Cáo Yuèchuān jí 曹月川集
Collection of Cáo of Moon-River by 曹端 (撰), 張伯行 (輯)
About the work
Cáo Yuèchuān jí 曹月川集 in 1 juǎn — a Kāng-xī-era recovery edition of the surviving prose, yǔlù, and poetry of Cáo Duān 曹端 (曹端, 1376–1434), zì Zhèngfū 正夫, hào Yuèchuān 月川, native of Miǎnchí 澠池 (Hénán), the foundational early-Míng Zhūzǐxué classicist. Cáo’s separately catalogued commentaries on the Tàijí tú shuō 太極圖說述解 etc. (KR3a tradition) are not included here; the present collection comprises: Yèxíng zhú 夜行燭, Jiāguī jílüè 家規輯略, yǔlù 語錄, lùcuì 錄粹, seven xù, fifteen poems, plus a fùlù of contemporary appraisals and Zhāng Xìnmín’s 張信民 niánpǔ. The compilation was made by the great Kāng-xī-era Lǐxué official Zhāng Bǎiháng 張伯行 (張伯行, 1651–1725) of Yífēng 儀封 — also the compiler / editor of many of the Kāng-xī-era Zhèngyìtáng 正誼堂 Lǐxué recoveries. The Sìkù tíyào notes some editorial irregularities (the Yèxíng zhú and Jiāguī prefaces are placed later in the recension rather than at the head of their respective texts; one Tàijítúshuō zàn poem is interpolated into the middle of the poetic juǎn). The Sìkù editors’ literary judgement: Cáo’s poetry is in the Shào Yōng Jīrǎng 擊壤 manner, not in formal gé; the prose is zhìzhí pǔsù, not literarily-polished; but the moral substance and the kǎozhèng foundation are paramount. The Sìkù defence — for a fragment-and-broken volume gleaned from the abandoned remainder, this is what a Confucian should treasure — is the standard framing for Kāng-xī-era Lǐxué recovery editions.
Tiyao
Cáo Yuèchuān jí in 1 juǎn — by Cáo Duān of the Míng. Duān has the Tàijí tú shuō shùjiě and other books, already separately recorded. In the early-Míng Lǐxué, Duān is paired with Xuē Xuān 薛瑄 (薛瑄) as the most pure (chún); Xuān’s poetry-prose collection (KR4e0100 Jìngxuān wénjí) and Dúshū lù and so on all transmit in the world; but Duān’s surviving books are scattered nearly to nothing — his collection too no longer exists. The present text was assembled by our August Dynasty’s Yífēng Zhāng Bǎiháng: heading with Yèxíng zhú; next Jiāguī jílüè; next yǔlù; next lùcuì; next seven xù; next fifteen poems. The Yèxíng zhú and Jiāguī two prefaces do not crown the proper book but are separately moved to the back; a Tàijítúshuō zàn one piece is interpolated in the middle of the poems — these are not by format. Clearly the editor mistook. At the end, appended are the contemporary scholars’ appraisal and the niánpǔ compiled by Zhāng Xìnmín. Duān’s poetry is all in the Jīrǎng jí school, distinctly not rù gé (in formal mode); the prose too is zhìzhí pǔsù (substantial-direct, simple-and-plain), not aiming at zhāngjù zhī gōng (chapter-and-line craft). Yet his personal character is already chúnzhèng (pure-and-correct); his learning is also dǔshí (substantial-and-real); he directly expressed what he saw, all rooted in principle’s essentials — one cannot weigh him by tonal-meter or seek him by colour-and-pattern. Moreover, [as] a fragment-and-broken volume, gleaned from the abandoned remainder — surely what a Confucian should treasure. Compiled and presented respectfully in the sixth month of Qiánlóng 45 (1780). Chief Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Editor: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Cáo Duān is the great early-Míng Zhūzǐxué foundational figure — author of the integrated commentary on the three core Northern-Sòng daoxué texts (Tàijí tú shuō, Tōngshū, Xīmíng; see KR3a0023 / KR3a0025 / KR3a0024) — and the immediate predecessor of the early-Míng Lǐxué triad with Hú Jūrén 胡居仁 and Xuē Xuān 薛瑄 (cf. KR4e0100). The Sìkù tíyào’s framing — Duān opens the way for the other two — follows Míng shǐ j. 282 (Rúlín zhuàn).
The compilation by Zhāng Bǎiháng in the Kāngxī era is the foundational Qīng recovery of the early-Míng Lǐxué corpus, parallel to Zhāng’s compilations of Hú Jūrén and other early-Míng Lǐxué writers in the Zhèngyìtáng quánshū 正誼堂全書 (1707–1721). The Sìkù editors’ irregularity-notes about format (Yèxíng zhú preface displaced; zàn interpolated among poems) suggest a one-pass editorial recovery rather than a careful diplomatic transcription.
The principal contents: Yèxíng zhú 夜行燭 (Cáo’s primary moral-philosophical zhuānzhù); Jiāguī jílüè 家規輯略 (his family-rules); the yǔlù and lùcuì (his philosophical sayings); seven prefaces (including the Tàijí tú shuō shùjiě xù, Sìshū xiángshuō xù, Cúnyí lù xù, Rújiā zōngtǒngpǔ xù, Jiāguī jílüè xù, Biànlì xù, Yèxíng zhú xù); fifteen poems (mostly didactic — on alcohol-abstention, brotherhood, family-precepts, qìhuà 氣化, xínghuà 形化, sǐshēng, lúnhuí); plus the Tàijí tú shuō zàn and the Yuèchuān jiāohuī tú 月川交輝圖.
The catalog meta gives 1376–1434, in agreement with CBDB id 34498.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Notice of Cáo Duān.
- William Theodore de Bary, Sources of Chinese Tradition, vol. 1. Columbia UP, 1999. (Includes selections from the early-Míng Lǐ-xué triad.)
- Wm. Theodore de Bary and John W. Chaffee, eds. Neo-Confucian Education: The Formative Stage. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí) and §31.4 (Lǐ-xué).
- Míng shǐ j. 282 (Rú-lín zhuàn) — Cáo Duān biography.
Other points of interest
The Kāng-xī-era Zhèngyìtáng recovery context — the Cáo Duān collection together with the related Hú Jūrén and other early-Míng Lǐxué corpora — is the foundational moment of late-Imperial Confucian historiographic restoration of the early-Míng Zhūzǐxué lineage. The biànlì 辨戾 essay (Cáo’s textual-critical distinction between Zhū Xī’s signed work on the Tàijí tú shuō and the disciples’ Yǔlèi records) is one of the earliest known intra-Zhūzǐxué textual stratifications.