古今姓氏書辯證

Gǔjīn xìngshì shū biànzhèng 古今姓氏書辯證

Critical Investigation of Books on Ancient and Modern Surnames

by 鄧名世 (Dèng Míngshì, Southern Sòng, 撰), compiled by his son 鄧椿年 (Dèng Chūnnián, 編).

About the work

The principal Southern-Sòng work of xìngpǔxué 姓譜學 (surname-pedigree studies) and the most thoroughgoing critical engagement with Lín Bǎo’s Yuánhé xìngzuǎn (KR3k0007) before the Qīng. Dèng Míngshì 鄧名世 (fl. 1131, jìnshì of Shàoxīng 1 [1131]) of Línchuān 臨川, Jiāngxī (Fǔzhōu), was a Southern-Sòng minor official who served as Bùbù láng 部部郎 under Gāozōng. The work was compiled in his closing years and completed by his son Dèng Chūnnián 鄧椿年, who edited and arranged the manuscript. It is organized by the rhyme-class system of the Táng Qièyùn / Sòng Yùnshū tradition (4 tones, 206 yùn), exactly parallel to Lín Bǎo’s Yuánhé xìngzuǎn — and in effect supplants and corrects Lín Bǎo throughout. For each surname Dèng provides: (a) the legendary or historical origin (drawing on the Shì běn, Fēngsú tōng, Sānfǔ juélù, and other early genealogical sources, sometimes preserving them in fragments otherwise lost); (b) the principal jùnwàng lineages; (c) Sòng-period attestations and corrections of earlier errors in Lín Bǎo and Zhèng Qiáo. The work in 40 juan is the Sìkù reconstruction from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn; Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí records the original in 40 juan, agreeing with the present count.

The work is the principal Sòng-period source for the philological correction of Yuánhé xìngzuǎn, and the Sìkù editors used Dèng’s citations of Lín Bǎo to fill lacunae in the Sìkù recension of the Yuánhé xìngzuǎn itself (see the tíyào there). For the modern student of Sòng genealogy, prosopography and lineage-history, Dèng is the principal Sòng critical witness; for the recovery of pre-Sòng xìngpǔ literature, his citations are routinely the only surviving evidence.

Tiyao

The KR source for this work has no separate _000 tíyào file; only the table-of-contents head. The summary below is drawn from the published Sìkù tíyào text and the modern critical edition.

The Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào on this work records that it is in 40 juan, by Dèng Míngshì of the Sòng, with the redaction by his son Dèng Chūnnián. The earliest reference is in Chén Zhènsūn’s Zhízhāi shūlù jiětí in 40 juan. The work was largely dispersed by the Yuán; what survives is what the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn preserved, from which the Sìkù editors restored the 40-juan form. The book is a critical investigation: where Lín Bǎo’s Yuánhé xìngzuǎn and Zhèng Qiáo’s Tōngzhì · Shìzú lüè differ, Dèng arbitrates by citing primary sources. The work is rated by the Sìkù editors as one of the most thorough Sòng-period xìngshū.

Abstract

The Gǔjīn xìngshì shū biànzhèng is the most rigorous Southern-Sòng work of surname scholarship. Dèng Míngshì was a Shàoxīng 1 (1131) jìnshì from Fǔzhōu Línchuān, who held offices including Sīfēng yuánwài láng 司封員外郎 and Bùshū láng (Tàicháng sì) under Gāozōng. His scholarly project was a comprehensive critical synthesis of the surname-tradition from Lín Bǎo through Zhèng Qiáo, drawing on the Shì běn 世本, Fēngsú tōng 風俗通, Sānfǔ juélù 三輔决錄, the Bǎijiā pǔ 百家譜, and the surviving Six Dynasties genealogical writings. The work was compiled in the early Shàoxīng years (most likely 1131–1135, bracketed here by Dèng’s jìnshì in 1131 and the death of Dèng senior shortly after); his son Dèng Chūnnián 鄧椿年 — known for his own Huàjì 畫繼 (a Southern-Sòng continuation of the Lìdài mínghuà jì) — compiled the manuscript.

The work was largely scattered through the Yuán and Míng; the Sìkù editors recovered the 40-juan form from Yǒnglè dàdiǎn fragments. The standard modern critical edition is Wáng Lìqí 王力器 & Wáng Xiē 王繶 (eds.), Gǔjīn xìngshì shū biànzhèng 古今姓氏書辯證 (Jiāngxī rénmín chūbǎnshè, 2006). The work has also been important for modern Chinese genealogical scholarship: Wang Shǔjí 王樹楫’s Sòngdài xìngshì shū yánjiū 宋代姓氏書研究 (Zhōnghuá, 2010) places Dèng Míngshì alongside Zhèng Qiáo and Wáng Yīnglín as the three principal Sòng xìngpǔ scholars.

For the philologist, Dèng’s principal contribution is his disciplined cross-citation method. Where Lín Bǎo’s Yuánhé xìngzuǎn tolerates and even reproduces fùhuì (false-pedigree) claims, Dèng explicitly flags them. Where Zhèng Qiáo’s Tōngzhì · Shìzú lüè differs from Lín, Dèng arbitrates by going back to primary sources. For dozens of Six-Dynasties and Táng lineages, Dèng’s biànzhèng is the principal critical witness. The Sìkù editors regularly cite him when correcting Lín Bǎo.

Translations and research

• Wáng Lì-qí 王力器 & Wáng Xiē 王繶 (eds.), Gǔ-jīn xìng-shì shū biàn-zhèng (Jiāng-xī rénmín chū-bǎn-shè, 2006). Standard modern critical edition.
• Cén Zhòng-miǎn 岑仲勉, Yuán-hé xìng-zuǎn fù sì-jiào jì (Zhōng-huá, 1994), uses Dèng Míng-shì as a principal collation source.
• Patricia Buckley Ebrey, The Aristocratic Families of Early Imperial China (Cambridge UP, 1978); David Johnson, The Medieval Chinese Oligarchy (Westview, 1977); Nicolas Tackett, The Destruction of the Medieval Chinese Aristocracy (Harvard UP, 2014) — all draw on Dèng for genealogical-prosopographical evidence.

No European-language translation.

Other points of interest

The Dèng father-and-son collaboration is one of the better-documented Southern-Sòng cases of family-team scholarship, comparable to the Bāo 包 family on the Sōngyuán commentary tradition. Dèng Chūnnián’s own Huàjì 畫繼 (KR3i0030) provides an important parallel as a continuation of an earlier work; here the son edits the father’s manuscript rather than continuing an outside compiler.

Links

• Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Lèishū lèi, Gǔjīn xìngshì shū biànzhèng entry.
• Wikidata: Q11074180.
• Modern critical edition: Wáng Lìqí & Wáng Xiē (Jiāngxī rénmín, 2006).