Qiántáng xiānxián zhuànzàn 錢塘先賢傳贊
Biographies and Eulogies of the Earlier Worthies of Qián-táng by 袁韶 (撰)
About the work
A one-juàn set of 39 short biographies (each followed by a zàn 贊 eulogy) of the eminent men of Qiántáng 錢塘 (later Línān 臨安, modern Hángzhōu) from the legendary recluse Xǔ Yóu 許由 down through Sòng times, by Yuán Sháo 袁韶 (zì Yànchún 彥純, 1170–1242 per standard sources, though CBDB record may vary), of Qìngyuán 慶元 (Níngbō 寧波), jìnshì of Chúnxī 13 (1186), who rose to Cānzhī zhèngshì 參知政事 (deputy chancellor). The work was prepared on the occasion of Yuán Sháo’s tenure as Prefect of Línān 知臨安府 (concurrent with his metropolitan office) in Bǎoqìng bǐngxū (1226), when he memorialized the throne for the establishment of a shrine to the 39 worthies and composed the biographies and eulogies as the shrine’s foundational text. The shrine fell into ruin by Jǐngdìng 5 (= jiǎzǐ 1264). It was restored under the Yuán in Zhìzhèng 2 (1342) by a certain Lǚ Yuān 呂淵, who re-cut the biographies and eulogies; two years later, the Zhèjiāng děngchù rúxué tíxué 浙江等處儒學提學 Bān Wéizhì 班惟志 wrote a preface and circulated the text. The WYG copy is the Yuán-period re-cut.
Tiyao
Qiántáng xiānxián zhuànzàn in one juàn, by Yuán Sháo of the Sòng. Sháo, courtesy name Yànchún, was a man of Qìngyuán. He took the jìnshì in Chúnxī 13 (1186), was appointed Sub-prefect of Wújiāng, rose through Cānzhī zhèngshì, and was posthumously made Tàishī with the enfeoffment of Yuèguógōng. His career is given in his Sòngshǐ biography. Sháo, while serving as Prefect of Línān, memorialized for the establishment of the shrines of 39 men from Xǔ Yóu onwards, and for each composed a biography and eulogy. The work was begun in Bǎoqìng bǐngxū (1226). By Jǐngdìng 5 (= jiǎzǐ, 1264), the shrines had been destroyed. In Zhìzhèng 2 (1342), Lǚ Yuān restored the shrine and re-cut the biographies and eulogies; two years later, in bǐngxū (1346), the Zhèjiāng děngchù rúxué tíxué Bān Wéizhì wrote a preface and put it into circulation. The present copy is still the Yuán-period re-cut. Although the work covers only one local district, ten or so of those recorded — Láng Jiǎn 郎簡, Xiè Jiàng 謝絳, etc. — also appear in the regular history. But because this book was written by a Sòng author, before the Yuán historians wrote the Sòngshǐ, it is in many places more accurate. For instance: the Dōngdū shìlüè (history of the Eastern Capital) places Xiè Jiàng 謝絳 in Yángxià 陽夏; this book places him in Fùyáng 富陽. Examining the Sòngshǐ, his ancestors had moved from Yángxià to Hángzhōu when his grandfather Xiè Yìwén 謝懿文 became magistrate of Yánguān 鹽官 there; the family then settled in Fùyáng — so this book is more accurate. The Dōngdū shìlüè biography of Jiàng does not record that he held Lìbù liúnèi quán and Tàicháng lǐyuàn, nor that he assessed the Lìbù guānzhí tián and went on embassy to the Khitan; this book details these. The Qián Yànyuǎn 錢彥遠 biography here records that Yáng Huáimǐn 楊懷敏 falsely reported the death of the Khitan ruler Zōngzhēn 宗真 in order to procure his own appointment as Rùnèi fùdūzhī; that the eunuch Lí Yòngxìn 黎用信, banished to a sea-island for crime, was after amnesty allowed back to a metropolitan office; that Xǔ Huáidé 許懷德, in his great age, had not yet retired. Yànyuǎn memorialized strongly on these matters, and further memorialized that Yáng Jǐngzōng 楊景宗 and Guō Yǒngyòu 郭永祐 were xiǎorén and should be put aside — none of which is in the Dōngdū shìlüè biography. The Qián Zǎo 錢藻 biography here records that Zǎo was transferred to Hànlín shìdú xuéshì and Director of the Shěnguān Eastern Court, and that on his death Shénzōng knew his poverty and gave 500,000 cash for funeral expenses, with posthumous title Dàzhōng dàfū — also not in the Dōngdū shìlüè. The Qián Xié 錢勰 biography here records that Wáng Ānshí offered him service as a censor; Xié refused; Wáng knew Xié would not attach to him and instead appointed him Quán Yántiě pànguān; and on his Korean embassy he refused the king’s gold-and-silver vessels — also not in the Dōngdū shìlüè. The Shěn Gòu 沈遘 biography here records his transfer to Prefect of Kāifēng, then to Yòujiànyì dàfū; on his mother’s death he was given 100 liǎng of yellow gold for mourning expenses; he ate one meal a day; after the burial he kept watch by the tomb in a hut and died there — also not in the Dōngdū shìlüè. All of this is gathered from old gùlǎo tradition and is rather full and detailed; the regular history compilers therefore drew on it in their biographies, and so the work agrees broadly with the Sòngshǐ. The biographies and eulogies are also archaic and elegant, well worth reading — quite unlike the puffery and contrivance of later local-gazetteer compilers. Reverently presented in the ninth month of Qiánlóng 45 (1780). 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 Qiántáng xiānxián zhuànzàn is one of the earliest surviving Sòng-period local-worthies (xiānxián 先賢) collective biographies, prepared by Yuán Sháo at his Línān prefectship in 1226 as the foundational text of a local shrine. The work survives in 39 biographies, each followed by a four-character or short-prose zàn. Its peculiar value, as the Sìkù editors painstakingly demonstrate, lies in its preservation of biographical detail not in the Dōngdū shìlüè (the principal Sòng historical compendium of that era) and subsequently incorporated into the Sòngshǐ — i.e. Yuán Sháo’s compilation was a working source for the Sòngshǐ’s Yuán-period editors. Yuán Sháo himself rose to Cānzhī zhèngshì and was a major Southern-Sòng official; his biography is in Sòngshǐ juàn 415. The preserved Yuán-period 1346 re-cut by Bān Wéizhì is the basis of the WYG copy. The work is the textbook example of the Southern-Sòng xiāngxián cí 鄉賢祠 (local-worthies shrine) inaugural-text genre.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language translation located. On the Southern-Sòng xiāng-xián cí tradition see Hilde De Weerdt, “The Composition of Examination Standards: Daoxue and Southern Song Dynasty Examination Culture” (PhD diss., Harvard, 1998), and Ellen Neskar, The Politics of Prayer: Shrines to Local Former Worthies in Sung China (HUP, 2012).
Other points of interest
The work is one of the earliest Sìkù-recognized Sòng xiāngxián compilations and is exemplary of the genre’s documentary value: the Sìkù editors point out that the work serves as a working source for the dynastic history precisely because of its insider’s access to the local gùlǎo (elders’) oral tradition.
Links
- Wilkinson 2018, Chinese History: A New Manual §49.