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東萊集

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Text ID
KR4d0232
Date
1163–1181
Dynasty
宋

Dōnglái jí 東萊集

The Dōng-lái Collection by 呂祖謙 (撰), 呂祖儉 (編), 呂喬年 (編)

About the work

Dōnglái jí 東萊集 in 40 juǎn — comprising wénjí 15 juǎn + biéjí 16 juǎn (family-norm and chǐdú) + wàijí 6 juǎn (court-examination chéngwén) + fùlù 3 juǎn (niánpǔ and yíshì) — is the literary collection of Lǚ Zǔqiān 呂祖謙 (1137–1181, zì Bógōng 伯恭, hào Dōnglái 東萊, shì Chéng 成), one of the Dōngnán sān xiānshēng (Three Masters of the Southeast) with Zhū Xī 朱熹 and Zhāng Shì 張栻. The collection was assembled posthumously by Lǚ’s younger brother Lǚ Zǔjiǎn 呂祖儉 and his nephew Lǚ Qiáonián 呂喬年 — making this a particularly authoritative family-edited recension. Lǚ is the principal Southern-Sòng Dàoxué polymath: classicist (the Gǔ Zhōuyì KR1a0043, the operative Yì-text-form for the entire post-Sòng tradition); historian (the Dōnglái Bóyì on the Zuǒzhuàn; the Lìdài zhìdù xiángshuō); anthologist (the Sòng wénjiàn in 150 juǎn); and joint compiler with Zhū Xī of the Jìnsī lù. The Sìkù editors note Zhū Xī’s reservations on Lǚ’s prose (cited from the Yǔlèi and the Huáng Xīn 黃㽦 / Téng Lín 滕璘 / Ráo Lù records); but defend Lǚ on the grounds that his classical-and-historical learning provided the substantial root for his prose, distinguishing him from the looser yǔlù prose of other Southern-Sòng Lǐxué figures.

Tiyao

The Sìkù tíyào: the Dōnglái jí in 40 juǎn was composed by Lǚ Zǔqiān of the Sòng. Zǔqiān has the Gǔ Zhōuyì, already separately listed KR1a0043. His lifetime poetry-and-prose were, after his death, gathered by his younger brother Zǔjiǎn and nephew Qiáonián from his surviving drafts in turn, set as: wénjí 15 juǎn; further as Jiāfàn chǐdú (family-norms and letters) class as biéjí 16 juǎn; chéngwén (court-examination essays) class as wàijí 6 juǎn; niánpǔ and yíshì as fùlù 3 juǎn — i.e., the běn now transmitted.

Although Zǔqiān was Master Zhū’s friend, Master Zhū once worried that his learning was too mixed. His cífù is broad-extensive and dialectic; sweeping-and-sharp without fore-precedent — Master Zhū again worried that he could not keep within the brief. Master Zhū further said: “Bógōng was a generous-and-thick man — I do not know how he produces light-and-frivolous wénzì. As for the xǐngshìyì (Provincial-Examination Meaning), it is a great-bunch noisy-decoration; the Guǎnzhí cè (Cabinet-Position Strategy) too says-out and barely intelligible — the back has nothing essentially-serious.” Again: “Bógōng’s jìwén for Nánxuān (Zhāng Shì) is all from a small-and-narrow place spoken — his prose is weak.” This is all visible in the records by Huáng Xīn and Téng Lín in the Ráo (饒錄) record.

Later, when Tuōtuō 托克托 compiled the Sòng shǐ, he placed Zǔqiān in the Rúlínzhuàn — slightly indicating a distinction. But what Master Zhū says, only because he wished to prevent the abuse of huázǎo (literary ornament) drowning the heart, his discussion could not but be strict.

