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嵇中散集

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Text ID
KR4b0005
Date
1525–1525
Dynasty
魏 (recompiled 明)

Xí Zhōngsǎn jí 嵇中散集

Collected Works of Xí [Kāng], Gentleman of the Central Disposition by 嵇康 (撰)

About the work

Xí Zhōngsǎn jí 嵇中散集 in ten juǎn (also titled Xí Kāng jí 嵇康集) preserves the works of Xí Kāng 嵇康 (223–262), leader of the Zhúlín qī xián 竹林七賢 (Seven Worthies of the Bamboo Grove) and the most uncompromising voice of the early-medieval WèiJìn counterculture. The conventional title comes from his appointment as Zhōngsǎndàifū 中散大夫 (“Grand Master of the Central Disposition” / Court Advisor). The standard Hàn–Suí–Táng recension of fifteen juǎn was already reduced to ten by the Sòng (Chén Zhènsūn 陳振孫); the present ten-juǎn text is the Míng Jiājìng yǐyǒu (1525) re-edition by Huáng Shěngzēng 黃省曾 of Wúxiàn 吳縣, which the Sìkù compilers retained for the WYG. It carries 47 shī, 1 fù, 2 letters, 2 miscellaneous zhù, 9 lùn, 1 zhēn, and 1 jiā jiè — totaling 62 pieces (one of which, Xí Xún lù 嵇荀錄, exists only as title with no surviving body).

Tiyao

The old recension calls Xí Kāng a Jìn man, but Kāng was killed under the regency of Sīmǎ Zhāo 司馬昭, when the Wèi mandate had not yet ended; he should be a Wèi man, not a Jìn man. The Jìn shū biography (compiled by Fáng Qiáo 房喬 et al.) is mistaken on this point, and the present collection has carried the error forward. The Suíshū jīngjí zhì records Xí Kāng wén jí 嵇康文集 in fifteen juǎn; the new and old Tángshū concur. Zhèng Qiáo’s 鄭樵 Tōngzhì lüè still has the same count. By Chén Zhènsūn’s Shū lù jiě tí, however, it is already ten juǎn; Chén notes that “though Kāng’s wén and lùn once filled six or seven myriad words, what survives today is only this much” — so by the Sòng there was already no complete text. One suspects Zhèng Qiáo simply followed the older bibliographies without seeing the fifteen-juǎn text himself.

Wáng Mào’s 王楙 Yě kè cóng shū 野客叢書 says: the Xí Kāng zhuàn states that Kāng “loved to discourse on míng lǐ, was skilled in writing, composed the Gāo shì zhuàn zàn 高士傳贊, made the Tài shǐ zhēn 太史箴 and the Shēng wú āi lè lùn 聲無哀樂論.” Wáng obtained from the Bìlíng 毗陵 family of Hè Fānghuí 賀方回 a manuscript copy of Xí Kāng jí in ten juǎn, with sixty-eight shī. The Wén xuǎn preserves only three or four; the Wén xuǎn alone records the Yǔ Shān Jùyuán jué jiāo shū 與山巨源絕交書 but not the second letter, Yǔ Lǚ Chángtì jué jiāo shū 與呂長悌絕交書; only the Yǎng shēng lùn 養生論, not the Yǔ Xiàng Zǐqī lùn yǎng shēng nán dā 與向子期論養生難答 in over four thousand words; not the Zhái wú jí xiōng shè shēng lùn nán 宅無吉凶攝生論難 in three pieces; nor Nán Zhāng Liáo zì rán hào xué lùn 難張遼自然好學論; nor the Guǎn Cài lùn 管蔡論, Shì sī lùn 釋私論, Míng dǎn lùn 明膽論 etc. The Chóng wén zǒng mù 崇文總目 gives Xí Kāng jí as ten juǎn — corresponding to Wáng’s text. The Táng yìwén zhì’s fifteen-juǎn figure: the extra five juǎn are unexplained — by Wáng’s account, Zhèng Qiáo’s claim is exposed as careless.

The present edition contains 47 shī, 1 fù, 2 shū, 2 zázhù, 9 lùn, 1 zhēn, 1 jiā jiè; the zázhù includes Xí Xún lù — title without text — totaling effectively 62 pieces of poetry and prose. Even this is no longer the Sòng original. It is the re-collated edition of Huáng Shěngzēng 黃省曾 of Wúxiàn 吳縣 (Sūzhōu), Jiājìng yǐyǒu (= 1525). Yáng Shèn’s 楊愼 Dān qiān lù 丹鉛錄 once argued that Ruǎn Jí 阮籍 died after Kāng, so the supposed Ruǎn Jí stele attributed to Kāng’s hand cannot be Kāng’s; the present edition does not include this stele — its critical screening is therefore reasonably exact.

