Sānyútáng wénjí 三魚堂文集
Collected Prose from the Three-Fish Hall by 陸隴其 (撰), edited by 侯銓 (編)
About the work
The posthumous collected prose of 陸隴其 Lù Lóngqí (1630–1693, zì Jiàshū 稼書, hào Sānyúzǐ 三魚子 / Sānyútáng 三魚堂, posthumously Qīngxiàn 清獻 — but the Sìkù tíyào calls him Sōngyáng jiǎngyì and others), the early-Qīng’s strictest exponent of ChéngZhū orthodoxy and a leading administrator. Twelve juan plus 6 juan wàijí (totaling 18 juan): juan 1–4 zázhù (miscellaneous prose); juan 5 shū (letters); juan 6–7 chǐdú (informal correspondence); juan 8–9 xù (prefaces); juan 10 jì (records); juan 11 mùbiǎo zhìmíng kuàngjì zhuàn (epitaph-and-biographical writings); juan 12 zhùwén jìwén (sacrificial-and-funerary prose); wàijí juan 1–6 the memorials and administrative documents from Lù’s two magistracies and one censorial post, with poetry, xíngzhuàng, and fùlù. The collection was edited by Lù’s pupil 侯銓 Hóu Quán in Kāngxī 40 (1701, xīnsì) on the basis of nine years of post-death gathering by Lù’s nephew Lù Lǐzhēng 陸禮徵, with the latter’s bá (colophon) at the end of the table of contents documenting the editorial process.
Tiyao
Your servants reverently submit the following: the Sānyútáng wénjí in 12 juan, wàijí in 6 juan, totaling 18 juan, is by Lù Lóngqí of our dynasty. Lù Lóngqí’s Sōngyáng jiǎngyì and other works are all separately catalogued. This collection was edited by his disciple 侯銓 Hóu Quán: 4 juan of zázhù, 1 juan of shū, 2 juan of chǐdú, 2 juan of xù, 1 juan of jì, 1 juan combining mùbiǎo zhìmíng kuàngjì zhuàn, 1 juan combining zhùwén jìwén. The wàijí in 6 juan then gathers his memorials, proposals, biǎocè, dispatch-petitions, and public-document movements, ending with the poetry and xíngzhuàng type — with fùlù attached.
At the end of the table of contents there is originally a colophon by his nephew Lǐzhēng, saying that Lù in his lifetime did not deign to compose poetry or ancient-style prose, and especially took làn kè wénzì (loose printing of writings) as a warning; thus at the moment of his death there were no surviving drafts in his book-chests. In Kāngxī xīnsì (40, 1701) Lǐzhēng widely searched and gathered, compiling them into the present collection, and entrusted Hóu Quán to classify and arrange them. Thus Lù died nine years before the collection emerged.
Since the prose was not personally fixed by Lù, some pieces in it may be uncompleted drafts, or pieces casually composed that he did not wish himself to preserve — these we cannot know. Yet Lù’s xuéwèn shēnchún (learning was deeply pure), his cāolǚ chúnzhèng (practice rigorously upright); even his casual brush-pieces, hardly bú hé yú dào (in disaccord with the Way), would be rare. Only this: Lù all his life was devoted to learning — not merely lecturing on xīnxìng (mind-and-nature) as the zuòtán (sit-and-discourse) of a single room. He twice held xiànyǐn (county magistrate) posts and one jiànguān (censorial) post — his administrative achievements all zhuōzhuō kě jì (strikingly recordable); he was indeed a learning of tǐ yòng jiān yōu (body-and-use both excellent). But Hóu Quán and the others took the memorials and public-documents — what is clearly seen in actual administration — and separated them as wàijí. Poetry is not Lù’s strength; segregating it to the wàijí is acceptable. But as to the sage’s dào, root-and-branch are one yuán (source); xīnfǎ zhìfǎ (mind-method, governance-method) all converge in one guàn (thread). The Zhōu lǐ alone narrates zhíguān (offices); the Shàng shū expounds zhèngshì (political affairs); Zhōugōng and Confucius never took these as cū jì (rough traces). Even Huáng Gàn 黃幹’s editing of 朱熹 Zhū Xī’s collection never báo (slighted) discussions of governance, huī ér wài zhī (waving them away to the outer fold).
Hóu Quán et al. only knew to place the Tàijí lùn at the head of the book, and turn the jīngshì zhī xué (statecraft learning) into mere mòwù (end-matter), honoring empty speech and slighting actual administration — qǐ Lóngqí zhī zhǐ hū (is this Lù Lóngqí’s intent?). This text has long circulated; we now also follow the original imprint in recording it. But its arrangement’s stupidity and shallowness must be corrected. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 45 (1780), 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
Lù Lóngqí is the most rigorous early-Qīng exponent of ChéngZhū orthodoxy, paired in the Sìkù tíyào of KR4f0014 with 湯斌 Tāng Bīn as the two chún rú of the founding generation — Lù strict and exclusive, Tāng synthetic and Yáo-jiāng-inflected. Lù’s separately-catalogued Sōngyáng jiǎngyì 松陽講義 is his canonical lecture-corpus; the Sānyútáng wénjí preserves his informal prose, letters, and (importantly) his administrative writings from his two county magistracies (at Jiādìng and Língshòu) and his censorial year (1689–1690). His censorial term was famously short and bitter — he was dismissed for opposing court-faction members and died at Pínghú 平湖 in retirement in 1693.
The Sìkù tíyào’s extended critique of 侯銓’s editorial priority — putting the Tàijí lùn at the head, treating administrative writings as wàijí — is a programmatic Qing-imperial argument against the late-Míng zuòtán (sit-and-discourse) reduction of Lǐxué to private metaphysical inquiry. The compilers explicitly read Lù as a tǐyòng jiānyōu (body-and-use unity) scholar whose administrative work is intrinsic to his Lǐxué identity — and condemn Hóu’s editorial separation as a betrayal of Lù’s own intent.
Composition window: c. 1660 (Lù’s earliest preserved letters) through 1693 (his death). The 12+6 juan recension was assembled posthumously by Hóu Quán in 1701.
Translations and research
On-cho Ng, Cheng-Zhu Confucianism in the Early Qing: Li Guangdi (1642–1718) and Qing Learning (Albany: SUNY Press, 2001) — substantial chapter on Lù in relation to Lǐ Guāngdì.
Cynthia J. Brokaw, The Ledgers of Merit and Demerit (Princeton, 1991) — references Lù.
Stephen C. Angle, Sagehood: The Contemporary Significance of Neo-Confucian Philosophy (Oxford, 2009) — refs.
ECCP 547–548 (Tu Lien-che).
Other points of interest
Lù Lóngqí (1630–1693) was posthumously enshrined in the imperial Confucian Temple (Kǒngmiào) in Qiánlóng 21 (1756) — the rarest of imperial honors, given only to the most strict ChéngZhū exponents. The 1780 Sìkù tíyào writing — coming a quarter-century after that canonization — reflects the consolidated mid-Qiánlóng Lǐxué establishment’s reading of Lù as model. The pointed criticism of Hóu Quán’s editorial priority is a programmatic re-shaping of Lù’s posthumous reception.
Links
- Wikidata Q11108988 (Lu Longqi)
- ECCP 547–548
- Kyoto Zinbun Sìkù tíyào