延祐四明志

Yányòu Sìmíng zhì 延祐四明志

Gazetteer of Sìmíng (Níngbō), [compiled in the] Yányòu [reign-period] by 袁桷

About the work

A twenty-juan Yuán prefectural gazetteer of Qìngyuánlù 慶元路 (literary name Sìmíng 四明 = modern Níngbō 寧波 plus the surrounding region of eastern Zhèjiāng), completed in Yányòu 7 (1320) under the zǒngguǎn 總管 Mǎ Zé 馬澤. The actual compiler is the major late-Yuán literary figure Yuán Juè 袁桷 (1266–1327, Hànyǔ pīnyīn now standard as Yuán Juè rather than Yuán Quán; zì Bózhǎng 伯長, native of Qìngyuán); the work belongs to the Sìmíng zhì lineage that begins with the Sòng Bǎoqìng Sìmíng zhì 寶慶四明志 by Luō Jùn 羅濬 (KR2k0017) and continues with the Yuán Zhìzhèng Sìmíng xùzhì 至正四明續志 by Wáng Yuángōng 王元恭. Three juan (juan 9–11) of the original twenty are lost in the Sìkù recension; only 17 are extant. Twelve rubric-categories (kǎo 考): yángé (historical evolution), tǔfēng (custom), zhíguān (officeholders), rénwù (worthies), shānchuān, chéngyì (city walls), héqú (river works), fùyì (taxes and corvée), xuéxiào (schools), císì (shrines), shìdào (Buddhists and Daoists), jígǔ (epigraphical and antiquarian).

Tiyao

We respectfully note: the Yányòu Sìmíng zhì in twenty juan is by Yuán Juè 袁桷 of the Yuán. Juè, zì Bózhǎng 伯長, was a man of Qìngyuán 慶元 (modern Níngbō); he was the great-grandson of Sòng zhī Shūmìyuàn Yuán Sháo 袁韶. As a young man he was shānzhǎng of the Lìzé shūyuàn 麗澤書院; on recommendation he was transferred to the office of jiǎnyuèguān 檢閱官 of the Hànlín Guóshǐyuàn, and rose by promotions to Shìjiǎng xuéshì 侍講學士. He retired and died, and was posthumously appointed cānzhī zhèngshì of the JiāngZhè xíngshěng; he was enfeoffed Chénliújùngōng 陳留郡公 with the posthumous title 文清 (Wénqīng). His career is recorded in his Yuán shǐ biography. Juè’s literary writings were broad and substantial — supreme of his generation among court men of letters; his Qīngróng jūshì jí 清容居士集 in fifty juan still survives, registered separately. He also composed an Yìshuō 易説 and a Chūnqiūshuō 春秋説, listed in Sū Tiānjué’s 蘇天爵 mùzhìmíng for him, but no copy of these survives — they perished long ago.

This is the Míngzhōu prefectural gazetteer he edited, completed in Yányòu 7 (1320). The Qìngyuánlù zǒngguǎn Mǎ Zé 馬澤 commissioned Juè to compose it. There are 20 juan in twelve “considerations” (kǎo): yángé (evolution), tǔfēng (customs), zhíguān (officials), rénwù (worthies), shānchuān (mountains and rivers), chéngyì (cities), héqú (river-works), fùyì (taxes and corvée), xuéxiào (schools), císì (shrines), shìdào (Buddhists and Daoists), jígǔ (epigraphy). Its rubric scheme is clear, simple, and most aptly structured. Juè’s ancestors in the Sòng were repeatedly known for their literary attainments and were called “an old eastern-southern household of inheritance.” After Juè’s death, the court began compiling the [Sòng] Shǐ and dispatched envoys to seek out the surviving documentary records of the various prefectures and kingdoms; the materials transmitted from the Yuán family alone were the most numerous. Hence in this work, on the old institutions of his native place, his connections are particularly thorough; in the gazetteer the evidential investigations are precise, the narrative clear, neither padded nor unrestrained — it has truly the manner of a fine historian. Compared with the Zhìyuán Jiāhé zhì (KR2k0023) and the Zhìzhèng Wúxī zhì (KR2k0028) it is even more comprehensive, and is especially worth praising. Only that juan 9 to 11 are now missing — three juan; what is preserved is a mere 17 juan. These were dropped by copyists. Even so, since Yuán-period gazetteer manuscripts no longer survive in any abundance, what is preserved is still sufficient for evidential research; we ought not to discard it on grounds of incompleteness.

Reverently collated and submitted, tenth month, Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Editors-in-chief: Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. General collation officer: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.

