Guǎn chéng shuò jì 管城碩記
Substantial Notes from Guǎn-chéng
by 徐文靖 (Xú Wénjìng, hào Wèishān 位山, 1667–1756; of Dāngtú 當塗 in An-huī; Yōngzhèng guǐmǎo [1723] jǔrén; Qiánlóng 1 [1736] Bóxué hóngcí candidate; Qiánlóng 17 [1752] honorary Hànlín jiǎntǎo)
About the work
A 30-juan high-Qiánlóng-period kǎozhèng miscellany — 1,284 entries — of Xú Wénjìng, treating the classics, Chǔcí, dynastic histories, the Zhèng zì tōng dictionary, poetry-and-fù, astronomical anomalies, the works of Yáng Shèn, the works of Fāng Yǐzhì, and miscellany. The title “Guǎn chéng” refers to a place-name in the Sàn dūn yì 散頓邑 tradition; “shuò jì” = “substantial notes.” The book’s distinctive format — entries arranged with the original passage being commented on as the headline and the author’s àn (judgment) as the body — is a self-conscious modification of the shuōbù (miscellany) tradition, importing the formal structure of classical jiān shū (commentarial) work. The Sìkù editors place it firmly in Zákǎo of the Zájiā division, with a judicious assessment that flags both errors and contributions.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Guǎn chéng shuò jì in thirty juan was compiled by Xú Wénjìng of our dynasty. Wénjìng’s hào was Wèishān, a Dāngtú man. Yōngzhèng guǐmǎo (1723) jǔrén. In Qiánlóng 1 (1736) he was recommended for the Bóxué hóngcí track; in Qiánlóng 17 (1752) he was recommended on the Jīngxué (Classics-learning) track; te shòu (specially conferred) the title Hànlín jiǎntǎo.
This is his notebook of writings. From classics and histories down to poetry and prose, each entry treats analytically and evidentially. Each entry takes the cited original-book passage as its head (gāng 綱) and the author’s àn (note) as its mù 目 (item). He wishes to slightly vary the shuōbù form; the general orientation is close to that of jiānshū (commentary).
[Several errors of his are itemized: in his Yì discussions he relies on Liáng Wǔdì to interpret the Wén yán 文言 chapter but fails to consult Wáng Yīnglín’s reconstruction of the lost Zhèng Xuán commentary; in historical discussion he cites a series of relatively weak sources (Pānshì zǒng lùn; Liú Dìngzhī’s Shí kē cè lüè; Cài Fāngbǐng’s Guǎng zhìpíng lüè; Liào Wényīng’s Zhèng zì tōng; Yīn Shífū’s Yùn fǔ qún yù) — all marked by the gnawing flaws of “sú xué” (vulgar learning).]
Yet his discussions in tracing back the Shī and Lǐ and other classical traditions, branching out into the zǐshǐ and shuōbù with cross-referential collation, arriving at language always carefully accurate — these are also capable of original insight. Overall it can be said: broad and diligent.
Respectfully revised and submitted, tenth month of the forty-first year of Qiánlóng [1776].
General Compilers: Jǐ Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. General Reviser: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
Xú Wénjìng 徐文靖 (1667–1756; hào Wèishān 位山), of Dāngtú 當塗 (modern Mǎānshān, Anhui). Yōngzhèng guǐmǎo (1723) jǔrén — never jìnshì. Recommended for both the 1736 Bóxué hóngcí and the 1752 Jīngxué tracks; granted the honorary title of Hànlín jiǎntǎo in 1752 in his eighty-sixth year. A representative of provincial-scholar kǎozhèng in the mid-Qiánlóng era, broadly active in the same circle as the Anhui Huīzhōu Hàn xué scholars but resident in Dāngtú rather than Huīzhōu proper.
The Guǎn chéng shuò jì is his major surviving work. Its 30-juan structure — broken down into named sections on individual canonical texts and bodies of literature (Yì, Shū, Shī, Chūnqiū, Lǐ, Chǔcí jí zhù, shǐ lèi, Zhèng zì tōng, shī fù, tiānwén kǎo yì, Yáng Shēngān jí, Tōng yǎ, zá shù) — is a quasi-commentarial kǎozhèng approach that anticipates the eighteenth-century systematic bǔ zhèng 補正 (supplementing and correcting) genre. The book’s notable methodological feature is the explicit gāng / mù (headline / item) format, which makes the work usable as a topical commentary on each text it treats rather than as an unstructured bǐjì.
The Sìkù editors’ assessment is mixed but fair: they note that Xú’s reliance on some weaker mid-late-Míng sources (Liào Wényīng’s Zhèng zì tōng 正字通, the Yùn fǔ qún yù rhyme dictionary, etc.) marks him as not entirely free of “vulgar learning”; but they credit substantial individual contributions on the Shī and Lǐ. The verdict — “broad and diligent” — is restrained praise.
Dating. The notBefore of 1723 corresponds to the jǔrén year (a conventional anchor); the notAfter of 1756 is Xú’s death-year. The actual composition runs over Xú’s mature scholarly career, particularly intense after the 1736 and 1752 Bóxué hóngcí / Jīngxué recommendations.
The standard text is the SKQS recension.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language secondary literature located. Xú Wénjìng is intermittently cited in modern Chinese-language studies of mid-Qiánlóng kǎo-zhèng and of Anhui-province learned culture. Standard reprints in the SKQS facsimile.
Other points of interest
The book’s quasi-commentarial gāng / mù format (citing the original passage as headline, then author’s note) is an interesting transitional form between the open-ended late-Míng bǐjì and the systematic bǔ zhèng genre that would dominate Qīng kǎozhèng by the end of the eighteenth century. Xú Wénjìng’s relationship to the late-Míng polymathic tradition is signaled by the dedicated sections on Yáng Shèn (juan 28) and Fāng Yǐzhì (juan 29) — both treated as canonical authors needing kǎozhèng engagement.
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào 四庫全書總目提要, Zǐbù · Zájiā lèi 2 · Zákǎo zhī shǔ, Guǎn chéng shuò jì entry.