Gǔjīn liènǚ zhuàn 古今列女傳
Biographies of Eminent Women, Ancient and Modern by 解縉 (奉敕編), with co-editors at the Yǒnglè court
About the work
A three-juàn imperial compilation in the LiúXiàng Liènǚ zhuàn tradition, prepared under the Yǒnglè 永樂 emperor (Chéngzǔ 成祖, r. 1402–1424) by Xiè Jìn 解縉 (1369–1415, Hànlín Academy xuéshì and chief literary aide of the early HóngwǔYǒnglè regime) and a team of co-editors (Huáng Huái 黃淮, Hú Guǎng 胡廣, Hú Yǎn 胡儼, Yáng Róng 楊榮, Jīn Yòuzī 金幼孜, Yáng Shìqí 楊士奇, Wáng Hóng 王洪, Jiǎng Jì 蔣驥, Shěn Dù 沈度), with an imperially composed preface dated Yǒnglè 1, ninth month, shuò (= 1403). The compilation traces back to the Hóngwǔ Empress Mǎ 馬皇后 (the Xiàocí Empress, posthumously Rénxiào), who while listening to court women read the Liènǚ zhuàn had requested an updated compilation; the project was paused until Yǒnglè 1, when Empress Xú 徐皇后 (the Rénxiào Empress) revived it. The work has three juàn by social rank: juàn 1 — empresses and consorts of all dynasties; juàn 2 — wives of zhūhóu and dàfū; juàn 3 — wives of shìshù (commoners). Coverage runs from Yú Shùn (the yǒu Yú èr fēi Two Consorts) to the early Míng. Material before the Hàn is drawn principally from Liú Xiàng’s Liènǚ zhuàn (KR2g0017); subsequent material from each dynasty’s regular history Liènǚ zhuàn; early Míng entries are added new. The compilation is one of the better-edited works of the Yǒnglè guānshū (court compilation) program — comparing favourably with the slipshod Wǔjīng dàquán and Sìshū dàquán of the same period.
Tiyao
Gǔjīn liènǚ zhuàn in three juàn, by Xiè Jìn et al. of the Míng, by imperial decree. Earlier, Míng Tàizǔ’s Empress Mǎ, on hearing the women historians read the Liènǚ zhuàn, said that it should be supplemented; she requested of the emperor that scholarly officials be commanded to revise it. The work was not completed. In Yǒnglè 1 (1403), Chéngzǔ posthumously elevated Empress Mǎ’s title to Rénxiào huánghòu; Empress Xú raised the matter again, and Xiè Jìn, Huáng Huái, Hú Guǎng, Hú Yǎn, Yáng Róng, Jīn Yòuzī, Yáng Shìqí, Wáng Hóng, Jiǎng Jì, and Shěn Dù were ordered to compile it. When the work was completed and presented, the emperor composed his own preface and ordered it printed and circulated. Juàn 1 is on the empresses and consorts of all dynasties; juàn 2 on the wives of zhūhóu and dàfū; juàn 3 on the wives of shìshù. Empress Xú produced the Zhēnliè shìshí 貞烈事實 to develop the obscure and to manifest the subtle; she devoted herself to the moral instruction it represented, and so the editors took special care with this book — unlike the careless Wǔjīng and Sìshū dàquán. The episodes recorded run from Yú Shùn down to the Yuán and Míng. Material before the Hàn is mostly taken from Liú Shàngshū [Liú Xiàng]; later periods take in summary from each dynasty’s Liènǚ zhuàn, supplemented by early-Míng entries. The selection is rather scrupulous — among Míng court compilations this is one of the better. This copy is from the Xiùshuǐ Xiàng Yuánbiàn 項元汴 family library and is the original imperial-printing-house cut. Huáng Yújì 黃虞稷’s Qiānqǐngtáng shūmù dates the work to Yǒnglè 1, twelfth month; on examination, Chéngzǔ’s preface is dated Yǒnglè 1, ninth month, shuò — Yújì plainly did not see the original and recorded only on hearsay. Reverently presented in the eighth 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 Gǔjīn liènǚ zhuàn is the principal early-Míng court compilation in the Liènǚ tradition and is part of the wider Yǒnglè guānshū program (alongside the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn and the Wǔjīng / Sìshū dàquán). The composition date is firmly fixed by Chéngzǔ’s preface to Yǒnglè 1, ninth month, shuò (= 1403, autumn). Xiè Jìn (CBDB id 34469, 1368–1415; Sòng-shǐ-style historiography places his lifedates as 1369–1415, with the catalog meta agreeing) was the chief literary aide of the early Yǒnglè court but fell from favour after 1407 and died imprisoned in 1415; the Liènǚ zhuàn compilation comes from the height of his court influence. The work was central to the early-Míng moral-instructive program for women and remained widely circulated through the MíngQīng. The clear three-tier social-rank structuring (consorts / dàfū wives / shùmín wives) reflects the early-Míng reorganization of the Liènǚ tradition along Confucian patriarchal lines.
Translations and research
- The work is briefly noted in Joanna F. Handlin, “Lü K’un’s New Audience: The Influence of Women’s Literacy on Sixteenth-Century Thought,” in Women in Chinese Society, ed. Margery Wolf and Roxane Witke (Stanford UP, 1975); and in Mark Elvin, “Female Virtue and the State in China,” Past and Present 104 (1984), 111–152.
- Susan Mann, Precious Records: Women in China’s Long Eighteenth Century (Stanford UP, 1997), provides broader context.
- 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 Sìkù editors’ specific praise of the work as “one of the better Míng court compilations” — and their unfavourable comparison with the Wǔjīng and Sìshū dàquán of the same period — reflects the standard Qing dismissal of Yǒnglè scholastic compilation in favour of the early-Míng imperial-women’s-education program.
Links
- Wilkinson 2018, Chinese History: A New Manual §49.
- CBDB person id 34469 (Xiè Jìn 解縉).