Sòng míngchén yánxíng lù qiánjí 宋名臣言行錄前集
Words and Deeds of the Great Ministers of the Sòng, Earlier Compilation compiled by 朱熹 (纂集)
About the work
A ten-juàn anthology of memorable words and deeds of Northern-Sòng great officials, selected from contemporary literary collections, biographies, and historical sources, by Zhū Xī 朱熹 (1130–1200). The qiánjí (front compilation) and hòují 後集 (back compilation, 14 juàn) together are Zhū’s labour; the xùjí 續集 (8 juàn), biéjí 別集 (26 juàn), and wàijí 外集 (17 juàn) are continuations by Lǐ Yòuwǔ 李幼武 (zì Shìyīng 士英), of Lúlíng 廬陵, working in the Lǐzōng reign (1224–1264) and prefaced (per Zhào Chóngzhèng 趙崇硂’s Jǐngdìng xīnyǒu 景定辛酉 [1261] introduction) as an extension to cover the four reigns of the Southern Sòng. The catalog meta gives the qiánjí alone as 10 juàn; the WYG copy includes all five collections (qián, hòu, xù, bié, wài), totalling 75 juàn (Zhào Xībiàn’s 趙希弁 Dúshū fùzhì records 72 juàn — perhaps a 五 / 二 miscopy). The qiánjí and hòují together cover the eight reigns of the Northern Sòng (Tàizǔ to Qīnzōng); the xù-, bié-, and wàijí together cover the four reigns of the Southern Sòng (Gāozōng, Xiàozōng, Guāngzōng, Níngzōng). The work is one of the foundational sources for Sòng prosopography and was a core text of the YuánMíng jiāxùn and academy curricula.
Tiyao
Sòng míngchén yánxíng lù, qiánjí in 10 juàn, hòují in 14 juàn, xùjí in 8 juàn, biéjí in 26 juàn, wàijí in 17 juàn. The qián- and hòují are by Zhūzǐ; the xù, bié, and wàijí are continuations by Lǐ Yòuwǔ. Yòuwǔ, courtesy name Shìyīng, was a man of Lúlíng. According to the preface of his xùjí, he was working in the time of Lǐzōng; the rest of his career is unclear. From the wàijí (which records the Dàoxué lineage exclusively) we infer that he too was a jiǎngxué scholar. Zhào Xībiàn’s Dúshū fùzhì lists this work in 72 juàn; gathering the five collections gives 75 juàn — perhaps a transmission error of 五 for 二. Zhūzǐ’s preface says he had read recent literary collections and biographical writings and found much that was helpful for moral instruction; he therefore extracted the choicest material and gathered it here. Yet some entries in the work — Zhào Pǔ’s 趙普 deviousness, Wáng Ānshí’s 王安石 stubbornness, Lǚ Huìqīng’s 呂惠卿 craftiness — stand alongside Hán Qí 韓琦 and Fàn Zhòngyān 范仲淹; the principle of selection is unclear. The Míng Yáng Yǐrèn 楊以任’s preface argues that the work merely sets out the facts in Chūnqiū spirit of moral encouragement-and-warning, and need not be taken as exemplar throughout; he elaborates the meaning of míngchén (great minister) as “a name veiling deception, where collapse is incipient though not yet manifest.” The argument is a clever shift, but Liú Ānshì 劉安世 — whose moral standing radiates clear as sun and moon, whose Jǐnyán jí 盡言集 and Yuánchéng yǔlù 元城語錄 still circulate — is not given a single character. This is something later men cannot understand. Lǚ Zǔqiān’s Dōnglái jí contains a letter to Wāng Shàngshū saying: “Recently Jiànníng cut a book called Wǔcháo míngchén yánxíng lù (Lǚ saw the qiánjí alone), said to be edited by Zhū Yuánhuì; many things in it merit verification — I have written to Yuánhuì but have not yet had a reply, and I do not know whether he has gone over it.” Zhū’s Huìān jí contains a letter to Lǚ saying: “I prepared the Míngchén yánxíng lù hastily; I am aware that it has many errors, and the editorial method has no real form — initially I did not even mean to make it a book, but if you will look at it for me and correct it, I shall be glad.” So the work is acknowledged by Zhūzǐ himself to have flaws and merits side by side; the jiǎngxué jiā who treat each character and phrase as if they were