劉子

Liúzǐ 劉子

The Master Liú

by 劉晝 (Liú Zhòu, zì Kǒngzhāo 孔昭; Northern Qí, fl. c. 540–565; attribution disputed — sometimes traced to Liú Xié 劉勰 KR4i0001); annotated by 袁孝政 (Yuán Xiàozhèng, Táng, Bōzhōu lùshì cānjūn 播州録事參軍)

About the work

A Northern-Dynasties philosophical miscellany in ten juan and fifty-five piān, conventionally attributed to the Northern Qí scholar Liú Zhòu 劉晝 of Bóhǎi Fùchéng 渤海阜城. The text is one of the most contested zǐ-books in the Chinese tradition: the Suí shū · Jīngjí zhì does not list it; the Jiù- and XīnTángshū jīngjí zhì attribute it to Liú Xié 劉勰 (i.e. the author of the Wénxīn diāolóng 文心雕龍 KR4i0001); Chén Zhènsūn’s 陳振孫 Zhízhāi shūlù jiětí 直齋書錄解題 and Cháo Gōngwǔ’s 晁公武 Jùnzhāi dúshū zhì 郡齋讀書志 — both following the (now-lost) preface of the Táng commentator Yuán Xiàozhèng — give Liú Zhòu of the Northern Qí; the Sòng shǐ · Yìwén zhì follows the same; later editors have variously proposed Liú Xīn 劉歆 (anachronistic) and Liú Xiàobiāo 劉孝標 (no documentary basis). The Sìkù editors, after weighing the evidence — chiefly internal contradictions with Liú Xié’s known views (the Liúzǐ Biànyuè 辨樂 chapter contradicts the Wénxīn diāolóng Yuèfǔ 樂府 chapter on the origins of the four regional musical traditions; the Liúzǐ concludes with a pro-Daoist Guī xīn 歸心 chapter, contrary to Liú Xié’s well-attested late Buddhist conversion) — settle on Liú Zhòu as the most defensible attribution while frankly admitting that the question cannot be conclusively closed. The book is a záxué compendium combining Confucian moral, Daoist cosmological, Legalist administrative, and military elements; its closing Jiǔliú 九流 chapter — a critical taxonomy of the nine schools of Pre-Qín thought — closely follows (or is closely followed by) the Suí shū · Jīngjí zhì zǐbù preface, a fact the Sìkù editors deploy in their dating argument. Catalogued under Záxué zhī shǔ 雜學之屬 of the Zájiā 雜家.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that Liúzǐ in ten juan is not listed in the Suí zhì. The Táng zhì writes the author as Liú Xié 劉勰 of Liáng. Chén Zhènsūn’s 陳振孫 Zhízhāi shūlù jiětí and Cháo Gōngwǔ’s 晁公武 Dúshū zhì both — following the preface of the Táng Bōzhōu lùshì cānjūn 播州録事參軍 Yuán Xiàozhèng 袁孝政 — give the author as Liú Zhòu 劉晝 of the Northern Qí. The Sòng shǐ · Yìwén zhì likewise gives Liú Zhòu. Since the Míng, the printed editions have not contained the Yuán-shi annotation, and likewise have not contained his preface; only Chén Zhènsūn preserves the gist of the preface — namely: “Zhòu, grieving that he had not met his time, and that the empire was in decline and disorder, exiled himself south of the Yangtze and so wrote this book; the men of his time did not know him, and so it has been said to be by Liú Xié, by Liú Xīn, or by Liú Xiàobiāo. We do not know what authorities these claims rest on; therefore Mr. Chén concludes that, in the end, [we cannot say] in what age Zhòu lived.”

We submit that of the Liáng tōngshì shèrén 通事舍人 Liú Xié, the histories say only that he composed the fifty piān of the Wénxīn diāolóng 文心雕龍 — they do not say there is a separate book. Moreover the Yuèfǔ piān 樂府篇 of the Wénxīn diāolóng says: “[The song called] Túshān 塗山 began the southern music; Hòurén 候人 [the song the women sang waiting for Hòu Yì 后羿] is the precedent. The Yǒu Sōng yáo 有娀謠 began the northern voice. Xià Jiǎ’s 夏甲 lament at Dōngyáng 東陽 originated the eastern music; Yīn Zhěng’s 殷整 thought at the West River originated the western music.” But the Biànyuè piān 辨樂篇 of this book says: “Xià Jiǎ composed the song ‘Smashing the Axe’, and so the eastern music began” — agreeing with Liú Xié’s account; but it goes on to say “Yīn Xīn 殷辛 [i.e. King Zhòu of Shāng] composed the míngmí zhī yuè 靡靡之樂, and the northern voice originated” — a flatly different account from Liú Xié. Necessarily, then, these are not from one and the same hand. Furthermore, the histories say that Liú Xié excelled in Buddhist doctrine, that he once collated the sūtra-store at Dōnglín Monastery 東林寺, and that in his old age he took the tonsure and was renamed Huìdì 慧地; but this book ends with a Guī xīn 歸心 chapter that returns the heart to Daoism — diametrically opposite in inclination to Liú Xié. Bái Yúnzhì 白雲霽’s Dàozàng mùlù 道蔵目録 also receives it, in the Tàixuán division 太元部 unnumbered character group — clearly not the work of one who served the Buddha. Recent editions have continued to print “Liú Xié” — a serious oversight.

