Pǔyáng rénwù jì 浦陽人物記
Records of the Notable Persons of Pǔ-yáng by 宋濂 (撰)
About the work
A two-juàn compilation of biographies of 29 notable persons of Pǔjiāng 浦江 county (in Wùzhōu 婺州 / Jīnhuá 金華 prefecture, modern Zhèjiāng), by Sòng Lián 宋濂 (zì Jǐnglián 景濂, 1310–1381), the great YuánMíng Lǐxué scholar and chief literatus of the Hóngwǔ 洪武 court. The work is divided into five categories: zhōngyì 忠義 (Méi Róng 梅溶, Méi Zhílǐ 梅執禮 — the latter the Jìngkāng martyr); xiàoyǒu 孝友 (Chén Tàijié 陳太竭, Hé Qiānlíng 何千齡, Zhōng Zhái 鍾宅, Zhèng Qǐ 鄭綺); zhèngshì 政事 (Yáng Xuán 楊琁, Zhāng Dūn 張敦, Jiǎng Shào 蔣邵, Fù Róu 傅柔, Fù Páng 傅雱, Huáng Rénhuán 黃仁環, Wú Zhuàn 吳傳, Shí Fàn 石範, Wáng Wàn 王萬, Wú Zhífāng 吳直方, Zhào Dànè 趙大訥); wénxué 文學 (Yú Fáng 于房, Zhū Lín 朱臨, Qián Yù 錢遹, Hé Mǐnzhōng 何敏中, Zhū Yǒuwén 朱有聞, Ní Pǔ 倪朴, Fāng Fèng 方鳳, Huáng Jǐngchāng 黃景昌, Liǔ Guàn 柳貫, Wú Lái 吳萊); zhēnjié 貞節 (Líng Nán’s wife Hé Dàoróng 凌楠妻何道融, Dài Míng’s wife Ní Yídì 戴銘妻倪宜弟). The work also includes an appendix on the jìnshì tímíng (lists of jìnshì from Pǔjiāng). The work was originally written under the Yuán in Zhìzhèng 13 (1353); it was first cut by the Liánhóu Jǐngyuān before Sòng Lián had finalized the text, with the result that there were many errors. Sòng Lián’s late-life corrected version (with revisions in the order of fifty-some places) circulates here. It was re-cut by Wáng Zhēn 王珍 of Lìyáng 歷陽 in Hóngzhì (1488–1505), with a closing colophon by Sòng Lián dated Zhìzhèng 13 (1353). The colophon was not picked up by the editors of Sòng Lián’s collected works (the Sòng wénxiàn jí 宋文憲集) at the time and so survives only in the Pǔyáng rénwù jì.
Tiyao
Pǔyáng rénwù jì in two juàn, by Sòng Lián of the Míng. Lián, courtesy name Jǐnglián, was a man of Pǔjiāng. Late in the Yuán he was appointed Hànlín biānxiū on recommendation but declined on grounds of his aged parents; in the early Míng he was summoned and appointed Tàizǐ jīnglì 太子經歷, and ended in office as Hànlín xuéshì chéngzhǐ 翰林學士承旨; his career is given in his Míngshǐ biography. The book is in five categories: zhōngyì, xiàoyǒu, zhèngshì, wénxué, zhēnjié — 29 men in all (the count of men also includes zhēnjié — i.e., women) — with the jìnshì tímíng list appended. Ōuyáng Xuán 歐陽玄 wrote a preface for the work, calling it “extremely just, with no private predilection in awarding praise or blame” — for Lián was already known for his prose style, and so what he wrote always followed proper historical method. The book was originally completed under the Yuán; later editors of his collected works took only the lùnzàn (verdict-eulogies) of each piece, while the complete book continued to circulate independently — following the model of Luó Yuàn’s 羅願 Èzhōu xiǎojí 鄂州小集, which was incorporated in the Xīnān zhì by xù (small-prefaces) but not by zhìlì (the fa-lì of the gazetteer), so the original survived. This copy is the Hóngzhì re-cut by Wáng Zhēn of Lìyáng. At the end of the volume is a colophon by Sòng Lián, in which he says: “I first prepared the manuscript and the Liánhóu Jǐngyuān immediately took it to print, so the errors and contradictions are many; now [50-some] places have been corrected; this version is somewhat better than the version in circulation.” The colophon is dated Zhìzhèng 13 (1353); it is not in Sòng Lián’s collected works — perhaps the late-life corrected version was overlooked at editing time. Reverently presented in the sixth month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778). 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 Pǔyáng rénwù jì is one of the earliest mature works of Sòng Lián, the leading literatus of the Hóngwǔ court and chief compiler of the Yuánshǐ. The work was composed in Zhìzhèng 13 (1353) under the Yuán — i.e., before Sòng Lián’s enlistment into the Míng founding regime — but the catalog meta gives the dynasty as Míng on the basis of Sòng Lián’s later canonical identity. The 29 biographies in five moral-categorical groupings (zhōngyì / xiàoyǒu / zhèngshì / wénxué / zhēnjié) make this the textbook example of the xiāngxián 鄉賢 sub-genre as practised by mature Sòng-Yuán-Míng-transition literati: the composition predates Sòng Lián’s Yuánshǐ labour by some twenty years and is a working preliminary to his approach there to dynastic biography.
Translations and research
- F. W. Mote, “The Growth of Chinese Despotism: A Critique of Wittfogel’s Theory of Oriental Despotism,” Oriens Extremus 8 (1961), 1–41 — touches on Sòng Lián’s role in the Hóng-wǔ regime.
- John W. Dardess, Confucianism and Autocracy: Professional Elites in the Founding of the Ming Dynasty (UC Press, 1983).
- The Sì-kù tíyào notice is in Sì-kù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào 史部·傳記類三·總錄之屬.
Other points of interest
The colophon by Sòng Lián attached at the end of the Pǔyáng rénwù jì is not preserved in Sòng Lián’s collected works (Sòng wénxiàn jí) and survives only here — a textbook case of why parallel transmission of small works under their original titles preserves material that the jí-tradition loses.
Links
- Wilkinson 2018, Chinese History: A New Manual §49.
- CBDB person id 10097 (Sòng Lián 宋濂).