魏鄭公諫錄

Wèi Zhènggōng jiànlù 魏鄭公諫錄

Record of the Remonstrances of Duke Zhèng of Wèi by 王方慶 (撰)

About the work

A five-juàn compilation of the remonstrances and dialogues of Wèi Zhēng 魏徵 (Duke Zhèng of Wèi 魏鄭公, 580–643), the leading minister and admonisher of the Tángtàizōng 唐太宗 court. The compiler, Wáng Fāngqìng 王方慶 (proper name Wáng Chēn 綝, who used his courtesy name throughout life; d. 702), held office under both Gāozōng 高宗 and Empress Wǔ 武后, rising under the latter to Luántái shìláng tóng Fènggé Luántái píngzhāngshì (deputy chancellor) and ending as Tàizǐ zuǒshùzǐ 太子左庶子 with the enfeoffment of Shíquánxiàngōng 石泉縣公 (posthumous Zhēn 貞). The book records Wèi Zhēng’s remonstrances at length and is the principal Táng-period source for the verbatim language of the court exchanges between Tàizōng and his great minister; Sīmǎ Guāng’s 司馬光 Zīzhì tōngjiàn 資治通鑑 draws upon it heavily for the Zhēnguān 貞觀 reign. The reference work Tángshū yìwén zhì 唐書藝文志 lists it under the title Wèi Zhēng jiàn shì 魏徵諫事, the Tōngjiàn shūmù under Wèi Yuánchéng gùshì 魏元成故事; only Hóng Mài’s 洪邁 Róngzhāi suíbǐ 容齋隨筆 already gives the title in the form transmitted here.

Tiyao

Wèi Zhènggōng jiànlù in five juàn compiled by Wáng Fāngqìng of the Táng. Fāngqìng’s proper name was Chēn 綝; he used his courtesy name in life. His ancestors had moved from Dānyáng 丹陽 to Xiányáng 咸陽. In the time of Empress Wǔ he rose to Luántái shìláng tóng Fènggé Luántái píngzhāngshì; he ended as Tàizǐ zuǒshùzǐ and was enfeoffed as Shíquánxiàngōng, posthumous title Zhēn. His career is given in the Xīn Tángshū 新唐書 monograph. This book carries at the head the title Shàngshū lìbù lángzhōng, the office Fāngqìng held in Gāozōng’s reign — but the Xīn Tángshū biography fails to mention it, so the historian’s text is here defective. The biography says Fāngqìng was widely learned and well-versed in court ordinance, and that he composed more than two hundred piān; the present is what he recorded of Wèi Zhēng’s deeds. The Tángshū yìwén zhì gives the title as Wèi Zhēng jiàn shì, Sīmǎ Guāng’s Tōngjiàn book-list as Wèi Yuánchéng gùshì — the titles vary; only Hóng Mài’s Róngzhāi suíbǐ gives it as Wèi Zhènggōng jiàn lù, agreeing with the present. Fāngqìng under Empress Wǔ himself once succeeded by his words in moving the sovereign to recall the Lúlíng wáng 廬陵王 (the future Zhōngzōng 中宗); he further advised, in the matter of the heir’s name, that it not be taboo-avoided, as a step toward formal restoration — both no easy thing. Indeed he too sought to be conspicuous by his straight-talk; therefore his record of Wèi Zhēng’s remonstrances is the most detailed of any. Sīmǎ Guāng’s record of Wèi Zhēng in the Tōngjiàn is mostly drawn from this book; what was not picked up by him is also reliable enough to corroborate the Zhèngshǐ 正史. In the Zhìshùn 至順 period of the Yuán, Zhái Sīzhōng 翟思忠 made a Xùlù 續錄 in two juàn, but it scarcely circulated; in the Míng, Péng Nián 彭年 of Sūzhōu drew on the Tōngjiàn and Tángshū to make up a single juàn supplement. We have now retrieved Sīzhōng’s Xùlù from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn 永樂大典 and printed it [as KR2g0012]; Péng Nián’s annual notes are paltry — a few entries in all — and quite supererogatory, so we have deleted them and not appended his supplement to the end of this book. Reverently presented in the fourth month of Qiánlóng 44 (1779). Chief Editors: Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. Chief Collator: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.

Abstract

The Wèi Zhènggōng jiànlù preserves in some 165 entries the speeches and remonstrances Wèi Zhēng addressed to Tàizōng during the Zhēnguān reign (627–649); it is the principal source for the verbatim texture of those exchanges and was the working source on which Sīmǎ Guāng based his treatment of the reign. The compilation cannot be precisely dated. Wáng Fāngqìng’s CBDB record (id 154276 / 376331) gives a floruit of 683– (i.e. from his Gāozōng-period office onwards) and his death is firmly placed in 702. The catalog meta’s “7th cent.” floruit is therefore broadly correct; an outer date bracket of c. 670 (his early Gāozōng career) – 702 (his death) is the safest window. The Tāng huìyào 唐會要 and Xīn Tángshū yìwén zhì both attest the work; the title appears in three variant forms in the TángSòng catalogues (cf. tiyao). The text was nearly lost — Zhái Sīzhōng’s Xùlù (KR2g0012) preserves a continuation of the genre — and the WYG copy is the principal received recension. As a written jiànlù 諫錄 it is the foundational specimen of the genre that produced Lǐ Jiàng’s Lǐ Guóxiàng lùnshì jí (KR2g0005) under Xiànzōng a century later; the Sìkù tiyao classes both as descendants of the Yànzǐ chūnqiū model.

Translations and research

• Howard J. Wechsler, Mirror to the Son of Heaven: Wei Cheng at the Court of T’ang T’ai-tsung (New Haven: Yale UP, 1974) — standard English biography of Wèi Zhēng, drawing on the Jiànlù throughout.
• Denis Twitchett, “How to Be an Emperor: T’ang T’ai-tsung’s Vision of His Role,” Asia Major 9 (1996), 1–102 — also draws on the work.
• The Sì-kù tíyào notice is in 史部·傳記類二·名人之屬.

Other points of interest

The Sìkù note that the title page gives Fāngqìng’s Lìbù lángzhōng office under Gāozōng has been used by modern Táng prosopographers as evidence to correct the Xīn Tángshū biography’s defective record of his Gāozōng-era career. The Yuán continuation by Zhái Sīzhōng survives separately as KR2g0012 Wèi Zhènggōng jiàn xùlù 魏鄭公諫續錄.

Links

• Wilkinson 2018, Chinese History: A New Manual §49.
• CBDB person id 154276 / 376331 (Wáng Fāngqìng 王方慶 / Wáng Chēn 綝).
• Wikidata: 王方慶