書義矜式

Shū yì jīn shì 書義矜式

Dignified Models for Documents-Examination Essays by 王充耘 (zhuàn 撰)

About the work

A 6-juǎn late-Yuán manual of model examination essays on selected Shàngshū passages, by Wáng Chōngyún 王充耘 — the same Lúlíng / Jí’ān scholar of the Dúshū guǎnjiàn (KR1b0032). The work is the canonical document of the Yuán-era jīng yì chéng shì 經義程式 (“examination-essay format”) genre: it provides specimen essays organized in the standard Yuán jīng yì essay structure, demonstrating to candidates how to compose the examination piece. The Sìkù tíyào on the work classifies it as a fù lù 附錄 (appendix) within the Shū lèi and identifies it as an institutional ancestor of the MíngQīng bā gǔ wén 八股文 (“eight-legged essay”) — the canonical formula of the late-Imperial examination system.

The Sìkù tíyào further provides one of the cleanest contemporary descriptions of the Yuán jīng yì essay structure, which was the immediate predecessor of the Míng bā gǔ: the essay opens with pò tí 破題 (breaking-the-topic) + jiē tí 接題 (continuing-the-topic) + xiǎo jiǎng 小講 (small discussion) — these three together called the mào zǐ 冒子 (preliminaries); after the mào zǐ the essay enters the guān tí 官題 (formal topic-treatment), under which fall yuán tí 原題 (original-topic), dà jiǎng 大講 (greater discussion), and yú yì 餘意 / cóng jiǎng 從講 (residual-meanings); then yuán jīng 原經 / kǎo jīng 考經 (original canonical text / verifying the canon), then jié wěi 結尾 (conclusion). With time, candidates found this format prolix, and the standard contracted to four sections: mào tí 冒題, yuán tí 原題, jiǎng tí 講題, jié tí 結題 — which is essentially the Míng bā gǔ wén template.

Tiyao

Imperially Authorized Sìkù Quánshū. [Classics, division 2, Books-class — appendix.] Shū yì jīn shì. [Books-class.]

Précis. Your servants etc. respectfully submit: the Shū yì jīn shì in six juǎn is by Wáng Chōngyún of the Yuán. Chōngyún, zì Yǔgēng, was a man of Jíshuǐ. Jìnshì of Yuántǒng jiǎxū (1334); he was awarded the post of Yǒngzhōu tóngzhī. The Sì shū jīng yí guàn tōng he composed has been entered in our catalog separately. Chōngyún was refined in the examination essay; he also took the Shū jīng and entered the [examination] list — his exertions [on it] were very deep. The present work is his composed jīng yì chéng shì.

Since Wáng Ānshí of the Sòng altered the regulations and began to use the jīng yì in selecting officials, contemporaries like Zhāng Cáishū’s “Zì jìng rén zì xiàn yú xiān wáng yì” 自靖人自獻于先王義 — scholars called it composition that could not be erased; Lǚ Zǔqiān went so far as to record it into the Wén jiàn 文鑑.

In the Yuán Rénzōng’s Huángqìng era, the examinations were resumed, still using one jīng yì essay; but the format slightly varied from the Sòng. Tabulating the rules: there is pò tí 破題, jiē tí 接題, xiǎo jiǎng 小講 — these are called the mào zǐ; after the mào zǐ one enters the guān tí; under the guān tí there is yuán tí, there is dà jiǎng, there is yú yì (also called cóng jiǎng); there is also yuán jīng (also called kǎo jīng); there is jié wěi. After this format had been transmitted for a while, composers found the prolixity-and-repetition disagreeable, and gradually adjusted; but the essential structure has mào tí, yuán tí, jiǎng tí, jié tí — these as the unchangeable foundation.

Chōngyún, on the basis of the canonical chapters in his examination subject, picked several topics and made specimen essays for each, to display the standard. Although on canonical meaning [the work makes] no breakthrough development, [he] was for a time considered the most refined in the examination-hall genre. Preserving the work serves to display the prevailing-fashion of the time. Further, although the Yuán official regulations on the Shū used the Cài zhuàn, the Shèn huī wǔ diǎn 慎徽五典 entry [in this book] cites the Kǒng zhuàn’s Dà lù 大錄 text as cross-reference — sufficient to know that scholars of the time still consulted the side-readings of the zhùshū; one is not yet at the level of the late-Míng examination-craftsmen who held to the lecture-manuals and never even glanced at the ancient books. Respectfully submitted, Qiánlóng 44 / 1779, seventh month.

— Director-General, Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. — Director of Final Collation, Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.