The Liú Xiàobiāo theory has no textual support whatsoever in the Nán shǐ or Liáng shū. The Liú Xīn theory is destroyed by the fact that Jīqí 激通 chapter says “Bān Chāo 班超 was provoked and so practised the military arts, and ultimately accomplished his work in the Western Regions” — a chronological impossibility for Liú Xīn (who died before Bān Chāo was born). That leaves only Liú Zhòu of the Northern Qí, zì Kǒngzhāo 孔昭, of Bóhǎi Fùchéng 渤海阜城, whose name appears in the Bei shǐ Rúlín lièzhuàn 北史儒林傳. But [Liú Zhòu is recorded as] never having gone south of the Yangtze, which fails to match Yuán Xiàozhèng’s preface. The biography says Zhòu was orphaned and poor, loved learning, would unroll books day and night without rest, twice failed the Cultivated Talent (xiùcái 秀才) examination, regretted he had not studied composition, and only then took up belletristic embellishment — his speech was very ancient and clumsy, which also fails to match this book’s ornate brilliance and trim elegance. The biography also says that having failed the xiùcái examination ten years in a row he was inflamed and composed a Gāocái bùyù zhuàn 高才不遇傳 [“Biographies of Talented Men who Did Not Meet their Time”]; that in the time of Emperor Xiàozhāo 孝昭帝 he went to Jìnyáng 晉陽 and presented a memorial that was likewise blunt and direct, but was widely seen as out of step and never accepted; that he then collected the writings he had presented under the title Dì dào 帝道, and again, in the Héqīng 河清 [Northern Qí 562–565] reign, composed Jīnxiāng bìyán 金箱璧言 [“Jewel Words from the Gold-trimmed Casket”] to indict the deficiencies of governance — but again [his biography] does not say he composed this book. Could what Yuán Xiàozhèng points to be yet another Liú Zhòu? Examining the Jiǔliú piān 九流篇 at the end of the book, what it says of the merits and faults [of the various schools] all agrees with what is said in the Suí shū · Jīngjí zhì zǐbù preface. If the Suí zhì had taken up [Liúzǐ’s] formulation, it should not have failed to record the book; if [Liúzǐ] is plagiarising the Suí zhì, then [Liúzǐ] is the work of a post-Zhēnguān 貞觀 [post-627] hand. Or perhaps Yuán Xiàozhèng himself collected the words of the zhūzǐ and made this book, and put his own annotation to it, and obscured its authorial origin to confuse posterity — that we cannot rule out either.

But the name “Liú Xié” can now be confidently judged false and ought to be cancelled; the name “Liú Zhòu” lies between probable and dubious and is hard to pronounce on with finality. We provisionally retain Cháo Gōngwǔ’s and Chén Zhènsūn’s two catalogue-readings, attribute the work to Zhòu, and append the contradicting evidence as above.

Respectfully revised and submitted, tenth month of the forty-sixth year of Qiánlóng [1781].

General Compilers: Jǐ Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. General Reviser: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.

Abstract

The Liúzǐ (alternatively Liúzǐ xīn lùn 劉子新論) is a collection of fifty-five short essays on cosmology, character, governance, and the ranking of knowledge — gathered into ten juan with a closing Jiǔliú 九流 taxonomy of the Pre-Qín schools and a Guī xīn 歸心 (“Returning the Heart”) chapter that affirms a Daoist orientation. Its authorial attribution has been the principal philological problem of the work since the Sòng. The Táng catalogues (Jiù Táng shū · Jīngjí zhì; Xīn Táng shū · Yìwén zhì) credit Liú Xié 劉勰 of the Liáng (the author of the Wénxīn diāolóng KR4i0001); the Sòng catalogues, following the (now-lost) preface of the Táng commentator Yuán Xiàozhèng 袁孝政, credit Liú Zhòu 劉晝 (zì Kǒngzhāo 孔昭; Northern Qí; biography in Bei shǐ 81 Rúlín zhuàn); the Sòng shǐ · Yìwén zhì and the Sìkù editors retain Liú Zhòu while admitting the question is not finally settled. Modern philological scholarship (Lín Qíxián 林其錟 and Chén Fèngjīn 陳鳳金, Liúzǐ jíjiào 劉子集校, 1985, and again Liúzǐ jíjiào hé biàn 劉子集校合編, 1998; Wáng Lìqì 王利器 in his various contributions; Yáng Mínggāo 楊明高, Liúzǐ jiàoshì 劉子校釋, 1998; the Dūnhuáng manuscript discoveries — Stein 5419, Pelliot 3704 et al. — have proved decisive in this) treats the question as still open, but on balance accepts Liú Zhòu as the most defensible candidate, with the work composed in the central or late Northern Qí period (mid-6th century).

