厚生訓纂

Hòushēng xùnzuǎn 厚生訓纂

Anthology of Instructions for Enriching Life by 周臣 Zhōu Chén (zì Zǐzhōng 子忠, hào Yòngzhuō 用拙, also Zàishān 在山; jìnshì of 1529; Prefect of Qúzhōu 衢州 from 1549). The catalog meta records the author as 周涇 Zhōu Jīng — a character-form transcription error: the transmitted preface signature is unambiguously 周臣 Zhōu Chén, and the standard biographical literature on the work (Wikipedia / Míngshǐ exam-list cross-references) uniformly assigns it to Zhōu Chén of 在山 hào. The present record follows the verified external identification while flagging the catalog entry.

About the work

A six-juan household-conduct and yǎngshēng anthology produced for the Qúzhōu prefectural community. The work is organised in the standard Jiāxùn 家訓 / shìfàn 世範 sequence, opening from infancy and proceeding to old age, and covering — in Zhōu’s own preface-summary — “the movements of disposition (xìngqíng zhī dòng 性情之動); the regulations of food, drink, and daily living (yǐnshí qǐjū zhī jié 飲食起居之節); and, extended outward from these, the broad outlines of self-conduct, the cherishing of kindred, and the governance of the household (chǔjǐ mùqīn zhìjiā zhī dàgài 處己睦親治家之大概).” Zhōu describes his method as “tuōqǔ jiǎnyì 摘取簡易” (extracting the simple and easy items) from a set of named source-anthologies: Yánshì jiāxùn 顏氏家訓 (KR3j0014, 顏之推 Yán Zhītuī 6th c.), Yuánshì shìfàn 袁氏世範 (KR3a0040, 袁采 Yuán Cǎi 1178), Sānyuán yánshòu shū 三元延壽書 (三元延壽書, 李鵬飛 Lǐ Péngfēi, KR3eo012), Yǎngshēng zázuǎn 養生雜纂 (養生雜纂), Biànmín túzuǎn 便民圖纂 (便民圖纂), Tōngshū 通書, Jūjiā bìyòng 居家必用 (居家必用). The result is a compendium of the late-Míng jīngshì (“ordering the world”) household-conduct genre, designed for read-aloud use by the Qúzhōu literati and their children.

Prefaces

The transmitted yǐn 引 is by the author Zhōu Chén himself, dated Jiājìng jǐyǒu = 1549, the 8th month — eight months into his Qúzhōu prefecture. Zhōu narrates the work’s compositional context: “In Jiājìng jǐyǒu (1549), I [had been] prefect of Qú [-zhōu] for eight months, when, owing to an outbreak of sores, I could not attend to office, and sat daily in the prefectural studio. The Vice-Prefect Mr. Zhōu (Yǔtánshí 潭石) chanced to come for conversation, and we discussed Yánshì jiāxùn, Yuánshì shìfàn, Sānyuán yánshòu, Yǎngshēng zázuǎn, Biànmín túzuǎn, the Tōngshū, Jūjiā bìyòng and other works. I urgently borrowed them and read. — Ah! These several titles are quite sufficient for the daily living of the people. But they are extensive and verbose, the prose is not easily clear, and there is no holding-fast to essentials. I therefore extracted the simple and easy passages, from infancy to old age, [covering] the movements of disposition, the regulations of food and daily living, [extending] to the broad outlines of self-conduct, kindred-cherishing and household-governance; I added section titles, and after some pruning and arrangement had the clerks copy it out to show Tánshí. Tánshí firmly wished to engrave it. I laughed and said: this is merely a household textbook for children — why publish it? Tánshí replied: not so. The kingly governance starts from honouring the aged and tending the young; that the dwelling, the laughter and conversation, the daily food and clothing of the people should be in good order — this the Shī-poets sang. And how much the more so when, in the sustenance of the people, day by day they drift further away without knowing it. To take this and bequeath it to the people, so that by following it they all may attain the realm of long life — this too is governance: how can one not? I said: thus it is then. Let it be engraved and shown to the people of Qú; as for ritual and music, [that] awaits the gentleman of a future age. — Prefect of Qúzhōu, Zhōu Chén of Zàishān, composed.”

