六臣註文選

Liùchén zhù Wén xuǎn 六臣註文選

Selections of Refined Literature with the Six Officials’ Annotations by 蕭統, 李善, 呂延濟, 劉良, 張銑, 呂向, and 李周翰

About the work

The Liùchén zhù Wén xuǎn is the composite annotation that combines Lǐ Shàn’s 李善 single commentary (KR4h0002) with the so-called Five Officials’ (Wǔ chén 五臣) commentary edited by Lǚ Yánjì 呂延濟, Liú Liáng 劉良, Zhāng Xiǎn 張銑, Lǚ Xiàng 呂向, and Lǐ Zhōuhàn 李周翰, under the patronage of the Gōngbù shìláng 工部侍郎 Lǚ Yánzuò 呂延祚, presented to Tang Xuánzōng 唐玄宗 on the tenth day of the ninth month of Kāiyuán 6 (718). The Five Officials’ work is a deliberate corrective to Lǐ Shàn: where Lǐ supplied the source (shì 事) of every allusion, the Five Officials supply meaning, paraphrase, and contextual gloss (yì 義) — answering Xuánzōng’s reported complaint that earlier annotations only yǐn shì 引事 without shuō yì 說義. The two layers were first issued separately but were quickly merged in Sòng print culture into the present “Six Officials” recension that displaced the single-commentary edition. This Sìkù copy reproduces the standard Northern Sòng / Yuán composite text.

Tiyao

The presentation memorial reads in substance: “I, Yánzuò, having pondered the Crown Prince Zhāomíng’s Wén xuǎn in 30 juǎn, found its diction profound and its allusions obscure; only one of true insight could fully penetrate it. Earlier, Lǐ Shàn, then accounted a senior scholar, had expanded the work into 60 juǎn, adducing the textual sources for each phrase — but the niceties of pronunciation he passed over, the source-citations led to pedantic ends, and on points of meaning he was content to leave the old text untouched, which only confounded the mind and obscured the sense. Saddened by this, I resolved on a new exegesis, and so engaged Lǚ Yánjì, xiànwèi 縣尉 of Chángshān 常山 county in Qúzhōu 衢州; Liú Liáng, son of the Director of Waterways Liú Chéngzǔ 劉承祖; the chùshì 處士 Zhāng Xiǎn; and Lǚ Xiàng and Lǐ Zhōuhàn — men of refined skill apart from the world, of penetrating discourse and self-cultivated. Together, three times over, we have set forth the words, comprehending the secret intent and unifying the sense; we have measured what was deep and clarified what was hidden, so that nothing of authorial purpose remains unobserved. We have noted what was good and called it the Collected Annotations, including character-pronunciations, in 30 juǎn. Its language is concise, its benefit broad; for future learners it will be a tortoise-oracle, dispelling ignorance like clouds lifting. Reverently submitted on the tenth day of the ninth month of Kāiyuán 6, by the Vice-Minister of Works Lǚ Yánzuò.” Xuánzōng’s verbal reply, transmitted by Gāo Lìshì 高力士, runs: “I have recently been giving attention to this book. Existing annotations only quote sources without explaining sense. Having now read several juǎn of yours, I find this book very good. I bestow on you a hundred duàn of plain and patterned silk; receive it forthwith.”

Abstract

The Six Officials text is the dominant Sòng and Yuán transmission form of the Wén xuǎn and is the immediate ancestor of all subsequent editions including the Sìkù copy of Lǐ Shàn’s single-commentary text (KR4h0002). The SòngYuán print culture preferred a fully glossed text and progressively eclipsed Lǐ Shàn’s edition for some five centuries. Comparative philology since Hú Kèjiā 胡克家 (1809) has clarified the editorial history: a few isolated Six-Officials gloss-tags surviving in Máo Jìn’s 1640s reconstruction of the single-commentary text betray that all surviving Lǐ-Shàn-only manuscripts derive ultimately from a Six-Officials Vorlage with the Five Officials’ notes physically excised. The Five Officials themselves have been controversial in Qīng philology — the Sìkù editors, following Lǐ Kuāngyì 李匡乂 (9th c.) and Hú Yìnglín 胡應麟, regard them as a step down from Lǐ Shàn’s learning; modern scholarship (Fù Gānglí 傅剛) takes a more sympathetic view of their interpretive labour. The dates of the five compilers are largely conjectural; the only firm anchor is the Kāiyuán-6 (718) memorial.

Translations and research

• Fù Gānglí 傅剛, Wén xuǎn bǎnběn yánjiū 文選版本研究 (Běijīng dàxué, 2000) — the standard study of the editorial history.
• Lǐ Xiánghào 李湘浩, Wén xuǎn Lǐ Shàn zhù yǔ Wǔ-chén zhù bǐjiào yánjiū 文選李善注與五臣注比較研究 (Shàngwù, 2003).
• David R. Knechtges, “The Liu Chen Commentary on the Wen xuan,” in Recarving the Dragon: Understanding Chinese Poetics, ed. Olga Lomová (Prague, 2003), 285–307.
• Knechtges and Chang, eds., Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide (Brill, 2010–14), s.v. Wenxuan.

Other points of interest

The earliest surviving printed exemplar is the late Northern Sòng Xiùzhōu 秀州 print, fragments of which are held by the Japanese Imperial Household (Kunaichō Shoryōbu). The Six Officials’ textual deviations have been used systematically by Japanese kanbun lexicographers (e.g. for the Wamyō ruijushō 倭名類聚抄) and the work was widely copied in Heian Japan.

Links

• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §30.3.1.
• ctext
• Wikipedia, “Wen Xuan”