Liánlì zhuàn 廉吏傳
Biographies of Incorruptible Officials by 費樞 (撰)
About the work
A two-juàn collective biography (114 entries; Shūlù jiětí and Sòngshǐ yìwénzhì both record an earlier ten-juàn form, but the entry-count agrees with the present, so the abridgement is structural and not textual) of upright and incorruptible officials from the Spring-and-Autumn states down through the Suí and Táng, by Fèi Shū 費樞 (zì Bóshū 伯樞), of Chéngdū 成都. Fèi’s career details are not securely attested. Each biography is short, focused on a single anecdote of incorruption, and concludes with a lùnduàn 論斷 (judicial verdict) by Fèi himself praising or qualifying the figure’s standing. The work is a key Sòng instance of the zhuànjì·zǒnglù genre and a forerunner of the various YuánMíng Liánlì zhuàn and Liánglì zhuàn compilations.
Tiyao
Liánlì zhuàn in two juàn, by Fèi Shū of the Sòng. Shū, courtesy name Bóshū, was a man of Chéngdū. The beginning and end of his official career cannot be verified. The Shūlù jiětí records this book in ten juàn; the present is divided only into upper and lower juàn, not matching the old count. But it runs from the various states (of Lièguó) down to Suí and Táng with 114 men in total, agreeing with Chén Zhènsūn’s count of persons; so the juàn-count has been combined while the text has not been deleted. Its main thrust is the encouragement of incorruption; thus it confines itself to those who could keep their fǔguǐ (sacrificial vessels) clean, and abridges all else. Each biography is short and ends with the editor’s verdict. Such men as Huà Xīn 華歆 and Chǔ Yuān 褚淵 are heavily praised or condemned. Sometimes the editor lapses in strict standards: the Hànshū says Gài Kuānráo 蓋寬饒 was harsh and entrapped men; Shū criticizes him for purity too sharp to accommodate others; the Tángshū says Dí Shìwén 狄士文 cunningly entrapped men; yet Shū regrets that this just official suffered for his uprightness — Shū’s argument here is self-contradictory. But in including Gōngsūn Hóng 公孫弘 he records his suspicion of the worthy, and in including Niú Sēngrú 牛僧儒 he records his factional crime; on the whole, his selection criteria can be called “without flattery, without concealment.” 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
Fèi Shū’s career is poorly documented; CBDB ids 13977 and 686438 attest only the name and dynasty, with no lifedates. The catalog meta gives the dynasty as Sòng, and the work was current in Shūlù jiětí (1244) — so the terminus ad quem of composition is c. 1244. The work is most plausibly placed in the late Northern–early Southern Sòng (c. 1120–1170) on the basis of internal references to Táng but not Sòng officials in the body and on the standard ascription to a Northern-Sòng jìnshì. The 114 biographies follow a strict template — short anecdote of an act of incorruption, followed by a lùnduàn — and constitute one of the earliest Sòng instances of the moral-categorical zhuànjì· zǒnglù. The text was reduced from the Sòng ten-juàn form to the present two-juàn form by post-Sòng editors, but the 114 entries are unchanged.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language translation located. The work is briefly noted in Yves Hervouet, ed., A Sung Bibliography. The Yuán-Míng Lián-lì zhuàn tradition (e.g. Lǐ Shì-shū 李時述’s Yuán-period 廉吏傳 and the Míng Liáng-lì zhuàn) all build on Fèi Shū’s template.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù editors’ summary of Fèi Shū’s editorial method — “without flattery, without concealment” — is one of the more concise Qīng critical formulations of the zhuànjì·zǒnglù’s working principles.
Links
- Wilkinson 2018, Chinese History: A New Manual §49.
- CBDB person id 13977 / 686438 (Fèi Shū 費樞).