Yan shigu

Yan shigu

Yan shigu (581-645), who was named Zhen, was a master of ancient Chinese characters. Yongzhou Wannian (today's Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province) people, ancestral Linyi (today's Linyi City, Shandong Province), classics, exegetists, historians.

Yan shigu's grandfather is Yan Zhitui, a Confucian, and his father is Yan Silu.

Profile

In Sui Dynasty, he was the county captain of Anyang County. In Tang Zhenguan, he wrote Sui Shu with Wei Zheng. Taizong wrote many errors in the five classics, and the imperial edict made the ancient detailed corrections. When scholars asked questions about what they knew, he quoted old articles from Jin and Song Dynasties to reply one by one, which was admired by people at that time. He moved the Secretary to be a little supervisor and collated the official collections. Official to Secretary Supervisor, hongwenguan bachelor. His works include Han Shu Zhu, Kuang Mu Zheng Su, an Xinggui's family biography, Daye Shi Yi, Zhenghui Tu, Wu Xing Ji, Luling Ji, etc.

Life of the characters

Yan shigu is the grandson of Yan Zhitui and the son of Yan Silu. He is good at exegesis, phonology and collation. He is also an expert in the study of Hanshu and is very familiar with the history of Confucian classics since the Han Dynasty. During the reign of Renshou, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, Li Gang, the Minister of the Shang Dynasty, recommended him as the county captain of Anyang (now Xiangfan, Hubei). Seeing that he was young, Yang Su asked him, "how can I manage to raise the opera county?" Yan shigu replied, "how can you use an ox knife to cut a chicken?" Yang Su was surprised and boasted. After that, he was known for his outstanding achievements. Later, he was removed from his post in Chang'an because of his official duties. After ten years, he was unable to transfer to a new post. Forced to make a living, he made a living by teaching apprentices.

In the 13th year of Daye (617), Taiyuan left behind Li Yuan entered the pass. Yan shigu went from his father to Changchun palace in Tongzhou, where he was granted the post of chaosan doctor.

In the first year of Wude (618), Li Yuan called himself Emperor and established the Tang Dynasty. He paid homage to Yan shigu as the official literature of Dunhuang. He changed his life and then moved to Zhongshu. He was in charge of secrets and specially authorized by the emperor. Because of his agility in handling affairs, his familiarity with state affairs, and at a time when there were many military and state affairs, all the imperial edicts were written by him, and no one could compare them.

In the ninth year of Wude (626), Emperor Li Shimin (Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty) was promoted to the throne of emperor. Yan shigu was promoted to be the Minister of Zhongshu, and was granted the title of male of Langxie county. After the death of his mother and leave mourning. After the expiration of the term, he returned to the position of minister of Zhongshu. The recoil was removed. Taizong ordered Yan shigu to determine the Five Classics in the Secretary Province, which was corrected by Yan shigu. After the completion of the book, Taizong ordered all the Confucians to discuss it in detail. All the Confucians kept their own doors and criticized shigu in unison. Shigu answered the questions one by one according to the ancient and modern biographies since the Jin and Song dynasties. In the answers, they quoted the evidence simply and thoroughly, and their talents were beyond expression, which convinced all the Confucians. After that, he also served as tongzhilang and sanqichangshi, presenting the "Five Classics" he had examined to the world, and "making scholars learn Yan".

In the seventh year of Zhenguan (633), Yan shigu was appointed as the Secretary of Shaojian, who was in charge of the work of proofreading ancient books. Whenever he met with strange and difficult words, he could analyze them one by one and explain their origin. At that time, many less advanced people were introduced to the Secretary Supervisor for collation, but Yan shigu, who was the Secretary Supervisor, suppressed the poor and the poor, and gave priority to the appointment of dignitaries and powerful people, even the rich and powerful merchants. The public opinion said that Shi Gu accepted bribes, so he was demoted as the governor of Chenzhou. Before he took office, Taizong pitied shigu's talent and accused him of "being an official, not being promised by the Qing theory.". I'll take it from you. It is hoped that he will be "self disciplined and self-motivated". So he remained as a secretary. Whether he was an official or an unemployed man, Yan shigu was able to follow his family precepts and insist on reading and learning, so he was competent in the examination and annotation of classics and history.

Relying on his own talents, Yan shigu was driven by the imperial court for a long time and was appointed repeatedly. After he was punished for many crimes, he was very depressed. From then on, they closed their doors and did not communicate with the outside world, put an end to guests, indulged in garden pavilions and courtyards, wore Gebu headscarf and coarse cloth clothes. But he still loves to search for historic sites and antiques.

In the 11th year of Zhenguan (637), Yan shigu and his doctor wrote "five rites" and became viscount. Later, he annotated Han Shu at the order of Prince Li Chengqian. Han Shu Zhu is a masterpiece of Yan shigu in his later years. He has made the most efforts in examining and approving the pronunciation and interpreting the meaning of words, made the most achievements, and explained it in detail, which is deeply valued by scholars. At that time, Du Zhengnan (Du Yu) and Yan shigu (Yan shigu) were praised as loyal ministers of Zuo Qiuming and ban mengjian. After the completion of the book, the prince played it to the imperial court. Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty ordered the book to be incorporated into the secret Pavilion, and gave 200 pieces of Antiquities and a good horse to the teacher as a reward.

In the 15th year of Zhenguan (641), Emperor Taizong issued an imperial edict to offer sacrifices to Mount Tai. The Department in charge discussed the ceremony with the Minister of state. There were many different opinions. Yan shigu wrote: "in the spring of the 11th year of Zhenguan (637), the official wrote Fengchan Yizhu, which was considered appropriate by the scholars." So he handed the book to the minister to decide whether he could or not, and agreed with him, but the sacrifice to Mount Tai did not happen. In the same year, he entered the Secretary's prison and immediately became a Bachelor of Hong Wen Guan.

