Xīhé jí 西河集
The Xī-hé Collection (of Máo Qí-líng) by 毛奇齡 (撰)
About the work
The literary collection of 毛奇齡 Máo Qílíng (1623–1716, zì Dàkě 大可, hào Chūqíng 初晴 and Xīhé 西河) — one of the most prolific and polemical early-Qīng scholars, second only to 朱彝尊 in productivity. The 190-juan recension here represents only the literary-collection portion (wénjí part) of the much larger Xīhé hé jí 西河合集 that Máo’s students and clansmen assembled posthumously, which divided his entire output into four parts: jīng jí (Classics commentaries), shǐ jí (historical writings — Shǐ wèn 史問, never printed per Máo’s deathbed instructions), wén jí (literary collection), and zázhù (miscellaneous), totaling over 400 juan. The present 190-juan recension was compiled in gēngzǐ of Kāngxī (Kāngxī 59, 1720) by Máo’s disciple Jiǎng Shū 蔣樞, who kept only the jīng jí (50 separate works, separately catalogued in the Sìkù Classics division) and the wén jí (the present 190-juan). Within the wén jí the Sìkù compilers further excluded several biographically- and ritually-specialized items (Wáng Yángmíng biography 2 juan, Zhìkē zá lù 1 juan, Hòu guān shí lù 1 juan, Yuèyǔ kěnqìng lù 1 juan, Xiānghú shuǐlì zhì 3 juan, Xiāoshān xiànzhì kānwù 3 juan, Hángzhì sān jié sān wù biàn 1 juan, Tiān wèn bǔ zhù 1 juan, Shèngcháo tóng shǐ shí yí jì 6 juan, Wǔzōng wài jì 1 juan, Hòu jiàn lù 7 juan, Yùnxué yào zhǐ 11 juan, Shīhuà 8 juan, Cíhuà 2 juan, Xú Dūjiǎng shī 1 juan) and broke them out as separate catalog entries, leaving the present recension at: prose 130 juan + cí 7 juan + poetry 53 juan = 190 juan.
Tiyao
Your servants reverently submit the following: the Xīhé jí in 190 juan is by Máo Qílíng of our dynasty. Qílíng’s productivity is preeminent in the modern era. After his death, his disciples and clansmen compiled the Xīhé hé jí, dividing into jīng jí (Classics), shǐ jí (Histories), wén jí (literature), and zázhù — over 400 juan in total. His Shǐ wèn was, per Qílíng’s deathbed command, not committed to the woodblock — the order is quoted in juan 5 of the Jīng wèn, under the entry on the Jǐngtài emperor. The rest was also not entirely circulated in the world. The present recension was compiled in gēngzǐ of Kāngxī (1720) by his disciple Jiǎng Shū, keeping only the jīng jí and the wén jí. The jīng jí has 50 separate works, already catalogued separately. The wén jí runs to 234 juan; but the Cè wèn 1 juan, the Biǎo 1 juan, the Jí kè jì 1 juan, the Xù Āi jiāng nán fù 1 juan, and the Nǐ Guǎngbó cí liánzhū cí 1 juan are all preserved as table-of-contents headings only — the texts are missing.
The remaining items — Wáng Yángmíng biography (2 juan), Zhìkē zá lù (1 juan), Hòu guān shí lù (1 juan), Yuèyǔ kěnqìng lù (1 juan), Hé Yùshǐ xiàozǐ cí zhǔ fùwèi lù (1 juan), Xiānghú shuǐlì zhì (3 juan), Xiāoshān xiànzhì kānwù (3 juan), Hángzhì sān jié sān wù biàn (1 juan), Tiān wèn bǔ zhù (1 juan), Shèngcháo tóng shǐ shí yí jì (6 juan), Wǔzōng wài jì (1 juan), Hòu jiàn lù (7 juan), Yùnxué yào zhǐ (11 juan), Shīhuà (8 juan), Cíhuà (2 juan), and the appended Xú Dūjiǎng shī (1 juan) — all originally constituted separate books and have now been broken out for separate cataloguing. The portion that should be placed in the jí bù (literary-collections division) amounts in fact to prose 130 juan, cí 7 juan, poetry 53 juan — total 190 juan.