Zǔqiān on the Shī, Shū, and Chūnqiū extensively investigated the gǔyì; on the Seventeen Histories he had detailed condensations; hence his diction had roots-and-sources, not merely yóután (idle talk). The Wénzhāng guānjiàn (Pivotal-Pass of Composition) which he composed: on physiology and yuánliú (source-and-flow) of body-and-genre, he had heart-comprehension; hence even though his composition is bold-and-quick, it does not lose the canonical pattern of writers; nor has it the yǔ-lù-style (recorded-saying-styled) prose habit. Among the various Southern-Sòng Rú, he can be called xiánhuá pèishí (mouthing-flowers and wearing-fruits) — why must the criticism be excessively pressed, turning to be the empty-and-sparse’s mouth-cover?

Further, the Yǔlèi says: “Bógōng’s collection — like the letter to Xiàng Píngfǔ, transmitted from Mèng Quán [or Zǐyuān] — like the letter cursing Cáo Lìzhī — is from Lù Zǐjìng (Lù Jiǔyuān); the others’ counterfeits are presumably also many.” So when Zǔjiǎn and the others edited the collection, they failed in selective discrimination — some forgeries were unavoidably included; we now have no means of distinguishing them, and have not been able to delete them. Qiánlóng 46 (1781), 2nd month, respectfully collated.

Abstract

The Dōnglái jí is the canonical Southern-Sòng Dàoxué polymath collection, edited by the closest possible family hands (younger brother and nephew). Lǚ Zǔqiān’s intellectual project was distinctive within the Dàoxué mainstream for integrating jīngshǐzhīxué (Classics-and-history scholarship) with Lǐxué doctrine; the collection accordingly preserves both the more conventional Lǐxué memorial-and-letter material (in the biéjí) and the very large body of his court-examination chéngwén (in the wàijí) — the latter a particularly important archive of late-12th-century Tàixué and xǐngshì examination practice.

The famous Éhú zhīhuì (Goose-Lake Convocation, 1175) was Lǚ’s mediation between Zhū Xī and Lù Jiǔyuān, and is documented in the collection’s letters. Lǚ died at 45 (1181), preceding the 1196 Qìngyuán dǎngjìn — sparing him the proscriptive reaction that fell on Zhū Xī’s circle. The Sìkù editors note that the family-edited recension preserves some forgeries (specifically, letters identified by Zhū Xī as actually by his disciples Mèng Quánzǐ and Lù Jiǔyuān), which the Sìkù could not isolate.

The dating bracket: 1163 (Lǚ’s jìnshì and Bóxué hóngcí double-success year) through 1181 (his death year, CBDB id 7055).

Translations and research

  • Tillman, Hoyt Cleveland. 1992. Confucian Discourse and Chu Hsi’s Ascendancy. Hawai’i. Treats Lǚ comprehensively in the Dōng-nán sān xiān-shēng mid-Southern-Sòng Dào-xué network.
  • de Bary, Wm. Theodore. 1981. Neo-Confucian Orthodoxy and the Learning of the Mind-and-Heart. Columbia. Treats Lǚ’s role in the Jìn-sī lù compilation with Zhū Xī.
  • Bol, Peter K. 2008. Neo-Confucianism in History. Harvard. Treats the Wù-zhōu / Jīn-huá Lǐ-xué of which Lǚ is the founder.
  • Schirokauer, Conrad. 1986. “Chu Hsi’s sense of history.” In Ordering the World. Treats the Lǚ–Zhū correspondence on historical method.
  • Yang Lien-sheng. 1961. Studies in Chinese Institutional History. Harvard. Treats Lǚ’s Lì-dài zhì-dù xiáng-shuō.
  • 田浩 (Hoyt Tillman, 1992). 中譯本 朱熹的思維世界.

Other points of interest

The Wénzhāng guānjiàn — Lǚ’s prose-criticism manual, preserved as part of his collection’s outer ranges — is one of the principal Southern-Sòng prose-rhetoric texts and the source for many of the canonical Sòng prose-critical concepts. The Sòng wénjiàn anthology (150 juǎn) is separately listed and stands among Lǚ’s most consequential editorial achievements.

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