Qúnshū kǎosuǒ 群書考索
Evidential Inquiry into the Many Books
by 章如愚 (Zhāng Rúyú, Southern Sòng, 撰).
About the work
A massive Southern-Sòng lèishū in 212 juan, organized in four jí (前 qiánjí 66 juan, 後 hòují 65 juan, 續 xùjí 56 juan, 別 biéjí 25 juan), one of the largest and most ambitious privately-compiled Sòng compendia. The compiler Zhāng Rúyú 章如愚 (zì Jùnqīng 俊卿) of Jīnhuá 金華 was a Qìngyuán 慶元 (1195–1200) jìnshì and Guózǐ bóshì 國子博士, then Zhī Guìzhōu 知貴州 (Guìzhōu). In the early Kāixǐ 開禧 (1205–1207) he was summoned to court and submitted memorials critical of contemporary policy; he ran foul of Hán Tuōzhòu 韓侂胄 (the dominant Southern-Sòng zǎixiàng of the era) and was dismissed. His biography is in Sòng shǐ 437 (Rúlín section). The Sòng shǐ records that he had a wénjí — now lost; only this Qúnshū kǎosuǒ survives.
The title — Kǎosuǒ “evidential inquiry” — declares the work’s philosophical alignment: the Sìkù editors note this is rare for a Southern-Sòng lèishū, in an era when the dominant Dàoxué mode “honoured xìngmìng and disdained shìgōng” (statecraft success). Zhāng’s principle is yán bì yǒu zhēng, shì bì yǒu jù 言必有徵, 事必有據 — “no statement without proof, no fact without source”. The four jí cover (front): six Classics; the philosophers; classics; histories; imperial taboos; book-catalogues; literature; ritual-and-music; pitch-pipes; calendar; astronomy; geography (13 mén); (rear): bureaucratic offices; schools; examinations; military; food-and-money; finance; criminal law (7 mén); (continuation): classics; histories; literature; pitch-pipes; calendar; five elements; ritual-and-music; enfeoffment; bureaucracy; military; finance; circuits; sovereignty; sage-and-worthy (15 mén); (separate): documents-and-images; classics; histories; literature; pitch-pipes; ministers; classics-and-arts; finance; military; the four frontier peoples; frontier defence (11 mén).
Tiyao (abridged)
We respectfully submit that the Qúnshū kǎosuǒ in 212 juan by Zhāng Rúyú of the Sòng. Rúyú, zì Jùnqīng, native of Jīnhuá in Wùzhōu, jìnshì of Qìngyuán; first appointed Guózǐ bóshì, transferred to Zhī Guìzhōu; at the start of Kāixǐ summoned, in a memorial criticized current policy; offended Hán Tuōzhòu and returned home. His career is in Sòng shǐ · Rúlín zhuàn. The history records his wénjí circulated; now lost; only this book remains.
Four collections in all. Qiánjí in 66 juan divided into 13 mén: Six Classics; Philosophers and Hundred Schools; Other Classics; Histories; Imperial Taboos; Book Catalogues; Literature; Ritual-and-Music; Pitch-pipes; Calendar; Astronomy; Geography. Hòují in 65 juan in 7 mén: Bureaucracy; Schools; Examinations; Military; Food-and-Money; Finance; Criminal Law. Xùjí in 56 juan in 15 mén. Biéjí in 25 juan in 11 mén.
Since the southern crossing, yūrú (pedantic Confucians) have honoured xìngmìng and disdained shìgōng; wénshì (literary scholars) have honoured yìlùn (discourse) but have been sparing in kǎozhèng. Rúyú alone named his book kǎosuǒ: yán bì yǒu zhēng, shì bì yǒu jù — broadly drawing on the many schools and arbitrating with his own view; not only conversant with zhǎnggù (court precedents) but rather inclined to jīngshì (statecraft) as his orientation. Among the jiǎngxué (Confucian-lecture) houses, this has practical substance. Only its juan-mass is heavy, and the four jí were not made at one time — repetitions and contradictions cannot be avoided.
For example, the qiánjí has a Liùjīng mén and also a Zhūjīng mén — the contents overlap. In the Zhūzǐ bǎijiā mén, Yànzǐ, Xúnzǐ, Yángzǐ, Wénzhōngzǐ are classed as zhūzǐ; Guǎnzǐ, Shāngzǐ, Hán Fēizǐ, Huáinánzǐ are classed as bǎijiā — one cannot tell on what basis these are distinguished.
