Rǔnán yíshì 汝南遺事
Surviving Records from Rǔnán by 王鶚 (compiler)
About the work
A diary-style eyewitness record of the final months of the Jīn 金 dynasty under its last emperor Āizōng 哀宗 (Wányán Shǒuxù 完顏守緒), composed by the Jīn-loyalist Wáng È 王鶚 (1190–1273) during his service in Āizōng’s encircled court at Cài 蔡州 (Rǔnán 汝南, in modern Hénán) — hence the title — from the sixth month of Tiānxīng 2 (1233) through the surrender and Āizōng’s suicide in the first month of Tiānxīng 3 (1234). The record consists of 107 dated entries, each with a topic-summary (gāng 綱) and detailed narrative (mù 目). Wáng È was personally present and his record was extensively used by the Jīnshǐ “Āizōng běnjì” 哀宗本紀 and several contemporary Jīn-loyalist biographies (Wányán Zhòngdé 完顏仲德, Wūgǔlùn Hào 烏古論鎬 — the Sìkù tiyao writes 烏庫哩鎬, “now corrected” — Zhāng Tiāngāng 張天綱). The work styles Āizōng as Yìzōng 義宗, the posthumous title given by the Xīzhōu 息州 xíng shěng (the surrendered Jīn provincial government). The author’s own preface gives 4 juǎn; the Yuánshǐ biography gives 2 — the Sìkù compilers treat the latter as a transmissional error and follow the preface.
Tiyao
Composed by Wáng È 王鶚 of Yuán. È’s zì was Bóyì 伯翼; he was a man of Dōngmíng 東明 (in modern Shāndōng). In Jīn Zhèngdà 1 (1224) he took first place at the jìnshì. Under Āizōng he served as Vice Director of the Left and Right Bureaus (zuǒ yòu sī yuán wàiláng 左右司員外郎). At the fall of Jīn he submitted to the Yuán and rose to Hànlín Academy Recipient of Edicts (hànlín xuéshì chéngzhǐ 翰林學士承旨). His record is in his biography in the Yuánshǐ. This work was composed by him while accompanying Āizōng in the Cài 蔡州 (Rǔnán) siege; hence the title. The events recorded begin in the sixth month of Tiānxīng 2 (1233) and end with the first month of Tiānxīng 3 (1234), arranged by day, with gāng and mù, in 107 entries in all — all of which were personally witnessed, hence the record is exceptionally accurate and detailed. He calls Āizōng Yìzōng 義宗 — using the posthumous title submitted from the Xīzhōu 息州 xíng shěng. The Jīnshǐ “Āizōng běnjì” and the biographies of Wūkùlǐ Hào 烏庫哩鎬 (the Jīnshǐ writes Wūgǔlùn Hào 烏古論鎬; here corrected), Wányán Zhòngdé 完顏仲德, Zhāng Tiāngāng 張天綱, etc., all draw on this work in full — proof that what he says is straightforwardly veritable record. Wáng È served two dynasties and could not maintain the integrity of the Western-Mountain school (Xīshān zhī jié 西山之節, alluding to the Confucian virtue of refusing post-conquest service); but the Yuánshǐ biography records his sacrificial offering to Āizōng — his attached care for his former lord still endures. His writing of this work in the chaos of the dynastic collapse contains only grief, not resentment or slander. Compared with the author of the Nán jìn lù 南燼錄, his moderation is the more deliberate. The author’s own preface gives 4 juǎn; the Yuánshǐ biography gives 2 — a transmissional error in the printed Yuánshǐ. We follow the preface and arrange in 4 juǎn.
Abstract
The Rǔnán yíshì of Wáng È 王鶚 (1190–1273, zì Bóyì 伯翼, of Dōngmíng) is the principal eyewitness record of the final collapse of the Jīn 金 dynasty under its last emperor Āizōng 哀宗 (Wányán Shǒuxù 完顏守緒, r. 1224–1234). Wáng È, who had taken first place at the Jīn jìnshì in 1224 and was at the time serving as Vice Director of the Left-and-Right Bureaus in Āizōng’s court, accompanied the emperor in his flight from Bīanjīng 汴京 to Guīdé 歸德 and then to Cài 蔡州 (Rǔnán) — the dynasty’s last refuge under simultaneous Mongol and Sòng siege. He kept a daily record from the sixth month of Tiānxīng 2 (1233) through the surrender and Āizōng’s suicide on the yǒu day of the first month of Tiānxīng 3 (1234) — 107 entries in all, structured by gāng (topic-summary) and mù (narrative), the model of the gāngmù historiographical method. Wáng È was captured by the Mongols, taken into Yuán service, and rose to Hànlín Academy Recipient of Edicts under Khubilai; he is therefore one of the principal Jīn-Yuan transition Confucian officials and a central figure in the early-Yuán Confucian establishment. The Sìkù compilers note his transitional service (“could not maintain the integrity of the Western-Mountain school”) but praise the temperate, sorrowful tone of his record, contrasting it favorably with the more agitated Nán jìn lù 南燼錄. The Jīnshǐ uses the Rǔnán yíshì as the principal source for the Āizōng běnjì and for the biographies of the loyalists Wányán Zhòngdé, Wūgǔlùn Hào, and Zhāng Tiāngāng. The work styles Āizōng as Yìzōng 義宗 — the posthumous honorific submitted by the surrendered Xīzhōu 息州 provincial government. The Sìkù base text is restored to 4 juǎn per Wáng’s own preface, against the corrupted 2-juǎn count in the Yuánshǐ biography. Date bracket here is 1234, the year of the events recorded (and presumably of the diaristic writing).
Translations and research
- Herbert Franke. 1976. “The Chin Dynasty,” in The Cambridge History of China, vol. 6, ch. 4. Discusses the Rǔnán yíshì as the principal source for the Jīn collapse.
- Hok-lam Chan. 1984. Legitimation in Imperial China. Seattle: University of Washington Press. Cites the work throughout.
- Hok-lam Chan and W. T. de Bary, eds. 1982. Yuan Thought: Chinese Thought and Religion under the Mongols. New York: Columbia University Press. Discusses Wáng È as a transitional figure.
- Wáng È’s literary collection Rǔnán yílǎo 汝南遺老 collected works are largely lost.
- Modern editions: critical reprint in the Cóngshū jíchéng chū biān; Rǔnán yíshì (Beijing: Zhōnghuá shūjú, 1991, in Tángsòng shǐliào bǐjì cóngkān).
Other points of interest
The Rǔnán yíshì is one of the most poignant witness-texts of dynastic collapse in the Chinese historical tradition, and it stands at the institutional pivot between Jīn and Yuán historiography: Wáng È, who recorded the last days of his original dynasty, went on to serve as Khubilai’s principal Hànlín Academician and was a key advocate for the formal compilation of the Liáo, Jīn, and Sòng official histories under the Yuán. The gāngmù structure of the work — 107 dated entries each with summary heading and detailed narrative — is one of the earliest deployments of this model in a contemporary chronicle.