Yǎnshāntáng biéjí 弇山堂別集
Separate Collection of the Yǎnshān Hall by 王世貞 (compiler)
About the work
A vast 100-juǎn topically organized compendium of Míng-period institutional history, court ceremony, and historiographical critique by Wáng Shìzhēn 王世貞 (1526–1590, zì Yuánměi 元美), the leading Hòu Qī Zǐ 後七子 (“Latter Seven Masters”) literary figure and one of the foremost late-Míng shǐxué 史學 (historical-studies) scholars. Organized into four major divisions: (i) shèngshì shù 盛事述, yìdiǎn shù 異典述, qíshì shù 奇事述 — narrative compendia of remarkable Míng affairs (5 + 10 + 4 = 19 juǎn); (ii) Shǐchéng kǎowù 史乘考誤 (11 juǎn) — critical examination of errors in the Míng shílù and other official records; (iii) tables (biǎo 表) of imperial princes and officials in 67 sub-categories (34 juǎn); (iv) institutional treatises (kǎo 考) on imperial campaigns, command appointments, posthumous epithets, military system, market-horse procurement, eunuchs, etc., in 16 sub-categories (36 juǎn). The Shǐchéng kǎowù is the foundational late-Míng critique of the corruption of the Tàizǔ shílù and is one of the founding documents of Qīng evidential scholarship’s approach to the Míng historiographical record.
Tiyao
Composed by Wáng Shìzhēn 王世貞 of Míng. Shìzhēn’s zì was Yuánměi 元美; he was a man of Tàicāng 太倉 (in modern Jiāngsū). He took the jìnshì in Jiājìng dīngwèi 嘉靖丁未 (Jiājìng 26 = 1547) and rose to Vice Director of Punishments at Nánjīng 南京刑部尚書. His record is in the “Literary Garden” treatise of the Míngshǐ. The book records Míng-period precedents and consists of: Shèngshì shù 盛事述 (5 juǎn), Yìdiǎn shù 異典述 (10 juǎn), Qíshì shù 奇事述 (4 juǎn), Shǐchéng kǎowù 史乘考誤 (11 juǎn), Biǎo 表 (34 juǎn) divided into 67 sub-categories, and Kǎo 考 (36 juǎn) divided into 16 sub-categories. Shìzhēn’s own preface says: “When this book comes out, it will not be helpful to the official history in even one part in ten in future days; for senior scholars and antiquarians, it will not even reach two or three in ten as a source for verification; in retainers’ wine-banquets, it may serve as material for joke and witticism four or so out of ten — its usefulness is no more than this.” Yet such items as the Shǐchéng kǎowù, the Biǎo of imperial princes and the hundred officials, and the Kǎo on personal-imperial campaigning, on the appointment of generals, on posthumous epithets, on the military system, on market-horse procurement, on the eunuchs, etc., are all critically rigorous and useful for verification. From the Yǒnglè era onward, the recompilation of the Tàizǔ shílù especially involved much wilful misrepresentation; the subsequent reign-by-reign compilations of shílù were generally riddled with omissions and rough patches; meanwhile private histories proliferated in the marketplace, often with personal sympathies and antipathies, falsehoods and errors. The histories grew more numerous and the truths and falsehoods in them more confused. Shìzhēn inherited the family’s documentary collection, was thoroughly familiar with court regulations, and was widely read in the books and the sayings and acts of his predecessors; hence his account is detailed and broad. Even though the volume of items checked is great, small errors are not absent; and his biǎo often do not follow the proper “row across, slant up” format, his fault here being the same as Léi Lǐ 雷禮’s. The shèngshì and qíshì compendia tilt toward the entertaining; this is not properly historical style. But the main thrust of the work is reliable; this need not be held against it.
