Lǎo zǐ shuō lüè 老子說略
Brief Explanation of Lǎo zǐ
by 張爾岐 (Zhāng Ěrqí, 1612–1677) — early-Qīng Confucian scholar
The early-Qīng Confucian Zhāng Ěrqí’s deliberately minimalist reading-notes on the Dào dé jīng.
Tiyao
The Sìkù editors write: “Lǎo zǐ shuō lüè, two juàn, by Zhāng Ěrqí of our dynasty. Ěrqí is the author of the Yí lǐ Zhèng zhù jù dòu 儀禮鄭註句讀, already catalogued.
“Explanations of the Dào dé jīng are very many, but often they are convoluted and over-strained, producing their own obstructions. Ěrqí’s edition uniquely sets aside all [that apparatus], offering a brief summary of the general sense. His preface explains: ‘Browsing the text, where I could not follow I ventured my own guess, adding a word or two in the gaps between phrases — and the meaning came clear. Looking back at the various commentaries, I no longer worry about those I cannot follow, and no longer wish to follow them.’ He also appends a colophon: ‘When someone asked Zhū Xǐ 朱子 whether the phrase dào kě dào could be rendered, he replied: A Way that can be spoken of is not the constant Way; a name that can be named is not the constant name. Zhū Xǐ never in his life explained Lǎo zǐ, but were he to have done so, this is how he would have — and this is the method for explaining any text: not to force an explanation in search of explanation, but to return to the text itself, that the text may explain itself.
“The book’s main purport lies in immersion in the text, finding the sense in oneself. Accordingly it avoids all strategic-manipulation (zòng héng cuī jué 縱橫摧譎) talk, and has nothing to do with the gold-cinnabar and yellow-white (jīn dān huáng bái 金丹黃白) arts. Plain, simple, and apposite — well worth consulting. Respectfully collated Qián lóng 46 (1781), 10th month. Chief compilers: Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅; Chief collator: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.”
Abstract
Zhāng’s preface (dated the day after the full moon of the fifth month, summer 1669 [Kāng xī 8]) frames the work as that of a failing-eyed recluse who can no longer read fine-print commentary and must confront Lǎo zǐ’s text directly, making only minimalist intratextual glosses. The tone is deliberately anti-scholastic — rejecting the accretions of both the Daoist-alchemical commentators (whom he calls “Buddhist / divine-immortal sorts”) and the over-ingenious Neo-Confucian readers. His Confucian loyalty is nonetheless unambiguous; the short preface insists that Lǎo zǐ’s true purport is governance and self-cultivation, not abdication of the Confucian social ethic.
Dating. 1669 (preface). Dynasty: 清.
Translations and research
- No substantial secondary studies of the Lǎo zǐ shuō lüè specifically are known to me. Treated briefly in surveys of Qīng Lǎo zǐ commentaries.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5c0385
- Author: 張爾岐.