Abstract

The Shū yì jīn shì is the canonical Yuán jīng yì model-essay manual for the Shàngshū portion of the post-1313 examination canon. Its author Wáng Chōngyún 王充耘 was a jìnshì of the Yuántǒng era (1333 or 1334), with the Shàngshū as his classical specialty, who succeeded in the examination system and went on to produce both this manual (the Jīn shì) and a separate critical commentary disputing Cài Shěn (the Dúshū guǎnjiàn, KR1b0032). The Sìkù compilers preserve the Jīn shì as a fù lù 附錄 (appendix) within the Shū lèi, classifying it as institutional rather than substantive scholarship.

The composition window in the frontmatter (1334–1370) brackets the post-jìnshì productive career.

The work’s principal documentary value is in its preservation of the Yuán jīng yì essay structure. The Sìkù tíyào’s description — three-part mào zǐ preliminaries (pò tí + jiē tí + xiǎo jiǎng), formal guān tí with sub-sections (yuán tí + dà jiǎng + yú yì), then yuán jīng and jié wěi — is the most precise contemporary description of the Yuán-era examination essay format, with the gradually-condensing four-section template (mào + yuán + jiǎng + jié) identified as the institutional precursor of the MíngQīng bā gǔ wén.

The historical-narrative arc the tíyào establishes is significant: Sòng Wáng Ānshí 王安石’s 1071 examination reform replaced the older cí fù 詞賦 (literary-composition) examination with the jīng yì; outstanding Sòng jīng yì essays — Zhāng Cáishū’s 張才叔 Zì jìng rén zì xiàn yú xiān wáng 自靖人自獻于先王 essay being the famous early example — were preserved as canonical models in literary anthologies (Lǚ Zǔqiān’s Wén jiàn 文鑑); the Yuán Rénzōng 仁宗 reform of 1313 reinstated the jīng yì with format variations; and the Yuán format eventually condensed into what would become the Míng bā gǔ. The Shū yì jīn shì sits at the institutional center of this trajectory.

The Sìkù compilers’ positive note — that even though Wáng Chōngyún’s manual is examination-oriented, it still cites the HànTáng Kǒng zhuàn’s Dà lù 大錄 alongside the curricularly-canonized Cài zhuàn — registers the relative scholarly responsibility of Yuán-era examination-prep practice. The Yuán manuals had not yet committed to the late-Míng “lecture-manuals only” (mò shǒu jiǎng zhāng yú gǔ shū quán wèi yù mù 墨守講章於古書全未寓目) intellectual collapse that the Sìkù compilers identified in their preceding entries on the late-Míng jǔyè genre.

The work belongs structurally to the same Yuán jīng yì manual tradition as Chén Yuèdào’s Shū yì duànfǎ (KR1b0033, of slightly later date) and the lost Sì shū dà yì manuals. The three works together represent the Yuán-era institutional infrastructure of the examination essay; the Jīn shì is the chéng mò 程墨 (model-essay) of the trio (Wáng Chōngyún wrote model essays); the Duànfǎ is the jiǎng zhāng 講章 (study guide); and Ní Shìyì’s Zuò yì yào jué (the appendix to KR1b0033) is the rhetorical-technique manual.

Translations and research

No substantial Western-language translation of the Shū yì jīn shì is known. For the institutional history of the jīng yì essay see Benjamin A. Elman, A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), and Hilde de Weerdt, Competition over Content: Negotiating Standards for the Civil Service Examinations in Imperial China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Asia Center, 2007). For the late-Yuán to early-Míng transition of the jīng yì into the bā gǔ see Tian Yuan Tan, Songs of Contentment and Transgression: Discharged Officials and Literati Communities in Sixteenth-Century North China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Asia Center, 2010). For the Wáng Chōngyún corpus broadly see his entry in 王充耘 person note.

Other points of interest

The Sìkù tíyào’s description of the Yuán jīng yì format — six- or seven-section structure (pò + jiē + xiǎo jiǎng + yuán tí + dà jiǎng + yú yì + yuán jīng + jié wěi) condensing into a four-section template (mào + yuán + jiǎng + jié) — is one of the cleaner late-Imperial documentary statements of the bā gǔ prehistory. Modern historians of the examination system regularly cite this passage.

The Wáng Chōngyún paradox — same author writing both the canonical examination-essay manual AND the critical commentary against Cài Shěn — is methodologically interesting. The split is institutional: the Jīn shì operates within the Cài-orthodox examination space and offers no substantive critique of the canonical commentary; the Guǎn jiàn (KR1b0032) operates as private scholarship and dismantles Cài’s xīn fǎ doctrine. The two together illustrate that Yuán-era Shū scholarship could maintain a clean separation between institutional and critical registers.

Links

• CBDB id (王充耘): see 王充耘 person note (CBDB 101150)
• Wikidata: no entity for this work
• Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Shū lèi fù lù, Shū yì jīn shì entry (Kyoto Zinbun digital edition)