Zhōngzhēn lù 忠貞錄
Record of the Loyal and Steadfast by 李維樾 (編) and 林增志 (編)
About the work
A three-juàn compilation, with a one-juàn appendix, of the surviving writings and commemorative literature of the Míng zhòngjié 忠節 martyr Zhuō Jìng 卓敬 (zì Wéigōng 惟恭, posthumous title Zhōngzhēn 忠貞), of the Jiànwén 建文 court. Zhuō Jìng famously secretly memorialized the Jiànwén emperor proposing that Yānwáng 燕王 Zhū Dì 朱棣 (the future Yǒnglè 永樂 emperor) be transferred to a new fief at Nánchāng 南昌 to forestall his rebellion; when Zhū Dì succeeded by force in 1402, Zhuō was executed for refusing to switch allegiance and remained among the celebrated Jiànwén yíchén 建文遺臣 martyrs. The compilers, Lǐ Wéiyuè 李維樾 (zì Yìnchāng 蔭昌) and Lín Zēngzhì 林增志 (zì Kěrèn 可任), both natives of Ānfú 安福 in Jízhōu 吉州 (Zhuō Jìng’s home county), prepared the compilation in the late Míng (Tiānqǐ to Chóngzhēn 1620s–1640s) as part of the broader Wàn-lì-to-late-Míng commemorative project for the Jiànwén martyrs. Juàn 1 contains Zhuō Jìng’s surviving writings: 19 poems, 2 prefaces, and 1 epitaph, prefixed by an editor’s preface. Juàn 2–3 contain commemorative writings by later hands. The appendix contains biographies of two further Ānfú men, Huáng Yǎngzhèng 黃養正 and Chén Màoliè 陳茂烈. The Sìkù editors note that Huáng Yǎngzhèng was Zhuō Jìng’s disciple and died in the Tǔmù disaster of 1449, so his appendix-status here is appropriate; but Chén Màoliè had no real connection to Zhuō and his story (he resigned office to care for his mother) is unrelated to zhōngzhēn, so his inclusion is anomalous.
Tiyao
Zhōngzhēn lù in three juàn with one juàn appendix. Co-edited by Lǐ Wéiyuè (zì Yìnchāng) and Lín Zēngzhì (zì Kěrèn) of the Míng, both men of Ānfú in Jízhōu. The compilation was made for their fellow-townsman Zhuō Jìng. Juàn 1 is yígǎo — surviving writings: 19 poems, 2 prefaces, 1 epitaph, prefixed by an editor’s preface. Juàn 2–3 are commemorative writings by later hands. The appendix contains biographies of Huáng Yǎngzhèng and Chén Màoliè, both fellow-townsmen of Zhuō. Yet Huáng was Zhuō’s disciple and also died in the Tǔmù disaster, and so his inclusion in the appendix is fit; whereas Chén Màoliè had no relation to Zhuō and his life — abandoning office to care for his mother and dying at home in retirement — is plainly of a different sort, and including him under “zhōngzhēn” produces a mismatch of name and reality. Zhuō Jìng’s significance is not only that he died for his cause and that his uncompromising spirit echoes through the ages — his secret memorial proposing that Yānwáng be transferred to Nánchāng to forestall the rebellion was likewise an excellent strategy. Though no complete copy of that memorial survives, Liú Qiú’s 劉球 biography of him still preserves an outline. Failure to include this in the yígǎo is also a defect of the editing. Zhuō was not known for his poetry in the early Míng, and yet his pieces have a striking energy of expression. [Examples of his five-syllable verse and seven-syllable verse follow.] His poetry has its merits, but because so little has been transmitted, it cannot fill out a separate collection; we therefore follow the precedent of the Cuī Yǔzhī jí 崔與之集 and place it under the zhuànjì division. Reverently presented in the twelfth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). 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 Zhōngzhēn lù belongs to the late-Míng wave of commemorative compilations on the Jiànwén martyrs that took shape in the Wànlì–Tiānqǐ–Chóngzhēn period after the official rehabilitation of the Jiànwén loyalists by the Wànlì emperor in 1595. Zhuō Jìng (CBDB record uncertain; standard biographical reference in Míngshǐ juàn 141) had been a Hùbù shìláng 戶部侍郎 under Jiànwén; his proposal to transfer Yānwáng Zhū Dì to Nánchāng before the latter’s revolt is one of the most famous jǐngyán 警言 of the Jiànwén loyalist lore. The compilers Lǐ Wéiyuè and Lín Zēngzhì were Ānfú men, the same county as Zhuō, and their compilation rests in the lineage of local-county xiāngxián 鄉賢 commemoration that fed the larger Jiànwén yíchén literature. The exact compilation date is uncertain; internal evidence (references to local prefectural and county officials Zhōu Yōu 周悠, Zhōu Míng 周鳴, Kāng Yuánsuì 康元穗 in the original preface, all active in the 1620s–1640s) places it in the late Tiānqǐ to early Chóngzhēn period; date bracket here 1620–1640. The Sìkù editors’ criticism of the inclusion of Chén Màoliè in the appendix is well-taken.
Translations and research
- The Jiànwén loyalist literature is treated in Hok-lam Chan, “The Chien-wen, Yung-lo, Hung-hsi, and Hsüan-te Reigns, 1399–1435,” in Cambridge History of China vol. 7 (CUP, 1988), 182–304; and in Hou Wai-lu and others’ studies of late-Míng historiographical reconstruction. The Sì-kù tíyào notice is in 史部·傳記類二·名人之屬.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù editors’ invocation of the Cuī Yǔzhī jí precedent — placing a small literary collection by a celebrated minister under zhuànjì rather than jíbù when the documentary core (memorials, commemorative pieces) outweighs the strictly literary interest — is a useful insight into the Sìkù’s working classification rules.
Links
- Wilkinson 2018, Chinese History: A New Manual §49.