The bracket adopted here (notBefore 530, notAfter 565) reflects the active span of Liú Zhòu’s recorded writings, with the terminus ante quem anchored by the end of the Northern Qí Héqīng 河清 reign (565). The work entered the Daoist canon as DZ 1030 (cf. KR5d0053); the Northern Sòng Tàipíng yùlǎn 太平御覽 cites it heavily, indicating wide pre-Sòng circulation. The Yuán Xiàozhèng commentary, transmitted with the work through the Yuán, was lost in Míng printings and is now known only in scattered re-citations (the modern Lín–Chén 1998 edition is the standard reconstruction of the commentary fragments).

The Sìkù editors’ contradiction-by-contradiction case for non-Liú-Xié authorship — divergent music-history (the Biànyuè 辨樂 chapter departs sharply from the Wénxīn diāolóng Yuèfǔ 樂府); divergent religious orientation (the closing Guī xīn 歸心 chapter is Daoist, contrary to Liú Xié’s well-attested Buddhist conversion to the monk Huìdì 慧地); inclusion of the work in the Daozang’s Tàixuán 太元 division — remains philologically persuasive and is followed by all modern scholarship of any standing.

Translations and research

• Lín Qíxián 林其錟 and Chén Fèngjīn 陳鳳金, Liúzǐ jíjiào 劉子集校 (Shànghǎi gǔjí, 1985), and the major revision Liúzǐ jíjiào hé biàn 劉子集校合編 (Huádōng shīfàn dàxué, 1998). The standard modern critical edition, gathering the Dūnhuáng manuscript witnesses (S. 5419, P. 3704, etc.) with the printed-edition tradition. Indispensable.
• Wáng Lìqì 王利器, Liúzǐ jíjiào 劉子集校 (Shànghǎi gǔjí, 1981 — distinct edition from Lín-Chén). Earlier authoritative collation.
• Yáng Mínggāo 楊明高, Liúzǐ jiàoshì 劉子校釋 (Bā-Shǔ shūshè, 1998). Modern annotated edition with paraphrase.
• Fù Zhìfū 傅志福, Liúzǐ yánjiū 劉子研究 (Bā-Shǔ shūshè, 1986). Monograph on the textual problems and intellectual context.
• Frédéric Nicolas, “Le Liu zi (livre de Maître Liu): un texte controversé du Vie siècle,” Études chinoises (1990s — partial study and selective French translation).
• Donald Holzman’s review essays of the 1980s reconstruction work in T’oung Pao and Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (the most accessible English-language treatments of the authorship question).
• Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào 四庫全書總目提要, Zǐbù · Zájiā lèi, Liúzǐ entry — itself a sustained essay in pseudepigraphy criticism and a model of Sìkù-period sceptical scholarship.

There is no complete English translation. A complete French version was reportedly in preparation by Frédéric Nicolas but has not, to my knowledge, appeared. The Liúzǐ remains under-translated relative to its philosophical and historical interest.

Other points of interest

The Liúzǐ is among the most heavily-cited Pre-Táng zǐ-books in early TángSòng lèishū 類書 (the Yǐ Wén lèi jù 藝文類聚, the Tàipíng yùlǎn 太平御覽, the Cèfǔ yuánguī 冊府元龜) — testimony that, whatever the question of authorship, the work circulated widely and was treated as authoritative. The Dūnhuáng manuscript witnesses (especially S. 5419, an early-Táng copy with substantial passages of the lost Yuán Xiàozhèng commentary preserved in its margins) discovered in the early twentieth century radically transformed the textual situation and underlie all serious modern editorial work. The text’s concluding Jiǔliú 九流 chapter — a sober and well-organised critical doxography of the nine Pre-Qín schools — is a key intermediate witness between the Hàn shū · Yìwén zhì zǐbù preface and the Suí shū · Jīngjí zhì zǐbù preface, and is itself a small monument of medieval Chinese intellectual history.

Links

• Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào 四庫全書總目提要, Zǐbù · Zájiā lèi, Liúzǐ entry.
• Wikipedia: Liuzi; Liu Zhou. Wikidata: Q15976010 (Liuzi).
• Parallel recension: KR5d0053 (Dàozàng DZ 1030, with Yuán Xiàozhèng commentary).
• Cf. KR4i0001 (Wénxīn diāolóng by Liú Xié — wrongly named as author of the present text by the Táng catalogues).