寓簡

Yù jiǎn 寓簡

Lodged Slips

by 沈作喆 (Shěn Zuòzhé, fl. 1135–1174; zì Míngyuǎn 明遠, hào Yùshān 寓山, nephew of Prime Minister Shěn Gāi 沈該).

About the work

A 10-juàn Southern Sòng bǐjì by 沈作喆 (Shěn Zuòzhé), composed at retirement after his demotion. The book’s title (yù, “lodged” — from Zhuāng zǐ’s yù yán “lodged speech”) is borrowed by Shěn from his own preface, where he models himself on Zhuāng zǐ’s jì yǔ. The book treats classical exegesis (especially the Yì jīng, where Shěn inherits the Shěn-family tradition through his uncle Shěn Gāi 沈該’s Yì xiǎo zhuàn), textual criticism, poetic kǎozhèng, philosophical reflection, and a substantial body of Sū Shì-tradition polemic against Wáng Ānshí 王安石 and against Chéng Yí 程頤. Shěn’s interpretation of the Yì through Buddhist and Daoist yǎngshēng concepts places him with 葉夢得 (Yè Mèngdé) and 楊簡 (Yáng Jiǎn) as principal exponents of the Southern Sòng chánYì current.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that Yù jiǎn in ten juan was compiled by Shěn Zuòzhé of the Sòng. Zuòzhé’s zì was Míngyuǎn; hào Yùshān; a Húzhōu man; jìnshì of Shàoxīng 5 (1135), as Zuǒ fèngyì láng serving as Jiāngxī cáosī gànguān. According to the book’s accounts: during the period when the héyì (peace) had just been concluded and the imperial bestowal of fields and houses to the generals was being made, Zuòzhé composed on Yuè Fēi’s behalf the offering-thanks memorial — offending Qín Guì — so it seems he was in Yuè’s staff. He also says he once held office at Wéiyáng (Yángzhōu), without specifying what office.

The Méijiàn shī huà records: when serving in Jiāngxī he composed the Āi shàn gōng shī, offending the cáo shuài Wèi Dàobì, who impeached him with deep-meaning reading; he was demoted three grades. Later he went north with the embassy to Jīn; Hán Yuánjí sent him with the verse “just like Wáng Càn’s “On the Campaign,” not the lament of Bān Jiéyú’s fan” — alluding to this matter.

The book’s preface is dated jiǎwǔ — by the long calendar this is Xiàozōng Chúnxī 1 (1174) — meaning the work was composed after his demotion. The opening entry takes the ancient-poetry approach of indirect remonstrance as the model, from which the rest follows.

Zuòzhé was friendly with Yè Mèngdé. Yet Yè’s learning honours Wáng Ānshí, while Zuòzhé’s issues from Sū Shì — not just in literary versatility and biàn (disputation) similar to Sū’s, but in detesting Wáng Ānshí, opposing Chéng Yīchuān, and discussing yǎngshēng and chányuè — all in line with Sū’s secondary tradition. He was also the nephew of Prime Minister Shěn Gāi, who had a Yì xiǎo zhuàn in 6 juan; Zuòzhé inherits the family transmission, and the book speaks much of the principles of Yì. Yet what he says differs from Gāi’s. His reading of Dìyǐ guī mèi — “the sovereign’s virtue parallels the dì-figure, so they fit together” — is fond of novelty. His reading of the Wèi jì hexagram closing the Yì — “as the Daoists’ “the spirit revolves but does not return; the return-then-it-does-not-revolve”; as the Buddhists’ “neither dwelling in the non-active nor cutting off the active"" — is in fact exegesis through the Two Schools (Daoism and Buddhism). Yet his argument on the Qián záo dù’s Tàiyǐ háng jiǔgōng method — that it originates in the Yellow Emperor’s Sù wèn — does pluck the chánwěi (apocrypha) up by the root. His discussion of wǔ háng (five phases): that they are the application of jīngshì (world-ordering) and chronicle the years, seasons, xíngqì (efficacious circulating breaths), and yùn (cycles) — none can be omitted; that Shào Yáofū’s Huángjí jīng shì used Yáng Xióng’s four-numbers method, adding “the original non-existent one” and removing “the originally existing two” — not in line with antiquity — these can also adjudicate against the speculative numerical traditions.

As to Liú Chǎng’s reading of the Chūnqiū “new construction of the South Gate” as an emperor’s-prerogative usurpation — sourced from Lù Guīméng’s Liǎng guān míng; that Zǐ Lù’s cap-tying was two years after the capture of the Lín, the Gōngyáng zhuàn’s record of Confucius’s speech is false; that Sū Shì’s reading of Lùn yǔ’s “huàn dé zhī” should be “huàn bù dé zhī,” cited from Hán Yù’s Wūzhě Wáng Chéngfú zhuàn as evidence; that Yáng Xióng’s surname is from cái 才 not mù 木, and Yáng Xiū’s jiān should not say “Xiū family-named Zǐyún”; that the Liǔ Zōngyuán jí’s Liǔzhōu xièshàngbiǎo — “Yú Dí staying in Xiāngyáng” — does not realise that at this time Dí had left Xiāngyáng two years; also a Dài Liú Yǔxī Tóngzhōu xièshàngbiǎo not realising that when Yǔxī was transferred to Tóngzhōu, Zōngyuán had been dead 17 years — so judging these as forgeries — all with substantive evidentiary basis. And his demolition of Wáng Ānshí’s veneration of Yáng Xióng, preceding Master Zhū’s Tōng jiàn gāngmù, is especially the great argument.

