Jīnxiàn bèiyí 今獻備遺
Worthies of Our Time, Set Down Lest They Be Forgotten by 項篤壽 (撰)
About the work
A 42-juàn collective biography of 204 Míng officials from Hóngwǔ through Jiājìng, prepared by Xiàng Dǔshòu 項篤壽 (zì Zǐcháng 子長, of Xiùshuǐ 秀水 in modern Zhèjiāng), the elder brother of the celebrated calligrapher-collector Xiàng Yuánbiàn 項元汴 (whose collection preserved the original-imprint copy of KR2g0035). The work substantially derives from Yuán Biǎo’s 袁袠 Xiànzhāng wàishǐ 獻徵外史 — Xiàng’s contribution being to refine Yuán’s selections and organization. The title — “bèiyí” — is, as Xiàng’s preface says, a deliberately humble formulation: “to have it in store lest it be forgotten.” The arrangement is by reign-period and rank. The Sìkù editors find the work better edited and more critical than the late-Míng successor compilations of Léi Lǐ 雷禮 (Lièqīng jì), Xú Hóng 徐紘 (Míngchén wǎnyǎn lù), or Jiāo Hóng 焦竑 (Guóshǐ xiànzhēng lù), all of which are larger but more rambling. Specific Sìkù criticisms: Xiàng accepts the apocryphal story that Liú Jī 劉基 had divined a tiānzǐqì (vapor of imperial destiny) over Jīnlíng (Nánjīng); the Míngshǐ properly omits this fortune-teller’s tale; he over-praises Xú Yǒuzhēn 徐有貞 (the fùpǔ coup architect of 1457), Lǐ Dōngyáng 李東陽 (the móléng “ambivalent” Hóngzhì chancellor), and Zhāng Fújìng 張孚敬 (the piānbì “stubborn” Jiājìng chancellor) — figures the Sìkù editors regard as moral compromises.
Tiyao
Jīnxiàn bèiyí in 42 juàn, by Xiàng Dǔshòu of the Míng. Dǔshòu, courtesy name Zǐcháng, was a man of Xiùshuǐ. The compilation specifically gathers the affairs of the great ministers of the Míng arranged as biographies; from Hóngwǔ to Jiājìng, 204 men in all. It largely follows what Yuán Biǎo had compiled, with some additions and deletions. The Míngshǐ Yìwénzhì lists it. The bèiyí of the title — Dǔshòu’s own preface says: “Just as a precaution against forgetting” — modestly disclaiming any pretension to be a historian. Míng-period literati were largely interested in court precedent, and those who collected the men of successive reigns include such works as Léi Lǐ’s Lièqīng jì, Xú Hóng’s Míngchén wǎnyǎn lù, and Jiāo Hóng’s Guóshǐ xiànzhēng lù — works of greatest bulk but tediously bloated and full of contradictions. Dǔshòu’s book is rather brief and methodical. Even so, its records are not all sound: thus, that Liú Jī while drinking on the West Lake saw clouds in the north-west and said “this is tiānzǐqì; in Jīnlíng I shall serve it” — this is fortune-teller’s nonsense; the Míngshǐ has expunged it, but Dǔshòu records it in Liú Jī’s biography, which is light credulity. Again: the hànzhì (cruelty and arrogance) of Xú Yǒuzhēn, the móléng (waffling) of Lǐ Dōngyáng, the piānbì (obstinacy) of Zhāng Fújìng — none can be called complete men of their age, yet Dǔshòu praises them all heavily, and his judgments on inclusion are also wanting in shrewdness. But his exposition is full and detailed: on the order of years, the relations of events, the differences in records, all is suitable for broad investigation and respectful collation. Compared with the vulgar and bloated of other compilers, his editorial method is rather strict. To the science of history, the contribution is real. Reverently presented in the second month of Qiánlóng 42 (1777). 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 Jīnxiàn bèiyí (1560s–1570s, on internal evidence; date bracket here 1560–1580, conservatively) is the most carefully edited of the mid-Míng míngchén anthologies and is one of the principal mid-Míng prosopographical sources for Hóngwǔ through Jiājìng officials. Xiàng Dǔshòu (CBDB id 30327; lifedates not securely attested) was the elder brother of the great late-Míng collector and calligrapher Xiàng Yuánbiàn (1525–1590), and the family’s library at Xiùshuǐ was one of the major late-Míng book repositories. The work is essentially a refinement of Yuán Biǎo’s earlier Xiànzhāng wàishǐ (1530s); the principal value of Xiàng’s revision is its tightened editing and more critical selection. The Sìkù editors note its specific failures (the Liú Jī fortune-teller story, the over-praise of three problematic chancellors) but rank it above the larger and more discursive successors of Léi Lǐ, Xú Hóng, and Jiāo Hóng. The work was a working source for the Míngshǐ compilers.
Translations and search
No substantial Western-language translation located. On the broader Míng míng-chén anthology tradition, see Lin Cheng-Hong, “Late Imperial Chinese Biographical Compilations” (PhD diss., Princeton, 1981).
Other points of interest
The Xiàng family — including Xiàng Dǔshòu’s brother Xiàng Yuánbiàn — was at the centre of late-Míng Jiāngnán literary collecting, and the Jīnxiàn bèiyí is best read in the context of this collector-elder culture (Xiàng Yuánbiàn’s library held the original-imprint copy of KR2g0035 Gǔjīn liènǚ zhuàn used by the Sìkù).
Links
- Wilkinson 2018, Chinese History: A New Manual §49.
- CBDB person id 30327 (Xiàng Dǔshòu 項篤壽).