Biéběn Hán wén kǎoyì 別本韓文考異
Alternative Edition: Hán Yù Collection with Critical Notes by 韓愈 (撰), 朱熹 (考異), 王伯大 (重編)
About the work
Biéběn Hán wén kǎoyì 別本韓文考異 in 40 juǎn — also widely transmitted as Zhū Wéngōng jiào Chánglí xiānshēng wén jí 朱文公校昌黎先生文集 (the SBCK title) — is the consolidated form of the Zhū Xī HánYù critical apparatus: Wáng Bódà 王伯大’s late-Sòng (Chúnyòu / Bǎoyòu period, ca. 1234–1244) editorial digest in which Zhū Xī’s 朱熹 kǎoyì notes (originally separately printed as the 10-juǎn Yuánběn Hán jí kǎoyì = KR4c0043) are dispersed back into the body of the Hán Yù collection underneath the relevant lines. The 40-juǎn arrangement matches the standard Tang-period Lǐ Hàn 李漢 李漢 table-of-contents form. Wáng’s editorial consolidation made the kǎoyì far more usable as a reading text and as a result became the dominant SòngYuánMíng circulation of the HánYù corpus, almost completely displacing Zhū’s separate yuánběn (= KR4c0043) for several centuries.
The SBCK file opens with Zhū Xī’s substantial Hán wén kǎoyì xù 韓文考異序 — itself a major piece of Sòng critical bibliography, surveying the Háng běn 杭本 (Xiángfú period, ca. 1010), Shǔ běn 蜀本 (Tiānxǐ, ca. 1020), and Jiāyòu Shǔ běn 嘉祐蜀本 (1057), the Guǎngé běn 館閣本, and the principles by which Fāng Sōngqīng’s 方崧卿 Jǔzhèng should be retained or corrected.
Tiyao
No tíyào in source. The KR4c0044 file is the SBCK base, which preserves Zhū Xī’s preface but no Sìkù tíyào. The Sìkù WYG 40-juǎn tíyào (V1073.3) survives in the Zinbun digital Sìkù tíyào; it pairs the entry with KR4c0043 and notes Wáng Bódà’s editorial consolidation.
Abstract
The Wáng Bódà recension is the principal pre-modern reading edition of Hán Yù — it consolidates the jiàokān foundation of Fāng Sōngqīng (= KR4c0042) and the critical refinement of Zhū Xī (= KR4c0043) into a single 40-juǎn working text, replicating the original Lǐ Hàn arrangement but enriched with Zhū’s interlinear kǎoyì. From the late Sòng through the Míng this was the standard form of Hán Yù’s collection on the kējǔ curriculum and in private libraries.
The Sòng Tángshū yìwén zhì records Hán Chánglí jí 韓昌黎集 in 40 juǎn; the 40-juǎn form is the original Lǐ Hàn (Hán Yù’s son-in-law and his original editor in 824) configuration, preserved without break across the entire SòngYuánMíngQīng tradition.
Wáng Bódà (cbdbId 20099 in CBDB; meta gives no dates; CBDB has fl. 1214 and death 1253) was a Wúzhōu 婺州 Yìwū 義烏 native (modern Yìwū in central Zhèjiāng); jìnshì of Jiātài 2 (1202); successively zhōngshū shèrén 中書舍人 and Hànlín xuéshì 翰林學士 in the late Lǐzōng court. He died in 1253. The editorial consolidation of Zhū Xī’s kǎoyì into the HánYù body text was undertaken in his middle years.
For Hán Yù himself, see the existing person note 韓愈; for the collateral and downstream HánYù commentary tradition see KR4c0042, KR4c0043, KR4c0045, KR4c0046, KR4c0047.
Translations and research
- See KR4c0042, KR4c0043 for related Sòng critical editions.
- Charles Hartman. 1986. Han Yu and the T’ang Search for Unity. Princeton UP. The standard English-language scholarly study.
- Qián Zhòng-lián 錢仲聯, ed. 1957. Hán Chāng-lí shī-xì nián-jí shì 韓昌黎詩繫年集釋. Standard modern annotated edition (built on Wáng Bó-dà / Zhū Xī).
- Mǎ Tōng-bó 馬通伯, ed. 1957. Hán Chāng-lí wén jí jiào-zhù 韓昌黎文集校注. Standard modern annotated edition of Hán’s prose.
Other points of interest
The SòngYuán dominance of Wáng Bódà’s consolidated form is the principal reason Zhū Xī’s separate yuánběn fell out of circulation; the Sìkù-editorial decision to print both KR4c0043 and KR4c0044 is therefore unusual and reflects the editors’ commitment to recovering lost original forms even where a downstream consolidation had been the practical reading text.