讀書紀數略

Dúshū jì shù lüè 讀書紀數略

Brief Record of Numbered Sets Encountered in Reading

by 宮夢仁 (Gōng Mèngrén, Qīng, 撰).

About the work

A specialized Qīng lèishū in 54 juǎn devoted to jì shù (numbered sets) — concepts and items in the classical, historical and philosophical literature whose received form is a numbered enumeration (the Six Classics, Twelve Earthly Branches, Three-and-Five, Five Phases, Eight Trigrams, Nine Regions, Twenty-eight Mansions, Hundred Schools, and so on). The work organizes such shùmù (numbered sets) under four gāng — Heaven (天), Earth (地), Man (人), Things (物) — with 54 zǐmù total. Modelled openly on Wáng Yīnglín’s Sòng Xiǎoxué gānzhū 小學紺珠 and Zhāng Jiǔshào’s Yuán Qúnshū shí tuò 羣書拾唾, the Dúshū jì shù lüè adds SòngYuánMíng material that the two earlier works missed.

Compiled by Gōng Mèngrén 宮夢仁 (b. 1642 per CBDB id 65059; the catalog meta gives b. 1632, an apparent error followed here by correction to 1642), zì Dìngshān 定山, native of Tàizhōu 泰州 (Jiāngsū), jìnshì of Kāngxī wùxū (1658, or 1673 per Wilkinson; the jìnshì date is contested), who served as xúnfǔ Fújiàn (Fújiàn governor) before retiring to private life in Tàizhōu. The work was presented to the Kāngxī emperor at the nán xún (southern progress) of Kāngxī 46 (1707), printed by imperial order, and the blocks deposited in the nèifǔ. The fánlì gives the original division as 52 juǎn; the printed and Sìkù version is 54.

Tiyao

We submit the following: the Dúshū jì shù lüè in 54 juǎn is compiled by Gōng Mèngrén of our dynasty. Mèngrén’s zì was Dìngshān, of Tàizhōu, jìnshì of Kāngxī wùxū, who served at the height as xúnfǔ Fújiàn. In Kāngxī 46 (1707) when the Shèngjià nán xún (the imperial chariot’s southern progress) passed through, Mèngrén was at the time bàguān lǐ jū (out of office in retirement) and so respectfully greeted the liù yù (imperial six-horse carriage) and presented this work to the imperial gaze. He received the imperial mandate to print and disseminate; the blocks were also sent in. To this day they are deposited in the imperial library — a remarkable distinction for a rúshēng (Confucian scholar).

Two zòu zhé (memorial folios) preface the work; the zhé gives the size as 52 juǎn, whereas the present book is 54 juǎn — perhaps two juǎn were divided at printing-block carving. The work is divided into four great gāng: 天, 地, 人, 物. The Heaven section divides into four zǐmù; the Earth section into ten; the Man section into 29; the Things section into eleven. Wherever books record matter that has shù kě jì (a number that can be tallied), the relevant matter is grouped according to its kind. Broadly the Xiǎoxué gānzhū of Wáng Yīnglín and the Qúnshū shí tuò of Zhāng Jiǔshào serve as the model, augmented by SòngYuánMíng materials and so somewhat more comprehensive than the two predecessors. Each category is preceded by an internal table of contents, which makes consultation easier than in the two earlier works. Although the literature is unbounded and the gathering cannot be exhaustive, what is recorded does not always cite its source.

But the fánlì states: shù zhī kě jì jì shù bùshèngshù ér hànniú chōngdòng zhī shū gèng nán jìn dú, zī bùguò jiù ěrmù suǒ jí jiànwén, jù qí lüè ér fú xiáng, gù míng zhī yuē Lüè (the numbered sets that can be tallied are themselves countless, and the hànniú chōngdòng — sweat-the-ox-and-fill-the-rafters — books are harder still to read in full; this work merely captures what eye and ear have reached, fearing the cursory but unable to be detailed — hence the name Lüè “Brief”). The fánlì also states: tí xià bì zhù mǒu shū shì bù wàng běn yě (under each heading the source-book must be noted, in token of not forgetting the source). In many cases, however, no note is given — usually for sources that “all in the world have read,” or where the original Wáng / Zhāng materials lack the note, or where the cited material has come down at second hand and the original is no longer known.

Thus Mèngrén has himself already explained the bù zhù (uncited) cases — they cannot be held against him.

Respectfully revised and submitted, third 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 Dúshū jì shù lüè is the principal Qīng compilation of numbered-set knowledge — the genre that gathers items canonically known by their number (Three Kings, Five Emperors, Six Arts, Seven Sages, Eight Trigrams, Nine Provinces, Hundred Officials, and so on). The two predecessor works it explicitly extends are Wáng Yīnglín’s 王應麟 Sòng-period Xiǎoxué gānzhū 小學紺珠 and Zhāng Jiǔshào’s 張九韶 Yuán-period Qúnshū shí tuò 羣書拾唾; the Dúshū jì shù lüè adds the SòngYuánMíng materials missed by those.

The catalog meta gives Gōng Mèngrén’s floruit as “b. 1632”; CBDB (id 65059) records 1642 as his birth-year, and this is also consistent with Wilkinson’s notice of his jìnshì date (Wilkinson §62.3.8 gives “jinshi 1673”, which fits a 1642-born scholar much better than a 1632-born one — a 1673 jìnshì at age 31 is typical, at age 41 less so). The 1642 date is preferred here; the catalog 1632 is an apparent error.

The work’s presentation history is unusual. Gōng was out of office in Kāngxī 46 (1707) when the Kāngxī emperor’s southern progress (nán xún) passed through Tàizhōu; he intercepted the imperial carriage and presented the work directly. The emperor ordered it printed by the nèifǔ and retained the printing-blocks there — making the Dúshū jì shù lüè one of the few private lèishū of the Qīng to receive imperial-printing patronage. Composition is therefore fixed to 1707 or shortly before.

Wilkinson’s Manual (§62.3.8, on SòngYuánMíng biji literature, where the xiǎoxué gānzhū tradition is discussed) treats the Dúshū jì shù lüè as the principal Qīng successor to Wáng Yīnglín’s compilation tradition. The 4-gāng / 54-zǐmù organization (天 4 zǐmù; 地 10; 人 29; 物 11) is summarized in the Sìkù tíyào, and the work’s distinguishing methodological feature — the mùlù (table of contents) at the head of each category, making the work directly jiǎnxún (lookup-friendly) — distinguishes it from its SòngYuán predecessors. The Sìkù editors’ principal complaint, that citations are inconsistent, is met in advance by Gōng’s own fánlì (cited verbatim in the tíyào).

For modern users the Dúshū jì shù lüè remains the standard one-volume reference for traditional Chinese numbered-set vocabulary and is still cited as such in 21st-century Chinese-studies reference practice (modern reprint: Cóngshū jíchéng (xùbiān), 1994).

Translations and research

• Endymion Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual (Harvard, 2018), §62.3.8 — treats the Dú-shū jì shù lüè as the principal Qīng successor to the Sòng xiǎo-xué gān-zhū tradition. Also notes Zhāng Dài’s 張岱 Yè háng chuán 夜航船 (1650?) for related numbered-set content.
• Hú Dào-jìng 胡道靜, Zhōngguó gǔdài de lèishū (Zhōng-huá, 1982), §Qīng.

No European-language complete translation.

Links

• Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Lèishū lèi, Dúshū jì shù lüè entry.
• Wilkinson §62.3.8.