China’s Philological Turn: Scholars, Textualism, and the DAO in the Eighteenth Century

329 Pages·2018·8.101 MB·English

by  Ori Sela

CHINA’S
PHILOLOGICAL
l TURN m
SCHOLARS, TEXTUALISM,
AND THE DAO
IN THE EIGHTEENTH
CENTURY
ORI SELA
CHINA’S
PHILOLOGICAL
TURN
STUDIES OF THE WEATHERHEAD EAST ASIAN INSTITUTE,
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
STUDIES OF THE WEATHERHEAD EAST ASIAN INSTITUTE,
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
The Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute of Columbia University were
inaugurated in 1962 to bring to a wider public the results of significant new research on
modern and contemporary East Asia.
CHINA’S
PHILOLOGICAL
TURN
Scholars, Textualism,
and the Dao in the
Eighteenth Century
ORI SELA
Columbia University Press
New York
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup.columbia.edu
Copyright © 2018 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Sela, Ori, 1972- author
Title: China’s philological turn : scholars, textualism, and the Dao in the
eighteenth century / Ori Sela.
Description: New York : Columbia University Press, 2018. | Series: Studies of
the Weatherhead East Asian Institute | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017038584 (print) | LCCN 2017039897 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780231545174 (electronic) | ISBN 9780231183826 (cloth : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: China—Intellectual life—1644-1912. | Chinese philology—
History. | Learning and scholarship—China—History. | Qian, Daxin,
1728-1804. | Intellectuals—China—History. | Scholars—China—History. |
Knowledge, Sociology of.
Classification: LCC DS754.14 (ebook) | LCC DS754.14 .S45 2018 (print) |
DDC 305.5/520951—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017038584
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent
and durable acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America
Cover design: Lisa Hamm
Cover image: Yao Wenhan 姚文瀚 (fl. 1740–1790), “Mo Songren wenhui tu”
摹宋人文會圖 (“Copy of a Literary Gathering by a Song Artist”), 1753.
The Collection of National Palace Museum, Taipei.
To my family

CONTENTS
Preface and Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: The Way and Its Crossroads 1
PART I. THE WAY OF MAN: SCHOLARLY NETWORKS
AND THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF SCHOLARSHIP
1. Learning to Be a Scholar 21
2. Official Scholars and the Growing Philologists’ Networks 40
3. Private Scholars, Private Academies, and the Community
of Knowledge 55
PART II. THE WAY OF ANTIQUITY: SEARCHING
FOR THE TRUE WAY IN THE PAST
4. The Way of Ancient Learning: Philology, Antiquity,
and Ru Identity 85
5. Philology and the Message of the Sages: The Classics
and the Four Books 101
6. Historical Philology: Navigating the Sources 118
viii Contents
PART III. THE WAY OF HEAVEN AND EARTH:
THE MANDATE OF SCHOLARSHIP AND THE SEARCH
FOR ORDER
7. Astronomy, Mathematics, and Calendar: Historical Perspective 135
8. Ancient Learning Encounters Western Learning: Scientific Knowledge
and Its Cultural Baggage 150
9. Fate, Ritual, and Ordering All Under Heaven 163
Conclusion: The Consequences of the Eighteenth-Century
Intellectual Transformations 179
Appendix A: Selections from Qian Daxin’s 1754 Palace
Examination Answer 195
Appendix B: Major Shuowen and Erya Studies of the Qian-Jia Period
(and Related Works), 1736–1820 199
Appendix C: Qian Daxin’s Letter to Dai Zhen (1754) 205
Appendix D: Questions and Answers About Astronomy 209
Appendix E: Essay on the Value of π 211
Appendix F: Qian Daxin’s Writings on Mathematics, Astronomy,
and Divination 213
Appendix G: On Sa(cid:1768)sāra 217
Appendix H: Sources for the Works of Qian Daxin 221
Note on Abbreviations and Citations 225
Notes 227
Selected Bibliography of Chinese and Japanese Titles 285
Index 299
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
D
uring my BA and MA years at Tel Aviv University, when the
Chu bamboo slips of Guodian (郭店楚簡) were still considered
“newly discovered,” my heart was set on ancient China studies.
I was fortunate to study with such scholars as Yoav Ariel, Andrew Plaks, Yuri
Pines, and Gidi Shelach-Lavi; translate treatises from the bamboo slips; and, as
I had a keen interest in Sanskrit, too, think about differences between these two
classical languages and the implications thereof. So when I had the opportunity
to pursue PhD studies at Princeton University, it seemed only natural to stay
focused on ancient China. There, with the generous teaching and insights of
Martin Kern, many new avenues for understanding the early texts opened up.
Yet, slowly but surely, I became more and more interested in a group of scholars
who at the time seemed almost transparent: those who had transmitted the
ancient texts and had made a substantial part of these texts intelligible to later
scholars, those who had worked on making sense of ancient pronunciations
and characters, or ancient meanings and thought, before the modern era. In
this sense my perspective was shaped not by a modernist viewpoint trying
to understand the failures or successes of a previous era but by an interest in
antiquity and the way it was reshaped and renewed in later times. In sum, my
gaze and mind turned to Qing intellectuals.
I was privileged to have as my teachers some of the most prominent scholars in
the field of Qing studies. Each of them taught me in a different manner and facil-
itated my growth as a researcher, and I am greatly indebted to them. My deepest
gratitude goes to Ben Elman, who threw open the gates of Late Imperial China