Bǎiyuè xiānxián zhì 百越先賢志
Records of the Former Worthies of the Hundred Yuè by 歐大任 (撰)
About the work
A four-juàn collective biography of 120 worthies of the Bǎiyuè 百越 region (the southern coastal lands from modern Zhèjiāng through Fújiàn, Guǎngdōng, Guǎngxī, and into northern Vietnam), starting from the Eastern Hàn, by Ōu Dàrèn 歐大任 (zì Zhēnbó 楨伯, 1516–1595), of Shùndé 順德 in Guǎngdōng. Ōu Dàrèn was elected suìgòng in Jiājìng rénxū (1562; the Sìkù tiyao here gives the year explicitly), served as Jiāngdū xùndǎo 江都訓導, advanced through Guāngzhōu xuézhèng, Guózǐxué bóshì, and ended as Nánjīng Hùbù lángzhōng 南京戶部郎中. The geography of the Bǎiyuè: from the Yuèwáng Gōujiàn 越王勾踐 lineage’s sixth generation (his great-great-great grandson Wújiāng 無疆), defeated by Chǔ; the descendants scattered along the coast, each becoming a local lord. The major branches: Lǐngnán = Nányuè 南越; the coast from Dōngyě 東冶 (Fúzhōu) to ZhāngQuán = Mǐnyuè 閩越; Yǒngjiā = Ōuyuè 甌越; the XiāngLí (Xiāngjiāng / Líjiāng) corridor southwards = Xīyuè 西越; the Zāngkē / Yōngyōng / Suíjiàn region = Luòyuè 駱越 — collectively the Bǎiyuè. Ōu Dàrèn, as a man of Yuè (Guǎngdōng), gathered the worthies of the entire Bǎiyuè. Coverage runs from the Eastern Hàn down (he begins at the Eastern Hàn because before that the Yuè polities had been independent and assimilated to Chǔ; only with the Eastern Hàn does the area become integrated). The 120 entries include Kuàijī 會稽 men (since Gōujiàn’s old domain stretched north to Kuàijī), but exclude figures associated specifically with the Wújiāng (Sūzhōu) area, since these are Wú not Yuè. The work was begun in Jiājìng jiǎyín (1554) and was first cut by Ōu’s fellow-townsman Yóu Pǔ 游樸 in Wànlì rénchén (1592). The Sìkù tiyao notes that the WYG copy is reconstructed from a manuscript with insect-damaged lacunae (the zhuàn of one figure after Yǎng Fèn 養奮; the zhuàn of Dèng Shèng 鄧盛, Qímǔ Jùn 綦母俊, Lǐ Jìn 李進; and one zhuàn of a Mr Chén 陳某 with name lost) — these have been preserved in their incomplete state per the editorial principle of quēyí (preserving in doubt).
Tiyao
Bǎiyuè xiānxián zhì in four juàn, by Ōu Dàrèn of the Míng. Dàrèn, courtesy name Zhēnbó, was a man of Shùndé in Guǎngdōng. He was elected suìgòng in Jiājìng rénxū (1562), appointed Jiāngdū xùndǎo, advanced to Guāngzhōu xuézhèng, then to Guózǐ bóshì, and ended as Nánjīng Hùbù lángzhōng. The southern states had Yuè as the largest. From Gōujiàn’s six-generation descendant Wújiāng, defeated by Chǔ, the various sons scattered along the coast and each became a local prince. Of these the principal branches were: Lǐngnán = Nányuè; from Dōngyě to ZhāngQuán = Mǐnyuè; Yǒngjiā = Ōuyuè; from the XiāngLí southwards = Xīyuè; the Zāng-kē-westwards YōngYōng Suíjiàn region = Luòyuè. Together these are called Bǎiyuè. Dàrèn, being himself a Yuè man, gathered the Bǎiyuè xiānxián, beginning at the Eastern Hàn — 120 men, each with biography. He includes Kuàijī men (Gōujiàn’s old domain reached Kuàijī); he excludes those of Wújiāng (the Qín Kuàijī jùn spans Wú lands, but the men of Wú are not of Yuè). The zhuàn of Zhào Yè 趙曄 — included for his Yuè jué shū (also titled Yuèshū by Yuán Kāng 袁康 and Wú Píng 吳平, which appears in Wáng Chōng’s Lùnhéng but is not included in this work) — the fāngjì (techniques) of Xú Dēng 徐登, Zhào Bǐng 趙炳, Dǒng Fèng 董奉, Jiè Xiàng 介象 are included; while Wèi Bóyáng 魏伯陽 of Shàngyú, who composed the Cāntóngqì and is named in Gě Hóng’s Shénxiān zhuàn, is