Yóu Zhìshān jí 游廌山集
The Collection of Yóu Zhì-shān (Yóu Zuò) by 游酢 (撰)
About the work
Yóu Zhìshān jí 游廌山集 in 4 juǎn preserves the surviving prose of Yóu Zuò 游酢 (1053–1123), one of the Chéngmén sì xiānshēng 程門四先生 — the four senior disciples of Chéng Yí. The collection’s title takes Yóu’s hào Zhìshān 廌山. Per Yáng Shí’s tomb-inscription (preserved in Guīshān jí KR4d0136), Yóu’s original works included Zhōngyōng yì 1 juǎn, Yì shuō 1, Shī èr-Nán yì 1, Lùn-Yǔ Mèngzǐ zájiě 1 each, and a wénjí of 10 juǎn. The present Sìkù 4-juǎn recension is a Yuán-Míng re-compilation: juǎn 1 Lùnyǔ zájiě + Zhōngyōng yì + Mèngzǐ zájiě; juǎn 2 Yìshuō + Shī èr-Nán yì; juǎn 3 shīyǔ shīxùn; juǎn 4 prose 7 + 13 poems + appended muzhi and chronology. The Mèngzǐ zájiě preserves only 8 entries; Shī èr-Nán yì only 2 — clearly fragmentary.
Tiyao
The Sìkù tíyào: Yóu Zhìshān jí in 4 juǎn, by Yóu Zuò of the Sòng. Zuò, zì Dìngfū, of Jiànyáng. Jìnshì of Yuánfēng 5; in Jiànzhōng Jìngguó (1101) held office through Jiānchá yùshǐ; at the start of Xuānhé ended at Zhī Háozhōu. Career details in his Sòng shǐ Dàoxué biography. Yáng Shí’s Guīshān jí has Zuò’s muzhi-míng — saying he wrote Zhōngyōng yì 1 juǎn, Yìshuō 1, Shī èr-Nán yì 1, Lùn-Yǔ Mèngzǐ zájiě one juǎn each, and wénjí 10 juǎn. The chronology says: at age 29 he recorded Master Míngdào’s words; at 41, Master Yīchuān’s words; at 46 wrote Lùn Mèng zájiě and Zhōngyōng yì; at 47 wrote Yìshuō, Shī èr-Nán yì — and does not mention the wénjí, since these were each separate books.
This běn puts the Lùn-Yǔ zájiě, Zhōngyōng yì, Mèngzǐ zájiě as juǎn 1; the Yìshuō, Shī èr-Nán yì as juǎn 2; shīyǔ shīxùn as juǎn 3; with prose 7 piān, shī 13 shǒu, appended muzhi and chronology, as juǎn 4. Further, after the Zhōngyōng yì there is a shíyí; Mèngzǐ zájiě has only 8 items; Shī èr-Nán yì has only 2 items — clearly later persons’ duōshí (gathered-pickings) re-edited — not only not the original-text but also not a complete book. Chūnrì shānxíng poem has the line “Wind-singing-dance Yú is precisely-this-day; snow-flying Yī Luò is what year?” — using the Chéngmén lì xuě episode as gùshí (allusion) — also seems unlike a Zuò composition. As a Sòng rú yíshū (Confucian-thinker’s surviving book), there being no other běn, we record it to round out the yījiā (one-school). Qiánlóng 46 (1781), 9th month, respectfully collated.
Abstract
Yóu Zhìshān jí preserves only fragments — significantly less than the original — of the writings of one of the four canonical Chéng Yí disciples. Yóu Zuò’s importance for the history of Sòng Dàoxué is principally his role as Chéngmén sì xiānshēng, alongside Yáng Shí 楊時 楊時 (whose Guīshān jí preserves Yóu’s muzhi), Lǚ Dàlín 呂大臨, and Xiè Liángzuǒ 謝良佐. The Lì xuě 立雪 episode — Yóu and Yáng Shí standing in the snow outside Chéng Yí’s door — is the iconic devotional emblem of the Chéng-Mén school’s transmission.
The classical works preserved here in fragmentary form — Lùnyǔ zájiě, Zhōngyōng yì, Mèngzǐ zájiě, Yìshuō, Shī èr-Nán yì — are early-stage Chéng-school exegetical material, predating Zhū Xī’s later canonical syntheses. Even fragmentary, they are valuable for tracing the early Chéngmén hermeneutical positions before they were channeled through Zhū Xī’s editorial intervention.
The Sìkù editors’ detection of the apparently-anachronistic poem (using the Lì xuě episode as gùshí — but Yóu was himself a participant!) flags possible Yuán-Míng accretion to the recension.
Lifedates: per the catalog 1045–1115, but standard reference works (Wing-tsit Chan; Sòng yuán xuéàn) give 1053–1123 — followed here. CBDB confirms 1053–1123.
Translations and research
Reminder: AI generated list - beware of hallucinations. Corrections and additions welcome
- Chan, Wing-tsit, ed. Reflections on Things at Hand (1967) — Yóu Zuò material in the Chéng-mén context.
- Sòng yuán xué-àn 宋元學案 j. 25–26 (Guī-shān xué-àn 龜山學案) — Yóu Zuò is grouped with Yáng Shí.
- Sòng-shǐ j. 428 — biography in Dào-xué division.
- Tillman, Hoyt Cleveland. Confucian Discourse and Chu Hsi’s Ascendancy (Hawaii 1992). Background.
Other points of interest
- The Lì xuě episode — Yáng Shí and Yóu Zuò standing patient in the falling snow outside Chéng Yí’s meditation door — became the canonical Chinese trope of devoted discipleship; the present collection (and Yáng Shí’s parallel Guīshān jí) are the contemporary witnesses.
- The Mèngzǐ zájiě is one of the earliest Chéngmén responses to Mèngzǐ canonisation — predating both Cháo Yuèzhī’s Fēi Mèngzǐ opposition and Zhū Xī’s eventual incorporation of Mèngzǐ into the Sìshū.