Chuíguāng jí 垂光集
Anthology of Bequeathed Light by 周璽 (撰)
About the work
A 1-juàn (in two parts) recovered collection of memorials by Zhōu Xǐ 周璽 (d. c. 1510), the Míng Lǐkē dū gěishìzhōng killed by Liú Jǐn’s faction. Despite the catalog’s “1 卷” listing, the work is in fact arranged in upper and lower portions: the upper juàn contains 13 memorials (7 from Hóngzhì, 6 from Zhèngdé); the lower contains posthumous biographical materials — the imperial chìmìng (commission), sacrifice text, tomb-inscription (mùbiǎo), funeral-stele record, and posthumous tíyǒng poems.
Tiyao
Chuíguāng jí, 2 juàn, by Zhōu Xǐ of the Míng. Xǐ, zì Tiānzhāng, hào Jīngshān, from Héféi, Hóngzhì bǐngchén (1496) jìnshì, served to Lǐkē dū gěishìzhōng; framed by Liú Jǐn, beaten to death by tíngzhàng (palace-step caning); after Liú Jǐn’s defeat the Lǐkē gěishìzhōng Sūn Zhēn memorialized seeking redress; he was restored to office posthumously and one grandson received the yīn hereditary appointment; his career in the Míng shǐ biography. — The upper juàn records 13 memorials: 7 submitted under Hóngzhì, 6 under Zhèngdé, all painfully direct; the two memorials impeaching Liú Jǐn are especially full of righteous force, surging beyond the page. The Míng shǐ biography mentions only impeachments of the Fǎwáng zhēnrén, the eunuch Qí Yuán, the shìláng Lǐ Wēn 李温, the eunuch Miáo Kuí 苗逵, the Gōngbù shàngshū Cuī Zhìduān 崔志端 and Xióng Chōng 熊翀, Jiǎ Bīn 賈斌, the Dū yùshǐ Jīn Hún 金渾 and Xú Yuán 徐元; further the yīngzhào chén bā shì memorial impeaching the dàliáo Jiǎ Bīn et al. eleven persons, the eunuch Lǐ Dǐng 李鼎 et al. two persons, the xūnqī Zhāng Mào 張懋 et al. seven persons, the frontier-general Zhū Tíng 朱廷 et al. three persons; further the discussion of the eunuch Wéi Xīng 韋興’s appointment to defend Yúnyáng, his offence to Liú Jǐn’s clique Yáng Yù 楊玉, but not the impeachment of Liú Jǐn directly. This collection therefore supplements the Shǐ. — Appended to the memorials is a single family letter; the spirit of “to bind myself to the country, forgetting my house” was already settled in his heart before the impeachment of the rebellious eunuch — comparable to the family letter of Chén Dōng 陳東 of bāyuè 25 in the Jìnzhōng lù — eating the prince’s salary, not avoiding the prince’s danger. The lower juàn records the imperial chìmìng, sacrifice text, tomb-inscription, and tíyǒng poems and verses. — Among them, the Jiājìng 2 (1523) imperial-sacrifice text reads: “the powerful and crooked manufactured calamity; struck off the rolls and returned home; suppressed and unfulfilled, suddenly perished” — as if Xǐ had died after his retirement to the country. This is utterly inconsistent with the Shǐ record of his being beaten to death. Was the contemporary record protected, recording only “struck off the rolls” as the cause of death? This is sufficient to demonstrate Míng administration’s lack of order and its license for falsification. — Reverently presented in the eighth month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778). Chief Editors: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. Chief Collator: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The Chuíguāng jí is a small but important documentary monument of the late-Hóngzhì / early-Zhèngdé eunuch crisis. Zhōu Xǐ’s memorials are notable for breadth (13 senior officials and seven imperial-clansmen impeached) and for their direct attack on Liú Jǐn — for which Zhōu was beaten to death. The Sìkù tíyào’s observation that the Jiājìng sacrifice-text deliberately disguised Zhōu’s beating-death as a peaceful retirement-death is a remarkable piece of editorial honesty, calling out a contemporary documentary cover-up.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chao-ying Fang (eds.), Dictionary of Ming Biography (1976) — entry on Chou Hsi.
- Wilkinson 2018 §65.3.7.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù editors’ textual-critical comparison between the Míng shǐ biography of Zhōu Xǐ and the contemporary Jiājìng sacrifice-text — calling out the “Míng zhèng bù gāng, zì wéi qī wǎng” (Míng administration was unrestrained, freely engaged in deception) — is one of the more politically sharp such notices in the Sìkù tíyào corpus.
Links
- Wilkinson 2018 §65.3.7.