義門讀書記

Yì mén dú shū jì 義門讀書記

Yì Mén’s Reading-Records

by 何焯 (Hé Zhuō, zì Qízhān 屺瞻, hào Yìmén 義門, 1661–1722), edited by 蔣維鈞 (Jiǎng Wéijūn)

About the work

A 58-juan posthumously-edited collection of Hé Zhuō’s reading-marginalia and jiào kān (collation) notes on canonical literature, gathered after Hé’s death from his copies of major classics, histories, and literary collections. The contents: Sì shū (6 juan), Shī (2), Zuǒ zhuàn (2), Gōng yáng (1), Gǔ liáng (1), Shǐ jì (2), Hàn shū (6), Hòu Hàn shū (5), Sān guó zhì (2), Wǔ dài shǐ (1), Hán Yù collected works (5), Liǔ Zōngyuán collected works (3), Ōuyáng Xiū collected works (2), Zēng Gǒng collected works (5), Wén xuǎn (5), Táo Qián poems (1), Dù Fǔ collected works (6), Lǐ Shāngyǐn collected works (2). The text-critical method — jiào (collation), evidential argument on textual variants, and substantive interpretive note — set a Qīng standard for textually-critical readings of the entire major canon. The Sìkù editors observe that the editions of Hàn shū, Hòu Hàn shū, and Sān guó zhì used by the Qiánlóng court for the 1740 imperial-collated reprintings of the standard histories drew substantially on Hé Zhuō’s notes.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that Yìmén dú shū jì in fifty-eight juan was edited by Jiǎng Wéijūn of our dynasty from Hé Zhuō’s collation-and-correction writings across various books. Zhuō’s zì was Qízhān, a Chángzhōu man. In Kāngxī 41 (1702), on the recommendation of Lǐ Guāngdì 李光地, Grand Coordinator of Zhílì, he was admitted as bá gòng shēng into the inner imperial offices. He was soon specially granted jìnshì status, changed to shù jí shì 庶吉士* (probationer-edition), and appointed biānxiū (compiler). Later he was demoted for some affair and his title stripped, though he continued to collate books at the Wǔyīng Hall. In Kāngxī 61 (1722) he was restored to his original rank; posthumously honoured as Shìdú xuéshì 侍讀學士.

Zhuō was widely-known for his literary writing but had no monographs current in the world. After his death, his nephew Hé Táng 何堂 first gathered his collation-and-correction notes into six juan; Jiǎng Wéijūn made further searches and arranged them into this book.

[The detailed structure of the work is given: 6 juan on the Sì shū; 2 on the Shī; 2 on Zuǒ zhuàn; 1 each on Gōng yáng and Gǔ liáng; 2 on Shǐ jì; 6 on Hàn shū; 5 on Hòu Hàn shū; 2 on Sān guó zhì; 1 on Wǔ dài shǐ; 5 on Hán Yù’s collected works; 3 on Liǔ Zōngyuán; 2 on Ōuyáng Xiū; 5 on Zēng Gǒng; 5 on the Wén xuǎn; 1 on Táo Qián; 6 on Dù Fǔ; 2 on Lǐ Shāngyǐn.] The evidential and collation work is extremely refined and precise. His notes on the Liǎng Hàn shū and Sān guó zhì — in Qiánlóng 5 [1740] when the court-officials received the imperial decree to collate and reprint the classics and histories — were substantially adopted in the imperial recensions.

Respectfully revised and submitted, ninth month of the forty-third year of Qiánlóng [1778].

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

Abstract

Hé Zhuō 何焯 (1661–1722; zì Qízhān 屺瞻, hào Yìmén 義門), of Chángzhōu 長洲 (Sūzhōu), was the most influential Qīng jiào kān 校勘 (textual-collation) scholar before Lú Wénchāo 盧文弨 and the Yángzhōu school. His biography is Qīng shǐ gǎo j. 484. A protégé of Lǐ Guāngdì 李光地, recruited into the imperial inner offices in 1702 via the bá gòng shēng track, granted jìnshì and biānxiū status, and assigned to the Wǔyīng Hall (the imperial publishing office) — where he produced an enormous body of textual notes on canonical works during the early-Kāng-xī imperial book-collation project. Demoted in 1711 for involvement in an unrelated affair (the Lǐ Guāngdì party-faction issue), he continued collating books at Wǔyīng for a decade as a private scholar before formal restoration of rank in 1722, the year of his death. His commentaries on the Kùnxué jìwén are preserved alongside Yán Ruòqú’s in the SKQS recension of that book (KR3j0055).

The Yìmén dú shū jì was assembled posthumously, first by Hé’s nephew Hé Táng 何堂 (6 juan), then expanded by Jiǎng Wéijūn 蔣維鈞 to the 58-juan SKQS recension. Methodologically the work is the most extensive single textually-critical engagement with the standard canon undertaken by any Kāng-xī-period scholar. Its specific impact on the imperial collated reprint of the standard histories — explicitly noted by the Sìkù editors — is testimony to its authority in the high-Qīng court editorial tradition.

The work is not a sustained interpretive commentary but a jiào jì — collation notes, textual emendations, and brief interpretive marginalia. As such it is methodologically distinct from the conventional kǎozhèng bǐjì: less an essay-collection than a working scholar’s notebook on dozens of canonical texts. The Sìkù editors’ decision to classify it in Zákǎo of the Zájiā division reflects the difficulty of placing it cleanly in any other category.

Dating. Hé Zhuō’s productive marginalia date from his Lǐ Guāngdì period (1700–1711) through his Wǔ-yīng-Hall years (1711–1722). The notBefore of 1700 and notAfter of 1722 bracket these.

The standard text is the SKQS recension. The earlier 6-juan Hé Táng edition is lost.

Translations and research

No substantial Western-language secondary literature located. Hé Zhuō has received intermittent attention in Western scholarship: see R. Kent Guy, The Emperor’s Four Treasuries (1987), passim. Standard Chinese-language scholarship includes Lǐ Yùxī 李玉璽’s various Hé Zhuō studies and the modern punctuated edition of the Yì-mén dú shū jì (Cuī Gāo-wéi 崔高維 ed., Zhōnghuá shū-jú, 1987). The work is regularly cited in modern Chinese-language scholarship on the standard histories (Sān guó zhì, Hàn shū) and on Hán Yù / Lǐ Shāngyǐn philology.

Other points of interest

Hé Zhuō’s combination of imperial bibliographic-office position with sustained personal scholarship over the course of a turbulent career (recruited, demoted, restored, posthumously honored) is one of the more interesting Kāngxī biographies of the xún rǔshēng 馴儒生 (court-trained scholar) type. His commentaries on Wáng Yīnglín’s Kùnxué jìwén preserved in the SKQS are the basis on which the Sìkù editors slightly criticize him for “rather looking down on Wáng Yīnglín from the standpoint of his own cí kē learning.”

The Yìmén dú shū jì’s influence on the Qiánlóng 5 (1740) imperial collated reprint of the standard histories is one of the clearer cases of early-Qīng private jiào kān shaping the imperial editorial canon. The specific Liǎng Hàn shū / Sān guó zhì readings adopted from Hé Zhuō are catalogued in modern Chinese-language scholarship on the Bǎi nà běn 百衲本 standard-history recensions.

Links

• Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào 四庫全書總目提要, Zǐbù · Zájiā lèi 2 · Zákǎo zhī shǔ, Yì mén dú shū jì entry.