JiāngHàn cóngtán 江漢叢談
Discussions on Jiāng-Hàn Affairs by 陳士元 (Chén Shìyuán, b. 1516) — zhuàn 撰
About the work
A 2-juan mid-Míng kǎozhèng-style discursive monograph on the historical and mythological-topographical gùshí of the JiāngHàn region (Húběi, the lower Hàn River basin, the ancient Chǔ heartland), arranged as a series of wèndá (question-and-answer) entries. Composed by Chén Shìyuán 陳士元 — zì Xīnshū 心叔, hào Huánzhōng zi 環中子, native of Yìngchéng 應城 in Déān 德安 (modern Húběi), Jiājìng jiǎchén (1544) jìnshì, Prefect of Luánzhōu — and signed under his hào “Huánzhōng yūsǒu” 環中迂叟, the work circulated anonymously in some recensions; the Xù shuōfú records several entries under Chén Shìyuán’s name. Topics in juan 1 include: Fēnghòu, Shùnlíng (the tomb of Shùn), Shùnfēi, Wǎnwěi, Xīrǎng (the swelling-earth myth), Xuányí, Jiǔjǐng, Yǒunán, Yùzǐ, Suízhū (the famous Pearl of Suìhóu); juan 2: Zǐwén, Mèng Zōng (the filial-piety patriarch of bamboo-shoots-in-winter), Páng Tǒng, Lè Ǎi, Huángmǔ, Jiěpèi (the dragon-girls who untied their pendants for the two princesses on the Hàn), SānChǔ, Zhúwáng, Pánhú (the dog-ancestor myth of the southern Mán peoples), Kōngyán. The work is principally important for: (i) Chén’s careful philological discussions, drawing on the Lù shǐ, Shānhǎijīng, HòuHàn shū, and other early sources; (ii) the rebuttal of Tóng Shìchóu’s Miǎn zhì on the relation of Fēngchéng of Chǔ to Fúxī; (iii) the rebuttal of the standard attribution of the Shānhǎijīng to Bó Yì (on the basis that the work mentions Chángshā and Línglíng — Qín-Hàn-period jùn names); (iv) the philological argument against the dog-totem reading of Pánhú (treating “Pánhú” as a personal name rather than a dog).
Tiyao
We respectfully note: the JiāngHàn cóngtán in two juan does not record the compiler’s name; only the title-page bears “Huánzhōng yūsǒu”. The Xù shuōfú records a number of entries under Chén Shìyuán’s name. Examining: Shìyuán, zì Xīnshū, native of Yìngchéng; Jiājìng jiǎchén jìnshì (1544); his career-history is unrecorded. His other works include the Yìxiàng gōujiě KR1a0099 already separately catalogued.
This work, on the gùshí of the Chǔ region, sets up question-and-answer with kǎozhèng. Such as: Tóng Shìchóu’s Miǎn zhì says that the Fēngchéng of Chǔ is not Fúxī’s descendant — Shìyuán then cites the Lù shǐ’s “Fúxī’s enfeoffed states number nineteen, with the Fēng state at the head” — therefore one cannot say there was no Fēng state of Fúxī. The Shānhǎijīng old tradition says Bó Yì composed it; Shìyuán selects from within it the names “Chángshā” and “Línglíng” — Qín-Hàn-period prefecture names — and knows they are later additions. The HòuHàn shū records the various Yí of the South as the dog-breed of Pánhú; Shìyuán then takes it as a personal name, not a dog-name. Of this kind, his discussions are extremely precise and accurate.
Only such items as Suìhóu obtaining the pearl, Mèng Zōng obtaining the bamboo-shoot — old transmitted matters touching the supernatural — should properly be preserved without comment; Shìyuán in successive citation makes them solid, not free of fùhuì. This is presumably the habit of Míng-period gazetteers in exalting local customs and trumpeting hometown sages — Shìyuán has not been able to escape the convention.
But his evidentiary citation is full and concentrated, his judgements clear and lucid; what may be selected is rather much. Observing that what he annotates of the Zhōu Yì much expounds the Hàn-Confucian learning, we know he gave attention to ancient texts and is not to be compared with empty talkers without root. Respectfully proof-read in the third month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778).
Director-General compilers (chén /) Jǐ Yún, (chén /) Lù Xīxióng, (chén /) Sūn Shìyì; Director-General proof-reader (chén /) Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The JiāngHàn cóngtán is one of the principal mid-Míng monographs on the historical-mythological topography of Húběi, by the Yìjīng-and-philology specialist Chén Shìyuán 陳士元 (b. 1516, jìnshì 1544; CBDB 203527). It belongs to the same scholarly œuvre as Chén’s Yìxiàng gōujiě KR1a0099, Yí mèng lín xuán jiě, and Mèngzǐ zá jì, and exemplifies the late Jiājìng / early Wànlì fashion for kǎozhèng discussion of regional antiquities through the question-and-answer (wèndá) format.
The work is principally valuable for its careful philological corrections to the standard treatments of Chǔ mythology and topography — including the dating arguments against the Shānhǎijīng’s attribution to Bó Yì on the basis of post-Hàn place-names, and the rebuttal of the standard HòuHàn shū dog-totem reading of Pánhú. The catalog meta gives the date of composition as 1544 — that is the year of Chén’s jìnshì and very probably the year of compilation, though some entries may be later. The catalog date is 1544.
The work is preserved in Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū (vol. 590.8).
Translations and research
No comprehensive English translation. The work figures in studies of late-Míng kǎo-zhèng, the historical anthropology of the Pán-hú myth, and Húběi local-historical writing. See L. Carrington Goodrich, ed., Dictionary of Ming Biography (Columbia, 1976), s.v. Chén Shìyuán; for the Pán-hú myth see Magnus Fiskesjö, “On the ‘Raw’ and the ‘Cooked’ Barbarians of Imperial China,” Inner Asia 1.2 (1999): 139–168; for Chén’s broader work see the entry in Hervouet, ed., A Sung Bibliography.
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