(The above is translated from the Zinbun digital Sìkù tíyào edition; the WYG 000.txt for KR4b0005 in this corpus carries Huáng Shěngzēng’s preface but not the tíyào.)

Abstract

The transmission of Xí Kāng’s writings is comparatively well-attested but materially attenuated: 15 juǎn in Suíshū jīngjí zhì, the two Tángshū yìwén zhì, and Zhèng Qiáo’s Tōngzhì lüè; reduced to 10 juǎn by the Sòng (Chóng wén zǒng mù; Chén Zhènsūn’s Shū lù jiě tí explicitly notes the loss). The Sìkù base text is the Míng Jiājìng-era (1525) re-collation by Huáng Shěngzēng 黃省曾 (1490–1540) of Wúxiàn, which retains the ten-juǎn division and 62 pieces. Within this corpus, the works of permanent intellectual importance are the long lùn — Shēng wú āi lè lùn 聲無哀樂論 (sound has no joy or sorrow), Yǎng shēng lùn 養生論 and its companion debate with Xiàng Xiù 向秀, Shì sī lùn 釋私論 (on freedom from self-interest), Míng dǎn lùn 明膽論, Guǎn Cài lùn 管蔡論, Tài shī zhēn 太師箴, Nán zì rán hào xué lùn 難自然好學論 against Zhāng Liáo 張邈 — and the two jué jiāo shū (severance letters) to Shān Tāo 山濤 (Jùyuán 巨源) and to Lǚ Xún 呂巽 (Chángtì 長悌). His poetry, mostly four-character verse in archaic rhythm, includes the famous Yōu fèn shī 幽憤詩 written in prison shortly before his execution.

The chronological note in the tíyào is significant for the question of Xí Kāng’s dating: although the Jìn shū (compiled under Táng) classes him as a Jìn writer, Kāng was executed by Sīmǎ Zhāo in 262, three years before Sīmǎ Yán 司馬炎 received the Wèi mandate (265). The Sìkù compilers are correct that Kāng should be a Wèi figure; this is the standard scholarly view. CBDB gives 224–263, a one-year displacement from the conventional 223–262 (which assumes the Wèi calendar); both ranges are defended in modern scholarship.

The eight jiā jiè 家誡 (“admonitions to one’s children”) and the Yǐ shū yǔ BùTǎo shū 與部濤書 (= Yǔ Shān Jùyuán jué jiāo shū) gave later tradition the central image of Xí Kāng: the man who refused to play court games, walked away from political compromise, and paid the price. He was charged with subversion at the instigation of Zhōng Huì 鍾會 (whom he had famously snubbed at his forge) and executed in the Luòyáng marketplace at the age of 40 sui. The Guǎng líng sǎn 廣陵散 melody he played on the qín before his execution became the canonical motif of the literary-musical individualist.

Translations and research

  • Donald Holzman. 1957. La vie et la pensée de Hi K’ang (223–262 ap. J.-C.). Brill. Foundational French monograph.
  • Robert G. Henricks. 1983. Philosophy and Argumentation in Third-Century China: The Essays of Hsi K’ang. Princeton UP. Annotated complete English translation of the lùn.
  • Stephen Owen and Wendy Swartz, eds. 2017. The Poetry of Ruan Ji and Xi Kang. De Gruyter (Library of Chinese Humanities). Standard English complete translation of Xí Kāng’s verse.
  • Knechtges, David R. and Taiping Chang, eds. 2014. Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide, vol. 2. Brill. Article on Xí Kāng jí with full transmission history.
  • Dài Míngyáng 戴明揚, ed. 1962. Xí Kāng jí jiào zhù 嵇康集校注. Rénmín wénxué. The principal modern critical edition; revised reprint Zhōnghuá 2014.
  • Lǔ Xùn 魯迅, ed. 1956. Xí Kāng jí 嵇康集. Lǔ Xùn collated and annotated this collection with great philological care, work eventually published in his Quánjí; an important predecessor to Dài’s edition.
  • Christof Harbsmeier. 1991. “Conceptions of Knowledge in Ancient China,” in Epistemological Issues in Classical Chinese Philosophy, ed. Hans Lenk and Gregor Paul, 11–30, SUNY — discusses Xí Kāng’s Shēng wú āi lè lùn.

Other points of interest

Lǔ Xùn 魯迅 took up the textual criticism of Xí Kāng jí over a long period (1913–1935), producing a heavily corrected manuscript edition that he never lived to publish in final form. His work, partly as a scholarly engagement and partly as a kind of identification with Xí Kāng’s iconoclasm, is preserved in his Lǔ Xùn jí wài jí shí yí 魯迅集外集拾遺 and Lǔ Xùn quán jí and remains an essential reading for the modern understanding of Xí Kāng’s textual history.

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