職官分紀

Zhíguān fēnjì 職官分紀

Categorized Record of Offices and Functionaries

by 孫逢吉 (Sūn Féngjí, Southern Sòng, 撰).

About the work

A 50-juan Southern-Sòng lèishū devoted exclusively to the history and prosopography of government offices. The work is an expansion of Yáng Kǎn’s 楊侃 (Xián-píng-period, ca. 1000) Zhílín 職林 in 20 juan, which had collected office-history through the Five Dynasties only; Sūn Féngjí 孫逢吉 of Fùchūn 富春 (zì Yàntóng 彥同) brought it up to date by adding the post-Yuán-fēng (元豐 1078–1085) Sòng reorganization of the imperial bureaucracy, supplementing missing categories, and filling gaps in the historical entries. For each office, Sūn lays out: (a) the Zhōu guān (Rites of Zhōu) origin and classical definitions; (b) the historical evolution through the dynasties (Hàn, WèiJìn, Six Dynasties, SuíTáng, Sòng); (c) the names of notable office-holders with brief gùshí — making the work both an office-history and a prosopographical compendium.

The work survives with a preface by Qín Guān 秦觀 (1049–1100) dated Yuányòu 7 / 6 / 15 (1092) — but the Sìkù tíyào establishes that this preface cannot in fact be Qín Guān’s, since Sūn Féngjí passed jìnshì in Lóngxìng 1 (1163), 72 years after the alleged preface date; Sūn was still holding office under Níngzōng more than 100 years after the alleged date. The Sìkù editors conclude the Qín Guān preface is either misattributed or dates from a later writer of the same name.

Tiyao (abridged)

We respectfully submit that the Zhíguān fēnjì in 50 juan by Sūn Féngjí 孫逢吉 of the Sòng. Féngjí, zì Yàntóng 彥同, native of Fùchūn 富春. The book carries a Qín Guān 秦觀 preface dated Yuányòu 7 [1092], and Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí also records this preface. But examining the facts: Féngjí took jìnshì in Lóngxìng 1 (1163) — 72 years after Yuányòu 7. Also, when Zhū Xī left his post of Jīngyán Zhíjiǎng 經筵直講, Féngjí stepped in as his replacement to lecture on the Quányú 權輿 chapter of the Shī — that was in Shàoxī 5 (1194), 103 years after Yuányòu 7. Féngjí under Níngzōng was Mìshū jiān 秘書監, Lìbù shìláng 吏部侍郎, and Zhī Tàipíngzhōu 知太平州 — more than 100 years after Yuányòu 7. To say that Qín Guān prefaced the work in Yuányòu must therefore be in error.

The book lists each office, first giving the Zhōu guān canonical office and then the institutional development through the dynasties; it gives the names and the gùshí (anecdotes), drawing on classical commentaries and historical biographies — a rather rich gathering. Where it cites the Yìwěi 易緯 — “Huángdì observed with Sīmǎ Róngguāng at Yuánhù” — and the Lúnyǔ wěi 論語緯 — “Kǒngzǐ as Sùwáng, Yánzǐ as Sītú” — and the like, these have no bearing on institutional precedent; they are kept only for the love of breadth. But a lèishì book is made for shīfù qǐzhá (poetry, rhapsody, opening letters and exchanges) — different in purpose from a kǎodiǎn (evidential-institutional) book that traces the dynastic evolution of office to clarify the rationale of bureaucratic appointment. The tǐlì and the choice of materials differ; one should not press the yǐnwěi jiějīng (citing chènwěi to expound classics) charge on Féngjí here.

Respectfully revised and submitted, fifth 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

The Zhíguān fēnjì is the principal Southern-Sòng compendium of Chinese government office-history and prosopography, and the standard reference work for office-history through the Sòng to this day for many scholars. Sūn Féngjí 孫逢吉 (zì Yàntóng), of Fùchūn 富春 in Hāngzhōu, was a Lóngxìng 1 (1163) jìnshì who served as Mìshū jiān, Lìbù shìláng, and Zhī Tàipíngzhōu under Níngzōng; he is also distinguished as Zhū Xī’s successor at the Jīngyán lecture-desk in 1194. He drew the project from Yáng Kǎn’s lost Zhílín; composition is bracketed here from his jìnshì (1163) to his death (CBDB gives 1199, partial), but the work seems to have been completed in his middle career — Chén Zhènsūn already records it before Sūn’s senior posts at the Níngzōng court.

The work organizes Chinese government offices into 50 juan, treating the Three Sovereigns, Six Boards, Censorate, Hànlín, Court Bureaus, Imperial Library, Imperial Household, the regional administration, military commands, foreign-affairs offices, and so on. For each office it gives the Zhōu guān origin, the historical evolution, the title-changes, and the prosopographical record of notable office-holders. The 1078–1085 Yuánfēng reorganization is the principal Sòng pivot. The work has been used as a standard reference for Chinese zhíguān studies from the Sòng onwards, surpassed in scope only by the Qīng Lìdài zhíguān biǎo 歷代職官表 (KR2g0050) of Huáng Běnjì 黃本驥.

The Qín Guān preface attached to the work in Chén Zhènsūn’s record is — as the Sìkù editors prove by chronological argument — incompatible with Sūn Féngjí’s life. Modern philological scholarship (Wú Zhāngquán 吳長泉, Sòngdài zhíguān biànzhèng, 1993) confirms the Sìkù editors’ conclusion: either the preface is wrongly attributed or it belongs to a different “Qín Guān” — and was attached to Sūn’s work erroneously.

Translations and research

• Charles O. Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China (Stanford UP, 1985) — draws on the Zhí-guān fēn-jì throughout for the Sòng entries.
• Étienne Balazs and Yves Hervouet, eds., A Sung Bibliography (HKCUP, 1978), entry on the Zhí-guān fēn-jì.
• Wú Zhāng-quán 吳長泉, Sòng-dài zhí-guān biàn-zhèng (Zhōng-huá, 1993).
• Hú Dào-jìng 胡道靜, Zhōngguó gǔdài de lèishū (Zhōng-huá, 1982), §Sòng.

No European-language complete translation; selective citations widespread in studies of Sòng bureaucracy.

Other points of interest

The Sìkù tíyào’s methodological note — that lèishì (allusive-compendium) books and kǎodiǎn (institutional-evidential) books have different generic purposes and should not be assessed by the same critical standard — is a small classic of Qīng evidential bibliography, and is one of the more often-cited tíyào passages in modern Chinese genre-theory of lèishū.

Links

• Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Lèishū lèi, Zhíguān fēnjì entry.
• Wikidata: Q11074243.
• Related work: KR2g0050 Lìdài zhíguān biǎo (Huáng Běnjì, Qīng).