Xiǎoxué gànzhū 小學紺珠
Dark-Blue Pearls of Primary Studies
by 王應麟 (Wáng Yīnglín, late Southern Sòng, 撰).
About the work
A late-Southern-Sòng míngshù (named-numeric) compendium by Wáng Yīnglín — a number-organized lèishū in which historical and canonical material is arranged by the numerals (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, etc.) embedded in conventional Chinese fixed-numerical-set names (二儀, 三才, 四時, 五行, 六律, 七廟, 八音, 九州, 十干 etc.). The work is a genre-innovation in the lèishū tradition — modelled on the form of the lost Sìbā mù 四八目 attributed to Táo Qián 陶潛 — and is intended, as Wáng’s preface declares, as a primary-education (xiǎoxué) text in the spirit of the Lǐ jì curriculum: “at six years children are taught numbers and the cardinal directions; at eight the Liùjiǎ Wǔfāng book-and-arithmetic”. The result is a 10-juan number-arranged primer of cultural literacy — particularly useful as a quick reference for the fixed-numerical expressions that pepper classical Chinese prose. The work is also titled the “gànzhū” (dark-blue pearl) after Zhāng Yāngōng 張燕公’s legendary gànbì dàzhū — a pearl that, when held up to one’s chest, reminded one of every book one had read.
The work is praised by the Sìkù editors as the chuàngshǐ (founding work) of the genre; later compendia in the same form (Zhāng Jiǔchéng’s Qúnshū shítuò 群書拾唾, Gōng Mèngrén’s Dúshū jìshù lüè 讀書記數略) are derivative. The Sìkù editors flag some structural inconsistencies — the Lǜlì lèi mixes pitch-pipes and calendar in a confusing order; some classical numbered sets (e.g. Huáinánzǐ tiānwén xùn’s bā hóng bā jí paired with the 5-direction and 6-government compass-sets) are not consistently registered — but conclude that zōngshì jiā yì, chuàngshǐ zhě nán, bìlù lánlǚ — “easy to follow on others’ tracks, hard to create from scratch; the founder’s pioneering wagon-tracks should not be effaced”.
Tiyao (abridged)
The Xiǎoxué gànzhū in 10 juan by Wáng Yīnglín of the Sòng. Material divided by category, similar to other lèishū; but within each category the numbers themselves are the organizing principle, with the topics they govern hung underneath — quite different from other lèishū. Modelled on the form transmitted as Táo Qián’s Sìbā mù; classifying gùshí by numerical name. Innovative within the lèishì genre.
Some entries reflect random-jotting rather than systematic editing: as the Lǜlì lèi leads with Liùlǜ and Liùlǚ, then Dùliáng quánhéng, then Sìshí, Bāzhèng, Èrqì, Shíèr yuè — moving by lǜ to lì; but then it goes to Wǔyīn, Liùshísì shēng, Bāshísì diào, then to Qīrùn, Bāhuì — the front and back lack order. As for the Wǔbǔ Sānzhào Sìzhào Jiǔshì type, Wáng’s Yùhǎi places them under Yìshù, but here they enter Lǜlì — confusing his own lì. Sometimes the citations are incomplete — failing to record what was right under his eyes: e.g. the Tiānwén lèi contains the Bāhóng Bājí of Huáinán tiānwén xùn but not its 5-direction Wǔguān or 6-month Liùfǔ sets; the Qìyòng lèi contains the Zhōu guān’s Bāzūn but not Jiǎ’s sub-commentary’s Shíyǒu liù zūn; contains the Chūnqiū zhuàn’s Dìyùnyàn sānzhēng but not the Yílǐ shū’s Shēng yǒu èrshíyī tǐ — examples too many to enumerate. Yán Ruòqú’s Qiánqiū zhájì only picks out the Jiǔjīng bù fēn TángSòng error and the omission of the Shísān jīng name — still incomplete.
But later works — Zhāng Jiǔchéng’s Qúnshū shítuò and Gōng Mèngrén’s Dúshū jìshù lüè — though more comprehensive in compilation, all use this book as their lánběn (blue master-copy). Following others’ tracks is easy; founding from scratch is hard. The pioneer’s bìlù lánlǚ (rough-cart and tattered-clothes) labour cannot be effaced.
Respectfully revised and submitted, fourth month of the forty-fourth year of Qiánlóng [1779].
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 Xiǎoxué gànzhū is the founding work of the numerical-organization sub-genre of Chinese lèishū. Wáng Yīnglín wrote it in his last decades — composition is bracketed here to 1270–1296 — as an educational reference, mining the canonical and historical corpus for míngshù (named-number) phrases and arranging them by numeric base. The Yuán-period preface (Dàdé gēngzǐ = 1300) by Fāng Huí 方回 of Zǐyáng 紫陽 reports that Wáng’s intent was to provide an “chūxué-suitable” text — but one whose 74-year Yùhǎi compiler had not waited for an examination to read; the Xiǎoxué gànzhū was a working-of-the-mind document by an aging polymath.
The work’s intellectual significance is twofold. First, it is the prototype of the míngshù genre that flourished in late-Sòng and Yuán pedagogy and persisted into late-imperial primer literature (its descendants include the Qiánzì wén tradition’s míngshù commentaries and many YuánMíng primers). Second, the entries themselves preserve cross-canonical readings — Wáng’s habit of kǎozhèng meant that each numbered set is given with its principal cízhèng references — making the work a useful cross-index for fixed-numerical phrases in classical Chinese.
For the modern student of Wáng Yīnglín, the Xiǎoxué gànzhū is the most accessible witness to his pedagogical thought, complementing the philological Kùnxué jìwén (his most famous late work).
Translations and research
- Hú Dào-jìng 胡道靜, Zhōngguó gǔdài de lèishū (Zhōng-huá, 1982), §Sòng.
- Yán Sōng-bēn 嚴頌彬, Wáng Yīng-lín xué-shù sī-xiǎng yán-jiū (Ān-huī rén-mín, 2007), §IV on the Xiǎo-xué gàn-zhū and its pedagogical context.
- Fāng Huí 方回, the preface dated Dà-dé gēng-zǐ (1300), is the principal early-Yuán reception document.
No European-language translation.
Other points of interest
Wáng Yīnglín’s design of a numerical-cardinality lèishū for “primary studies” reflects the xiǎoxué (lit. “small studies”) of the classical curriculum — i.e. the pre-dàxué training in numbers, characters, and ritual — and is methodologically a precursor of the xùngǔ (etymological-glossary) and míngwù (named-things) sub-disciplines that the Qīng xiǎoxué tradition would systematize.
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Lèishū lèi, Xiǎoxué gànzhū entry.
- Wikidata: Q11074466.