吹劍錄外集

Chuī jiàn lù wài jí 吹劍錄外集

Outer Collection of “Sword-Polishing Records”

by 俞文豹 (Yú Wénbào, fl. 1240–1250); the closing-brush work of his life.

About the work

A 1-juàn late-Southern-Sòng bǐjì by 俞文豹 (Yú Wénbào). The book is the surviving wài jí (outer collection) of his Chuī jiàn lù — apparently a four-volume bǐjì of which only this final supplement (and a separate 1-juàn Chuī jiàn lù preserved elsewhere) survives in the Sìkù. The wài jí was composed in Chúnyòu gēngxū (1250), the zhōngqiū day (mid-autumn day) — the preface explicitly says it is a continuation “from three to four [collections] to verify the progress of his learning,” echoing Sòng Jǐngwén’s and Ōuyáng Xiū’s reflective late-life self-reading principles. The book is much more measured than the earlier Chuī jiàn lù, and includes a substantial historiographic essay on the dàoxué dǎngjìn (the Qìngyuán proscription of Lǐxué) and an evenhanded evaluation of Yīchuān Chéng Yí and Huìān Zhū Xī.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that Chuī jiàn lù wài jí in one juàn was compiled by Yú Wénbào of the Sòng. Wénbào had earlier composed a Chuī jiàn lù, so this is titled “outer collection.” Yet the juàn-head has a Chúnyòu gēngxū (1250) preface saying “continuing three to four to verify the progress of his learning” — meaning there were two intervening volumes, now lost.

The earlier Chuī jiàn lù’s argumentation is piān bó (lopsided and inconsistent), much not in accord with principle. This collection has — at the juàn-end — two poems, with a tí cí preface saying “jué bǐ sī lù” (this is my closing brush) — so the work is his late-year composition; the learning is deeper, the speech mostly chún zhèng (pure and proper).

Its record of the dàoxué dǎngjìn (proscription of Lǐxué) — its history and end — is most detailed. He says: “Hán, Fàn, Ōu, Mǎ, Zhāng, Lǚ (Hán Qí, Fàn Zhòngyān, Ōuyáng Xiū, Sīmǎ Guāng, Zhāng Zǎi, Lǚ Gōngzhù) — these xiānshēng had no dàoxué name yet had the dàoxué substance; so men had no division to speak. Yīchuān (Chéng Yí) and Huìān (Zhū Xī) — these two xiānshēng — their speech was the world’s model, their conduct the world’s teacher — the Way is not lacking in breadth, the learning not lacking in purity. Yet they were caught in dòngzhé dé jiù (one move and they incurred trouble) — because they took the dàotǒng (transmission of the Way) as their own responsibility, took shī yán (the strict-teacher) as their position; on right-and-wrong they distinguished without an inch’s concession — with 胡瑗 (Hú Yuàn, Āndìng) they contended; with 蘇軾 (Sū Shì, Dōngpō) they contended; with 陳亮 (Chén Liàng, Lóngchuān) and 陸九淵 (Lù Jiǔyuān, Xiàngshān) they debated — they had to win, and only then would they desist.” This is no less than a píng xīn zhī lùn (an evenhanded judgement).

Respectfully revised and submitted, tenth month of the forty-sixth year of Qiánlóng (1781).

Abstract

The Chuī jiàn lù wài jí — Yú Wénbào’s late-life closing-brush bǐjì — is significant principally for its substantial historiographic essay on the dàoxué dǎngjìn. Yú’s distinctive contribution is the historical-evaluative position that:

1. The earlier generations of Northern Sòng Confucians — Hán Qí 韓琦, Fàn Zhòngyān 范仲淹, Ōuyáng Xiū 歐陽修, Sīmǎ Guāng 司馬光, Zhāng Zǎi 張載, Lǚ Gōngzhù 呂公著 — embodied the dàoxué substance without the partisan label.
2. The two SòngLǐxué founders — Chéng Yí 程頤 (Yīchuān) and Zhū Xī 朱熹 (Huìān) — incurred political proscription not because of their substance (dào and xué both adequate) but because of their zì rèn (self-imposition) of the dàotǒng claim and their refusal to concede even the smallest point in controversy.
3. The historical case-list of their zì rèn-driven controversies — with 胡瑗 (Hú Yuàn) of Āndìng, with 蘇軾 (Sū Shì) of Dōngpō, with 陳亮 (Chén Liàng) of Lóngchuān, with 陸九淵 (Lù Jiǔyuān) of Xiàngshān — gives empirical content to the diagnosis.

This is one of the more sophisticated late-Southern-Sòng evaluations of the proscription episode, and the Sìkù editors approve it as píng xīn zhī lùn. The book also contains shī huà-style entries on Lǚ Běnzhōng, Yáng Wànlǐ, and other Southern-Sòng poets, and some kǎozhèng on classical and historical points.

Dating. The preface is dated Chúnyòu gēngxū (1250) zhōngqiū rì; the closing remarks expressly identify the work as Yú’s jué bǐ (closing brush). NotBefore and notAfter both 1250. The standard text is the SKQS 1-juàn recension.

Translations and research

No complete Western-language translation. The book is regularly cited in modern Chinese-language scholarship on the Qìng-yuán proscription of Lǐxué (especially Yú Yīng-shí 余英時, Zhū Xī de lì-shǐ shì-jiè) and on the late-Southern-Sòng evaluation of Chéng Yí and Zhū Xī.

Other points of interest

The book’s evenhanded assessment of Chéng Yí and Zhū Xī — locating the source of their political trouble not in their substance but in their partisan self-imposition — is one of the most penetrating Sòng evaluations of the late-Northern-Sòng / Southern-Sòng dàotǒng problem, and was approvingly read by the Sìkù editors against the Qīng Lǐxué orthodoxy.

Links

• Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Zájiā lèi 3, Chuī jiàn lù wài jí entry.