Abstract

Zhōu Chén of Zàishān (b. 1505, Wúxiàn / Sūzhōu native registered in Bāzhōu of Shùntiānfǔ; jǔrén of Jiājìng 7 = 1528, jìnshì of Jiājìng 8 = 1529) served successively as Sub-prefect of Jīnzhōu in Shǎnxī, Sub-prefect of Gāotángzhōu in Shāndōng, and from 1549 as Prefect of Qúzhōu in Zhèjiāng, eventually reaching Provincial Administration Vice-Commissioner of Shǎnxī. The Hòushēng xùnzuǎn was composed in the eight months of his Qúzhōu prefecture (from the spring of 1549 to the eighth lunar month) during a period of forced confinement to the prefectural studio by skin-disease. It is one of the earliest Qúzhōu prefectural imprints of Jiājìng-era jīngshì literature.

The work is doctrinally a high-water-mark of the Wáng-Yángmíng-influenced civil-administrative reform style — its rhetoric mirrors that of Wáng’s followers who held that prefectural governance was rightly extended into household conduct, and that “kingly governance starts from honouring the aged and tending the young” is the unifying principle of jīngshì and of yǎngshēng. The selection of source-anthologies — particularly the prominent role of the Sānyuán yánshòu shū and the Biànmín túzuǎn — locates the work in the convergence of literati jiāxùn and the popular practical-knowledge tradition.

Note on the catalog meta: the data/catalogs/meta/KR3eo.yaml entry gives 周涇. This is to be read as a transcription error for 周臣 — the transmitted preface signature, the Míng-Qīng jìnshì lists, the Chinese Wikipedia entry on 周臣 (嘉靖進士), and the 2016 Zhōngguó zhōngyīyào chūbǎnshè critical edition all uniformly identify the author as Zhōu Chén 周臣 of hào Zàishān.

Translations and research

• 周臣 (Zhōu Chén), Hòu-shēng xùn-zuǎn, ed. Zhāng Sūn-biāo 張孫彪, Zhōng-yī gǔ-jí zhěng-lǐ cóng-shū 中醫古籍整理叢書 (Běijīng: Zhōng-guó zhōng-yī-yào chū-bǎn-shè, 2016) — the standard critical edition, 91 pages, ISBN 9787513230902.
• Míng-shǐ exam-lists, Jiā-jìng bā nián jǐ-chǒu kē jìn-shì tí míng lù 嘉靖八年己丑科進士題名錄 (verifying Zhōu’s 1529 jìn-shì placement at second-rank no. 38).
• No substantial Western-language secondary literature on this title located.
• For the genre context: Patricia Ebrey, Chu Hsi’s Family Rituals (Princeton, 1991); Joseph McDermott, A Social History of the Chinese Book (Hong Kong University Press, 2006).

Other points of interest

Zhōu Chén’s preface contains one of the more eloquent late-Míng statements of the integration of yǎngshēng into jīngshì: “sānyuán yánshòu — that the people, by following its way, may all attain the realm of long life — is also governance.” The work was a vehicle for translating the abstract philosophical claim into a concrete prefectural-press product.

This Zhōu Chén is not to be confused with his prominent contemporary the painter Zhōu Chén 周臣 (zì Shùnqīng 舜卿, hào Dōngcūn 東村, c. 1460s–1535, teacher of Táng Yín and Qiú Yīng) — a homonym from the same Wúxiàn lineage but unrelated. CBDB lists multiple “周臣” entries; the present Zhōu Chén of 在山 has no clear CBDB match.

Links

• Wikipedia (Chinese): 周臣 (嘉靖進士).
• 厚生訓纂 critical edition: Douban book entry.
• 周臣 (painter, 128800) CBDB
• Kanseki DB
• 厚生訓纂