Jīngwài záchāo 經外雜抄
Miscellaneous Notes Beyond the Classics
by 魏了翁 (Wèi Liǎowēng, 1178–1237; zì Huáfū 華夫, hào Hèshān 鶴山; major late-Sòng Lǐ-school scholar of Pújiāng 蒲江)
About the work
A short bǐjì in two juan attributed to Wèi Liǎowēng, consisting of unconnected excerpts and brief jottings on a wide range of matters from the Sù wèn 素問 and the Gǔshī shíjiǔ shǒu 古詩十九首 to Sòng Yì-school diagrams (Yáng Dǐngchén’s 楊鼎臣 Fāngyuán xiāngshēng tú 方圓相生圖, Rén Zhíwēng’s 任直翁 Yì xīnxué xiāntiān yuánzhōng tú 易心學先天圜中圖), commentary on the Shuōwén 說文 (Yú Zhòngfáng’s 虞仲房 Shuōwén wǔyīn pǔ 說文五音譜, Lǐ Dào’s 李燾 thesis on Lǚ Chén’s 呂忱 supposed zhòu-form 籀體 interpolations), and historical-political miscellanea (Lù Zhì 陸贄 on the quán 權 character before Yīchuān 伊川 [Chéng Yí 程頤]; Hán Yù’s 韓愈 letter to Lǐ Shí 李實 vs. the Shùnzōng shílù 順宗實錄). The Sìkù editors note that the text shows the marks of a private working notebook gathered for evidential reference rather than a finished work — duplicated entries appear across both juan, and many citations are reduced to “thus-and-thus” yúnyún 云云 placeholders. The Sìkù editors further suggest that posthumous transcribers of Wèi Liǎowēng’s literary remains assembled the book from his draft material. Catalogued under Záxué zhī shǔ 雜學之屬 of the Zájiā 雜家 division (subdivision zákǎo 雜考).
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Jīngwài záchāo in two juan was composed by Wèi Liǎowēng of the Sòng. Liǎowēng’s Zhōuyì yào yì 周易要義 has already been catalogued. This compilation is wholly miscellaneous excerpts from various books, with brief notes of his own opinion appended below; many entries do not give the full text but only “thus-and-thus” (yúnyún 云云); some, like the Yuánzǐ xīnguī 元子心規 piece, appear in both juan. He clearly recorded matters as they came to hand, for his own evidential reference, with no intention of authoring a finished book; later persons obtained his draft and copied it into chapters.
Among its contents, items like the excerpts from the Gǔshī shíjiǔ shǒu 古詩十九首 and from the Sù wèn 素問 are devoid of evident point; entries on the turtle whose name is Yuánxù 元緒 and the mulberry whose name is Zǐmíng 子明 are particularly trivial and minute. Yet items such as Zōu Huái’s 鄒淮 record of the star-counts; Yáng Dǐngchén’s 楊鼎臣 Fāngyuán xiāngshēng tú 方圓相生圖; Wú Hàng’s 吳沆 Duìwèn lù 對問錄 on the Míngtáng 明堂 institution; Rén Zhíwēng’s 任直翁 Yì xīnxué xiāntiān yuánzhōng tú 易心學先天圜中圖 — all of these afford material for evidential research. Further: he argues that Yú Zhòngfáng’s 虞仲房 edition of the Shuōwén wǔyīn pǔ misses Lǐ Dào’s 李燾 original intent; that Lǐ Dào’s suspicion that the Shuōwén zhòu-graphs were inserted by Lǚ Chén 呂忱 is wrong; that the practice of xiàngshè 像設 (image-installation) begins with the Zhāo hún 招魂; that Cháng Yuánkǎi 常元楷’s stopping of the gates was contemptible; that teacher and friend are not exhausted by formal instruction or formal study, since the spirit and demeanour have their own places of mutual stimulation; that Lù Zhì 陸贄 understood the quán 權 character before Yīchuān; that Hán Yù’s letter to Lǐ Shí stands in self-contradiction with the Shùnzōng shílù; that the Bǎo Shǔ bēi 保蜀碑 inscription only enlarges the merit of the Wú 吳 family without seeing the wound to the central state — all of these arguments hit the truth of the matter. His citation of the first stanza of the Lǐnlǐn suì yún mù 凜凜歲云暮 piece, where the second line reads “lóugū duō míng bēi 螻蛄多鳴悲” (in agreement with the Sòng-edition Yùtái xīnyǒng 玉臺新詠), suffices also to demonstrate the corruption of the present Wén xuǎn 文選 print.
