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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 August 2022
This article examines Jiajing's (Zhu Houcong 朱厚熜, 1507–67) preface to the Scripture of the Three Offices (Sanguan jing 三官經, hereafter, Scripture). The first section discusses the provenance of Jiajing's preface, and shows that the preface is preserved in the Explanation (Sanguan jing zhujie 三官經註解), an unstudied edition of the Scripture produced in 1876. The second section offers a comparison between the Explanation and Ming editions of the Scripture. Relying on this comparison, the third section examines the role of Jiajing in the text's editorial history. Three aspects of the imperial preface support its authenticity: its description of Jiajing's lost imperial edition; its stance on local religious narratives; and its connection with Jiajing's early scholarly and political concerns. In examining the authenticity of Jiajing's preface, the article discusses the role of Daoist resources in shaping Ming imperial discourses on rulership.
I would like to thank Gábor Kósa, Peter Ditmanson, Judit Bagi, Hu Jiechen, He Yanran, and Gu Rouyan for commenting on previous versions of this manuscript. The completion of this paper would not have been possible without the institutional support offered by the Centre for the Study of Religious Ethics and Chinese Culture (The Chinese University of Hong Kong), under the direction of Professor Lai Pan-chiu. As importantly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to two anonymous reviewers, whose constructive comments have greatly improved this piece. Finally, research for this article was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (project code: 531118010462).