Cháng tán 常談
Common Discussions
by 吳箕 (Wú Jī, fl. 1169; zì Sìzhī 嗣之, jìnshì of Qiándào 5 = 1169).
About the work
A 1-juàn Southern Sòng bǐjì by 吳箕 (Wú Jī) of Xīnān (Huīzhōu). The book is registered in the Sòng shǐ Yìwén zhì as 1 juàn; the SKQS recension contains over 100 entries restored from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn. The book is overwhelmingly evaluative commentary (píng zhì) on past historical figures and events, with occasional kǎozhèng. As the Sìkù editors flag, Wú Jī was at Línchuān 臨川 a close associate of 陸九淵 (Lù Jiǔyuān) and deeply influenced by the Lù-school yìlǐ (philosophical) tradition; the Cháng tán’s evaluations frequently align with Lù’s recorded views, but at some points (e.g. the assessment of Jí Àn 汲黯) Wú departs decisively from Lù — evidence, for the Sìkù editors, of Wú’s independence of judgement and consequently of his moral seriousness. The book is one of the Sìkù editors’ favoured Southern Sòng bǐjì, with implicit contrast to the Shī tóng zǐ wèn of 輔廣 (Fǔ Guǎng) which they regard as slavishly Zhū Xī partisan.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Cháng tán in one juan was compiled by Wú Jī of the Sòng. Jī’s zì was Sìzhī, a Xīnān man; jìnshì of Qiándào 5 (1169); appointed Rénhé zhǔbù, then fēnjiào (education-officer) at Línchuān; rose to zhī Dāngtú xiàn; was esteemed by Zhào Rǔyú who summoned him to zhǔ shěn chá (the commission of inquiry); soon died of illness. The Sòng shǐ gives him no biography; his career appears only in the Huīzhōu zhì.
His other work, the Tīng cí lèi gǎo in 12 vols., is long lost; only this book’s title is recorded in the Sòng shǐ Yìwén zhì as 1 juan. Now what is scattered through the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn, on collection and compilation, preserves more than 100 entries. The bulk is píng zhì of historical affairs, with occasional engagement in kǎozhèng.
The Huīzhōu zhì records: while at Línchuān Jī associated with Lù Jiǔyuān, mutually clarifying principles — clearly Jī had a deep apprehension of the Jīnxī school’s learning. Now cross-checking this book against Jiǔyuān’s Wén jí: in his Jīng dé táng jì Jiǔyuān argues that Hàn Gāozǔ’s punishment-of-Xiàng-Yǔ-on-behalf-of-Yì Dì-affair was understood deeply by the three elder ones of Xīnchéng on the great matters of the empire; Jī too speaks of the elder of Xīnchéng alone perceiving and speaking it, with the Hàn’s possession of the empire founded on this. Again: in Jiǔyuān’s Yǔ lù there is the argument that Cáo Cān’s serving as Hàn premier — having learned from Master Gài and used the HuángLǎo techniques — set the lifeblood (xuèmài) of the Hàn governance; Jī too speaks of Cān as having achieved the substance of stillness through Master Gài’s qīngxīn discourse preceding him. The drift of the two — their accord — would suggest mòshǒu (sticking to school) without variation.
But examining his account of Jí Àn: Jiǔyuān’s Jí praises Àn as upright and observant of righteousness, saying “even if one says he has not studied, one must certainly call it study”; Jī, on the other hand, attributes Àn’s direct remonstrance to qì zhì (natural disposition), not to study and acquirement — so failing to be clear on the great Way. So his reading and Lù’s are as the ruì záo (mortise and tenon) — one not fitting the other. Wú Jī’s scholarship, though rooted in the Lù house, is not slavishly conformed, and stands far from the door-shutting partisanship of Fǔ Guǎng’s Shī tóng zǐ wèn which on every character every phrase upholds the school. In the public-versus-private orientation of mind they differ widely.
Yóu Mào, of the same period as Jī, in compiling his Suì chū táng shūmù, already lists the Cháng tán; so the book was prized in its own time. We have arranged what remains in order and bound it into a fascicle, restoring the Sòng zhì’s old-volume ranking. Among the entries cited from the Wàishǐ táowù, the Guó shǐ bǔ, the Cháng biān, etc. — some extract the original without an evaluation; presumably the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn itself had pieces missing; with no parallel-text comparison available, we provisionally retain the original entries.
Respectfully revised and submitted, ninth month of the forty-sixth year of Qiánlóng (1781).
Abstract
The Cháng tán is one of the most refined of the Southern Sòng evaluative bǐjì and a significant witness to the Jīnxī (Lù) school’s intellectual reach beyond Lù Jiǔyuān’s immediate disciples. Wú Jī’s positions converge with Lù’s on the great moral judgements (the Xīnchéng elders on the YìDì matter; Cáo Cān’s HuángLǎo governance) but diverge on Jí Àn — Wú reading Jí’s directness as disposition rather than acquired discipline. The Sìkù editors take this divergence as evidence of Wú’s independent judgement and explicitly contrast him with Zhū Xī partisans like 輔廣 (Fǔ Guǎng) — a sharp instance of the Sìkù editors’ preference for non-partisan moral seriousness.
The book is overwhelmingly historical-evaluative in genre — running through major historical figures from the Hàn through the Northern Sòng — with relatively little philological kǎozhèng. It is the principal bǐjì monument of late-Southern-Sòng historical píngyì (evaluation) literature.
Dating. Jìnshì 1169; the book was the work of his career years. NotBefore 1169 / notAfter 1185 (the Yóu Mào Suìchū táng shūmù, contemporaneous, already lists it as a known work). The book is in 1 juàn per the Sòng zhì; the SKQS recension, restored from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn, contains more than 100 entries — likely incomplete relative to the original. Some entries cite the Wàishǐ táowù, Guóshǐ bǔ, Cháng biān etc. without evaluative comment; the Sìkù editors infer that the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn itself had lacunae in these places.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language treatment. The book is cited in modern Chinese-language scholarship on the Lù-school’s reception in late-Southern-Sòng Lín-chuān and Huī-zhōu literati circles. See Tián Hào 田浩 (Hoyt Tillman) for the broader Lǐxué-school context.
Other points of interest
The book’s reception by the Sìkù editors is one of the clearer cases of editorial preference for moral-seriousness-over-partisanship in bǐjì evaluation. The explicit contrast with Fǔ Guǎng’s Shī tóng zǐ wèn is part of a broader Sìkù effort to retain Lù-school works on equal terms with Zhū-school ones, against the prevailing Qīng dàotǒng polemic.
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Zájiā lèi 3, Cháng tán entry.