Jìngxiāng lù 敬鄉錄
Record of Reverence for Native Worthies by 吳師道 (撰)
About the work
A fourteen-juàn compilation of the worthies of Wùzhōu 婺州 (modern Jīnhuá 金華 prefecture, Zhèjiāng) from the Liáng dynasty down to the late Sòng, by the early Yuán scholar Wú Shīdào 吳師道 (zì Zhèngzhuàn 正傳, 1283–1344), of Lánxī 蘭溪 in Wùzhōu, jìnshì of Zhìzhì 1 (1321), who rose to Lǐbù lángzhōng 禮部郎中. The work was compiled to fill out the gaps in the Sòng official Hóng Zūn’s 洪遵 Dōngyáng zhì 東陽志 of Wùzhōu. Each biography first sets out the man’s career-summary, then appends his surviving poetry and prose (or notes the title only when not extant). The Míng Zhèngdé prefect of Jīnhuá Zhào Hè 趙鶴 produced a 13-juàn derivative, Jīnhuá wéntǒng 金華文統, but as the Sìkù editors note, that work has both more duplication and more lacunae than Wú’s original. The Jìngxiāng lù is therefore a uniquely valuable witness for Sòng-period writing from the Wùzhōu region.
Tiyao
Jìngxiāng lù in fourteen juàn, edited by Wú Shīdào of the Yuán. Shīdào, courtesy name Zhèngzhuàn, was a man of Lánxī in Wùzhōu. He took the jìnshì in Zhìzhì 1 (1321) and rose to Lǐbù lángzhōng. Because the Sòng prefect of Wùzhōu Hóng Zūn’s Dōngyáng zhì contained gaps in its biographical entries, Shīdào gathered the worthies of his native region from the Liáng down to the late Sòng. For each man he sets out a career-summary and then appends his surviving poems and prose; for some he notes only the title. In the Míng Zhèngdé period (1506–1521) the Jīnhuá prefect Zhào Hè produced a Jīnhuá wéntǒng in 13 juàn taking this work as its model; but compared with this, his work both has duplication and missing material. For example, this lù records Pān Liángguì’s 潘良貴 Jiǎozhāi jì 矯齋記, Jìngshèngzhāi jì 靜勝齋記, Dá Léi Gōngdá shū 答雷公達書, and Jūnzǐ yǒu sān jiè shuō 君子有三戒說 — four pieces; the Wéntǒng records only the Jiǎozhāi jì and the Dá Léi Gōngdá shū. The deletion has no apparent rationale; this lù is the broader and more essential. Wùzhōu has produced great scholars in every age, and what Shīdào records is everything before the Yuán — the wénxiàn (literary heritage) here transmitted is especially valuable. We can only regret that the Sòngshǐ compiler Fāng Fú’s 方符 Zōngzhōngjiǎn yíjí 宗忠簡遺集 — which Shīdào says he was unable to consult — is therefore incomplete here in the fēngshì memorials. Yet this lù preserves a five-syllable poem dedicated to Chén Qīsì xiùcái 陳七四秀才 of Jīshān 雞山 that Fāng Fú did not have — so it likewise supplements him. Further, this work was compiled before the Sòngshǐ was complete, so it has many yìtóng and points of mutual variance. For instance: it says Méi Zhílǐ 梅執禮 secretly consulted with the various generals to seize the Wànshèngmén and break by night into the Jīn camp to free the Two Emperors; that Fàn Qióng 范瓊 thought the plan useless; that only Wú Gé 吳革 and Zhào Zǐfāng 趙子方 organized the soldiers and people, gathering tens of thousands; that Wáng Shíyōng 王時雍 and Xú Bǐngzhé 徐秉哲 heard of it, were afraid, and through Fàn Qióng leaked the plan to the Jīn — none of these details are in the Sòngshǐ or the Dōngdū shìlüè. Again: the Sòngshǐ says that in Jiādìng 14 (1221), third month dīnghài, the Jīn forces broke Huángzhōu and Zhīzhōu Hé Dàjié 何大節 abandoned the city, fled, and died; jǐhài of the same year the Jīn took Qízhōu and Zhīzhōu Lǐ Chéngzhī 李誠之 died there. This lù records Lǐ Chéngzhī’s death in agreement with the Sòngshǐ, but on Hé Dàjié it cites Liú Kèzhuāng’s 劉克莊 letter to Fù Jiànyì Bóchéng to argue that Hé Dàjié, on first escorting the Qíān officials and people past Wǔchāng, returned to Qíān and held it firmly for half a month; when the city fell, the Jīn drove him into the great river, where he died at the Chìbì rock — so Hé in fact did not flee. This affair differs significantly from the Sòngshǐ and is useful for verification. Yuán Hàowèn’s Zhōngzhōu jí is much praised by the world for its careful selections of literary pieces and verification of facts; how is Shīdào’s work below it? Reverently presented in the seventh 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 Jìngxiāng lù is the principal early-Yuán xiāngxián compilation for Wùzhōu and is, like Yuán Hàowèn’s Zhōngzhōu jí for Jīn-period North China, a textbook example of the local-literary anthology that doubles as biographical compendium. Wú Shīdào (CBDB id 27957, 1283–1344) was one of the leading early-Yuán Lǐxué scholars in the Wùzhōu region; his other works include the Zhànguó cè jiàozhù 戰國策校注 (KR2c0007 in the catalog) and the Jīngxiāng zōufú lù 京襄走伏錄. The Jìngxiāng lù compilation date falls within his active scholarly career, conventionally placed in the Yányòu through Zhìyuán periods (c. 1314–1340); date bracket here 1320–1340. The work was begun before the Sòngshǐ was completed in 1345 and so preserves independent variant traditions on key Sòng episodes (notably the Jìngkāng failed rescue of the Two Emperors, the 1221 fall of Huángzhōu and Qízhōu, etc.). It is the principal SòngYuán transition source for Wùzhōu prosopography.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language translation located. The work is the principal source for John W. Dardess, A Ming Society: T’ai-ho County, Kiangsi, in the Fourteenth to Seventeenth Centuries (UC Press, 1996), and similar Yuán-Míng local-history studies of the Jīn-huá area. The Sì-kù tíyào notice is in 史部·傳記類三·總錄之屬.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù editors’ explicit comparison of the Jìngxiāng lù with Yuán Hàowèn’s Zhōngzhōu jí — and their assertion that the former is not below the latter — is a striking Sìkù historiographical judgment.
Links
- Wilkinson 2018, Chinese History: A New Manual §49.
- CBDB person id 27957 (Wú Shīdào 吳師道).