Er Cheng yishu 二程遺書

Er Cheng yishu 二程遺書 "Remnant books of the two Cheng brothers", also called Henan Chengshi yishu 河南程氏遺書, is a collection of writings by the brothers and two Northern Song-period 北宋 (960-1126) philosophers Cheng Hao 程顥 (1032-1085) and Cheng Yi 程頤 (1033-1107). The latter compiled more writings than his older brother. The two are the most important representatives of the formative stage of Neo-Confucianism. Their writings are to be found in a lot of various collections. Besides the Yishu, there are also the books Er Cheng waishu 二程外書, Mingdao wenji 明道文集 "Collected writings of Mingdao [i.e., Cheng Hao]", Yichuan wenji 伊川文集 "Collected writings of Yichuan [i.e., Cheng Yi]" and Chengshi jingshuo 程氏經說 "Explanations to the Classics by the Masters Cheng". All these books were united in the collection Er Cheng quanshu 二程全書 "Complete writings of the two Cheng brothers".

The imperial bibliography in the official dynastic history Songshi 宋史 only lists the book Zhongyong yi 中庸義 "The meaning of the Doctrine of the Mean" as a writing of Cheng Hao, as well as 16 different writings by Cheng Yi. The collected writings contain inscriptions (ming 銘), poems (shi 詩), notes (ji 記), letters (shu 書), declarations (qi 啟), memorials and official documents (zou 奏, shu 疏, biao 表), tomb inscriptions (muzhi 墓誌) and conduct descriptions (xingzhuang 行狀), sacrificial texts (jiwen 祭文), educational instructions (xuezhi 學制), as well as biographical data (jiazhuan 家傳) of the two brothers.

The 25-juan-long collection Er Cheng yishu is divided into three parts, first the collected sayings of the two brothers (Er Xiansheng yu 二先生語 or Er Xiansheng yulu 二先生語錄 "The discourses of the two masters"). Those attributed to Cheng Hao are marked with the character ming 明, and those attributed to Cheng Yi with the character zheng 正. Some paragraphs are not marked at all. The Yulu is quite similar to the "Confucian Analects" Lunyu, a style later also used by the disciples of Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130-1200) in the compilation Zhuzi yulei 朱子語類. The Yulu is followed by the Mingdao Xiansheng yu 明道先生語 "Discourses of Master Mingdao" (Cheng Hao) and the Yichuan Xiansheng yu 伊川先生語 "Discourses of Master Yinchuan" (Cheng Yi).

After the death of Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi, their sayings were collected by a large number of disciples and scholars, like Lü Dalin 呂大臨 (1044-1091), Xie Liangzuo 謝良佐 (1050-1103), You Zuo 游酢 (1053-1123) or Liu Xun 劉絢 (1045-1087), but never found their way into one coherent book. A further problem was that the statements of the disciples often contradicted each other or the original teachings of the Cheng brothers. The Southern-Song-period 南宋 (1127-1279) scholar Zhu Xi therefore revised the collected writings of the two brothers in circulation. The collected writings of the Cheng brothers permanently underwent revision so that there were versions of different sizes and contents available. The received version, for example, has 25 juan in total (including an appendix), but Huang Zhen 黄震 (1213-1281) speaks of a version of 17 juan length, with a different order of the writings.

The Er Cheng yishu is included in the series Siku quanshu 四庫全書 and Sibu beiyao 四部備要. The best prints were produced during the Chenghua 成化 (1465-1487), Jiajing 嘉靖 (1522-1566) and Wanli 萬曆 (1573-1619) reign-periods. Master Tu 涂氏 from Lu'an 六安 (sic) produced a text-critical edition.