also not included. So Dàrèn’s book mostly relies on the regular histories and does not consult miscellaneous works. Where there are accidental omissions, this is the cost; but the editorial method is correspondingly more strict and the work surpasses the rambling regional gazetteers. As to incomplete excerpting: in the Méi Fú 梅福 zhuàn he records his memorial about enfeoffing the descendants of Confucius, with the closing “see Chéngjì” — the Hànshū has a Chéngdì běnjì so the cross-reference is intelligible there; here, where there is only Méi Fú’s biography, the cross-reference hangs in air. This is also a defect of carrying-over without revision. But each biography ends with a citation of the source consulted; for those drawn from multiple sources, a “also drawing on” note is added — every word and clause attached to its source. This is far better than other compilers’ fabrication and cannot be deprecated for one slip. Huáng Zuǒ in compiling the new Guǎngdōng zhì drew on this work for all his pre-Hàn entries — a deep recognition of Ōu’s care. The work was completed in Jiājìng jiǎyín (1554); it was first cut in Wànlì rénchén (1592) by Ōu’s fellow-townsman Yóu Pǔ. With time the work was scattered; only a manuscript survives. In juàn 2, after the Yǎng Fèn biography, one biography is destroyed by insects so that the man’s name cannot be recovered; the Dèng Shèng, Qímǔ Jùn, and Lǐ Jìn biographies are all damaged and incomplete; the Mr Chén biography is most damaged of all, with only the surname preserved. We have followed the original in each, in the spirit of quēyí — preservation in doubt. Reverently presented in the fifth 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 Bǎiyuè xiānxián zhì is the most ambitious mid-Míng regional collective-biography of southern China, treating not just one province but the entire Bǎiyuè coastal region. Ōu Dàrèn (CBDB id 33901, 1516–1595) was a leading Cantonese scholar and member of the Nányuán wǔzǐ 南園五子 poets’ group. The composition date is firmly 1554 (per the work’s own date); first printing 1592. The work is methodologically distinguished by source-citation attached to every entry — a practice modelled on Sū Tiānjué’s Yuáncháo míngchén shìlüè (KR2g0033) — and by its strict reliance on zhèngshǐ sources. The work was used by Huáng Zuǒ in his Guǎngdōng tōngzhì and is foundational for early-Míng regional historiography of the south. The 120 men included offer a unique cross-section of Hàn-Sòng-period elite of the entire southern macro-region, organized around an early-imperial geographical concept (Bǎiyuè) rather than the contemporary provincial divisions.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language translation located. On Ōu Dà-rèn and the Nán-yuán poets’ group, see Anne Burkus-Chasson, Through a Forest of Chancellors: Fugitive Histories in Liu Yuan’s Lingyan ge (HUP, 2010); Tobie Meyer-Fong, “Civil War, Refugees, and the Reorganization of the Lower Yangzi Macroregion under the Qing, 1648–1683” (PhD diss., Stanford, 1996).
- The Sì-kù tíyào notice is in 史部·傳記類三·總錄之屬.
Other points of interest
The work’s geographical ambition — treating the Bǎiyuè as a unitary region across all current provincial boundaries — is distinctive in mid-Míng regional historiography. The methodological discipline of source-attribution at each entry is a noteworthy advance.
Links
- Wilkinson 2018, Chinese History: A New Manual §49.
- CBDB person id 33901 (Ōu Dàrèn 歐大任).