Title

The Compilation and Study of Yao Cha’s Hanshu Xunzuan: Focusing on Its Relation to Yan Shigu’s Hanshu Commentary

Author

Janice Ling

Genre

Article

Pages

619-658

DOI

10.6503/THJCS.202312_53(4).0001

Download

PDF

Language

Chinese

Key words

Yao Cha 姚察, Yan Shigu 顏師古, Hanshu 漢書, Hanshu commentaries, Hanshu xunzuan 漢書訓纂

Abstract

Yao Cha 姚察 (533-606), an official of the Liang, Chen and Sui dynasties, wrote the Hanshu xunzuan 漢書訓纂, a 30-volume commentary on the Hanshu. His work was widely circulated at one time, but has long been lost. Fortunately, Yao Cha’s annotations were cited by a number of texts in the Tang dynasty, including the Shiji suoyin 史記索隱 and the Shiji zhengyi 史記正義. The annotations on a Tang manuscript fragment of Yang Xiong’s Hanshu biography 漢書揚雄傳 also quoted more than a hundred entries from the Xunzuan. These citations afford us a glimpse of Yao’s long lost book. According to the Jiu Tangshu 舊唐書, the Xunzuan was plagiarized by “later Hanshu commentator(s).” Although no specific names were revealed, the Qing scholar Shen Qinhan 沈欽韓 asserted that “the thief” was obviously Yan Shigu 顏師古 (581-645). Later scholars, including Yang Mingzhao 楊明照 and Yoshikawa Tadao吉川忠夫, agreed with his point of view. This article collects together the Xunzuan’s remaining fragments, compares Yao Cha’s annotations with those of Yan Shigu, and discovers that Yan not only borrowed from Yao’s work without giving credit, but he also developed and refuted some of Yao’s views. The article argues that Yan Shigu deliberately avoided referring to Yao Cha in any way due to his principle of adhering to commentaries from the Han, Wei and Jin dynasties, hence his exclusion of contemporary scholars from the line of transmission of Hanshu commentaries