Dǐng lù 鼎錄
Record of Ritual Tripods (and other Bronze Vessels) by 虞荔 (Yú Lí, 503–561, 陳, zhuàn 撰)
About the work
A 1-juàn register of ritual tripods (dǐng 鼎) and other ancient bronze vessels, traditionally attributed to Yú Lí 虞荔 (zì Shānpī 山披, of Yúyáo 餘姚 in Kuàijī 會稽, 503–561). The work records bronze tripods from the Yellow Emperor and Xià Yǔ down through the SòngQíLiángChén, with the inscription, place of casting, dimensions and later transmission of each. The Sìkù editors note serious textual problems with the attribution: although the catalog meta marks Yú as Liáng (and the work-front prints him as a Liáng author), the Chénshū gives his career as principally under the Chén — and the present text contains an entry recording Chén Xuāndì’s casting of a tripod in the Tàijídiàn, which post-dates Yú’s death in Chén Tiānjiā 2 (561) by seven years. The Sìkù editors conclude that the body of the present text has been substantially interpolated by later hands and that the Liáng attribution is incorrect — Yú is properly a Chén writer. The work nonetheless appears in the Táng catalog (《唐志》), and corresponds in title to entries also cited in Cháo Gōngwǔ’s 晁公武 Dúshū zhì 讀書志 — although Cháo separately lists a Dǐng lù by Wú Xié 吳協, which the Sìkù editors suggest is a transmission error from Yú Lí (吳/虞, 協/荔 being graphically close).
Tiyao
We have respectfully examined: Dǐng lù in one juàn, with the old text titled “By Yú Lí of the Liáng.” Consulting the Chénshū lièzhuàn: Lí, zì Shānpī, of Yúyáo in Kuàijī; in his official career he was Liáng Xīzhōngláng xíngcānjūn, advancing to Zhōngshū shèrén; with the Hóu Jǐng disorder he returned to his native place; under the early Chén he was summoned to be Tàizǐ zhōngshùzǐ, Lǐng dàzhùzuò, Dōngyáng and Yángzhōu èrzhōu dàzhōngzhèng, and after his death awarded Shìzhōng with the shì “Dé.” Therefore Lí should be a Chén person; the “Liáng” label is wrong. The book is not entered in his standard biography; the Táng catalog is the first to record it. But checking the book: it contains the text of Chén Xuāndì’s casting a tripod in the Tàijídiàn. Lí died in Chén Wéndì’s Tiānjiā 2 (561); down to Línhǎiwáng Guāngdà 2 (568) when Xuāndì succeeded — first to last, seven years — and Lí would not have been alive to anticipate the posthumous title. The interpolation by later hands is therefore beyond doubt. Further: the juàn-front xù prose records the Xià tripod, which should follow the Yellow Emperor entry — clearly there was no original preface; readers without discernment have moved the text. As the transmission has been long, the book has been repeatedly corrupted, genuine and false no longer distinguishable; we preserve it specifically for its old standing. Further, according to Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì, a Dǐng lù by Wú Xié is separately listed; Tōngkǎo records both this book and that one. But the other has no other sighting — we suspect Wú (吳) close to Yú (虞) and Xié (協) close to Lí (荔) in transmission; misread, falsely split into two. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 46 (1781), tenth month.
Abstract
The Dǐng lù is the earliest surviving Chinese register of ritual tripods and bronze vessels as a distinct genre, predating Lǚ Dàlín’s KR3h0086 Kǎogǔ tú of the Northern Sòng by some 500 years. Yú Lí 虞荔 (503–561) was a Chén-period scholar-official from Yúyáo in present-day Zhèjiāng; his attestation in the Chénshū shows him as a learned bibliophile and ritual specialist. The Sìkù editors’ careful unmasking of the post-Yú interpolations (especially the Chén Xuāndì tripod entry) is a useful piece of kǎozhèng itself. The catalog meta dates Yú 503–561 (matching the standard sources); the work’s dating range is bracketed by his career under the Chén (post-557 to his death). The work was widely consulted in the Sòng jīnshí xué (epigraphy) tradition as evidence for archaic tripod inscriptions, although the Sòng compilers like Lǚ Dàlín and Wáng Fǔ already recognised many of its claims as legendary rather than empirically verifiable. The work’s Daoist colouring — its emphasis on tripod-casting as a ritual cosmological act — places it alongside KR3h0083 Táo Hóngjǐng’s Gǔjīn dāojiàn lù as a LiángChén Daoist contribution to the historiography of metalwork.
Translations and research
- Wáng Guówéi 王國維. Sòng-dài jīn-wén zhù-lù-biǎo 宋代金文著錄表. (Various editions, the standard table of Sòng bronze inscriptions, which uses the Dǐng lù extensively.)
- Falkenhausen, Lothar von. Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius (1000–250 BC). Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, 2006. [On the political theology of dǐng-casting.]
- No standalone Western-language monograph on the Dǐng lù.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù editors’ identification of Wú Xié as a transmission error for Yú Lí is a useful test-case for evaluating Sòng bibliographic-catalog citations: when the same work appears under two compiler-names in different catalogs, graphic similarity should be checked before postulating a separate work. The principle is followed by all later Chinese cataloguers.