the Chūnqiū are perhaps not following Zhūzǐ’s intent. Yè Shèng’s 葉盛 Shuǐdōng rìjì 水東日記 says: “The Míngchén yánxíng lù qián-, hòu-, xù-, bié-, wàijí now in print bears Zhào Chóngzhèng’s Jǐngdìng xīnyǒu (1261) preface saying his maternal grandson Lǐ Yòuwǔ compiled them; that Zhūzǐ’s compilation went only to the eight reigns before, and that Shìyīng compiled the four reigns after the southern crossing.” On examination, the hòují juàn 1 has Lǐ Gāng 李綱; juàn 2 has Lǚ Yíhào 呂頤浩; juàn 3 has Zhāng Jùn 張浚 — all placed at the front of their respective juàn outside the mùlù, and there are many missing folios — so suspect that this was not from Zhūzǐ’s hand and was much added-and-deleted by later hands. Zhūzǐ’s compiling intent was originally not to broaden hearsay but to be of help in moral instruction, taking severe distance from empty and bizarre stories. But the present has Lǚ Yíjiǎn (himself not an upright man) detailed about the moustache-cutting and medicine-bestowing affair; Yú Xiānggōng (an upright man) brought to shame in the cane-and-gold affair; Sū Zǐzhān’s Sūmù sīyán affair etc. — all without much importance. Many such cases. Lǐ Jūān 李居安’s “selecting and arranging the gist” perhaps captures it. We have seen the Vice-envoy Zhāng Huì’s pocket version of this work and have heard that Shūjiǎn the Shàngbǎo 尚寳家 has Sòng-end Lúlíng Zhōng Yáoyú’s 鍾堯俞 Yánxíng lèibiān jǔyào 言行類編舉要 in 16 juàn (front and back) — we still hope to borrow and view it to dispel our doubts. So Yè Shèng too has reservations about this book. Yet looking at what is actually preserved, the work does provide a broad outline of Sòng-period worthy speech and conduct, and is useful for general consultation. Lǐ Yòuwǔ’s continuations broadly follow Zhūzǐ’s footsteps with no great divergence. Reverently presented in Qiánlóng (date follows).
Abstract
The Sòng míngchén yánxíng lù is one of the foundational anthologies of Sòng prosopography. Zhū Xī’s qiánjí and hòují were prepared in the early Qiándào / Chúnxī period (date bracket 1172–1186 on internal evidence, with Zhū’s letter to Lǚ Zǔqiān recording the qiánjí as a recent product); the xù-, bié-, wàijí by Lǐ Yòuwǔ were prepared and prefaced in Jǐngdìng 2 (1261). The work is in five sections: the qiánjí (10 juàn) and hòují (14 juàn) cover the Northern Sòng; the xùjí (8), biéjí (26), and wàijí (17) cover the Southern Sòng. The Sìkù tiyao’s central observation — that Zhū Xī himself acknowledges the editorial defects of the work, that it is not to be read as if every character were a moral verdict, and that the jiǎngxué jiā who treat it as such have misunderstood — is one of the more nuanced Sìkù commentaries on ZhūXī editorial practice. The work has remained a standard Sòng historiographical reference into modern times. The KR2g0024 entry covers the qiánjí alone (per the catalog meta); the hòují and the three Lǐ Yòuwǔ continuations are integrated in the WYG copy and treated as parts of the same compilation.
Translations and research
- Hoyt Cleveland Tillman, Confucian Discourse and Chu Hsi’s Ascendancy (HUP, 1992), discusses the work in connection with Zhū Xī’s broader editorial program.
- Wing-tsit Chan, Chu Hsi: New Studies (HUP, 1989), Chapter 24, “Chu Hsi’s Editing of Sung Sources.”
- The standard catalog notice is in Sì-kù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào 史部·傳記類三·總錄之屬.
Other points of interest
The Sòng míngchén yánxíng lù is one of the working sources for the Sòngshǐ compilers and for all subsequent Sòng prosopographical scholarship; despite its acknowledged editorial unevenness, it is one of the principal Sòng-period collective biographies.
Links
- Wilkinson 2018, Chinese History: A New Manual §49.