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盱江集

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Text ID
KR4d0042
Date
1059–1487
Dynasty
宋

Xūjiāng jí 盱江集

The Xū-jiāng Collection (of Lǐ Gòu) by 李覯 (撰), edited by Míng 左贊 (編)

About the work

Xūjiāng jí 盱江集 (also titled 直講李先生文集 / Zhíjiǎng Lǐ xiānshēng wén jí in the SBCK Sòng base, after Lǐ’s office Tàixué zhíjiǎng) is the 37-juǎn literary collection of Lǐ Gòu 李覯 (1009–1059, zì Tàibó 泰伯, of Xūjiāng 盱江 in Nánchéng 南城, Jiāngxī — whence the title), one of the most original Qìnglì generation Confucian thinkers and the founder of an independent line of Northern-Sòng jīngshì 經世 thought separate from the Wáng Ānshí and Sīmǎ Guāng poles. Lǐ is the author of the Zhōulǐ zhì tàipíng lùn 周禮致太平論 (a substantial Confucian-utopian-administrative theory based on the Zhōulǐ), the Lǐ lùn 禮論, the Yì lùn 易論, and the Chángyǔ 常語. The Sòng-period collection was 12 juǎn arranged by Zǔ Wúzé 祖無擇 (preface dated Qìnglì 3 / 1043, also preserved here); the Míng Chénghuà (1465–1487) re-edition by Zuǒ Zàn 左贊 expanded it to the present 37-juǎn arrangement.

Tiyao

No tíyào in the local SBCK file — the file carries Zǔ Wúzé’s preface (1043) and Lǐ’s own postface to his arranged drafts. The Sìkù WYG 37-juǎn tíyào treats Lǐ as one of the most stylistically vigorous and intellectually independent of the Qìnglì generation: Zǔ Wúzé’s preface (translated in part) declares that “Confucius died over a thousand years ago and the wén declined; Mèng Kē, Xún Qīng, Jiǎ Yì, Dǒng Zhòngshū, Yáng Xióng, Wáng Tōng” — none of them could revive the xiánbì because they had not the position. “If they had had the position to put their will into action, the manner of the Three Dynasties — I am sure it would have returned.” Lǐ Gòu of Xūjiāng — zì Tàibó — held in heart the deep purpose of Mèng Kē and the Six jūnzǐ. Young, ambitious, lamented the wén decline. He walked 2,000 lǐ to the capital seeking tōng with the throne, was set in the Màocái yìděng exam in first place, but the Yǒusī dropped him.

Abstract

Lǐ Gòu’s career is the type-example of the Qìnglì generation thinker frustrated in his career: an unsuccessful examination candidate (failed twice, finally honored only by Màocái yìděng in 1043, then dropped by Yǒusī); founded a private academy at Xūjiāng (the Xūjiāng Shūyuàn) which became the model of a generation of Sòng private academies; only late in life received minor court office (Tàixué zhíjiǎng) and died en route to retirement in Jiāyòu 4 / 1059 age 51. His Zhōulǐ zhì tàipíng lùn — published in 1043 — is one of the most ambitious early-Sòng Confucian utopian theories, anticipating Wáng Ānshí’s later Zhōu-lǐ-based New Policies, but with quite different political content (Lǐ’s program was decentralizing and jīngtián-revivalist, against Wáng’s centralizing fiscal program). Modern Chinese scholarship has therefore read Lǐ as the principal pre-Wáng-Ān-shí Zhōulǐ theorist whose synthesis Wáng absorbed and inverted. The Lǐ lùn and Yì lùn are also significant; Lǐ’s Yì commentary is markedly distinctive in rejecting the xiàngshù tradition.

The transmitted text is the Chénghuà-era recension of Zuǒ Zàn (1465–1487), expanding the 12-juǎn Zǔ Wúzé Sòng original into 37 juǎn by adding additional pieces from family papers. Zuǒ Zàn was a Míng Chénghuà official (CBDB 127045) and a Nánchéng descendant who took up the family-Lǐ editorial project. The dating bracket marks Lǐ’s death (1059) to Zuǒ Zàn’s Chénghuà recension (1465–1487).

Translations and research

  • Bol, Peter K. 1992. “This Culture of Ours”. Stanford UP. Treats Lǐ Gòu in the Qìng-lì generation.
  • Smith, Kidder. 1990. Sung Dynasty Uses of the I Ching. Princeton UP. Discusses Lǐ’s Yì commentary.
  • Hé Lín 何淋. 2007. Lǐ Gòu yán-jiū 李覯研究. Jiāng-xī rénmín. The standard Chinese monograph.
  • Vermeersch, Sem. 2014. “Li Gou’s Confucian Utopia.” Journal of Asian Studies. Discusses the Zhōu-lǐ zhì tài-píng lùn.

Other points of interest

Lǐ Gòu’s Chángyǔ 常語 — a Confucian yǔlù-style zázhì defending the worldly value of Confucian jīngjì against contemplative tendencies — is the proximate model for many later Sòng jīngshì compendia. The connection between Lǐ’s Zhōulǐ utopianism and Wáng Ānshí’s Xīníng New Policies is one of the contested questions in Sòng intellectual history.

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