Sounds and meanings: Early Chinese historical exegesis and Xu Guang's 'Shiji yinyi'

This study aims to examine the characteristics and development of post-canonical Chinese historical commentary, with focus on the first pillar in this tradition: the Shiji. Chapter One contextualizes this study by reviewing the early textual history of the Shiji and problems associated with its transmission, particularly errors that were introduced into the text in the process of copying and transmitting it. These copyist errors, as well as linguistic variation and historical distance, presented early readers of the Shiji with difficulties as they read the text, and gave rise to the earliest Shiji commentaries. Xu Guang (352--425), author of the Shiji yinyi (Sounds and Meanings of the Shiji), and the focus of this dissertation, is presented as a key contributor to the early tradition of Shiji commentary.; Chapter Two discusses the origins and philosophical assumptions of post-canonical historical commentary and reviews early Shiji and Hanshu commentators and their commentaries, as commentary on both of these texts may have influenced Xu Guang's own exegetical endeavors. Chapter Three contains a biographical study of Xu Guang and includes an annotated translation of his Songshu biography, a discussion of his scholarly legacy, and a translation of his only extant literary work. Chapter Four consists of a short textual history of the Shiji yinyi, followed by annotated translations and analyses of all of Xu Guang's glosses from eleven chapters of the Shiji. Such a presentation illustrates the various types of Xu's glosses in context and displays his broad learning and familiarity with the text of the Shiji and other early texts. Chapter Five provides a categorization of the various types of Xu Guang's glosses, discusses the assumptions underlying Xu Guang's work, and examines his influence on Shiji exegetes through the early Tang dynasty. Finally, Xu's Shiji yinyi is evaluated in the broader context of the "San jia zhu" (Commentaries of the Three Scholars), the primary Shiji exegetical apparatus that has circulated as a part of the Shiji text since the Song dynasty. Xu Guang's pioneering exegetical effort is demonstrated as one of the most important Shiji commentaries produced through the Tang dynasty.