保越錄

Bǎo Yuè lù 保越錄

Record of the Defense of Yuè (Shàoxīng) by anonymous (闕名 撰)

About the work

A 1-juàn eyewitness account of the three-month siege of Shàoxīng 紹興 (called Yuèzhōu 越州 by its old name) in 1359 by Hú Dàhǎi’s 胡大海 forces of Zhū Yuánzhāng 朱元璋, repelled by the Zhāng Shìchéng 張士誠 garrison commander Lǚ Zhēn 吕珍. The narrative runs from late Zhìzhèng 18 (1358 winter, when Lǚ Zhēn took up command after the murder of Mùěrgǔsū 穆爾古蘇) through the three-month siege of Zhìzhèng 19 (spring–summer 1359), and through the battles’ resolution. The siege was one of the most consequential operations of the late-Yuán conflict between Zhū Yuánzhāng’s WúHàn faction and Zhāng Shìchéng’s Wú faction; Lǚ Zhēn’s successful defense bought Shàoxīng eight more years of independence under the Zhāng (until 1366). The compiler’s name has been lost; from the text’s perspective — sympathetic to Lǚ Zhēn, calling Zhāng’s troops “wǒ jūn” (our army) and Hú Dàhǎi’s WúHàn forces “Dàjūn” (the Great Army, with reverent later-period substitution) — the Sìkù editors deduced that the original was composed by a Shàoxīng resident during the still-extant Zhāngshìchéng polity, with the references to Tàizǔ Gāo Huángdì and Dàjūn being later Míng emendations.

The text is preserved in the Sìkù quánshū with several lacunae (marked 闕 in the original), reflecting damage in the only surviving recension. It is dense with personal names and military detail: Lǚ Zhēn’s twelve gate-commanders and their deputies; the layered defensive works (palisade-and-moat, then yuèchéng 月城 / barbican with watch-tower and crenellated parapets, then earthworks beyond); the daily-by-daily attack-and-counter-attack record; the famine-relief logistics (the rice-and-salt exchange with Hángzhōu; the inland-water supply convoy from Jiāxīng 嘉興 via the East China Sea); the conduct of war (Lǚ’s repeated leniency in releasing captured WúHàn prisoners, his strict suppression of city-panic, his refusal to over-pursue the retreating enemy at the end). Striking moments: the suicide-pact of the gentry-scholar Zhāng Zhèngméng’s 張正䝉 wife Hánshì 韓氏 (daughter of the local Confucian Hán Xìng 韓性) and her two daughters, refusing capture; the encounter between the rebel-painter Wáng Miǎn 王冕 (元章, the famous plum-blossom painter) — who had refused to seek shelter inside the city — and Hú Dàhǎi, with Wáng Miǎn subsequently advising the WúHàn forces on a deceptive flank attack at Yòuyàn 右堰; and the climactic divine-wind that scattered Hú Dàhǎi’s fire-ships and broke the assault on the third month bǐngwǔ.

Tiyao

Bǎo Yuè lù in 1 juàn, author’s name not preserved. Records the events of Zhìzhèng 19 (1359), when the Míng forces attacked Shàoxīng. At that time the Míng commander was Hú Dàhǎi; the defender was Zhāng Shìchéng’s general Lǚ Zhēn. They besieged for three months but ultimately could not take it, and so withdrew. This lù refers to Shìchéng’s troops as “wǒ jūn” (our army) and to Lǚ Zhēn as “gōng” (the lord) — apparently a Shàoxīng resident’s record while Shìchéng’s polity was still extant. The references to “Míng” as “Dàjūn” and to “Tàizǔ Gāohuángdì” — these are perhaps later Míng-period transcribers’ alterations after Shìchéng’s fall. Shàoxīng from this point held its own for eight more years; in Zhìzhèng 26 (1366) it was finally returned to Míng. Lǚ Zhēn likewise in that year, after the Húzhōu defeat, surrendered to Xú Dá. Although his initial allegiance was misplaced and his late integrity faltered, in respect to Shàoxīng he cannot be said to have rendered no service. As for Hú Dàhǎi’s repulse at Shàoxīng, his subsequent licentious looting and disturbance of Sòng tomb-mounds and other deeds of cruelty — the Míng shǐ records none of them. The recorded events of Zhāng Zhèngméng’s wife Hánshì, his daughters Chínú and Yuènú, and the wives of Féng Dàoyī and Féng Dàoèr resisting and dying for principle — the Míng shǐ likewise does not record. These especially supplement the omissions of the standard history; therefore we record this work for reference. Reverently presented in the sixth month of Qiánlóng 45 (= 1780). Chief Editors: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. Chief Collator: Lù Fèichí.

