Sūn Míngfù xiǎo jí 孫明復小集
The Small Collection of Sūn Míng-fù (Sūn Fù) by 孫復 (撰)
About the work
Sūn Míngfù xiǎo jí 孫明復小集 is the surviving 1-juǎn gleaning (19 prose pieces, 3 poems) of the original 10-juǎn Suīyángzǐ jí 睢陽子集 of Sūn Fù 孫復 (992–1057, zì Míngfù 明復), the Tàishān xuépài 泰山學派 founder and one of the principal Qìnglì-era Chūnqiū exegetes whose Chūnqiū zūnwáng fāwēi 春秋尊王發微 KR1d0033 inaugurated the Sòng zūnwáng yīgōng 尊王義公 style of Chūnqiū commentary that culminated in Hú Ānguó 胡安國.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit: the Sūn Míngfù xiǎo jí in 1 juǎn was composed by Sūn Fù of the Sòng. Fù has the Chūnqiū zūnwáng fāwēi already in the catalog. The Wénxiàn tōngkǎo records Sūn Fù Suīyángzǐ jí in 10 juǎn; Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì the same. The present recension comes from the family of Zhào Guólín 趙國麟 of Tàiān, only 19 prose pieces and 3 poems. Sū Zhé’s mùbēi for Ōuyáng Xiū says Ōuyáng remarked: “in prose I obtained Yǐn Shīlǔ 尹洙 and Sūn Míngfù, but my heart was not yet content” — that is, in early Sòng, continuing the Five-Dynasties bēimí defects, Mù Xiū 穆修 and Liǔ Kāi 柳開 first chased the ancient register, and Sūn Fù together with Yǐn Zhū continued them; the fēngqì was just opening, the splendor not yet rich; therefore Ōuyáng spoke that way. But Sūn’s prose is rooted in jīng 經 (the Chūnqiū tradition), serious and craggy, distinctively the speech of a Confucian — quite a different gé from the ŌuSūZēngWáng style of “thousand transformations, ten thousand changes, exhausting the powers of wénzhāng”; Ōuyáng’s words cannot be applied generically. As to his Lùn Yáng Xióng 論揚雄 — in which he over-praises Yáng — saying Tàixuán was not modeled on the Yì but rather written to despise Wáng Mǎng — this is the white blemish on his jade and need not be excused. Qiánlóng 46 (1781) 4th month, respectfully collated.
Abstract
Sūn Fù is the principal teacher of the Tàishān xuépài alongside his disciple Shí Jiè 石介; together they shaped the Qìnglì-era classical Confucian revival that would become Lǐxué. Sūn’s principal achievement is the Chūnqiū zūnwáng fāwēi (12 juǎn) — a dramatic break from the Sānzhuàn commentary tradition (Zuǒ, Gōngyáng, Gǔliáng) in favor of a direct moral reading of the Chūnqiū text under a Confucian “honor-the-king” frame. Hú Yuán 胡瑗 and Sūn Fù together with their pupil Shí Jiè are conventionally bracketed as the “Sān xiānshēng” 三先生 of the Northern-Sòng pre-Lǐxué generation. Sūn served as Zhīzhōu of Pīzhōu and held a Tàixué lectureship; refused most Yánguān office because of his disagreements with the late-Qìnglì faction politics. Died in Jiāyòu 2 / 1057 age 66. The transmitted collection is a slim Qīng gleaning from the Tàiān Zhào family papers — 19 prose pieces and 3 poems — recovered against the original 10-juǎn count recorded in Wénxiàn tōngkǎo and Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì. The dating bracket marks Sūn’s death (1057) to the Sìkù reconstitution (1781).
Translations and research
- Bol, Peter K. 1992. “This Culture of Ours”. Stanford UP. Treats Sūn Fù as one of the Sān xiānshēng of pre-Lǐ-xué Confucianism.
- Skonicki, Douglas. 2007. “Cosmos, State, and Society: Song Dynasty Arguments concerning the Creation of Political Order.” PhD diss., Harvard. Discusses Sūn Fù’s Chūn-qiū reading.
- Cài Fāng-lù 蔡方鹿. 2010. Sūn Fù Sòng-rú Chūn-qiū xué yán-jiū 孫復宋儒春秋學研究. Bā-Shǔ shū-shè. Standard Chinese monograph on Sūn’s Chūn-qiū hermeneutics.
Other points of interest
The combination of Sūn Fù, Shí Jiè, and Hú Yuán as the canonical “Sān xiānshēng” of the Northern-Sòng Confucian revival is constructed retrospectively in Zhū Xī’s Yīluò yuānyuán lù 伊洛淵源錄 — Sūn appears there as the principal Chūnqiū exegete in the prehistory of Lǐxué. The dramatic refusal of the Sānzhuàn in favor of direct Chūnqiū reading is the feature for which his work is principally remembered.
Links
- Sun Fu (Wikidata)
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §3 (Sòng Chūnqiū exegesis); §54.