Zhàn yuán zhá jì 湛園札記
Notes from the Zhàn Garden
by 姜宸英 (Jiāng Chényīng, zì Xīmíng 西溟, hào Zhànyuán 湛園, 1628–1699; of Cíxī 慈谿, Zhèjiāng; Kāngxī dīngchǒu [1697] jìnshì, Hànlín biānxiū 編修)
About the work
A 4-juan early-Qīng evidential miscellany of Jiāng Chényīng — best known as one of the Sān bù xián 三布鞋 (Three Cloth-Shoes, the trio of Kāngxī era Bóxué hóngrú candidates who first won the jìnshì in old age: Jiāng Chényīng won at 70 in 1697) and as a leading early-Qīng calligrapher. The book gathers his classical-evidential reading-notes, particularly on the Sān lǐ 三禮 (the three ritual classics). The author’s autograph preface defends his choice of zhá jì 札記 (notes on zhá — “the bamboo slip used for short messages”) over the zhá jì 劄記 (“notes on zhá — the administrative-document type”) favoured by Yán Ruòqú, with a brief learned excursus on the Ěr yǎ 爾雅 and Zuǒ zhuàn shù 左傳疏 glosses on jiǎnzhá 簡札 / zhá dú 札牘. The SKQS recension preserves 4 juan; the original 5-juan version recorded in Zhèng Yǔkuí’s 鄭羽逵 short biography of Jiāng was reduced by the later editor Huáng Shūlín 黃叔琳 when incorporating the work into the Zhàn yuán jí 湛園集.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Zhànyuán zhá jì in four juan was compiled by Jiāng Chényīng of our dynasty. Chényīng’s hào was Xīmíng. A native of Cíxī. Kāngxī dīngchǒu (1697) jìnshì; served as Hànlín biānxiū.
The book is throughout his textual-investigative discourse on the classics and histories; what corrects errors in the Sān lǐ is particularly abundant. Within it, his vigorous defense of the Hé jì 合祭 (joint-sacrifice) theory of tiāndì 天地 [Heaven and Earth] worship is somewhat one-sided.
[Several specific errors are itemized by the Sìkù editors: his use of Xuānyuán Dà jué zhuàn 軒轅大角傳 (“the Xuānyuán and Dà jué asterisms are like a dragon with two horns; the horns bear dà mín and xiǎo mín”) to gloss the character 角 (jué/jiǎo “horn”) as bearing the meaning of mín “people” — a forced reading; his use of the Xījīng zájì 西京雜記’s bó tí 薄蹏 (light-hoofed) story to prove paper-making did not begin with Cài Lún — not knowing the Xījīng zájì is a Wú Jūn 吳均 forgery; his use of Zhāng Píngzhái 張平宅’s “war-junks roaring like wild boars” story to prove the xiān míng 先鳴 phrase comes from Yīn Zǐchūn 陰子春 — not knowing the xiān èr zǐ míng line is from Zuǒ zhuàn; his identification of xiǎo cān 篠驂 as Sòng Qí’s 宋祁 phrase — not knowing it is Xú Jiān 徐堅 of the Táng; his identification of Lǐ Guǎng’s 李廣 casting a tiger-headed urinal as the origin of the term hǔ zǐ 虎子 (chamber pot) — not knowing the Hàn system had the shìzhōng zhí holders carrying hǔ zǐ before Lǐ Guǎng; his identification of Yán Jùn’s 顏竣 Fùrén shī jí 婦人詩集 as the prototype of the Yù tái xīn yǒng 玉臺新詠 — not knowing the Xīn yǒng is not a collection of women’s poetry. These small slips notwithstanding, the work’s rectifying-arguments on the Lǐ zhì are mostly precise and refined — among the shuōbù (miscellanies) one of those with real foundations.]
At the front is the author’s own preface, saying that Yán Ruòqú had wished to change “zhá jì 札記” to “zhá jì 劄記,” on the grounds that the Ěr yǎ note and the Zuǒ zhuàn note both have the jiǎn zhá 簡札 word, whereas zhá 劄 was the ancients’ term for memorial-submission documents. The argument [for Jiāng’s choice] is also rigorous and refined.
The book according to Zhèng Yǔkuí’s short biography of Jiāng was originally in five juan. This recension is the version Huáng Shūlín edited into the Zhàn yuán jí — has there perhaps been deletion-and-consolidation?
Respectfully revised and submitted, third month of the forty-sixth year of Qiánlóng [1781].
General Compilers: Jǐ Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. General Reviser: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
Jiāng Chényīng 姜宸英 (1628–1699; zì Xīmíng 西溟, hào Zhànyuán 湛園), of Cíxī 慈谿 in Níngbō 寧波 (Zhèjiāng), was one of the most famous early-Qīng yímín-trained scholars and an eventual senior jìnshì. He carried Sòng-loyalist sympathies through his early career and refused service for decades, but eventually agreed to the Bóxué hóngrú track and finally took the jìnshì at age 70 in Kāngxī dīngchǒu (1697), placing third in the jìnshì zhuàngyuán dìzǐ — the latest age at which any jìnshì of the Qīng was awarded. He died in 1699 in prison after being implicated in the Kāngxī 38 examination-fraud case (the so-called Shùntiān fraud), at age 71. Major calligrapher (in the Dǒng Qíchāng lineage) — his calligraphy is housed in many museum collections. Qīng shǐ gǎo j. 484 has his biography.
The Zhàn yuán zhá jì gathers his classical-evidential notes. Methodologically the work is part of the late-seventeenth-century evidential movement, broadly contemporary with Yán Ruòqú and Hú Wèi. Jiāng’s defense of the hé jì (joint sacrifice of Heaven and Earth) reading on the Sān lǐ is one of the more sustained early-Qīng evidential arguments on the ritual question — a question that had been a Jiājìng-period imperial controversy in the Míng. The Sìkù editors note Jiāng’s eight individual citation-errors but conclude that the overall kǎozhèng on the Lǐ zhì is “precise and refined.” The autograph defense of the term zhá jì 札記 over zhá jì 劄記 is an interesting eighteenth-century evidential controversy in its own right.
Dating. NotBefore 1670 is conservatively set to Jiāng’s early-mature scholarly period; notAfter 1699 is his death-year (in prison).
The book first circulated in the Zhàn yuán jí collected-works edition (4-juan, edited by Huáng Shūlín). The earlier 5-juan recension is lost. The SKQS recension follows the 4-juan version.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language secondary literature located. Jiāng Chényīng has received intermittent attention in Western sinology mostly for his calligraphy (e.g. in Joseph Chang’s exhibition catalogues of Qīng calligraphy). The Zhàn yuán zhá jì is cited in modern Chinese-language studies of early-Qīng Sān lǐ scholarship.
Other points of interest
Jiāng Chényīng’s 1697 jìnshì at age 70 — placing third (tàn huā 探花) — and his death two years later in prison after the Kāngxī 38 examination-fraud case is one of the more dramatic Qīng intellectual-biographical episodes. The Sìkù editors discreetly avoid mentioning the imprisonment.
The zhá jì 札記 vs. zhá jì 劄記 controversy between Jiāng Chényīng and Yán Ruòqú is an interesting case of evidential micro-philology applied to the meta-question of what to call evidential-miscellany books — a question of significant cumulative impact, since “zhá jì 札記” became one of the standard genre-labels for Qīng evidential notebooks (e.g. Wáng Niànsūn’s Dúshū zájì 讀書雜志, etc.).
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào 四庫全書總目提要, Zǐbù · Zájiā lèi 2 · Zákǎo zhī shǔ, Zhàn yuán zhá jì entry.