Yuánrú kǎolüè 元儒考略
A Survey of the Yuán-Period Confucian Scholars by 馮從吾 (撰)
About the work
A four-juàn collective biography of the Confucian scholars of the Yuán dynasty, by Féng Cóngwú 馮從吾 (zì Zhònghǎo 仲好, hào Shǎoxū 少墟, 1556–1627), of Chángān 長安 (modern Xī’ān 西安), jìnshì of Wànlì jǐchǒu (= 1589), changed to shùjíshì, then to yùshǐ 御史; he was caned in the tíngzhàng 廷杖 for memorializing on government affairs; he rose through Zuǒfù dūyùshǐ 左副都御史; he resigned over the Hóngwán (Red Pill) and Tǐngjī (Beating-with-the-Mace) affairs (the great late-Wàn-lì court scandals); he was recalled as Gōngbù shàngshū but declined on grounds of illness; he was eventually stripped of office, and after the fall of the Wèi Zhōngxián 魏忠賢 eunuch faction was rehabilitated, with the posthumous title Gōngdìng 恭定. The work draws principally from the Yuánshǐ Rúxué zhuàn, supplemented by gazetteers and zhìchéng (locality-records). The biographies are split between dàshū tèzhuàn 大書特傳 (full biographies in large script) and xìshū fùzhuàn 細書附傳 (small-script attached biographies), the distinction made on the basis of the editor’s judgment of the man’s intellectual standing. The Sìkù editors note errors of attribution (Ōuyáng Xuán’s 歐陽玄 biéhào Guīzhāi 圭齋 has been mistaken for his name, hence “Ōuyáng Guī” 歐陽圭 is given in some entries — both wrong as a surname-and-given-name pairing and through dropping of one character; collation has been negligent).
Tiyao
Yuánrú kǎolüè in four juàn, by Féng Cóngwú of the Míng. Cóngwú, courtesy name Zhònghǎo, was a man of Chángān. He took the jìnshì in Wànlì jǐchǒu (1589), was changed to shùjíshì, then to yùshǐ; he was caned for memorializing on government affairs; he rose to Zuǒfù dūyùshǐ; on the affair of the Red Pill and the Beating-with-the-Mace he memorialized opposition, and asked to retire; he was recalled as Gōngbù shàngshū and declined on grounds of illness; later he was stripped of office, but with the fall of the eunuch faction he was rehabilitated by edict, with the posthumous title Gōngdìng. His career is given in his Míngshǐ biography. This compilation gathers the affairs of the various Yuán scholars, with each in a small biography. It is largely based on the Yuánshǐ Rúxué zhuàn, supplemented by gazetteers. Some are given full biographies in large script; others, lesser figures, are given small-script attached biographies, the difference based on the man’s intellectual height. The format is somewhat fragmented (xìsuì 瑣碎). Names are sometimes wrong: thus Ōuyáng Xuán’s biéhào was Guīzhāi; here he is simply called Ōuyáng Guī — taking the hào as the name and dropping a character: collation has been somewhat lax. Yet the Sòng rú loved to attach themselves to a master’s gate and tracked the yuányuán (sources and channels) very fully, and the Míng rú loved to argue yìtóng (differences-and-identities) and tracked their factions even more fully — the yǔlù and xuéàn of the SòngMíng schools fill bookshelves to the brim. The Yuán rú alone were dǔshí (solid and reliable), not chasing after fame, so that the lecture-hall books of the Yuán transmitted to the world are extremely few; nor is there any consolidated work giving the lineage of the school as a whole. Cóngwú gathered up the scraps and made this compilation; through it the broad outline of one age’s rúlín can be seen. Its preservation is therefore worth the effort: of those things that become precious by their rarity, this is one. Reverently presented in the third month of Qiánlóng 47 (1782). 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 Yuánrú kǎolüè is the principal late-Míng survey of Yuán Confucian scholarship, prepared by the Dōnglín-aligned scholar Féng Cóngwú (CBDB id 34744, 1556–1627) during his enforced retirement under the Wèi Zhōngxián eunuch faction. Composition date is best estimated 1600–1620 — Féng’s most active scholarly period falls between his initial impeachments in the 1590s and his final dismissal in 1626. The work is the principal pre-Huáng-Zōng-xī (SòngYuán xuéàn) attempt at a comprehensive Yuán xuéàn, drawing on materials that the Míng jiǎngxué jiā had largely neglected. Its inadequacies (the editorial laxity flagged by the Sìkù) are real but the work fills a real gap. Féng Cóngwú is principally remembered as a Dōnglín scholar and one of the leading Guānzhōng (Shǎnxī) Confucian thinkers of the late Míng; his other major works include the Guānxué biān 關學編 and the Shǎoxū jí 少墟集.
Translations and research
- Heinrich Busch, “The Tung-lin Academy and Its Political and Philosophical Significance,” Monumenta Serica 14 (1949–55), 1–163.
- John Meskill, Academies in Ming China: A Historical Essay (University of Arizona Press, 1982).
- The work is the most important pre-modern source for the Yuán Lǐ-xué lineage subsequently treated by Huáng Zōng-xī’s Sòng-Yuán xué-àn.
- The Sì-kù tíyào notice is in 史部·傳記類三·總錄之屬.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù editors’ observation that Yuán rú are dǔshí and unconcerned with fame, in contrast to the SòngMíng jiǎngxué jiā who fill shelves with yǔlù and xuéàn — and that this very fact has left the Yuán rú under-documented — is one of the more interesting Sìkù historiographical generalizations.
Links
- Wilkinson 2018, Chinese History: A New Manual §49.
- CBDB person id 34744 (Féng Cóngwú 馮從吾).