Héng huáng xīn lùn 珩璜新論
The Héng-and-Huáng [Pendant-Jade] New Discussions
by 孔平仲 (Kǒng Píngzhòng, zì Yìfǔ 毅父 / Yìfǔ 義甫, fl. 1065–1095; of Qīngjiāng 清江; one of the Qīngjiāng sān Kǒng 清江三孔; Zhìpíng 2 [1065] jìnshì; Hùbù jīnbù lángzhōng)
About the work
A 1-juan Northern Sòng bǐjì by Kǒng Píngzhòng — one of the Qīngjiāng sān Kǒng (the three Kǒng brothers Kǒng Wéndé 孔文德, Kǒng Wǔzhòng 武仲, and Kǒng Píngzhòng of Qīngjiāng who were each famous jìnshì and literary figures). The book circulated under two titles: Kǒngshì zá shuō 孔氏雜說 and Héng huáng xīn lùn — both with Sòng-period attestation. The Sìkù editors note Wú Zēng’s 吳曾 Néng gǎi zhāi màn lù 能改齋漫錄 cites the work as Zá shuō; the Chúnxī gēngzǐ (1180) colophon by Shěn Shēn 沈詵 of Wúxīng (at the end of the book) refers to it as Héng huáng lùn and notes that the Yúchuān Dīngshì printing already used that title. The title-pun is from the DàDài lǐ phrase Zēngzǐ yuē: jūnzǐ zhī yán kě guàn ér pèi; hénghuáng jiē guàn ér pèi zhě (Zēngzǐ said: the gentleman’s speech is to be strung-up and worn; héng and huáng are both jade pendants strung-up and worn). The Sìkù editors speculate that the work was originally titled Zá shuō and later admirers renamed it after this DàDài lǐ phrase. The book is evidential and discursive, often using ancient events to develop contemporary argument. The Sìkù editors’ assessment is unusually long and engages directly with the unfair historical reception of Kǒng Píngzhòng by the ChéngZhū school (Píngzhòng having clashed with the Luò xué circle in Yuányòu / Xīníng disputes).
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Héng huáng xīn lùn in one juan was compiled by Kǒng Píngzhòng of the Sòng. Píngzhòng’s zì was Yìfǔ (one version Yìfǔ 義甫); one of the Qīngjiāng sān Kǒng. Zhìpíng 2 (1065) jìnshì; in Yuányòu served as Tídiǎn Jīngxī xíngyù; under the Yuányòu dǎng purge was banished to Yīngzhōu 英州. At the beginning of Chóngníng (1102) recalled as Hùbù jīnbù lángzhōng; sent out as Tíjǔ Yǒngxīnglù xíngyù and Shuài Fūyán huánqìng. The faction-debate (dǎng lùn) being revived, he was made a fèngcí sinecure-holder and died. Biography: Sòng shǐ.
The book is also called Kǒngshì zá shuō; Wú Zēng’s Néng gǎi zhāi màn lù cites it under that name. But at the back of this recension is the Chúnxī gēngzǐ (1180) colophon by Shěn Shēn of Wúxīng — calling it Héng huáng lùn and noting that the Yúchuān Dīngshì printing already used that name. So in the Sòng there were two titles in circulation. Printed editions today all use Zá shuō; manuscript editions all use Héng huáng xīn lùn — each according to the exemplar they saw.
The book contains textual-evidential investigation and occasional historical-allegorical commentary; the arguments are mostly substantial and worth taking. The Qīngjiāng sān Kǒng in the Yuányòu and Xīníng periods were all outstanding in literary fame; their language is not the work of those without foundation.
At the end of the volume there are seven Zá shuō entries appended, before Shěn’s colophon — all missing from this recension; I suspect they were supplemented by Shěn; we have added them in to make the book complete. As to the name Héng huáng, Shěn says he does not know its origin; the popular gloss as “fragmented jade” he calls wrong. Consulting the DàDài lǐ: Zēngzǐ says “the gentleman’s words may be strung-up and worn; * héng and huáng are both strung-up-and-worn (pendants) — perhaps Píngzhòng’s book was originally titled Zá shuō and later admirers, prizing the work, took the meaning of guàn pèi and renamed it accordingly.
