Chìyǎ 赤雅
The Red-Earth Classic by 鄺露 (Kuàng Lù, 1604–1650) — zhuàn 撰
About the work
A 3-juan late-Míng monograph on Guǎngxī (the Chìyǎ “red lands” of Lǐngnánxīdào), composed by Kuàng Lù 鄺露 (1604–1650; zì Zhànruò 湛若; native of Nánhǎi 南海 in Guǎngzhōu) during his travels in Guǎngxī in the late 1630s. According to the autograph, Kuàng was during his Guǎngxī travels invited to serve as zhǎngshūjì (head secretary) by Yúntuǒniáng 雲亸孃 — a chieftainess (tǔsī) of the Cén 岑, Lán 藍, Hú 胡, Hóu 侯, Pán 槃 (or Pán) five-family Yáo confederation, whose lands extended over much of central-southern Guǎngxī. The work treats the mountains-rivers, products, persons, and customs of these Yáo / Zhuàng territories. The Sìkù tíyào commends the work’s elegant prose and substantial topographical detail, ranking it equal to Fàn Chéngdà’s Guìhǎi yúhéng zhì KR2k0115 — but criticises certain literary embellishments (the elaborate Yáo women’s dress descriptions; the absurd account of orangutans; the implausible Tang-style poems put in the mouth of mùkè, said to be Qín-period woodcutters).
The Sìkù tíyào also contains a substantial moral-historical evaluation of Kuàng Lù himself, noting (i) his unconventional youth — having been failed in the prefectural examination for writing the four legs of an eight-legged essay each in a different calligraphic script (zhēn, cǎo, lì, zhuàn); (ii) his early association with the corrupt minister Ruǎn Dàchéng 阮大鋮 in Nánjīng (each writing prefaces for the other’s collected works); (iii) his loyalist death — refusing to surrender to the Qīng forces in 1650 at Guǎngzhōu, embracing his treasured gǔqín (lute) and starving to death; (iv) the famous Wáng Shìzhēn poem Nánhǎi jīrén sǐ bào qín commemorating this. The Sìkù judges Kuàng’s loyalty redeems his earlier laxity, but ranks him below the genuinely upright Huáng Chúnyào 黃淳耀 et al.
Tiyao
We respectfully note: the Chìyǎ in three juan is by Kuàng Lù of Míng. Lù, zì Zhànruò, native of Nánhǎi. Niǔ Xiù’s Gūshèng records that when as a zhūshēng he sat the annual exam, the topic was “wén xíng zhōng xìn”; he composed the four legs in four different calligraphic scripts — zhēn, cǎo, lì, zhuàn; he was therefore failed — also a wild-and-unrestrained scholar.
Wáng Shìzhēn’s Chíběi ǒután further records: in his youth he travelled in Jīnlíng, was a guest at Ruǎn Dàchéng’s gate; once composed a preface for Dàchéng’s collected works; Dàchéng also composed a preface for Lù’s collected works — that man (Ruǎn) is utterly unworthy. But on our state’s Shùnzhì opening, our imperial troops entered Yuè (Guǎngzhōu); Lù, righteously not changing his loyalty, finally embraced his treasured ancient qín and starved himself to death. Shìzhēn’s poem “Nánhǎi jīrén sǐ bào qín” (the singular man of Nánhǎi died holding the qín) is composed for him; his ambition-and-integrity are esteemed by the world.
But Lù depending on his contracted-bond with the eunuch’s adopted son had composed Qiáoyǎ, repeatedly calling Dàchéng Shícháo fūzǐ — in fact giving offence to míngjiào. Although his later end can be sufficient to redeem himself, in fact he cannot rank with Huáng Chúnyào and others — jiǎorán (clearly visible) like the sun-and-moon contending in light.
This work is what Lù made when travelling in Guǎngxī, going through the tǔsī of the Cén, Lán, Hú, Hóu, Pán five surnames; because the Yáo woman Yúntuǒniáng kept him as zhǎngshūjì; on returning he narrated what he had seen and heard. What is recorded of mountains-rivers and products — all is cízǎo jiǎnyǎ (refined-and-elegant prose); the order of narration is dignified-and-accurate; not below Fàn Chéngdà’s Guìhǎi yúhéng zhì KR2k0115. Can be called a fine recension.
