Bāmiàn fēng 八面鋒
The Eight-faced Blade
attributed to 陳傅良 (Chén Fùliáng, Southern Sòng, 撰).
About the work
A Southern-Sòng cèyì 策議 (policy-essay) crammer in 13 juan and 93 gāng 綱 (with sub-topics under each), of the same general type as Lǚ Zǔqiān’s Lìdài zhìdù xiángshuō (KR3k0021) but tighter in argumentative structure. The work circulated without author-attribution; the colophon by the Míng Hóngzhì guǐhài (1503) Dū Mù 都穆 — preserved at the end of the original — records a Sòng-era printing that named only “Yǒngjiā xiānshēng” 永嘉先生; since both Chén Fùliáng 陳傅良 (1137–1203) and Yè Shì 葉適 (1150–1223) were known by that biéhào during their lifetimes, the attribution was contested. The traditional consensus — accepted by the Sìkù editors after textual comparison — is Chén Fùliáng: many passages echo Chén’s known prose, the work consistently calls “the Sòng” guócháo (which Chén characteristically uses), and the bìhuì alterations in the Sìkù text (魯威 for 魯桓 to avoid Qīnzōng’s 桓; 魏證 for 魏徵 to avoid Rénzōng’s 徵) show a Southern-Sòng provenance retouched by Míng editors.
The gāng topics are uniformly statecraft maxims expressed as eight-character or seven-character couplets: “Zhìyán ruò yū, yǒu yì yú guó” 至言若迂, 有益於國 (literally “the most important word seems remote; yet it benefits the state”); “Xìng dà lì zhě bù jì xiǎo hài” 興大利者不計小害; “Lì zài yī shí, hài zài wàn shì” 利在一時, 害在萬世; “Tiānxià zhī bì zì shàng qǐ zhī” 天下之弊自上啟之; etc. — the cumulative effect being a 93-aphorism statecraft handbook of the Yǒngjiā xuépài 永嘉學派 (Yǒngjiā school of jīngshì statecraft, of which Chén was the central figure). The title — Bāmiàn fēng (Eight-faced Blade, i.e. blade that cuts on every face) — refers to the work’s rhetorical capacity to cut at any topic in the cèyì examination.
Tiyao (abridged)
The Bāmiàn fēng in 13 juan; the original does not name the compiler. At the end is a Míng Hóngzhì guǐhài [1503] colophon by Dū Mù 都穆 reporting that there was an old Sòng-period printing-edition giving only “Yǒngjiā xiānshēng”; on examining Chén Fùliáng and Yè Shì, both were called Yǒngjiā xiānshēng in their day, and tradition names Chén Fùliáng as compiler; some say it was Yè. Now observing the work — much of it is Chén Fùliáng’s regular phrasing, so the Chén attribution is beyond doubt. Checking Sòng shǐ: Chén Fùliáng’s biography names a Shī jiěgǔ 詩解詁, a Zhōu lǐ shuō 周禮說, and a Chūnqiū zhuàn Zuǒshì zhāngzhǐ 春秋傳左氏章指 as his writings — but does not list this book. Whether it really is from Chén’s hand has no separate evidence.
However, observing the second juan, “today’s quànnóng should not be the responsibility of JiāngZhè but should be the responsibility of the LiǎngHuái; in the great area north of the Jiāng — huángmáo báiwěi, ‘yellow grass and white reed’ covers the view” — and “the Tàishànghuángcháo’s Yú officials harmed the people, and the Retired Emperor resolutely abolished them”; juan 3 calls “in the Xīníng of our dynasty” — these are clearly Southern-Sòng writing. The bìhuì avoidance of 桓 (Qīnzōng’s name) — writing 魯威 for Lǔ Huán — and the avoidance of the xiánmíng taboo on 徵 (Rénzōng’s xiánmíng) — writing 魏證 for Wèi Zhēng — are clearly Míng re-printing changes.