Respectfully revised and submitted, eleventh month of the forty-sixth year of Qiánlóng [1781].
General Compilers: Jǐ Yún 紀昀 (note: 均 in the original is a typographical slip for 昀), Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. General Reviser: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
Wèi Liǎowēng 魏了翁 (1178–1237), of Pújiāng 蒲江 in Línqióng 臨卭 (modern Sìchuān), was one of the principal Lǐ-school 理學 thinkers of the late Southern Sòng — a jìnshì of 1199, Lǐbù shàngshū 禮部尚書 and Cānzhī zhèngshì 參知政事 under Lǐzōng, and the compiler of the Jiǔjīng yào yì 九經要義 (the Yì-portion of which is in the Kanripo corpus as KR1a0054). The Jīngwài záchāo is a posthumous publication assembled from his private working-notes; the title — “miscellaneous excerpts beyond the classics” — frames it as the supplement to the more formally redacted Jiǔjīng yào yì project. The Sìkù editors’ assessment is that the text shows clear marks of being unfinished private material (duplicated entries across the two juan, “thus-and-thus” placeholders for citations Wèi intended later to fill in, occasionally trivial subjects such as the alternate names of the turtle and the mulberry), but that interspersed with these are arguments of substantial weight on Sòng Yì-school diagrams, Shuōwén scholarship, mid-Táng political history, and the textual transmission of the Gǔshī shíjiǔ shǒu 古詩十九首.
The dating bracket adopted here (notBefore 1200, notAfter 1237) reflects Wèi Liǎowēng’s adult composing life from just after his jìnshì down to his death; the materials are not internally datable to a tighter window, and the work was assembled from drafts after his death rather than circulated in his lifetime.
The Wèi Liǎowēng bǐjì corpus also includes the brief KR3j0049 Gǔjīn kǎo 古今攷 (1 juan in the original; greatly expanded by Yuán Fāng Huí’s 方回 Xù gǔjīn kǎo 續古今考 in the Sìkù recension), and his collected works Hèshān xiānshēng dàquán wénjí 鶴山先生大全文集 (110 juan, in Sìbù cóngkān) preserve much further evidential and exegetical material.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located in any European language. The text is briefly treated within the framework of broader Wèi Liǎo-wēng studies in Chinese:
- Cài Fāngluó 蔡方鹿, Wèi Liǎo-wēng pínɡzhuàn 魏了翁評傳 (Bā-Shǔ shūshè, 2002; Sòng-Míng lǐxué jiā píngzhuàn cóngshū).
- Hú Zhāoxī 胡昭曦, Liú Fùshēng 劉復生, et al., Sòng-dài Shǔ-xué yánjiū 宋代蜀學研究 (Bā-Shǔ shūshè, 1997).
- The text is included with collation notes in Zhū Yìxuán 朱易安 et al. (eds.), Quán Sòng bǐjì 全宋筆記, ser. 6 (Dàxiàng chūbǎnshè, 2013).
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào 四庫全書總目提要, Zǐbù · Zájiā lèi 2 · Zákǎo zhī shǔ, Jīngwài záchāo entry.
- Companion Wèi Liǎowēng bǐjì: KR3j0049 Gǔjīn kǎo (with Yuán Fāng Huí’s continuation).
- Wikidata: no separate entry located.