Mìshū jiàn zhì 祕書監志
Gazetteer of the Imperial Library Directorate by 王士點 (Wáng Shìdiǎn, 撰) and 商企翁 (Shāng Qǐwēng, 撰)
About the work
The Mìshū jiàn zhì in 11 juǎn is the principal Yuán-period administrative monograph on the Mìshū jiàn 秘書監 — the Imperial Library Directorate at Dàdū. It was compiled jointly by Wáng Shìdiǎn 王士點 (d. 1359; zì unrecorded) and Shāng Qǐwēng 商企翁 (zì Jìbó 繼伯, of Cáozhōu 曹州), an Editorial Director (Zhùzuò zuǒláng 著作佐郎) of the Library, and was completed in the late Zhìzhèng era (the Sìkù Tíyào gives “順帝至正中,” roughly Zhìzhèng 1–12 = 1341–1352; Wilkinson lists 1352 as the conventional date). The work documents in detail the institutional setup, statutory precedents, official titles, and operating practice of the Directorate from its Zhìyuán-era refoundation onwards. It also incorporates the Sītiānjiàn 司天監 (Astronomical Directorate), which under the Yuán was administratively subordinate to the Mìshū jiàn — an arrangement modelled, the Sìkù editors note, on the Hàn practice of attaching celestial duties to the Grand Astrologer (太史令) under the Imperial Library. After the institutional sections come long lists of office-holders by title (similar in form to those in KR2l0005), recording even Junior Directors (直長) and Clerical Sub-officials (令史) — a detail-richness the Sìkù editors trace to the Jīn-era practice of treating clerical sub-officials as a path of literati advancement, so that even minor Yuán Mìshū jiàn clerks often rose to ministerial rank.
Tiyao
The editors respectfully submit that the Mìshū jiàn zhì in 11 juǎn was co-authored by Wáng Shìdiǎn and Shāng Qǐwēng of the Yuán. Shìdiǎn’s Jìnbiǎn 禁扁 has already been catalogued. Qǐwēng, zì Jìbó 繼伯, was a native of Cáozhōu 曹州 and served as Editorial Director (著作佐郎). The book was completed in the Zhìzhèng era of Shùndì 順帝. From the Zhìyuán founding, all institutional changes, statutory precedents, and significant affairs are fully recorded. The Astronomical Directorate (司天監) is also included as an appendix: under Yuán practice, the Astronomical Directorate was subordinate to the Imperial Library, in the same way that the Hàn Grand Astrologer concurrently held the celestial offices. Following the institutional sections come name-lists of office-holders, on the model of the Nán Sòng guǎngé lù 南宋館閣錄 (KR2l0005); even Junior Directors and Clerical Sub-officials are recorded in detail, since after the Jīn the path of clerical sub-official to gentleman-official often led to the highest ranks, and the office accordingly carried more weight than in earlier dynasties. The records are well documented and serviceable: Zhū Yízūn 朱彝尊 once relied on this work to prove that “Wú Zōu” 吳鄒 — whom the Jí’ān fǔ zhì 吉安府志 had treated as the Sòng remnant Zhāng Yìngzhēn 張應珍 — was in fact a different person who in Dàdé 9 (1305) renamed himself and went on to serve as Junior Director of the Imperial Library. The work thus has substantial use for historical research. Respectfully collated, [Qiánlóng] 54, [no month given] (i.e., 1789).
Abstract
The Mìshū jiàn zhì is the foundational Yuán-period source on the Imperial Library and is the closest Yuán parallel to the Sòng pair KR2l0003 (Líntái gùshì) and KR2l0005 (Nán Sòng guǎngé lù). Its inclusion of the Astronomical Directorate’s organization is a distinctive feature, reflecting the Yuán reorganization of celestial duties under library administration. Wilkinson identifies a punctuated and collated edition by Gāo Róngshèng 高榮盛 (in the Xiàntái tōngjì wài sānzhǒng 憲臺通紀外三種, 2002), which is the standard modern reference. The work is also notable as a corpus where Yuán-era spoken-style legal and administrative language (the so-called zhíyì 直譯) appears extensively, making it a major linguistic resource for Yuán Chinese.
Translations and research
- Gāo Róngshèng 高榮盛, ed. 2002. Mìshū jiàn zhì 祕書監志. In Xiàntái tōngjì wài sānzhǒng 憲臺通紀外三種. Hangzhou: Zhejiang guji. The standard punctuated and collated edition.
- Funada Yoshiyuki 舩田善之. 2003. Yuán dài Mìshū jiàn zhì yǔ Yuán dài jīwù tángdá yǔyán 元代《秘書監志》與元代機務堂答語言. Yuán shǐ jí mín zú yǔ biānjiāng yánjiū jíkān 元史及民族與邊疆研究集刊. (On the zhíyì idiom of the work.)
- Funada Yoshiyuki 舩田善之. 2017. Mongoru jidai no shutsuban bunka to chishikijin モンゴル時代の出版文化と知識人. (Treats the Yuán Imperial Library and its publishing programme.)
Other points of interest
The Mìshū jiàn zhì preserves a number of Yuán-era directives in the literal-translation idiom (直譯體), where Mongolian-Chinese chancellery language was rendered word-for-word into a colloquial-classical hybrid. As a result, the text is one of the principal corpora used by historical linguists for Yuán-Chinese chancery prose.