Qílíng’s prose is zònghéng bóbiàn (free-ranging in argument, broad in debate), àonì yīshì (proudly disdainful of his age), running parallel with his Classics commentary — neither ancient nor present, forming its own school, not to be measured by the carpenter’s line and rule. Yet his discussions often illuminate, and cannot be discarded. His poetry is again below his prose, not without slipping into wěizá (mean miscellany), yet here too it is “I use my own method, scorning to follow another’s step.” It deserves to be viewed as yúshì (secondary matter). Now it is together recorded at the end. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 44 (1779), fifth month. Chief editors your servants 紀昀, 陸錫熊, 孫士毅. Chief proof-collator your servant Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
Máo Qílíng is one of the most controversial figures of the early-Qīng kǎozhèng movement: an extraordinarily prolific Classics commentator (his 50-work jīng jí is the largest single-author body of Classics commentary in the entire Sìkù), a polemicist who attacked virtually every contemporary scholar (his disputes with 閻若璩 over the Gǔwén Shàng shū, with 朱彝尊 over various Shī jīng and Lǐ jì matters, and with 李光地 over imperial-canon policy are all preserved in the Xīhé jí’s cèwèn and biàn essays), and a Bóxué hóngcí (Kāngxī 18, 1679) passer who served briefly as Hànlín jiǎntǎo. The 190-juan literary collection is therefore the political-polemical counterpart to the 50-work jīng jí — the place where Máo gathered his combative reviews, debate-pieces, occasional poetry, and cí-lyric.
Máo’s Cíhuà 詞話 and Shīhuà 詩話 (now separately catalogued in the Sìkù) were among the first early-Qīng systematic critical writings on cí-lyric and on poetry respectively, and influenced both the Zhèxī school’s emergence under Zhū Yízūn and the broader Kāngxī critical landscape.
The deathbed prohibition on circulating the Shǐ wèn — a historical-commentary essay-sequence whose Jǐng-tài-emperor entry the Sìkù compilers quote as instructing his students not to publish — is itself a striking moment: it suggests that Máo’s most politically risky positions (including his discussion of late-Míng loyalism) were withheld from the public record.
The catalog meta gives Máo as 1623–1716. CBDB id 32842 confirms; the cún 189 figure in the catalog reflects the actually-printed 189 juan against the formal 190 (one juan having dropped out of some imprints).
Translations and research
Benjamin A. Elman, From Philosophy to Philology: Intellectual and Social Aspects of Change in Late Imperial China (Harvard, 1984) — substantial treatment of Máo in the early-Qīng kǎo-zhèng movement.
Hu Sheng-pin 胡聖品, Máo Qí-líng yánjiū 毛奇齡研究 (Taipei: Tai-wan xue-sheng, 1999).
On-cho Ng & Q. Edward Wang, Mirroring the Past: The Writing and Use of History in Imperial China (Honolulu: UH Press, 2005) — discusses Máo’s historical writings.
Yán Dí-chāng 嚴迪昌, Qīng cí shǐ — discussion of Máo’s cí and Cí-huà.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù compilers’ carefully ambivalent assessment — Máo’s prose is dismissed as zònghéng unconstrained, his poetry as slipping into mean miscellany, yet his learning is acknowledged as illuminating and not to be discarded — illustrates the Sìkù methodology of distinguishing learning from literary merit. The phrase bú gǔ bú jīn, zì chéng yī gé — “neither ancient nor present, forming its own school” — captures Máo’s deliberate stylistic stance and explains the Xīhé sobriquet (the Xīhé river of SòngYuán Sīmǎ Zhēn 司馬貞’s Shǐ jì suǒ yǐn — a river of obscure topography to which Máo’s own learning was sometimes compared).
Links
- Wikidata Q3854728 (Mao Qiling)
- ECCP 563–565 (Tu Lien-che)
- Kyoto Zinbun Sìkù tíyào