Zhuāngqú yíshū 莊渠遺書
Zhuāng-qú Surviving Writings by 魏校 (撰)
About the work
The surviving writings of Wèi Jiào 魏校 (1483–1543), zì Zǐcái 子才, hào Zhuāngqú 莊渠, shì Gōngjiǎn 恭簡, of Kūnshān 崑山 (Sūzhōu, Jiāngsū) — Tàichángsì qīng, one of the principal Sūzhōu orthodox-Zhū Lǐxué voices of early Jiājìng. 16 juǎn. Wèi’s Zhōulǐ yángé zhuàn (separately catalogued in KR1g) was a sustained Zhōu-lǐ-based reform-programme; his Liùshū jīngyùn 六書精蘊 attempted the gǔzhuàn (great-seal-script) reconstruction. Both projects the Sìkù judged severely — the Zhōulǐ programme as yūkuò (impractical-and-broad); the Liùshū reconstructions as dùzhuàn (fabricated). But the literary collection is preserved on its own merits: wénlǜ jǐnyán bù shī yǎzhèng (literary measure tight-and-strict, not losing elegant-correctness); kǎojù yì jù yǒu gēndǐ (philological-verification also possessing roots) — these the Sìkù approves. The Jiāosì lùn (Suburban-Sacrifice Treatise) — Wèi’s argument that only southern-suburb sacrifices to Heaven are in the Classics — is identified as a Sìkù-disputed point on the northern-suburb tradition.
Tiyao
Zhuāngqú yíshū in 16 juǎn — by Wèi Jiào of the Míng. Jiào has Zhōulǐ yángé zhuàn separately catalogued. Jiào wished to put the Zhōulǐ into practice in later ages; his arguments are rather yūkuò (impractical-and-broad). What he wrote, Liùshū jīngyùn, wished to use gǔzhuàn to change xiǎozhuàn, but what he listed as gǔzhuàn is also mostly dùzhuàn (fabricated) — especially pīmiù (paradoxical-error). Yet Jiào’s hearing-and-seeing was broader; his learning also pure; therefore this collection’s literary-measure is jǐnyán bù shī yǎzhèng (tight-and-strict, not losing elegant-correctness); philological-verification also possesses roots — not unworthy of Rúzhě zhī yán (a Confucian’s speech). His Yùlǐ wèn jīngyì (Imperial-Rites Questions on the Classics’ Meaning) etc. items are also mostly jīngquè (essentially-true). Only the Jiāosì lùn (Suburban-Sacrifice Treatise) — one piece — says: seen in the Classics is only the Nánjiāo (Southern Suburb), no Běijiāo (Northern Suburb); and takes shè (earth-altar) as the sacrifice to dìqí (earth-spirits). He did not know the Dàsīyuè’s Fāngqiū (Square-Mound) text is xiāngduì (matched against) the Yuánqiū (Round-Mound); Yuánqiū makes the Jiāotiān (Suburb-of-Heaven); Fāngqiū makes the Jìdì (Sacrifice-to-Earth) — knowable; never heard of Jìshè yú zézhōng zhī Fāngqiū (sacrificing-to-earth in the marsh-of-the-mound’s Fāngqiū) on the xiàzhì (summer-solstice) day. Also the Jìfǎ (Methods-of-Sacrifice) Yìmái yú Tàizhé Jìdì yě (Bury-and-cover at Great-Cut Sacrifice-to-Earth) is matched against the Fánchái yú Tàitán Jìtiān (Burning-firewood at Great-Altar, Sacrifice-to-Heaven) text — all are obvious certifications of the Běijiāo Jìdì (Northern-Suburb Sacrifice-to-Earth). Jiào yet drew on Zhōulǐ Yīnsì yòng yǒushēng (Zhōulǐ Yīn-sacrifice using black-ox), confuting Jìfǎ Jìdì yòng xīngdú (Methods-of-Sacrifice Sacrifice-to-Earth using red-bull-calf) as fùhuì (forced-attachment); did not know the Zhōulǐ is yīcháo zhī zhì (one-dynasty-system); the Lǐjì is záshù jiùdiǎn (mixed-narrative of old-canons) — cannot be forced-to-agree; prior Confucians’ distinction was very clear; no need to héngxiāng qiānhé (cross-mutually pull-together) self-generating jiūjié (knot-and-tangle). Compiled and presented in the leap-fifth-month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Wèi Jiào is one of the principal Sūzhōu Kūnshān orthodox-Zhū Lǐxué voices of the Jiājìng period. The Sìkù judgement on the Zhuāngqú yíshū is unusually two-edged: his major projects — the Zhōulǐ reform program and the Liùshū jīngyùn (Six-Scripts reconstruction) — are dismissed (yūkuò and pīmiù); but the literary collection’s wénlǜ jǐnyán bù shī yǎzhèng and kǎojù yì jù yǒu gēndǐ are praised. This is one of the cleaner Sìkù-flagged cases of an author whose biéjí is preserved despite the editorial dismissal of his zhuānshū (specialised) work.
The longest single Sìkù tíyào criticism in this entry is the Jiāosì lùn (Suburban-Sacrifice Treatise) refutation — the editors’ detailed argument that northern-suburb sacrifices to Earth (as the counterpart to southern-suburb sacrifices to Heaven) are explicitly in the Zhōulǐ’s Yuánqiū (Round-Mound) / Fāngqiū (Square-Mound) pairing and in the Jìfǎ (Sacrifice-Methods)‘s yìmái yú Tàizhé (Bury-and-cover at Great-Cut) text. The Sìkù refutation is one of the cleaner technical-classical interventions in the Míng biéjí tíyào tradition.
Wèi’s place in the Sūzhōu Kūnshān Lǐxué lineage — anti-Yángmíngxué, pro-gézhì / pro-Zhōulǐ-reform — places him alongside Hé Táng (KR4e0160) of Wǔzhì and Luó Qīnshùn (KR4e0148) of Tàihé as the three principal mid-Míng Sìkù-canonized anti-Yángmíng voices in this division.
CBDB id 30595 confirms 1483–1543.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976: notice of Wèi Jiào.
- Míng shǐ j. 282 (Rú-lín 1) — Wèi Jiào biography.
- Huáng Zōng-xī, Míng-rú xué-àn j. 3 — Wèi Jiào under the Sān-yuán xué-àn.
- William Theodore de Bary and Irene Bloom, eds., Sources of Chinese Tradition, vol. 1 (Columbia UP, 1999) — for the mid-Míng Zhōu-lǐ reform context.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí) and §31.4 (Míng Lǐ-xué).
Other points of interest
The Liùshū jīngyùn project — Wèi’s attempted gǔzhuàn (great-seal-script) reconstruction of the Shuōwén jiězì — is one of the more famous kǎozhèng failures in mid-Míng xiǎoxué (philology). The Sìkù editors’ identification of the reconstructions as mostly fabricated is endorsed by modern paleographic scholarship. The fact that the literary biéjí survives despite the dismissal of Wèi’s signature zhuānshū projects is a documentary anchor for the Sìkù editorial principle that a biéjí may be preserved on grounds of its literary measure even when the author’s substantive projects are rejected.