Now: Píngzhòng with his contemporaries Liú Ānshì 劉安世 and Sū Shì, and the Southern Sòng Lín Lì 林栗 and Táng Zhòngyǒu 唐仲友 — all of them in their personal conduct without disgrace to the gentlemanly ideal. But because Píngzhòng, Ānshì, and Shì were at odds with Chéngzǐ, and Lì and Zhòngyǒu were at odds with Zhūzǐ, the jiǎngxué (Lǐ-school) tradition has treated all of them as enemies. Yet the human heart differs from face to face; even among the worthy not all opinions coincide. The discussant should judge each disputed event on its merits and not, on the basis of one quarrel, condemn an entire life. Hán Qí and Fù Bì were not on good terms — yet we cannot say that one of these two great men was a “petty man.” To take a single point of friction with Chéng and Zhū and dismiss together a scholar’s learning, writing, virtue, and political achievement — this would be like the Buddhist rule that everyone who takes the Five Precepts has merit and everyone who slanders the Three Jewels has demerit, regardless of their actual good or evil.
Liú Ānshì and Sū Shì shine like the sun and moon — the jiǎngxué school has tried every means to discredit them but cannot extinguish their writings. Píngzhòng has only his collected works, his Tán yuàn 談苑, and this book; Lín Lì has only his Zhōu yì jīngzhuàn jí jiě 周易經傳集解; Táng Zhòngyǒu has only his Dìwáng jīngshì túpǔ 帝王經世圖譜 — works few-supported and weak-positioned, scoured by many tongues, and now lingering between transmission and oblivion. This is the suppression of partisanship, not the impartial judgment.
We have now accepted this book into the canon to balance such suppression. Conversely: Shěn Jìsūn’s Zhī lín jí 梔林集, scattered through the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn and recoverable as a fascicle — that we set aside without including, because the man is not worth recording, and he was also hostile to Zhūzǐ; we use this to display the Chūnqiū method of approval-and-condemnation. The aim throughout is not to lose the truth of right-and-wrong.
Respectfully revised and submitted, seventh month of the forty-fifth year of Qiánlóng [1780].
General Compilers: Jǐ Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. General Reviser: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
Kǒng Píngzhòng 孔平仲 (fl. 1065–1100, lifedates not securely known), zì Yìfǔ 毅父 (also Yìfǔ 義甫). Of Qīngjiāng 清江 (modern Yīngtán, Jiāngxī). Eponym of the Qīngjiāng sān Kǒng 清江三孔 (the three Kǒng brothers — with elder brothers Kǒng Wénzhòng 孔文仲 and Kǒng Wǔzhòng 武仲 — all jìnshì and major Northern Sòng literary figures). Zhìpíng 2 (1065) jìnshì. Career: Tídiǎn Jīngxī xíngyù in Yuányòu; banished to Yīngzhōu under the Yuányòu dǎng bēi purge of 1102; recalled briefly as Hùbù jīnbù lángzhōng and Tíjǔ Yǒngxīnglù xíngyù; final demotion to sinecure-status. Aligned with Sū Shì and the Shǔ dǎng against Chéng Yí 程頤 and the Luò dǎng in the Yuányòu faction-debate — for which the Lǐxué tradition treated him harshly.
The book is a 1-juan miscellany of kǎo gǔ (antiquity-investigation) and historical-political commentary. The Sìkù editors’ lengthy defense of Kǒng Píngzhòng’s intellectual integrity against the Lǐxué faction’s hostility is one of the more substantial eighteenth-century Sìkù statements on factional fairness in intellectual judgment — and is itself a notable mid-Qiánlóng intellectual document. The book’s actual content covers history, classical exegesis, and statesman-anecdote, with several memorable arguments.
Dating. NotBefore 1065 (the jìnshì year); notAfter 1095 (Kǒng’s mid-career). The exact composition is not securely datable.
The standard text is the SKQS recension, incorporating the Shěn Shēn 1180 colophon and his appended 7 entries. Modern punctuated edition in Quán Sòng bǐjì 全宋筆記 ser. 2.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language secondary literature located. The Qīng-jiāng sān Kǒng are intermittently treated in modern Chinese-language scholarship on Northern Sòng intellectual sociology (especially the Sū dǎng / Luò dǎng split). The book is occasionally cited as a primary source.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù editors’ explicit defense of Kǒng Píngzhòng (along with Sū Shì, Liú Ānshì, Lín Lì, and Táng Zhòngyǒu) against the Lǐxué tradition’s faction-based suppression is a remarkable mid-Qiánlóng statement of evidential fairness against doctrinal partisanship. The implicit contrast with the Sìkù editors’ treatment of Shěn Jìsūn’s Zhī lín jí (also anti-Zhū-Xī but “the man not worth recording”) shows the editors’ calibrated balancing of evidential merit against scholarly reputation.
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào 四庫全書總目提要, Zǐbù · Zájiā lèi 3 · Záshuō zhī shǔ, Héng huáng xīn lùn entry.