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Jifujing 畿服經

Dec 21, 2013 © Ulrich Theobald

Jifujing 畿服經 "The Classic of the Capital and the Outer Territories" was an imperial geography written by Zhi Yu 摯虞 (250-300) during the Western Jin period 西晉 (265-316). Zhi Yu, courtesy name Zongqia 仲洽, was a retainer of Huangfu Mi 皇甫謐 (215-282), and had the offices of Director of the Palace Library (mishujian 秘書監), Chamberlain of the Court of the Palace Garrison (weiweiqing 衛尉卿), Chamberlain for Attendants (guangluxun 光祿勳) and Chamberlain for Ceremonials (taichangqing 太常卿). He wrote a commentary on the geography Sanfu huangtu 三輔黃圖 called Zhujie Sanfu juelu 注解三輔決録, and a book on eminent families called Zuxing zhaomu 族姓昭穆.

The name of the book is derived from an ancient term for the domains of the regional rulers (fu 服) of the Western Zhou period 西周 (11th cent.-770 BCE), while jing 畿 is a term for the metropolitan region.

The imperial bibliography Jingjizhi 經籍志 in the official dynastic history Suishu 隋書 says that Zhi Yu made use of the chapter Yugong 禹貢, part of the Classic Shangshu 尚書 "Book of Documents", and the ritual Classic Zhouguan 周官 (i.e. Zhouli 周禮). His geography book described the capital and the commanderies of the empire, the mountains, rivers, military routes, the nature of the agriculture in all regions, customs and habits, as well as famous persons. Compared to the geographical treatises in the official dynastic histories Hanshu 漢書 and Houhanshu 後漢書, the Jifujing must have been much more detailed.

The Jifujing was 170-juan long but is long lost, barring a few fragments quoted in Xu Guang's 徐廣 (352-425) commentary Shiji zhu 史記注 on the universal history Shiji 史記 and Fu Chen's 伏琛 geography book Qiji 齊記.

The Jifujing is first mentioned in the imperial bibliography Jingjizhi in the Suishu and listed in all supplementary bibliographies to the history Jinshu 晉書, like Ding Guojun's 丁國鈞 Bu Jingshu Yiwenzhi 補晉書藝文志.

Fragments of the Jifujing were collected by the Qing-period 清 (1644-1911) scholar Wang Mo 王謨 (c. 1731-1817) and are to be found in his geographical series Han-Tang dili shuchao 漢唐地理書鈔.

Sources:
Ba Zhaoxiang 巴兆祥 (1992). "Jifujing 畿服經", in Zhou Gucheng 周谷城, ed. Zhongguo xueshu mingzhu tiyao 中國學術名著提要, Lishi 歷史卷 (Shanghai: Fudan daxue chubanshe), 642.
Wang Zhaoming 王兆明, Fu Langyun 傅朗雲, eds. (1991). Zhonghua gu wenxian da cidian 中華古文獻大辭典, Dili 地理卷 (Jilin: Changchun wenshi chubanshe), 403.