Lìdài míngchén zòuyì 歷代名臣奏議
Memorials of Eminent Officials of Successive Ages by 楊士奇 (奉敕編), 黃淮 (奉敕編)
About the work
A monumental 350-juàn anthology of memorial-text from the entire span of Chinese antiquity through the Yuán dynasty, edited by Yáng Shìqí 楊士奇 (1365–1444) and Huáng Huái 黃淮 (1367–1449) by imperial command of Yǒnglè (Chéngzǔ) in Yǒnglè 14 (1416). The work contains roughly 8,000 memorials in 64 thematic divisions, with extracts from ShāngZhōu addresses through to the late Yuán. Sòng and Yuán memorials together account for about 70% of the total — making the work, alongside KR2f0038 Sòng míngchén zòuyì, one of the two principal carriers of the Sòng zòuyì corpus.
Tiyao
Lìdài míngchén zòuyì, 350 juàn. In Yǒnglè 14 of the Míng (1416), Yáng Shìqí, Huáng Huái, et al., by imperial command, compiled it: from the ShāngZhōu down to the Jīn and Yuán, divided into 64 categorical headings. The titles being many, the categorizations are often unsuitable: for example, the various sayings of Wénwáng, Zhōugōng, Tàigōng, Confucius, Guǎnzhòng, Yànyīng, Bàoshū, Qìngzhèng, Gōng zhī Qí, Shīkuàng, Màiqiū yìrén — these are all responses to questions of a moment; to label them all as “zòuyì” is to render the Shū yángyán equally collectible — also a lapse in editorial logic. — Nevertheless, from the Hàn dynasty onward the gathering is comprehensive: the entire course of institutional change, the entire ground of policy gain-and-loss, may be set side by side with the Tōngjiàn and the Three Tōng (the Tōngdiǎn, Tōngzhì, Wénxiàn tōngkǎo) for cross-reference. — When the work was completed it was printed in a few hundred copies only, distributed to the xuégōng (school halls) with the woodblocks held in the palace; the world has rarely seen it. In the TiānChóng period (late Wànlì through Chóngzhēn, c. 1620–44), the Tàicāng scholar Zhāng Pǔ 張溥 — known for his wide reading — said that he had grown up to thirty without once seeing this book; finally he obtained the Tài-yuán-held copy and abridged it for republication, retaining the juàn-titles. The differences are: this present recension has a Shènxíng 慎刑 division which Zhāng’s lacks; Zhāng’s has a Cáoyùn 漕運 division which this lacks — Zhāng having freely altered the categorization. From the TángSòng forward, his text suffers severe abridgment, almost approaching xù fú duàn hè (extending duck-legs and amputating crane-legs, i.e. distorting beyond recognition). This recension is the Yǒnglè-period original, still complete and reliable — truly an oceanic source for the zòuyì of all ages. — Reverently presented in the ninth month of Qiánlóng 44 (1779). Chief Editors: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. Chief Collator: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The Lìdài míngchén zòuyì is the largest single anthology of memorial-text in pre-modern Chinese bibliography. The 64 thematic divisions and 8,000-piece corpus were assembled in less than a year (1415–1416) — a measure of the early-Míng court’s editorial capacity under Yǒnglè’s imperial-cultural-political program, paralleling the contemporary Yǒnglè dàdiǎn and Sìshū dàquán / Wǔjīng dàquán. The work’s principal value is for Sòng and Yuán materials: it preserves Sòng memorials no longer found in biéjí and Yuán memorials almost entirely (the Yuán shílù being lost). The 1989 5-volume Shanghai Guji reprint, with author/title indexes by Zhāng Xīqīng 張希清 et al., is the standard modern edition. The Sìkù tíyào’s textual-history note — Zhāng Pǔ’s late-Míng abridged reprinting introducing significant categorical and textual corruption — is itself a substantial bibliographic-history record. The Sìkù’s WYG recension is the Yǒnglè original, preserved in palace storage and rarely seen.
Translations and research
- The Shanghai Guji 1989 5-volume reprint (with vol. 5 indexes) is the standard modern edition.
- Yuán-dài zòu-yì jí-lù 元代奏議集錄 (Chen Dezhi 陳得芝 et al., Zhejiang Guji, 1998) — extracts the Yuán memorials from the Lì-dài míng-chén zòu-yì.
- Hilde De Weerdt, Information, Territory, and Networks (2016).
- Wilkinson 2018 §62.3.7 — the standard reference notice.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù tíyào’s detailed account of Zhāng Pǔ’s textual corruption in the late-Míng reprinting — comparing the Yǒnglè original (preserved in palace) with Zhāng’s abridged Tàiyuán reprint — is one of the more substantial pieces of Míng-period reception-history in the tíyào corpus.
Links
- Wikidata: Lidai mingchen zouyi
- Wilkinson 2018 §62.3.7.