Abstract

The Yányòu Sìmíng zhì belongs to the most important continuous gazetteer-tradition of any Chinese region in the high-medieval period: the Sìmíng zhì lineage of Níngbō, which begins with Hú Júkào’s 胡矩闊 (Sòng Qiándào) lost gazetteer, continues through Zhāng Jīn’s 張津 Qiándào Sìmíng tújīng 乾道四明圖經 (KR2k0014), Hú Júkào’s Bǎoqìng Sìmíng zhì 寶慶四明志 by Luō Jùn 羅濬 (KR2k0017) (Sòng Bǎoqìng), Méi Yìngfā’s 梅應發 Kāiqìng Sìmíng xùzhì 開慶四明續志 (KR2k0019) (Sòng Kāiqìng), this Yányòu compilation (Yuán Yányòu), and Wáng Yuángōng’s 王元恭 Zhìzhèng Sìmíng xùzhì 至正四明續志 (KR2k0026 is the Qíchéng — different work; Sìmíng xùzhì is published separately) of Yuán Zhìzhèng. This unbroken sequence makes Níngbō one of the most fully-documented prefectures in pre-Míng China.

Yuán Juè was the perfect compiler for the work: a major court literatus with deep family roots in Qìngyuán (his great-grandfather Yuán Sháo had been a chief councillor under the Southern Sòng), a Hànlín shìjiǎngxuéshì with privileged access to court documents, and a scholar of recognized historiographical sensibility — Sū Tiānjué’s epitaph for him notes his planned but lost works on the Yì and Chūnqiū. The Sìkù editors place him in the rare class of “having truly the manner of a fine historian” (pō yǒu liángshǐ zhī fēng 頗有良史之風), an evaluation they extend to almost no other Yuán gazetteer compiler.

The twelve-kǎo rubric scheme is structurally cleaner than the elaborate Sòng Sìmíng zhì tradition that preceded it, and provided a model for later Yuán prefectural gazetteer compilation. The jígǔ (epigraphic-antiquarian) rubric, in particular, is unusual: it provides a systematic register of inscriptions and antiquarian objects within the prefecture, paralleling the function of bēijié sections in other gazetteers but with broader scope. Juan 9–11 are lost in the Sìkù recension; their content was likely the zhíguān (officeholders) and possibly part of the rénwù (worthies) sections, but exact reconstruction is uncertain.

A note on dating: the catalog meta dates indicate Yuán Juè’s lifedates (1267–1327; CBDB 10389 confirms 1266–1327). The work itself is precisely datable to Yányòu 7 (1320) by internal evidence and the Sìkù tíyào; both notBefore and notAfter are set to 1320.

A note on Yuán Juè’s lifedates: the catalog meta gives 1267–1327; CBDB (id 10389) gives 1266–1327. Both fall within the relevant SòngYuán transition window. The discrepancy of one year for the birth date appears to reflect a divergent calendrical reckoning of the jiǎyín year of the YuánSòng transition.

Translations and research

• Hargett, James M. 1996. “Song dynasty local gazetteers and their place in the history of difangzhi writing.” HJAS 56.2: 405–42. Treats the Sìmíng zhì lineage as a key continuous gazetteer corpus.
• Davis, Richard L. Wind Against the Mountain: The Crisis of Politics and Culture in Thirteenth-Century China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 1996. Background on Yuán Sháo and the Yuán family of Qìngyuán.
• Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A New Manual. 6th ed. 2022. §§16.4.1, 64.3.3.1.
• Modern punctuated edition: in Sòng Yuán fāngzhì cóngkān 宋元方志叢刊 (Zhōnghuá, 1990), vol. 6.
• Zhāng Rú’ān 張如安 (2011, 2015) on Níngbō gazetteer corpora; cited at Wilkinson §16.3.4.

Other points of interest

The Yuán family of Qìngyuán was one of the principal SòngYuán transition lineages of the Níngbō region: Yuán Sháo 袁韶 (great-grandfather of Yuán Juè) had been Zhī Shūmìyuàn (Bureau of Military Affairs) under the Southern Sòng, and the family preserved a substantial private archive of Sòng documentary materials that was drawn upon both for this work and for the imperial Sòng shǐ compilation begun under Toghon Temür. The work is therefore not merely a local gazetteer but a partial repository of late Sòng documentary materials filtered through one of the most distinguished documentary families of the southeast.

Links

• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual (6th ed., 2022).
• chinaknowledge.de
• ctext.org
• Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11003960 (延祐四明志)