Jǐngyūshēng jí 景迂生集
The Collected Works of the “Reverer of the Pedant” (Cháo Yuè-zhī) by 晁說之 (撰), 晁子健 (編)
About the work
Jǐngyūshēng jí 景迂生集 (also titled Sōngshān wénjí 嵩山文集 — “Sōngshān” being his retreat name in the late period) in 20 juǎn preserves the writings of Cháo Yuèzhī 晁說之 (1059–1129), classicist, exegete, and political dissident. The hào Jǐngyū 景迂 (“admirer of the Yū sǒu 迂叟”) is taken in homage to Sīmǎ Guāng’s late style; Jǐngyūshēng “the Jǐngyū gentleman” is its expanded form. The collection was edited and printed by Cháo’s grandson Cháo Zǐjiàn 晁子健 in the early Southern-Sòng period, and is the principal corpus through which Cháo’s anti-Mèngzǐ and pro-Sīmǎ / CháoshìYìxué (Cháo-family Yìjīng learning) positions have been transmitted.
Tiyao
Abstract
Jǐngyūshēng jí documents the career and intellectual positions of one of the most distinctive Northern–Southern-Sòng transition classicists. Juǎn 1 opens with Cháo’s Yuánfú 3 (1100) memorial Yìngzhào fēngshì 應詔封事 (sealed memorial in response to summons) — submitted as Xuāndéláng zhī Cízhōu Wǔānxiàn shì jiān bīngmǎ jiānyā — congratulating the new emperor Huīzōng on the political reset of 1100 (dismissal of yānhuàn eunuchs, restraint on the yúcàifáng extravagant-craft offices, suspension of the hǎixún qīnshìguān covert surveillance). The opening invokes the Chūnqiū doctrine of zhèngshǐ — the rectification of beginnings under a new ruler — characteristic of Cháo’s classical voice.
The collection is the principal vehicle for Cháo’s sustained polemic against the Mèngzǐ canonisation: he argued that Mèngzǐ’s elevation to canonical status by Wáng Ānshí 王安石 (in the Xīnfǎ curriculum) was a doctrinal error, since Mèngzǐ’s tenets — particularly on benevolence-and-righteousness, xìngshàn (innate goodness), and jūnchén relations — were not consistent with the older Wǔjīng tradition. The Fēi Mèngzǐ 非孟子 essay is the cardinal text of this position; it is preserved within Jǐngyūshēng jí. Gāozōng demoted Cháo at the start of Jiànyán for this position, and Cháo died shortly after in retirement (1129).
The collection also preserves Cháo’s kǎozhèng on the Zǐxià Yìzhuàn 子夏易傳 (which he diagnosed as a Táng-period forgery by Zhāng Hú 張弧, KR1a0001); his correspondence with Sū Shì 蘇軾 蘇軾 (who recommended him for the zhùshùkē under Yuányòu); his prose in support of his cousin Cháo Bǔzhī 晁補之 晁補之 KR4d0105; and his late-period Sōngshān (Mt. Sōng) retreat poetry. Compositional bracket runs from the late 1080s (post-jìnshì) through 1129; the bulk dates to the Yuánfú / Chóngníng / Xuānhé exile period and the brief Jìngkāng / early-Jiànyán recall.
The catalog gives a single date “1082” reflecting Cháo’s jìnshì year; lifedates 1059–1129 are confirmed by CBDB id 3029 and modern reference works. The composition window of the biéjí contents follows Cháo’s career, not his birth.
Translations and research
- Bol, Peter K. “This Culture of Ours”: Intellectual Transitions in T’ang and Sung China. Stanford 1992. Treats Cháo Yuè-zhī’s classical positions in the context of the post-Yuán-yòu intellectual landscape.
- Smith, Paul Jakov, ed. Cambridge History of China vol. 5 part 1 (2009) — chapters on Huīzōng-era politics use Jǐng-yū-shēng jí memorials as primary sources.
- Wáng Sōng-líng 王松齡, ed., Cháo Yuè-zhī jí jiào-zhù 晁說之集校注 (Shàng-hǎi gǔ-jí, 1980s) — modern critical edition.
- Sòng yuán xué-àn 宋元學案 j. 22 (Cháo-shì xué-àn 晁氏學案) — Huáng Zōng-xī’s intellectual-genealogy account.
Other points of interest
- The position Fēi Mèngzǐ — refusing to grant Mèngzǐ full canonical status — is one of the few sustained pre-modern Chinese arguments against the Sìshū curriculum that would soon be set by Zhū Xī. Cháo’s argument carried weight enough that Gāozōng himself intervened.
- Cháo’s Rúyán 儒言 (catalogued in KR3a0036) circulates separately as a stand-alone work; the Jǐngyūshēng jí preserves the broader literary corpus.