Zuòzhé has another book named Yǐ yì; the third juan’s entry on Huáiyīnhóu as Zhìsù dūwèi notes “details in Yǐ yì”; and says “Sīmǎshì and Xǔshì two ladies’ affair I have stated in Yǐ yì.” The two books accordingly were complementary; now no longer extant. There is also a Yùlín jí in 30 juan, also long lost; only the Āi shàn gōng gē whole piece is preserved in Zhōu Huī’s Qīngbō zá zhì — yet the verse is not finely worked. The 10 juan also has no entry of discussing poetry — clearly poetry-and-singing was not his strength.

Respectfully revised and submitted, tenth month of the forty-first year of Qiánlóng (1776).

Abstract

The Yù jiǎn — its title from Zhuāng zǐ’s yù yán “lodged speech” — is the principal vehicle of Shěn Zuòzhé’s mature scholarship and the most substantial Southern-Sòng exemplar of the Sū Shì 蘇軾 bǐjì-and-Yì tradition (Sūmén). Shěn’s intellectual affiliations are clearly identified by the Sìkù editors: Sū Shì in literary style and biàn (disputation), in detestation of Wáng Ānshí, in opposition to Yīchuān Chéng Yí, in yǎngshēng and chányuè interests, all in line with the Sū-school. Through his uncle Shěn Gāi 沈該, Chéngxiàng of Gāozōng, Shěn Zuòzhé inherited the family’s Yì-scholarship: but where Gāi’s Yì xiǎo zhuàn is more conventional, Zuòzhé reads the Yì through chán and LǎoZhuāng — placing him with 葉夢得 (Yè Mèngdé) and 楊簡 (Yáng Jiǎn) of the Lù-school in the Southern-Sòng chánYì current. The book also has the principal sustained anti-Wáng-Ān-shí polemic in Southern-Sòng bǐjì, including the demolition of Wáng’s elevation of Yáng Xióng — a position that anticipates Zhū Xī’s Tōngjiàn gāngmù by some decades.

Significant textual-critical contributions in the book:

1. Liǔ Zōngyuán forgeries: Shěn detects that the Liǔzhōu xiè shàng biǎo mentioning Yú Dí at Xiāngyáng cannot be by Liǔ Zōngyuán, since Yú Dí had left Xiāngyáng two years earlier; and the Dài Liú Yǔxī Tóngzhōu xiè shàng biǎo cannot be by Liǔ Zōngyuán, since by Yǔxī’s Tóngzhōu appointment Zōngyuán had been dead 17 years. These two are now standard textual-critical contributions on the Liǔ collection.
2. Lùn yǔ kǎo: Shěn’s reading of “huàn dé zhī” as a textual corruption from “huàn bù dé zhī,” with Hán Yù as collateral evidence, is one of the more accepted Sòng emendations.
3. Chūnqiū interpretation: Shěn endorses Liú Chǎng’s reading of “new construction of the South Gate” as emperor’s-prerogative usurpation — citing Lù Guīméng’s Liǎng guān míng — placing him in the Sū / Liú anti-Wáng-Ān-shí Chūnqiū tradition.
4. Wěishū critique: Shěn correctly identifies the Qián záo dù’s Tàiyǐ háng jiǔgōng method as deriving from the Yellow Emperor’s Sù wèn tradition — uprooting the chánwěi attribution to Yì.

Dating. The book’s preface is dated jiǎwǔ (1174) — Xiàozōng Chúnxī 1 — placing it at the close of Shěn’s career, after his demotion. NotBefore and notAfter both 1174.

The companion books Yǐ yì (cited in the Yù jiǎn’s third juan as paired-companion) and the Yùlín jí in 30 juan are now lost; only the Āi shàn gōng gē survives, in Zhōu Huī’s Qīngbō zá zhì. The book has no entry on poetic criticism — which the Sìkù editors note as evidence that poetry was not Shěn’s strength.

Translations and research

No complete Western-language translation. The book is regularly cited in Chinese-language Sòng intellectual-history scholarship and in studies of the Sū Shì tradition, of Yì-Buddhism syncretism, and of Southern-Sòng bǐjì. See Tián Hào 田浩 (Hoyt Tillman) for the Lǐxué-school context; see Lǐ Jiàn-shēng 李建生 for studies specifically of Shěn Zuò-zhé.

Other points of interest

Shěn’s Āi shàn gōng shī — the poem that led to his impeachment — is one of the most cited Southern-Sòng sociopolitical protest poems, recording the suffering of fan-craftsmen under official exactions. Hán Yuánjí’s reference to Wáng Càn’s Cóng jūn xíng and Bān Jiéyú’s Tuán shàn shī in his parting verse to Shěn is itself one of the more elegant Sòng allusions.

Links

• Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Zájiā lèi 3, Yù jiǎn entry.
• Zhōu Huī, Qīngbō zá zhì (Āi shàn gōng gē full text).