Abstract
The Yǎnshāntáng biéjí is the major late-Míng institutional and critical history of the dynasty itself, by Wáng Shìzhēn 王世貞 (1526–1590, zì Yuánměi 元美; hào Fèngzhōu 鳳洲, Yǎnshānrén 弇山人) of Tàicāng 太倉 — the leading literary and historical scholar of the Hòu Qī Zǐ 後七子 generation, and one of the few late-Míng officials to combine deep court familiarity (he held senior positions in the Boards of Punishments at Nánjīng and Beijing) with serious documentary critical engagement with the dynasty’s official record. The work is composite. The 19 juǎn of Shèngshì shù / Yìdiǎn shù / Qíshì shù are anecdotal compilations of remarkable Míng affairs (court precedents, ceremonial oddities, prodigious careers); the 11 juǎn of Shǐchéng kǎowù is a sustained critical examination of the Tàizǔ shílù and the subsequent reign shílù, exposing systematic biases (especially the Yǒnglè-era recompilation of the Tàizǔ shílù) and bibliographical errors; the 34 juǎn of tables (biǎo) cover the imperial princes, the chancellors and ministers, the jìnshì lists, the eunuchs, etc., across 67 sub-categories; and the 36 juǎn of treatises (kǎo) cover personal-imperial campaigning, command appointments to particular fronts, the posthumous-epithet system, the military system, market-horse procurement, eunuch appointments, and other major institutional categories across 16 headings. The Sìkù compilers acknowledge that the more anecdotal sections of the work tilt toward xiǎoshuō-like entertainment but praise the Shǐchéng kǎowù and the kǎo sections as critically rigorous and exceptionally useful for verification. The work is one of the foundational late-Míng evidential-style historiographical compilations and was widely used by Qīng scholars (notably Wáng Hóngxù 王鴻緒, Wàn Sītóng 萬斯同, Zhāng Tíngyù 張廷玉) in compiling the Qīng-period official Míngshǐ. Date bracket here is set conservatively from c. 1570 (Wáng Shìzhēn’s mature years) to 1590 (his death). The Wényuàngé Sìkù base text spans V409.1 to V410.1 — the work is one of the longest single late-Míng compilations in the Sìkù.
Translations and research
- Cynthia Brokaw and Kai-wing Chow, eds. 2005. Printing and Book Culture in Late Imperial China. Berkeley: University of California Press. Discusses Wáng Shìzhēn’s place in late-Míng book culture.
- Hammond, Kenneth J. 1994. “History and Literati Culture: Towards an Intellectual Biography of Wang Shizhen (1526–1590).” Ph.D. diss., Harvard University. The standard English-language study of Wáng Shìzhēn.
- Lynn A. Struve. 1998. The Ming-Qing Conflict, 1619–1683: A Historiography and Source Guide. Ann Arbor: Association for Asian Studies. (Treats Wáng Shìzhēn in apparatus.)
- Frederick W. Mote and Denis Twitchett, eds. 1988. The Cambridge History of China, vol. 7: The Ming Dynasty, 1368–1644. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Multiple chapters discuss Wáng Shìzhēn.)
- Hsiao Ch’i-ch’ing 蕭啟慶. Wáng Shìzhēn de shǐxué 王世貞的史學. Taipei: Academia Sinica.
- The complete Yǎnshān-táng biéjí is reprinted in Sìkù quánshū (Wényuàn-gé), and a modern critical edition is available from Beijing: Zhōnghuá shūjú (1985, 4 vols.).
Other points of interest
The Shǐchéng kǎowù section was one of the principal models for the Qīng evidential-historiographical critique of the Míng shílù — one can read Wàn Sītóng’s massive draft for the Míngshǐ as in part a sustained engagement with Wáng Shìzhēn’s diagnoses. Wáng Shìzhēn’s twin literary-historical projects — this work and his Yǎnzhōu shānrén sìbù gǎo 弇州山人四部稿 (his collected literary works in 174 juǎn) — together represent the apogee of late-Míng polymathic shǐxué practice.