In the 19th year of Zhenguan (645), Yan shigu went to Liaodong with Taizong. He died of illness on the way. He was 65 years old and was named "Dai" after his posthumous title.

Main achievements

historiography

The hero of Han Dynasty

Before Yan shigu, many people had made notes on Hanshu. Wang Xianqian of the Qing Dynasty had a summary of this. He said:

"Before Yan Jian, there were five kinds of annotations: pious, yingshao, Jinzhuo, chenzan and caimoye." Among the five books, there are Jizhu books. For example, in addition to Fu's and Ying's families, Jin Zhuo added 14 families, such as Fu Yan and Liu De, while Chen Zan added another family, such as Liu Bao, with a total of 20. Among them, there are many famous scholars such as Ying Shao, Fu Qian and Wei Zhao. But Yan shigu's Han Shu Zhu was praised by the people at that time, obviously because of its charm. He claimed to be the tenet of his annotation of Hanshu: "in modern history, he competed for Caibo, quoted many anecdotes, attacked this article, and even slandered and slandered it. In addition, he showed the mistakes of previous studies, and showed the advantages and disadvantages of his own knowledge. In today's annotation, I praise the old books, and once I follow the track, I close the wrong road. ". Yan shigu clearly opposed the attack of Hanshu by borrowing and annotating Hanshu, and then expounded his own ideas. He advocated "following the track", that is, annotating Hanshu objectively according to the original text of Hanshu, and "praising the old books" only for the correct interpretation of Hanshu. From then on, he annotated Hanshu, first of all, to correct the errors and omissions in the spread of Hanshu, restore the original appearance of Hanshu, and then to clarify the changes in pronunciation and meaning, as well as the differences in name, system and historical facts due to the passage of time.

In Xuli, Yan shigu mentioned that there were some problems in the table of Hanshu, such as "the loss of time before and after, the obedience of the upper and lower levels, the difference between the upper and the lower levels, and the loss of name and reality". He "searched for articles to study examples, and published the whole book in general", so as to achieve "not only to read but also to know easily, but also to write without doubt". However, in order to "follow the same track", it is inconvenient to change the content of the watch, so it is explained in biographies related to the watch. For example, in Volume 33, the biography of Han Wang Xin, it is mentioned that Han, his descendant, said, "beat the Xiongnu with the Xiaowei and seal the Marquis of the dragon.". After sitting down, he lost his Marquis and became the general of Henghai. He defeated Dongyue and was granted the Marquis of Dao. Shigu notes: "the chronicle of historical records and the biography of Wei Qing recorded that Han said that he was the Marquis of Longhe at the beginning, and then the Marquis according to Dao, which is the same as this biography. "The book of the Han Dynasty - the list of meritorious officials" is the name of yunlonghe. According to the name of Daohou, they are listed as two people. Different from this, the list is not correct. " Yan shigu explained the perplexing expressions and never added his own ideas. For example, there is a note at the end of the preface to the prince Hou table in Volume 15: "all the cities eaten by Hou are written in the following chapters. There are those who don't write books, and history is also missing. Or if it is said that someone's heirs and zhishuhong have no date, there is no writing This is obviously a criticism of this form, which is in line with the facts and helps readers understand the original text, which is essentially different from "attacking the text". As for the errors that appeared in the circulation, Yan shigu also pointed out the errors, explained the reasons, and did not change them easily. For example, in volume 4-3 of Zhu Jianzhuan, "jiannai asked to see Hong Jiru, the Minister of filial piety and Hui", and the bet said: "according to the legend of xiangxingzhuan, there was Ji Ru in Gaozu, Hong Ru in Xiaohui, and si ze, both of them were named Ru with different surnames. Today, Yun Hong's Ji Ru left the word Ji by mistake, which later generations have ignored. " The purpose of Yan shigu's doing this is that Confucius said: attacking heresy has already done harm, and "attacking heresy belongs to the right discussion". According to Yan Zhitui's principle of "don't jump to the bottom" and don't change it, we can avoid the new "Publishing Reform with meaning", which does not maintain the original appearance of Hanshu, and makes the later generations of scholars unable to sum up the ups and downs.

Yan shigu, who wrote notes to the Han Dynasty, took different approaches to the discrimination of previous notes after consulting 20 notes. As for "the general theory is not appropriate, the Wu Ci competes, and the heresy comes out. It's just tedious and tedious. It only pollutes the books, but it doesn't take anything.". And "where the old note is, then it exists, to show that it is not hidden.". For example, in the biography of Zou Yang on May 1, there is only Meng Kang's note: "when I first met, I didn't know each other." But Yan shigu didn't say a word. However, not all the notes can be so simply taken and given up. Some notes "give a little guidance, but the agreement is not extended", while Yan shigu "extend it and make it known". For example, in the biography of Sima Xiangru (Volume 57), "if you don't want to be virtuous but not prosperous, can you survive if you lose your domain?" The following quote should be Shao's note: "Wang, Wu also. If, Shun also. Shu is good. "No one knows." This note explains the difficult words separately, but the meaning of this sentence is still not very clear, so Yan shigu notes: "those who are good in words and deeds will prosper, and those who are rebellious and lost will survive for a long time." In this way, the inner meaning of this sentence is very clear. There are also some notes which are not adopted, but they have caused bad influence. In order to correctly understand the original text of Hanshu, we must correct these wrong notes. For example, the seventh volume of "Zhao Di Ji" is not clear about "Baofu Zhuan", "Xiaojing", "Analects of Confucius" and "Shangshu"

Chinese PinYin : Yan Shi Gu