Playful Remarks on Flaws

钱希言Jun 2024

Rating 2.8

Word count: 31K words
Chapters: 127

Summary

Chinese traditional culture has a long intellectual lineage, marked by a high degree of originality, inventiveness and literary quality. Early forms of thought are highly distinctive: religious theology, classical texts of Chinese medicine, ancient military strategy, Confucian, Daoist, Buddhist and Hundred Schools thought, fengshui and metaphysics, the Twenty-Four Histories, customs and local gazetteers—all are vast and profound. This "Essence of Classical Chinese Culture: Original Texts" series preserves the appearance of the original books, with the aim of conserving and transmitting traditional Chinese thought and culture. By reading the literary essence left by ancient sages, readers may cultivate their temperament and quietly absorb the classics of Chinese learning.

Editor's review

Qian Xiyan's Xixia is one of the Ming dynasty biji that leans toward textual criticism and miscellaneous discussion. The title takes "xi" (play) while retaining "xia" (flaw), denoting fault-finding; the contents largely concern literary and historical verification, names and institutions, and the analysis of rumors and hearsay, written in a relaxed, desultory style with occasional flashes of insight. The author, living in the late Ming, read widely in miscellaneous books and excelled at drawing out doubts from commonplace materials and refuting old theories. Though less systematic than specialized works of evidential scholarship, it preserves a rich sense of the reading scene and the tone of literati discussion. This edition retains the original appearance of the book and serves as a sample for observing Ming biji writing and the pleasures of textual analysis. Readers may read it alongside biji of the same period, noting how the author raises questions, what materials he cites, and whether his conclusions are reliable; or they may extract individual entries for note-style reading without attempting to finish the whole book. For the general reader, its value lies not in systematic knowledge but in its manner of questioning and its sensitivity to materials.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Classical-text readers interested in Ming biji and literary-historical textual criticism
Readers accustomed to note-style reading who enjoy jotting as they go
Beginners studying late-Ming literati intellectual tastes and miscellaneous writing
Teachers of literature and history needing biji material for classroom examples

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting a systematic general history or a complete theoretical system
General readers who read only vernacular works and lack patience for classical-language biji
Researchers needing a critically edited and annotated edition for specialized evidential study

Reading tips

There is no need to read in order; begin with the table of contents, choose entries of interest, read a few at a time, and jot down questions and judgments as you go.
Where the author refutes old theories, first consider for yourself whether the original view holds, then see whether his argument stands.
Read alongside works such as Ri Zhi Lu and Shaoshi Shanfang Bicong, comparing the different methods and aims of evidential biji in the Ming.
After reading several entries, summarize the types of questions the author commonly attends to, and judge where his interests lie and what the limits of his materials are.

版权信息
序
卷一
沉鱼落雁
青泥
高唐云雨
龙钟
宋家微咏
行李
中山千日酒
蹲鸱
排倒秦皇石
支郎
爱妾换马
折冲
三公九卿
浮筠
平反古语
沿误
齿路马
称姬
秋柏之实
缁帷
支罗服烝横麦
玉叶象楮
水浒传
缠足
三生石上事
昭穆
御赐月儿羹
寒食上墓
坏东阁为马厩
垩
墨子
姜芽帖
诗叶管弦
朝士
桃始华
咸阳
不唾井
姓误
侍儿小名
刮锈
黄须传
汤旱
东方朔
吴越时忌讳
厕牏
身毒镜
大归
韩湘子
浮没
夜航
卷二
吴荀爱奇
陆终氏
说苑学孟子
鼎中钱
陵母曾参
曹景宗
家礼
古人姓名
目送
碧油幢
多罗
弄参军
天籥
五行先后
叶子戏
平易
郗皇后
匏瓜
解衣并粮
太息
金屈戌
瀺灂
六朝文法
草木
安定论史
垂拱
东海于公
资斧
桑穀两见于殷庭
王良
古人墓文字简
字义
瓜祭上环
樵苏
红
搏颊
沈郎腰
兰燕
史文矛盾
赵飞燕别传
刘季
卷三
桃符
张公吃酒李公醉
破瓜
杨妃窃笛诗
客星
梦中李白诗
神女赋
四皓
秦会稽刻石
瓜当
牵牛织女
青鸟
遗忘二事相类
凡鸟
舫
拱揖有辨
甬路
杜阳学拾遗
尚左右
不律
绿腰舞
君公
五大夫松
制草用琵琶记
苏意
同功绵
璎珞
善财参观音
赝籍
随清娱墓碑可疑
山人高士

FAQ

What does the title Xixia mean?

"Xi" suggests play or casualness, while "xia" refers to a flaw in jade and by extension a defect or questionable point. The title roughly indicates that the author points out doubts and flaws in literature and history in a relatively casual style; it is not a serious, systematic work of evidential scholarship but rather something closer to reading notes and analysis.

What level of classical Chinese is needed to read Xixia?

The book consists mostly of short notes whose sentence patterns are not especially difficult, but it involves a great many book titles, personal names and allusions, so a moderate foundation in classical Chinese suffices to begin. It is advisable to keep reference works at hand; when encountering unfamiliar material, one may skip it first and need not insist on fully understanding every entry.

Are the evidential conclusions in this biji reliable?

Qian Xiyan read widely in miscellaneous books and his questions are often insightful, but his arguments are not necessarily rigorous, and some conclusions are limited by the textual conditions of his time. When reading, one should focus on how he identifies problems and what materials he uses, maintaining a critical awareness of his judgments rather than citing them directly as settled conclusions.

Is it suitable to read from beginning to end?

Not very. The entries lack a rigorous system, and reading straight through easily leads to fatigue with scattered gains. A note-style approach is recommended: choose readings by interest, jot notes as you go, or focus on a particular type of question, which yields better results.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

钱希言 Author

Qian Xiyan is an author whose biographical details in Chinese ancient texts are quite limited: his courtesy name, native place, dates of birth and death, and official career are all unknown, and currently available public information offers no way to establish them with certainty. Judging from extant catalog records, two works are attributed to his name, the representative one being Xixia. This book is classified under Eastern philosophy and, to judge from its title and its traditional cataloguing, is roughly a collection of reading notes and textual commentary, dealing largely with the analysis and discussion of classical and historical texts, names, objects, and allusions. Its style is concise, showing the traditional scholar's habit of recording observations and verifying matters as they arise. Because clues to the author's life are scarce, present knowledge of the man and his work still depends mainly on the works themselves and on catalog records. Qian Xiyan's name has been preserved precisely through the later copying, printing, and collecting of such note-and-commentary works. Researchers should view them within the tradition of Ming and Qing scholarly notes, valuing their textual scholarship while remaining aware of their historical limitations.