Only — among them, the description of the Cénshì Yáo nǚ (Cén-clan Yáo women)‘s clothing and ornament — within the streams-and-villages there must be no such elaborate-and-beautiful things; Lù has presumably culled ancient matters and used them as embellishment. Further, the description of the xīngxīng (orangutan) — extremely far from probability. The description of the mùkè (wood-guests, the legendary Qín-period woodcutters who lived as immortals) — said to be Qín-period wood-takers; how can they compose regulated poetry? The poem cited “xìyǔ Jiàngé líng yú dòng / Chángmén zhú gèng shēn” (a fine-rain Sword-Pavilion bell more in motion / Chángmén candle the watch deeper) — how can it use HànTáng allusions? This is then fùhuì túshì (fanciful elaboration) — unable to escape the literati’s customary habit. Preserve and not discuss is acceptable. Respectfully proof-read in the eighth month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778).
Abstract
The Chìyǎ is one of the principal late-Míng monographs on Guǎngxī, by the loyalist cí-poet, calligrapher, and traveller Kuàng Lù 鄺露 (1604–1650; CBDB 73479; zì Zhànruò 湛若; native of Nánhǎi 南海 in Guǎngzhōu). It was composed in the late 1630s during his Guǎngxī travels, while resident at the yá (court) of the Yáo chieftainess Yúntuǒniáng 雲亸孃 (one of the female tǔsī of the CénLánHúHóuPán five-family confederation), where he served as zhǎngshūjì. The work’s title alludes to chìtǔ (red lands) — the standard HànTáng term for Lǐngnán — and to the Ěryǎ, suggesting a regional-philological encyclopedia.
The work’s principal value is as a late-Míng documentary record of (i) the Yáo tǔsī polities of central-southern Guǎngxī before the Qīng gǎitǔ guīliú (replacement of indigenous chieftains with bureaucratic appointees) reforms; (ii) the social organisation, language, costume, and religious culture of the late-Míng Yáo and Zhuàng peoples; (iii) the Cén-clan female tǔsī tradition (the famous Wǎshì Furen 瓦氏夫人 of Tiánzhōu having been the most prominent example a generation earlier). The Sìkù tíyào criticises certain embellishments but commends the prose register, ranking the work equal to Fàn Chéngdà’s Guìhǎi yúhéng zhì KR2k0115.
The work is preserved in Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū (vol. 594.9).
Translations and research
No comprehensive English translation. See John E. Herman, Amid the Clouds and Mist: China’s Colonization of Guizhou, 1200–1700 (Harvard, 2007), comparative; David Faure, Emperor and Ancestor: State and Lineage in South China (Stanford, 2007). For Kuàng Lù’s biography see L. Carrington Goodrich, ed., Dictionary of Ming Biography (Columbia, 1976), s.v. K’uang Lu; Lynn Struve, Voices from the Ming-Qing Cataclysm: China in Tigers’ Jaws (Yale, 1993), and her many papers on the Míng-Qīng transition. The famous Wáng Shìzhēn poem “南海畸人死抱琴” is in his Chí-běi ǒu-tán. Critical Chinese editions: Lán Hóng-ēn 藍鴻恩 ed., Chì-yǎ jiào-zhù (Nán-níng, 1980s).
Other points of interest
The work belongs to a distinctive subset of Míng-loyalist regional ethnography — produced by literati who refused to serve the Qīng and were preserved in part because of their authors’ loyalist deaths. The Sìkù tíyào’s lengthy moral-historical commentary on Kuàng Lù (combining criticism of his Ruǎn Dàchéng association with admiration for his loyalist death-by-starvation) is itself a striking late-Qián-lóng exercise in bāobiǎn historical evaluation.
Links
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15923181 (Kuàng Lù)
- Goodrich, Dictionary of Ming Biography (1976), s.v. K’uang Lu