yōng “once tried to teach his method to Master Chéng [Chéng Yí 程頤], but Master Chéng would not receive [it]”; Zhū Xī also called the Shàoshì school “the Yì’s special-transmission outside [the canonical line]” — non-specialist scholars cannot understand the cosmological-numerological apparatus.
The Confucian commentators of subsequent generations have accordingly tended to mix the Shàoshì cosmological apparatus with canonical Yì-explication, “sometimes citing the [Huángjí] book to explain the Yì, sometimes citing the Yì to explain the [Huángjí] — only confusing each other, not sufficient to mutually-illuminate”. Zhāng Xíngchéng, by working primarily within the Shàoshì framework rather than mixing it with canonical Yì-explication, “provided substantive expansion to the Shàoshì school’s [internal] discussion”.
The 提要 also corrects a juàn-count error: the Sòng Yìwén zhì records the work as 1 juàn; Zhāng Xíngchéng’s own original presentation memorial says 2 juàn. The Sìkù follows the original memorial.
For the foundational Shào Yōng work, see KR3g0005 Huángjí jīngshì shū. For Zhāng Xíngchéng’s broader oeuvre, see 張行成. For other Shào-shì-school works in the Sìkù, see the various KR3g entries that follow.
Tiyao
[Full text in source file. Dated Qiánlóng 46 (1781), ninth month.]
Translations and research
- Smith, Kidder Jr., Peter K. Bol, Joseph A. Adler, and Don J. Wyatt. Sung Dynasty Uses of the I Ching, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990.
- Limited substantial secondary literature on Zhāng Xíngchéng specifically.
Other points of interest
The 提要’s articulation of the Yì wài biézhuàn (special-transmission outside the Yì) framing — adopted from Zhū Xī — is the standard late-imperial Chinese understanding of the Shàoshì school’s relation to the canonical Yì-tradition. The Sìkù’s accommodation of the school within the shùshù (numerical-arts) division (rather than with the canonical Yì-tradition in the Jīngbù) institutionally formalizes Zhū Xī’s interpretation.
Links
- ctext.org: https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=gb&res=569524 (Sìkù 提要 j. 108)