Cháoshì kè yǔ 晁氏客語
The Cháo-family Guest-Talk
by 晁說之 (Cháo Shuōzhī, zì Yǐdào 以道, hào Jǐngyū 景迂, 1059–1129)
About the work
A 1-juan Northern-to-Southern Sòng transitional bǐjì by Cháo Shuōzhī, recording his miscellaneous zhá jì and conversation with guests. The book is structurally close to the yǔ lù (recorded-sayings) genre but with the distinctive editorial practice of noting the speaker of each conversation (e.g. “the above five passages: Zhāngmǒu”; “the fourth passage: Liú Kuàihuó”; “Lǐ Jí, Shòu Péng, Shù Zhì” etc.) — using Sū È’s 蘇鶚 Dùyáng zá biān 杜陽雜編 precedent of source-noting. Hence the title — “kè yǔ” — guests’ talk. The book is one of the principal Sòng-transition-period witnesses to the late-Wàn-lì… [Northern Sòng] intellectual sociology, with substantial Buddhist-Confucian doctrinal admixture characteristic of the Cháoshì jiā xué (the Cháo-family learning) descending from Cháo Jiǒng 晁迥. The work also preserves significant first-hand anecdotes of the Xīníng / Yuánfēng generation (Sū Shì, Huáng Tíngjiān, etc.) gained from direct acquaintance.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Cháoshì kè yǔ in one juan was compiled by Cháo Shuōzhī of the Sòng. Shuōzhī’s Rú yán 儒言 is separately catalogued. This book is his zhájì and zá lùn, also taking up court-and-country hearings — close to the yǔlù genre. Beneath the entries there are sometimes inline notes like “the above five passages: Zhāngmǒu,” “the fourth passage: Liú Kuàihuó,” along with personal names like Lǐ Jí, Shòu Péng, Shù Zhì — following the Sū È Dùyáng zá biān precedent of noting each entry’s source — what the title “kè yǔ” (guest-talk) refers to.
The discussions often touch on the fundamentals of personal conduct and the gentleman’s self-cultivation. The XīníngYuánfēng period luminaries’ surviving stories recorded here are mostly first-hand observation; they may be used as cross-verification with the historical records. His doctrine sometimes mixes Confucian with Chán (Buddhist) elements: from Cháo Jiǒng onward the family learning was transmitted this way; his friends Sū Shì and Huáng Tíngjiān discussed matters in the same idiom — this is the Shǔ dǎng (Sìchuān faction) style of learning, very different from the Luò dǎng (Luò faction) — and it is unnecessary to apply a single rigid standard.
Only in classical exegesis is he fond of unusual readings — taking the Mèngzǐ phrase jù bò 巨擘 (“great thumb”) as referring to a great earthworm, taking the jí rù qí lì 既入其苙 lì as xiāngbáizhǐ (a fragrant root that pigs enjoy) — both are forced. How different is this from Wáng Ānshí’s Xīn jīng yì? It is one shortcoming of an otherwise erudite man.
Respectfully revised and submitted, tenth month of the forty-sixth year of Qiánlóng [1781].
General Compilers: Jǐ Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. General Reviser: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
Cháo Shuōzhī 晁說之 (1059–1129), zì Yǐdào 以道, hào Jǐngyū 景迂 (“scholar of the Jǐngyū hall”), of the great Cháo lineage of Northern Sòng — descendant of Cháo Jiǒng 晁迥 (951–1034, the foundational Cháoshì jiā xué master); cousin of Cháo Bǔzhī 晁補之 (one of the Sūmén liù jūnzǐ). Yuánfēng jìnshì; rose to Tàicháng shǎoqīng; aligned with the Yuányòu faction; banished and rehabilitated multiple times through the late Northern Sòng; survived the Jìngkāng catastrophe (1126–1127) and died in the early Southern Sòng. Distinguished as an early Sòng Lǐxué practitioner and Yìjīng scholar — his preface to the Zhōuyì jíjiě 周易集解 (the standard reconstructed-Hàn Yì commentary) is one of the influential Sòng Yìjīng documents. The biographical record is Sòng shǐ j. 444 (“Wényuàn liù”), with extensive Cháoshì family material.
The Cháoshì kè yǔ is one of his principal bǐjì. The book’s distinctive feature — recording each conversation-speaker by name — gives it the character of an early-modern oral-history collection. The Sū Shì / Huáng Tíngjiān / Sū Zhé entries are particularly valuable as eye-witness anecdote.
Dating. NotBefore 1082 (Cháo’s early-mature period after the Yuánfēng reform); notAfter 1129 (his death-year). The exact composition is not securely datable but probably extends into Cháo’s late life.
The standard text is the SKQS recension. Modern punctuated edition in Quán Sòng bǐjì 全宋筆記.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language complete translation. Cháo Shuō-zhī’s Yìjīng scholarship has received Western attention (e.g. in Tze-ki Hon, The Yijing and Chinese Politics: Classical Commentary and Literati Activism in the Northern Song Period, SUNY, 2005). The Cháo-shì kè yǔ itself is less studied but is cited as a primary source in modern Chinese-language scholarship on the late-Northern-Sòng intellectual milieu.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù editors’ explicit characterization of the Cháoshì jiā xué (descending from Cháo Jiǒng) as a Confucian-Chán Mǐn ròu tradition aligned with the Shǔ dǎng against the Luò dǎng is a useful eighteenth-century summation of one major strand of Northern Sòng intellectual sociology. The book’s entries on Sū Shì and Huáng Tíngjiān are first-hand observations from a younger contemporary and are valuable witness material.
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào 四庫全書總目提要, Zǐbù · Zájiā lèi 3 · Záshuō zhī shǔ, Cháoshì kè yǔ entry.