Sòng Bǎoyòu sì nián dēngkē lù 宋寶祐四年登科錄
The Bǎo-yòu 4 Examination Roster of the Sòng edited anonymously (闕名)
About the work
A four-juàn roster of the Bǎoyòu 4 (1256) palace-examination cohort of the Sòng, headed by the Zhuàngyuán 狀元 Wén Tiānxiáng 文天祥. The roster opens with the yùshì cètí 御試策題 (imperial-test policy question) and the names of the xiángdìng biānpái 詳定編排 officials; it preserves the famous detail that the fùkǎo jiǎndiǎn shìjuǎn 覆考撿點試巻 official was Wáng Yìnglín 王應麟 (the Yùhǎi, Kùnxué jìwén author), whose memorial endorsing Wén Tiānxiáng’s paper (“the ancient principles like a mirror, the loyal liver as iron and stone — I dare to congratulate the dynasty on having found a man”) is preserved in Sòngshǐ Wén’s biography. First-class ninth man was Wáng Yìngfèng 王應鳳, Wáng Yìnglín’s younger brother — at the time the recusal rule was not yet in place. Wén Tiānxiáng was originally fifth on the bǎng; Lǐzōng personally elevated him to first. The second-class second was Xiè Fāngdé 謝枋得, the second-class twenty-seventh was Lù Xiùfū 陸秀夫 — three of the most loyal Sòng-end ministers from a single cohort. The fifth class lists 188 men under Zhū Yì 朱㫼 in rank order. The original copy lacked 24 men below this position; cross-referencing the Sìkù and external prosopographical sources reveals that further men known to be in the Bǎoyòu 4 cohort (Zhào Yǔzhèn 趙與鎮; Zhào Shíchén 趙時陳; Zhāi Héng 翟衡; Luó Léichūn 羅雷春; Zhào Liángjīn 趙良金, etc.) are missing from the roster, all in the lacuna. Appended at the end are Wén Tiānxiáng’s own cèduì (palace-examination essay), Lǐzōng’s imperially composed verse bestowed on the new jìnshì, and Wén Tiānxiáng’s verse of thanks. The thank-you verse contains the line zì tāo yì shù yì jì sān nián (lit. “since I unworthily received this special grace, three years now have passed”) — Wén Tiānxiáng having been called away to mourn his father immediately after this examination and not having taken up office until Jǐwèi (1259), so the thank-you verse must be a slightly later addition.
Tiyao
Bǎoyòu sì nián dēngkē lù in 4 juàn — the roster of the jìnshì of Wén Tiānxiáng’s bǎng of the Sòng. It begins with one yùshì cètí and the names of xiángdìng biānpái officials; the fùkǎo jiǎndiǎn shìjuǎn official was Wáng Yìnglín, hence the Sòngshǐ Wén Tiānxiáng biography records his memorial: “the ancient principles like a mirror, the loyal liver like iron and stone — I dare to congratulate the dynasty on having found a man.” The first-class ninth was Wáng Yìngfèng, Yìnglín’s younger brother — at the time, the regulation against close kinsmen serving together at the same examination was not yet in place. Wén Tiānxiáng was originally listed fifth; Lǐzōng personally raised him to first. The second-class second was Xiè Fāngdé; the second-class twenty-seventh was Lù Xiùfū. Together with Wén Tiānxiáng, all three were known throughout the dynasty for their lonely loyalty and their unflagging support of the right ordering of gāngcháng; centuries later, looking on their names still stirs deep reverence — that this roster has been preserved unbroken seems almost the work of guardian spirits, surely no accident! The fifth class lists 189 men beginning with Zhū Yì; below him 24 are missing in the original. Examining the body, in the fourth class at the 227th place there is Zhào Yǔpǔ 趙與溥 with the note “his elder brother Yǔzhèn was on the same bǎng,” but Yǔzhèn does not appear; further, the Kuòcāng huìjì records Zhào Shíchén; the Héngzhōu fǔzhì records Luó Léichūn; the Wànxìng tǒngpǔ records Zhào Liángjīn — all said to be Bǎoyòu 4 jìnshì, but none in this roster, so all in the lacuna. Appended is one of Wén Tiānxiáng’s cèduì essays, Lǐzōng’s imperial verse bestowed on the new jìnshì, and Wén Tiānxiáng’s poem of thanks. Wén took the examination in Bǎoyòu 4 and immediately afterwards mourned his father; he did not take up office until Jǐwèi (1259), when he was appointed Qiānshū Nínghǎi jiédù pànguāntīng gōngshì; thus his thank-you memorial contains the phrase “since I unworthily received this grace, three years already have passed” — and the inclusion of this thank-you memorial in the roster is therefore a later addition. Reverently presented in the eleventh 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 Bǎoyòu sì nián dēngkē lù is the second of only two surviving Southern-Sòng tóngnián xiǎolù (the other being KR2g0022 Shàoxīng shíbā nián tóngnián xiǎolù); like the latter, it survives because of the prominence of its cohort — here Wén Tiānxiáng (1236–1283) at the head, plus Xiè Fāngdé (1226–1289) and Lù Xiùfū (1238–1279), the three best-known martyrs of the SòngYuán transition. The compilation date is the examination itself, Bǎoyòu 4 = 1256; Wén Tiānxiáng’s thank-you memorial appended after the original roster dates from 1259; date bracket here 1256–1259. The roster preserves Wén’s prize-winning cèduì and Wáng Yìnglín’s celebrated memorial endorsing it. As prosopographical evidence the roster is invaluable; as a documentary witness to the late-Sòng court’s intellectual life — the cètí itself, set by Lǐzōng, asks how the new dynasty might match the achievements of the Eastern Hàn — it is one of the most resonant single Sòng-period documents.
Translations and research
- William A. Brown, Wen T’ien-hsiang: A Biographical Study of a Sung Patriot (San Francisco, 1986).
- Charles Hartman, Han Yü and the T’ang Search for Unity (Princeton UP, 1986), and his subsequent studies on Wáng Yìng-lín, draw on the roster.
- Hilde De Weerdt, Competition over Content: Negotiating Standards for the Civil Service Examinations in Imperial China (1127–1276) (HUP, 2007).
- 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 roster’s preservation of three ultimate Sòng-loyalist martyrs (Wén Tiānxiáng, Lù Xiùfū, Xiè Fāngdé) in a single class made it a treasured jìniàn document for late-imperial zhōngyì enthusiasts, particularly under the MíngQīng transition. The 24-man lacuna in the fifth class was already noted by Qián-lóng-period scholars and has not been filled.
Links
- Wilkinson 2018, Chinese History: A New Manual §49.
- Wikidata: 文天祥