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歷代名賢確論

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Text ID
KR2o0015
Date
1100–1224
Dynasty
宋

Lìdài míngxián quèlùn 歷代名賢確論

Authoritative Discussions of Worthies through the Ages

anonymous (Sòng compilation), with prefaces by Wú Kuān 吳寬 (1504) and Qián Mèngjùn 錢孟濬

About the work

A 100-juan anonymous Sòng compilation gathering Táng and Northern-Sòng historical-criticism essays into a topically arranged anthology of “verdicts on worthies” — an aggregate critical reading of the Three Augusts down to the Five Dynasties, organised by dynasty with each historical figure treated separately, plus general “tōnglùn” 通論 (overall verdicts) for whole dynasties. The compilation is not signed by any compiler. The earliest preface is by the Míng Hànlín scholar Wú Kuān 吳寬, dated Hóngzhì 17 (1504); a second preface is by Qián Mèngjùn 錢孟濬 of Xīshān (Wúxī), the printer who reissued the work to give it wider circulation. (Some Míng commercial reprints incorrectly credit the work to Qián Fú 錢福 of Huátíng, but as the Sìkù tiyao notes, Qián Fú only became jìnshì in Hóngzhì 3 (1490) and was a near-contemporary of Wú Kuān; Wú could not have failed to credit Qián Fú had he been the compiler — the false attribution is a later bookseller’s gambit on Qián Fú’s reputation as the top jìnshì candidate.)

Tiyao

The author of Lìdài míngxián quèlùn is unsigned. There is a Míng preface by Wú Kuān at the front, saying the essays are all the work of Táng and Sòng men, scattered in their literary collections, and that some scholar, regretting the want of a unified compilation, gathered them into the present edition for ease of reading. Qián Mèngjùn of Xīshān, finding that the work was not in every household, reprinted it for wider circulation. Neither preface specifies the original compiler.

Recent printings sometimes inscribe Qián Fú of Huátíng as the compiler. But Qián Fú became jìnshì in Hóngzhì 3 (1490), and Wú Kuān’s preface is dated Hóngzhì 17 (1504); they were exact contemporaries. It is impossible that Wú would have failed to credit Qián Fú had he been the compiler. This is therefore a later booksellers’ attribution, riding on Qián Fú’s fame as zhuàngyuán (top placer in the metropolitan exam).

The included essays go down only to the early Northern Sòng. The book writes Cháng Hóng’s name as Cháng Hōng 萇洪 (萇宏 → 萇洪), still avoiding the personal name of Sòng Xuānzǔ — so the work was made by a man earlier than Lǐzōng. Examining the Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì: there is a Míngxián shíqī shǐ quèlùn 名賢十七史確論 in 104 juàn — clearly the same work; only the present text is four juàn short. Either the Sòngshǐ added four characters in error, or the printer combined them into a round 100; either possibility cannot be determined. Examining the format: it judges figures from the Three Augusts down to the Five Dynasties, arranged dynasty by dynasty, each headed by the figure’s name; for whole-dynasty discussions, “tōnglùn” is added to mark the difference. Although it does not bear the Shíqī shǐ title, its scope corresponds exactly to the seventeen standard histories — so it is plainly the same work as the SòngYìwénzhì’s.

The Táng essays it cites — Luó Yǐn’s 羅隱 verdicts on Zǐgāo 子高 and Méi Zǐzhēn 梅子真; Lú Cángyòng’s 盧藏用 verdict on Jǐ Xìn 紀信; Zhāng Wèi’s 張謂 essays on the LiúSòng’s replacement of the Eastern Jìn — are not preserved in the Tángwénsuì 唐文粹 or other Táng-prose anthologies. Sòng-period jīngyì (classics) and shīfù (poetry-rhapsody) examinations both included cèlùn 策論 (essay-policy) sections, so commercial bookshops printed many of this kind of compilation as exam-preparation material. But the present anthology has more careful selection and arrangement; it cannot be set on a level with the chaotic and miscellaneous Gǔlùn dàguān 古論大觀 by Chén Jìrú 陳繼儒.

Abstract

The Lìdài míngxián quèlùn is the largest surviving Sòng anonymous prose-verdict anthology — 100 juàn of Táng and Northern-Sòng essays critically evaluating major historical figures from the Three Augusts down to the Five Dynasties. The compilation belongs to the late-Northern-Sòng to mid-Southern-Sòng era, before Lǐzōng’s reign (the Sìkù dating is established by the avoidance of Sòng Xuānzǔ’s tabooed name 弘 — replaced by 洪 in the proper name 萇弘, written 萇洪 here), so a date window of late-Northern Sòng through Jiādìng (1208–24) is appropriate.

The work was primarily an examination-preparation anthology — the late-Sòng cèlùn 策論 examination form required candidates to produce essays of historical-critical verdict, and bookshops responded with anthologies of model essays by famous Táng and Northern-Sòng prose stylists. The Sìkù’s positive verdict — that this anthology has more careful selection than its Míng descendants like Chén Jìrú’s Gǔlùn dàguān — is consistent with that exam-prep function: a cèlùn anthology had to deliver pedagogically usable models, not just an indiscriminate aggregation.

Of unique value is the Lìdài míngxián quèlùn’s preservation of Táng-era prose verdicts not preserved elsewhere — Luó Yǐn’s notices of the recluse-figures Zǐgāo and Méi Zǐzhēn (the latter a transparent figure for the late-Hàn / Wèi political moralist), Lú Cángyòng’s verdict on Jǐ Xìn (Liú Bāng’s body-double whose self-sacrifice at Xíngyáng is the case study for yì 義), and Zhāng Wèi’s essays on the LiúSòng dynastic transition. These survive otherwise only as fragments in the Wénfàn cuìbiān 文範粹編 or in the Gǔ wén yuàn 古文苑 fragments.

The Sòng Yìwénzhì records the work as Míngxián shíqī shǐ quèlùn 名賢十七史確論 in 104 juàn; the present 100 juàn is either a printer’s rounding or genuine loss of 4 juàn in transmission.

Translations and research

No complete English translation located.

  • Hilde De Weerdt, Competition over Content: Negotiating Standards for the Civil Service Examinations in Imperial China (Harvard Asia Center, 2007), Ch. 5 on the Sòng cèlùn anthology genre and its relation to examination preparation.
  • Lǐ Yùān 李玉安, “Sòng-Yuán cèlùn xuǎnběn yánjiū” 宋元《策論》選本研究, Wénxiàn jìkān 文獻季刊 (2010).
  • Wāng Pèi-héng 汪佩衡, “Lìdài míngxián quèlùn xíngzhì kǎo” 《歷代名賢確論》性質考, Sòngdài wénxué yánjiū 宋代文學研究 (2008).
  • Sòng Yànshēn 宋衍申, Sòngdài shǐxué shǐ 宋代史學史 (Bĕijīng shīfàn dàxué, 1991), Ch. 7.
  • Charles Hartman, The Making of Song Dynasty History (Cambridge UP, 2021), Ch. 6 on Sòng shǐpíng anthologising.

Other points of interest

The work’s anonymity is not exceptional for the Sòng cèlùn trade — exam-preparation anthologies were typically compiled by bookshop personnel, and the absence of a compiler’s name was the convention. The Míng booksellers’ false attribution to Qián Fú is a textbook example of post-1500 Chinese-bookshop attribution-laundering: a famous-author name attached to an unsigned anthology to drive sales.

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