文子纘義

Wénzǐ zuǎn yì 文子纘義

Continuation of the Meaning of the Wénzǐ

by 杜道堅 (Dù Dàojiān, 1237–1318), composed late Southern Sòng (c. 1260s–1290s); the WYG edition is reconstructed from the Yǒng lè dà diǎn 永樂大典

A major commentary on the [[KR5c0118|Wénzǐ]] (Tōng xuán zhēn jīng) by Dù Dàojiān 杜道堅 (1237–1318; see also KR5c0089 and KR5c0090 for his Dàodé jīng commentaries) — the Southern-Sòng / early-Yuán Zhèng yī 正一 Daoist master who served as abbot of the Shèng yuán guān 聖元觀 at Hú zhōu 湖州. The work preserves fragments of otherwise-lost pre-Sòng Wénzǐ commentaries and provides the single most important scholarly reading of the Wénzǐ from the Sòng tradition.

About the work

Tiyao

The 1777 Wén yuān gé Sìkù quánshū editorial tiyao (signed by Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅, and Lù Fèichí 陸費墀; dated Qián lóng 42.5 = 1777) provides the authoritative modern-Chinese account:

“Your servants having examined: Wénzǐ zuǎn yì, twelve juàn, composed by Sòng Dù Dàojiān 杜道堅. Dàojiān’s zì was Nán gǔ 南谷, a man of Dāng tú 當塗. He formerly served as a Daoist at the Shēng yuán guān 昇元觀 on Mt Jì chóu 計籌山 in Wǔ kāng 武康. His biography does not appear in the gazetteers, and various bibliographies also largely do not list this book’s title. Only by examining Móu Xiǎn’s 牟巘 Líng yáng jí 陵陽集, which has a preface composed for Dàojiān, and another Jì chóu fēng zhēn lǜ lù 計籌峯真率錄 preface, can we determine that one Dòng wēi xiān shēng 洞微先生 (his ancestor?) founded the Shēng yuán guān and was granted a precious imperial brushwork at the Dé shòu gōng 德壽宫. From then to “this year’s certain sexagenary date”, Dàojiān himself arrived — twelve generations after his ancestor’s time, spanning just one hundred years. [The reference suggests his activity in 1262.]

“The Wénzǐ is a book whose words are deep and whose meanings are hidden; it must rely on commentary to transmit. Since the Northern Wèi, three commentators have worked on it: Lǐ Xiān 李暹, Xú Líng fǔ 徐靈府, and Zhū Yuán 朱元. Xiān’s and Yuán’s commentaries have long been lost; Xú’s survives but more than half is missing and incomplete. Dàojiān, because his residence on Mt Jì chóu has Wénzǐ’s ancient traces and he admired his character, gathered together the various explications and added his own views — thus he composed this Zuǎn yì work. He had considerable insight into the Daoist subtle purport; his diction and meaning, while seemingly plain and near-at-hand, is nevertheless able to disentangle and exhibit many of the Wénzǐ’s obscure and profound meanings, so the reader is not troubled by thorny passages.

“Moreover, the old explanations he cites — though without giving the authors’ names — preserve passages from pre-Sòng commentators that have otherwise perished and not been transmitted. Those are of no small benefit to the base text.

“Since the Yuán, the transmitted copies have been very rare. Only in the Yǒng lè dà diǎn 永樂大典 various rhyme-sections are preserved: the Jīng chéng, Fú yán, Shàng dé, Xià dé, Wēi míng, Zì rán, and Shàng yì seven piān are complete from start to finish. Only the Dào yuán, Jiǔ shǒu, Dào dé, Shàng rén, and Shàng lǐ five piān are missing from the Zuǎn yì original — perhaps they were lost in Yǒng lè dà diǎn copyist-transmission, or perhaps Dàojiān had not yet written them; we cannot guess. For now, where the text is lacking, we preserve the base text of those piān alone, dividing the whole into twelve juàn according to the piān structure.

“The characters and phrases in this book differ considerably from the current Ming-era Dào qián táng 道濳堂 printing. For example:

• In Fú yán: the phrase qiú wéi ér níng, qiú wéi ér zhì 求為而寧，求為而治 is in the Ming print given as wú wéi 無為, which contradicts the surrounding context.
• Shí zhī qù bù kě zhuī ér yuán yě 時之去不可追而援也 — the Ming print has 足 for 追, an obvious error.
• Several more specific textual variants are listed…

“Such errors are many. Other passages where the meaning is ambiguous are too numerous to count. Dàojiān was born in the late Sòng and could still see good pre-modern editions; although the text has long been corrupted by later hands, this surviving work can be used to verify and correct many errors. For this the work is especially valuable.