The book has 93 gāng, with sub-topics under each, all prepared cèyì for examination use — not as a stand-alone treatise. Hence no signature. Sòng-period men loved discourse: a feature of their age; but its general purport stays in the pure and right. Yǒngjiā xué was inaugurated by Lǚ Zǔqiān, harmonized with Yè Shì and Chén Fùliáng — and so within the Southern-Sòng Confucians constituted a separate strand. Zhū Xī was rather suspicious of its shèyú shìgōng (touching on practical affairs) — but shìgōng (statecraft success) is for governing the world, while gōnglì (utilitarian self-interest) is for one’s own person: the two seem one but are in fact two. The Sage’s Way has both substance and function, and one should look at the substance of the shìgōng — one cannot use the failings of the later epigones to dismiss Yǒngjiā entirely as súxué (vulgar learning). This work, though a kējǔ book exclusively on contemporary affairs, never strays into Shēn BùhàiHán FēizǐShāng YāngKǒng Jiā arts — and its principal allegiance was never not orthodox.
Respectfully revised and submitted, sixth month of the forty-third year of Qiánlóng [1778].
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 Bāmiàn fēng is the principal extant cèyì crammer of the Southern-Sòng Yǒngjiā xuépài (Yǒngjiā school of jīngshì statecraft), traditionally attributed to its leading scholar Chén Fùliáng 陳傅良 (1137–1203). The work circulated in the late Sòng without author-attribution under the rubric Yǒngjiā xiānshēng zhù 永嘉先生著; modern philological consensus (as articulated already by the Sìkù editors) accepts the Chén Fùliáng attribution on stylistic and biographical grounds. Composition is bracketed here from Chén’s middle career as a teacher (he was jìnshì of Qiándào 8 = 1172, after which he taught widely in Wēnzhōu) to his death.
The work consists of 93 statecraft maxims, each expressed as an aphoristic couplet, with each gāng opening a discursive exposition that draws on canonical and historical examples. The topical range is comprehensive: principles of governance (“the legislator does not look at outcomes — laws made without foresight will collapse”); use of personnel (“examine the inner man — not just outward performance”); economic-policy (“law that begins as beneficial to the people sometimes ends up harming them”); time-horizons (“benefit in a single moment may be harm to ten thousand generations”); fault-attribution (“the troubles of the realm originate from above”). The work’s rhetorical signature is the eight-character maxim; the cumulative effect is a Yǒngjiā statecraft manifesto in compact form.
The Sìkù editors’ defence of the Yǒngjiā xuépài against Zhū Xī’s stricture is one of the more spirited passages in the entire zǐbù of the tíyào — a Qīng-era Yǒngjiā revival, anchoring its case in the basic distinction shìgōng (statecraft success) vs gōnglì (utilitarian self-interest). For the modern intellectual history of Southern-Sòng Yǒngjiā / Wùxué / Dàoxué interactions, the work is one of the most concrete primary sources for the Yǒngjiā position.
Translations and research
- Hoyt Cleveland Tillman, Utilitarian Confucianism: Ch’en Liang’s Challenge to Chu Hsi (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982), §IV, contextualises the Yǒng-jiā xué-pài.
- Yú Yīng-shí 余英時, Sòng-Míng lǐ-xué yǔ zhèng-zhì wén-huà 宋明理學與政治文化 (Tái-běi: Yǔn-chén, 2003), §III, on the Bā-miàn fēng and Yǒng-jiā statecraft.
No European-language complete translation.
Other points of interest
Dū Mù’s 1503 colophon, preserved in the Sìkù recension, is the principal Míng-period attestation of Sòng print-tradition for the work; together with the bìhuì analysis in the Sìkù tíyào, it provides one of the cleaner cases for traditional bibliographic dating in the SòngMíngQīng tradition. The Sìkù editors’ use of bìhuì (taboo-avoidance) signatures to date both the original (Southern Sòng) and the re-printing (Míng) stages of transmission is a methodological example often cited in modern kǎozhèng manuals.
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Lèishū lèi, Bāmiàn fēng entry.
- Wikidata: Q11074256.