Abstract

The Bǎo Yuè lù is the principal Yuán-end / late Yuán-Míng-transitional eyewitness source on the conflict between Zhū Yuánzhāng and Zhāng Shìchéng. Its specific focus — the siege of Shàoxīng in 1359 — is one of the few episodes of that conflict for which a contemporary partisan record survives. The work’s composition is firmly bracketed by internal evidence: the events occur 1358–59; the work was composed during the surviving Zhāngshìchéng polity (i.e. before 1366, when Shàoxīng surrendered); and almost certainly while Lǚ Zhēn was still in command at Shàoxīng (i.e., before his redeployment to Húzhōu in 1366) — yielding a defensible composition window of 1359–1367.

The work’s interest is both historiographical and literary: (i) as an unflinching record of the siege and counter-siege tactics of mid-fourteenth-century Chinese warfare — moats and palisades, yuèchéng (barbican) construction, fire-arrows, fire-tubes (huǒtǒng 火筒), siege-towers, fascine-and-bundle bridges across moats, and counter-mining; (ii) as a corrective to the official Míng shǐ, which (the Sìkù editors point out) systematically suppresses Hú Dàhǎi’s failure at Shàoxīng, his troops’ looting and grave-desecration (specifically of the Southern-Sòng Lǐzōng and Cíxiàn fūrén tombs), and the resistance of Shàoxīng gentry-women — items the Míng shǐ cannot record because they reflect badly on the Míng founder; (iii) as a uniquely vivid social-political portrait of late-Yuán urban resistance, including the Confucian gentry’s collective response (suicide-pacts, civilian organization in bǎojiǎ 保甲 units), the food-and-supply networks linking Shàoxīng to Hángzhōu and Jiāxīng, and the role of the painter-rebel Wáng Miǎn 王冕 as a jūnshī (military advisor) to Hú Dàhǎi.

The text is also one of the few sources documenting the late-Yuán polity’s continued resilience: under Lǚ Zhēn’s command Shàoxīng held for eight more years, until 1366 — proving that the WúHàn / ZhūYuánzhāng victory was neither swift nor inevitable but the result of a long protracted struggle.

Translations and research

• No substantial English-language secondary literature located on this work specifically. The siege is treated in passing in Frederick W. Mote, Imperial China 900–1800 (HUP, 1999), pp. 533–544; and in Edward L. Dreyer, Early Ming China (StanfordUP, 1982), pp. 27–47.
• John W. Dardess, Confucianism and Autocracy: Professional Elites in the Founding of the Ming Dynasty (UC Press, 1983), treats the late-Yuán intellectual context of the resistance.
• The Sì-kù tíyào notice is in 史部·傳記類四·雜錄之屬.

Other points of interest

The Wáng Miǎn episode is striking: the famous late-Yuán plum-blossom painter, recorded as having taken refuge in the Jiǔlǐ shān 九里山 outside Shàoxīng and refusing to enter the city, is captured by Hú Dàhǎi’s troops; he saves his life by claiming military expertise (shànnéng tāolüè bīngshū — well-versed in military tāolüè and military classics); is presented to Zhū Yuánzhāng, who promotes him to a high command position; and serves as a jūnshī to Hú Dàhǎi for the Shàoxīng campaign. He is credited with proposing the deceptive flank attack at the Yòuyàn (Right Embankment) — a manoeuvre that nearly succeeded in cutting Shàoxīng’s grain route through Chāngānmén. The Bǎo Yuè lù’s testimony stands in sharp contrast to the romanticized later MíngQīng image of Wáng Miǎn as a pure-hearted recluse-painter; a useful corrective to Wáng Miǎn’s biography in standard reference works.

Links

• Wilkinson 2018, Chinese History: A New Manual §65.5.
• Mote 1999, ch. 17 (the founding of the Míng).
• Dreyer 1982, ch. 1 (the YuánMíng transition).