“Respectfully submitted, Qián lóng 42, fifth month [1777].”

Structure and philosophy

The Zuǎn yì is arranged by the twelve piān 篇 of the canonical Wénzǐ (Tōng xuán zhēn jīng):

1. Dào yuán 道原 (Sources of the Way) — missing in WYG
2. Jīng chéng 精誠 (Essence and Sincerity)
3. Jiǔ shǒu 九守 (Nine Guardings) — missing in WYG
4. Fú yán 符言 (Symbolic Words)
5. Dào dé 道德 (Way and Virtue) — missing in WYG
6. Shàng dé 上德 (Upper Virtue)
7. Xià dé 下德 (Lower Virtue)
8. Wēi míng 微明 (Subtle Brightness)
9. Zì rán 自然 (What-is-so-of-itself)
10. Xià dào 下道 / Shàng rén 上仁 — missing in WYG
11. Shàng yì 上義 (Upper Righteousness)
12. Shàng lǐ 上禮 (Upper Ritual) — missing in WYG

(The WYG edition’s five-piān lacunae are a serious but unavoidable loss.)

Dù Dàojiān’s commentary approach combines:

1. Collection of earlier commentators (without naming them) — preserving fragments of Lǐ Xiān 李暹, Xú Líng fǔ 徐靈府, and Zhū Yuán 朱元 (especially Xú Líng fǔ, whose commentary was still partially extant in Dù’s time).
2. Dù’s own interpretive contribution — building on his earlier Dàodé jīng commentary (KR5c0089, KR5c0090) and extending the same Daoist-Neo-Confucian synthesis framework to the Wénzǐ.

Abstract

The commentary is one of the most philosophically substantive Daoist readings of the Wénzǐ from the Sòng period. Its preservation of fragments from otherwise-lost commentators (especially Xú Líng fǔ) makes it text-critically valuable, and its dating of Dù Dàojiān’s Wénzǐ work parallel to his Dàodé jīng work (KR5c0089, 1305) suggests a unified Daoist scholarly project spanning the SòngYuán transition.

Dating. Composed during Dù Dàojiān’s mature career (1264–1306 per CBDB-style bracketing). The precise composition date is not known, but is probably contemporary with or slightly earlier than his Dàodé xuán jīng yuán zhǐ of 1305. Per the project’s dating rule, the frontmatter gives 1264–1306 as a conservative window. Dynasty: 宋.

Translations and research

• See KR5c0089 and KR5c0090 for Dù Dàojiān’s Dàodé jīng commentaries, and 杜道堅 for his person-note. The bibliographical literature on Dù Dàojiān applies to this Wénzǐ commentary as well.
• Le Blanc, Charles. Le Wen Zi à la lumière de l’histoire et de l’archéologie. Montréal: Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 2000. For the broader Wénzǐ context.
• Van Els, Paul. The Wenzi: Creativity and Intertextuality in Early Chinese Philosophy. Leiden: Brill, 2018.

Other points of interest

The preservation of the Zuǎn yì through the Yǒng lè dà diǎn 永樂大典 — the monumental Míng encyclopaedia of 1408 — is a striking instance of how the loss of a work from independent transmission could be partially remedied by inclusion in the Ming imperial compilation. Had the Yǒng lè dà diǎn not preserved these seven piān, Dù Dàojiān’s entire Wénzǐ commentary would be lost.

The Sìkù editors’ detailed text-critical comparison of the Zuǎn yì with the Ming Dào qián táng 道濳堂 printing — noting specific errors in the latter — illustrates the mature Qīng kǎo jù 考據 methodology of constructing critical texts through the comparison of multiple witnesses. The Zuǎn yì, older than the Ming print, is used to correct identifiable Míng-era errors.

Links

• Kanseki Repository KR5c0119
• See KR5c0118 for the base text of the Wénzǐ.
• See KR5c0089 and KR5c0090 for Dù Dàojiān’s related Dàodé jīng work.
• ctext.org: 文子纘義