Dǎnglùn jí 讜論集
Anthology of Upright Discourse by 陳次升 (撰)
About the work
A 5-juàn recovered collection of the official memorials of Chén Cìshēng 陳次升 (1044–1119), the Northern Sòng remonstrance official; the title Dǎnglùn jí (literally, “anthology of upright discourse”) was given by his nephew Chén Ānguó 陳安國, drawing on Zhézōng’s recorded praise of him at court audience. The original 207-piece anthology was lost during the Sòng–Yuán transition; the Sìkù editors recovered 86 memorials from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn and a further 30 from the Lìdài míngchén zòuyì (KR2f0039), restoring approximately half the original corpus. A xíngshí (career-record) appended at the end provides the chronological frame.
Tiyao
Dǎnglùn jí, 5 juàn, by Chén Cìshēng of the Sòng. Cìshēng, zì Dāngshí, from Xīnghuà Xiānyóu, jìnshì of Xīníng 2 (1069). Zhī Ānqiūxiàn. Recommended as Jiānchá yùshǐ; served as Tídiǎn Huáinán Hédōng xíngyù. Entered as Diànzhōng shìyùshǐ; advanced to Zuǒ sījiàn. Demoted to Nánānjūn jiān jiǔshuì. On Huīzōng’s accession recalled to Yòu jiànyì dàfū; again struck off the rolls and confined to Xúnzhōu. In Zhènghé restored to his former rank; died in office. His career is in his Sòng shǐ biography. — Cìshēng while a tàixué student criticized Wáng Ānshí’s Zìshuō as Qín-school doctrine, and on this account was kept from official advancement. Once admitted, in three successive remonstrance posts he stood firm with vigour, was feared by his contemporaries. His most important achievement was stopping Lǚ Shēngqīng’s mission to Lǐngnán; Liú Ānshì said this was a great service to the Yuányòu ministers. As to his impeachments of Zhāng Dūn, Cài Jīng, Cài Biàn, Zēng Bù — these are especially clear and incisive, striking the eye and ear; though the deep roots could not all be torn out, he was in the end struck down and driven into old-age exile, yet his upright spirit remains plainly visible. His Sòng shǐ biography records ten and more matters in which he memorialized — all bearing on the rise-and-decline of worthy and corrupt and on the gain-and-loss of policy — and asserts that his other criticisms (of Zēng Zhào 曾肇, Wáng Dí 王覿, Zhāng Tíngjiān 張庭堅, Jiǎ Yì 賈易, Lǐ Zhāoqí 李昭玘, Lǚ Xīzhé 呂希哲, Fàn Chúnlǐ 范純禮, Sū Shì 蘇軾 etc.) were judged by public opinion to be unjust. But examining the surviving memorials in this collection: in his discussion of Wáng Dí, the issue was Zēng Bù’s friendship with Wáng; in his discussion of Zēng Zhào, it was Zēng Bù’s close kinship to Zhào; in his discussion of Lǚ Xīzhé, it was Hán Zhōngyàn’s 韓忠彥 close kinship; in his discussion of Fàn Chúnlǐ, it was the matter of inadvertent imperial-name avoidance during a Liáo-envoy interview — each had its own cause, not a wilful indictment. Furthermore, the right-and-wrong of judgment — even of contemporary purity-circles — he did not borrow or concede; this is precisely his clearing of preconceptions, with no factional spirit at all. The Sòng shǐ historians took factional alignment as Cìshēng’s defect — a bad mistake. — This collection was edited by Cìshēng’s nephew Chén Ānguó 陳安國, then Nánānchéng, who took Zhézōng’s audience-words and named the work after them. Memorials originally numbered 207; long lost in transmission, but in the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn fragments of titles are scattered throughout. We have collected and edited 86 pieces, supplemented by a further 30 pieces from the Lìdài míngchén zòuyì, comparing to the original about half. Yet the bold words and great discourse not preserved by the Shǐ records are still here visible in their main outline. We have respectfully verified the events in chronological order and ordered them into 5 juàn, with a xíngshí (career-record) appended at the end of the work. — Reverently presented in the fifth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Chief Editors: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. Chief Collator: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The Dǎnglùn jí is the documentary monument of the moderate-conservative wing of the Yuányòu / early-Huī-zōng remonstrance officials. Chén Cìshēng’s hostility to factional alignment, despite his own Yuányòu affiliation, made him an unusual figure: he attacked Cài Jīng’s faction but also criticized members of the Yuányòu alliance whom he considered nepotistically appointed. The Sìkù editors’ careful defence of his independence against the standard Sòng shǐ characterization is one of the more notable rehabilitations in the tíyào corpus. The work is a key source for the precise mechanics of Lǚ Shēngqīng’s blocked mission to Lǐngnán in 1092 — one of the major public-policy victories of the late Yuányòu coalition.
Translations and research
- Yáng Bǎi-niàn 楊百年, Sòng dài jiàn-guān zhì-dù yǔ Chén Cì-shēng (Wú-hàn, 2010).
- The Zhōng-guó wén-shǐ zhé journal has periodically published articles on the Yuán-yòu remonstrance corpus where Chén Cì-shēng figures prominently.
- Wilkinson 2018 §62.3.7.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù tíyào’s defence of Chén Cìshēng against the Sòng shǐ’s characterization (which had taken his independence from the Yuányòu faction as a defect, “ménhù zhī jú”) is a model of editorial argumentation — they reconstruct from the surviving memorials each criticism the Sòng shǐ lists and show in each case the specific procedural cause cited. This exemplifies the Sìkù editors’ willingness to rebalance traditional historiographical judgements against documentary evidence.
Links
- Wikidata: Chen Cisheng
- Wilkinson 2018 §62.3.7.