Míng yì kǎo 名義考
Investigation of Names and Their Meanings
by 周祈 (Zhōu Qí, fl. late sixteenth century; of Qízhōu 蘄州)
About the work
A 12-juan late-Wàn-lì lexical-etymological compendium organized as a four-domain encyclopedia: Tiān bù 天部 (the heavens) in 2 juan, Dì bù 地部 (earth) in 2 juan, Rén bù 人部 (the human realm) in 4 juan, and Wù bù 物部 (things) in 4 juan. Within each domain individual terms are taken up, glossed from received literature, and given comparative source-citations where variant readings exist. The book carries prefaces by Liú Rúchǒng 劉如寵 dated Wànlì jiǎshēn 萬曆甲申 (1584) and by Yuán Chāngzuò 袁昌祚 (re-issue preface) dated Wànlì guǐwèi 萬曆癸未 (1583). Both prefatory writers refer to Zhōu Qí as having served as mínbù láng 民部郎 (= hùbù lángzhōng), but the exact office and dates are not securely recoverable.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Míng yì kǎo in twelve juan was compiled by Zhōu Qí of the Míng. Qí was a Qízhōu man; the beginning and end of his career cannot be determined. At the front is a Wànlì jiǎshēn (1584) preface by Liú Rúchǒng, calling him “a great gentleman of Zhōu”; there is also a Wànlì guǐwèi (1583) reprint preface by Yuán Chāngzuò, calling him “once mínbù láng — having served from receiving classical instruction in early youth to wearing a seal-cord on the post-carriage.” But what office exactly he held is not clear.
The book has Tiān bù in 2 juan, Dì bù in 2 juan, Rén bù in 4 juan, Wù bù in 4 juan. Each name and its meaning is taken up and explicated; where there are disagreements, multiple sources are cross-cited for resolution. Although the chapter-headings are extensive, errors are unavoidable. For example: his discussion of the moon and the stars ignores the methods of astronomy; his discussion of the source of the [Yellow] River relies wholly on hearsay slips; his discussion of guǎng lún 廣輪 (breadth and longitude) does not know that the Zhōu lǐ already has the term; his discussion of huà rì 化日 [a phrase in the Láizǐ] does not know that no such phrase exists in Láizǐ; his discussion of the Xiānbēi treats Liǔchéng 柳城 as Liǔzhōu; his discussion of corporal punishment treats HànWén [emperor Wén of Hàn] as WèiWén [emperor Wén of Wèi]; his discussion of the kōnghóu 箜篌 [zither] takes it as the pípá; his discussion of Dù Fǔ’s poem treats zhú gēn 竹根 (“bamboo root”) as a wine-cup. Such contradictions are recurring. Yet his rectifications of errors and resolutions of doubts are mostly worth taking. He fails — only — in not citing his sources for received passages: a general failing in Míng-era authors.
Respectfully revised and submitted, third month of the forty-second year of Qiánlóng [1777].
General Compilers: Jǐ Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. General Reviser: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
Zhōu Qí 周祈 (fl. Wànlì period; native of Qízhōu 蘄州 in Húguǎng) is otherwise unknown beyond what his contemporary prefaces report. He had a Hùbù (Ministry of Revenue) provincial-bureaucratic career and was mínbù lángzhōng; his eventual office, exact dates, and jìnshì status are unrecoverable. The Sìkù editors’ note “his beginning and end cannot be traced” is still accurate. He is not registered in CBDB.
The Míng yì kǎo is a methodologically interesting work in the broader late-Míng tradition of the encyclopedic-evidential bǐjì. Its four-domain organization (tiān / dì / rén / wù) is borrowed from the encyclopedic lèishū tradition (cf. the Tàipíng yùlǎn); within each domain, however, the entries are not encyclopedic compilations but evidential-philological glosses of individual terms — closer in spirit to a specialized xùngǔ 訓詁 dictionary than to a lèishū. The book contributed to the parallel tradition of Wànlì lexicons of names, alongside Wáng Zhuó’s 王灼 Bì jì màn zhì and other specialized bǐjì.
The Sìkù editors’ assessment is mixed but generally favourable: while they enumerate eight specific errors (astronomical, geographical, philological, historical), they conclude that the overall corrective work in the book is “mostly worth taking.” The principal methodological criticism is Míng-era practice: failure to cite sources for received passages — a general weakness of late-Míng evidential writing that the early-Qīng Hàn xué school sharply corrected.
Dating. The two surviving prefaces (Yuán Chāngzuò 1583, Liú Rúchǒng 1584) anchor the printed text to Wànlì 11–12. The actual composition predates the prefaces, perhaps by a decade or so. The notBefore/notAfter bracket adopted here (1583–1584) follows the imprint dates.
The work is registered only in late Míng and early Qīng catalogues and the Sìkù; no earlier or alternative recensions are known. The SKQS recension is the standard text.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language secondary literature located. The work is intermittently cited in Chinese-language late-Míng bǐjì studies. Standard reprint editions exist in Cóng-shū jí-chéng and in modern punctuated editions issued by Zhōnghuá shūjú in the late twentieth century.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù editors’ systematic enumeration of eight specific errors in the Míng yì kǎo is an unusually thorough negative critique. The errors itemized (astronomical, geographical, philological, historical) all reflect the late-Wàn-lì broad-encyclopedic mode of bǐjì writing where breadth was prized over depth — the same pattern the Sìkù editors criticize in Yáng Shèn, with the difference that Zhōu Qí lacks Yáng Shèn’s compensating breadth of authentic reading.
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào 四庫全書總目提要, Zǐbù · Zájiā lèi 2 · Zákǎo zhī shǔ, Míng yì kǎo entry.