Lànɡyǔ jí 浪語集
The Wave-Words Collection by 薛季宣 (撰), 薛旦 (編)
About the work
Lànɡyǔ jí 浪語集 in 35 juǎn is the biéjí of Xuē Jìxuān 薛季宣 (1134–1173, zì Shìlóng 士龍, hào Làngyǔ 浪語, of Yǒngjiā 永嘉 in Wēnzhōu) — the foundational figure of the Yǒngjiā 永嘉 school of shìgōng 事功 (“statecraft-utility”) learning. Author of the separately-cataloged Shūgǔ wén xùn (KR1b — his commentary on the ancient-script Shàngshū). Edited by his nephew Xuē Dàn 薛旦 (Zhī Fǔzhōu in Bǎoqìng 2 = 1226), with Xuē Dàn’s postface preserved in the WYG. Xuē Jìxuān studied initially under Yuán Gài 袁溉 (a transmitter of the Hénán Chéngshì 程氏 learning); in late life corresponded with Zhū Xī 朱熹 and Lǚ Zǔqiān 呂祖謙. Where Zhū Xī emphasized xīnxìng (mind-and-nature), Xuē emphasized shìgōng — laying the foundation that Chén Fùliáng 陳傅良 and Yè Shì 葉適 would later develop into the distinctive Yǒngjiā school. The Sòng phrase: “Zhōu Xíngjǐ 周行己 opened the source; Xuē Jìxuān channeled the stream.”
Tiyao
The Làngyǔ jí in 35 juǎn was composed by Xuē Jìxuān of the Sòng. Jìxuān — author of Shū gǔwén xùn — already cataloged. Jìxuān in his youth served Yuán Gài as his teacher, transmitting the learning of the Hénán Chéngshì. In late life he again corresponded back-and-forth with Master Zhū, Lǚ Zǔqiān, and others — much was discussed and weighed [between them]. Yet Master Zhū loved discussing xīnxìng, while Jìxuān equally weighted shìgōng — what they saw differed slightly. Afterwards Chén Fùliáng, Yè Shì, and others successively transmitted-and-recounted the Yǒngjiā learning, which thus became a separate stream — for Zhōu Xíngjǐ opened the source and Jìxuān channeled the stream. His passing-and-arriving in office: wherever he went, in regulating troops and people, instituting and abolishing benefit-and-defect, he had achievements in all. Among the lecturers’ families he can be called one with both body-and-utility. His lifetime writings: beyond the Shū gǔwén xùn there are Gǔwén Zhōuyì, Gǔshī shuō, Chūnqiū jīngjiě, Chūnqiū zhǐyào, Lùnyǔ zhíjiě, Xiǎoxué shī — most now lost. His Zhōngyōng Dàxué jiě and Kǎozhèng Wòqí jīng still remain in the collection. Indeed Jìxuān’s learning was the most broadly-elegant: from the liùjīng and the histories, tiānguān (astronomy), dìlǐ (geography), military, agriculture, music-and-tone, xiāngsuì sīmǎ methods, down to yǐnshū xiǎoshuō, míngwù xiàngshù small details — none not searched, gathered, studied, comprehended. Therefore his discourse-holding is bright-and-clear, his examination-of-antiquity detailed-and-verifying — not necessarily relying on the various rú of antecedent traditions to establish doctrines, [his pronouncements] precise-and-exact, standing distinguished as one school. In shī he is rather skilled at seven-syllable [verse], extremely zhuólì zònghéng (vigorous-leaping vertical-and-horizontal). Lamentable that his years stopped at 40 — longevity not extended; further [his] thought was [given to] textual-investigation, not deeply concentrated on cíhàn — therefore the surviving manuscripts are only this much. Yet looking at what survives, [its] jīngshēn hóngsì (refined-deep, broad-and-extending) is enough to override the rest. This collection: in Bǎoqìng 2 (1226) his nephew, Zhī Fǔzhōu Xuē Dàn, edited and ordered for cutting; Dàn’s postface still survives. Yet from Míng onwards, cut editions ceased. Book-collecting families pass-and-copy back-and-forth — corruptions and lacunae are quite numerous. We have respectfully re-collated; the juǎn-and-content division entirely follows the original. Qiánlóng 46 (1781), 9th month, respectfully collated.
Abstract
Lànɡyǔ jí is the foundational textual record of shìgōng learning at Yǒngjiā — the principal Southern-Sòng alternative to both Zhū Xī’s lǐxué and Lù Jiǔyuān’s xīnxué. Xuē Jìxuān’s distinctive contribution was to insist on the equal importance of shìgōng (practical-statecraft) alongside xīnxìng — a position that Zhū Xī recognized but did not endorse, and that Chén Fùliáng and Yè Shì later developed into the full Yǒngjiā school. The collection preserves Xuē’s substantial classicist work (the Zhōngyōng Dàxué jiě and Kǎozhèng Wòqí jīng survive within it; his Gǔwén Zhōuyì, Gǔshī shuō, Chūnqiū jīngjiě, Chūnqiū zhǐyào, Lùnyǔ zhíjiě, and Xiǎoxué shī are all lost), administrative memorials, and seven-syllable poetry that the Sìkù editors found especially vigorous.
The Sìkù editors’ tíyào is unusually appreciative for a non-orthodox figure: they recognize Xuē as broadly-erudite (in liùjīng, history, astronomy, geography, military affairs, agriculture, music, ritual-administration, míngwù xiàngshù) and praise his independence from received commentarial traditions. The dating bracket: 1153 (Xuē’s earliest dateable composition, from his Yuán Gài discipleship period; he died young at 40 in 1173 per CBDB id 10578) through 1226 (the Bǎoqìng 2 publication date of the principal recension by his nephew Xuē Dàn).
The editor Xuē Dàn 薛旦 was Xuē Jìxuān’s nephew, Zhī Fǔzhōu in Bǎoqìng (1225–1227); not to be confused with the much later MíngQīng figure of the same name (CBDB id 691036, b. 1617), a mid-Qīng dramatist.
Translations and research
- 周夢江. 1992. 《葉適與永嘉學派》. Hangzhou: Zhejiang Guji. Treats the Yǒng-jiā school’s intellectual genealogy starting from Xuē Jì-xuān.
- de Bary, William Theodore, ed. 1975. The Unfolding of Neo-Confucianism. Columbia. Includes treatment of shì-gōng learning.
- Tillman, Hoyt Cleveland. 1992. Confucian Discourse and Chu Hsi’s Ascendancy. Hawai’i. Treats Xuē as alternative to Zhū Xī’s orthodoxy.
- Niu Pu. 1998. “Xue Jixuan and the Yongjia School.” Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton.
Other points of interest
The presence of the Kǎozhèng Wòqí jīng — Xuē’s commentary on the (problematic, attributed-to-Fēng-Hòu) military-classic Wòqí jīng 握奇經 — within this biéjí is one of the few sites where pre-modern military-classics scholarship intersected with mainstream Sòng Lǐxué writing. The Wòqí jīng is itself a Sòng-recension forgery, but Xuē’s commentary on it is preserved here as a primary document.