The qiánjí juan 35 details the Liùzōng (six ritual objects) theories without committing to any; the xùjí juan 10 then asserts the Zhèng Kāngchéng theory. The qiánjí juan 30 affirms the “every two years a xiá sacrifice, every five years a dì sacrifice” reading as the Sòng system matching the ancient practice; the biéjí juan 14 affirms the contrary “three years a dì, five years a xiá” theory of Yán Dálóng 顏達龍. The qiánjí juan 33 holds xiá great and dì small per Zhèng Kāngchéng; the biéjí juan 14 holds dì great and xiá small per Yán Dálóng. The qiánjí juan 138 holds the Son of Heaven has five gates and the lords three; the biéjí juan 8 holds the Son of Heaven has six gates and the lords two — all inconsistent between front and rear, careless in selection.
But on the whole the gathering is rich and there is much that comes from genuine evidential discovery. Among Sòng-period writings — when compared to the Wénxiàn tōngkǎo the tǐlì is somewhat mixed but it is superior in classical interpretation; compared to the Yùhǎi its erudition is less, but it is more detailed on contemporary government; compared to Huángshì Rìchāo its categories are clearer; compared to Lǚshì Zhìdù xiángshuō its source-tracing is more complete. The earlier critics said Sū Shì’s poetry is wǔkù zhī bīng, lìdùn hùchén — “the weapons of an arsenal, sharp and dull mingled”. Rúyú’s book can take that label too.
Respectfully revised and submitted, first 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 Qúnshū kǎosuǒ (the most common shorter title Shāntáng kǎosuǒ 山堂考索 from Zhāng’s studio name) is one of the largest privately-compiled Southern-Sòng compendia and the principal extant work of Zhāng Rúyú 章如愚 (Sòng shǐ 437). Composition is bracketed here to his post-jìnshì career (1195–1207), with the biéjí almost certainly added after his dismissal at the start of Kāixǐ and his return to Jīnhuá. The four jí were composed at different times, accounting for the internal contradictions the Sìkù editors document at length — competing positions on the Liùzōng, on the dì and xiá sacrifices, on the Wǔmén / Liùmén royal-palace gate-count, etc. — over which a single editorial pass was never made.
The work’s distinctive intellectual position — kǎosuǒ (evidential inquiry) emphasized over xìngmìng (nature-and-fate / metaphysics) — places Zhāng in the same general intellectual camp as the Yǒngjiā xuépài (Chén Fùliáng, Yè Shì) and the Wùxué tradition of Lǚ Zǔqiān. The Sìkù editors offer a comparative critical placement: more comprehensive than the Wénxiàn tōngkǎo on classics, less than the Yùhǎi on erudition but more on contemporary government, clearer in category than Huáng Zhèn’s Rìchāo, more thorough in source-tracing than Lǚ Zǔqiān’s Zhìdù xiángshuō (KR3k0021). The phrase wǔkù zhī bīng, lìdùn hùchén (an arsenal with sharp and dull weapons mingled) — a famous critical formula originally applied to Sū Shì — is, the Sìkù editors say, equally apt for this book.
For the modern scholar, the Qúnshū kǎosuǒ is a major source for late-Southern-Sòng evidential and institutional scholarship. Its detailed coverage of Sòng-period government (especially in the hòují) and its frontier-defence material (the 11-mén biéjí, almost certainly composed after Hán Tuōzhòu’s 1207 disastrous northern campaign) are particularly valuable. The standard modern edition is the Zhōnghuá shūjú 1992 photo-reprint of the Sìkù recension.
Translations and research
- Hú Dào-jìng 胡道靜, Zhōngguó gǔdài de lèishū (Zhōng-huá, 1982), §Sòng.
- Étienne Balazs and Yves Hervouet, A Sung Bibliography (HKCUP, 1978), entry on the Qún-shū kǎo-suǒ.
- Hoyt Cleveland Tillman, Utilitarian Confucianism (Harvard UP, 1982), §IV–V, contextualises Zhāng’s kǎo-suǒ position alongside Yǒng-jiā.
No European-language translation.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù tíyào’s comparative-survey of Sòng-period kǎozhèng compendia (situating the Qúnshū kǎosuǒ against Wénxiàn tōngkǎo, Yùhǎi, Rìchāo, Zhìdù xiángshuō) is a small classic of Qīng evidential bibliography and a useful methodological aid for navigating Sòng lèishū / kǎojù literature.
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Lèishū lèi, Qúnshū kǎosuǒ entry.
- Wikidata: Q11074365.