震澤長語

Zhènzé cháng yǔ 震澤長語

Lengthy Words from Zhèn-zé

by 王鏊 (Wáng Áo, 1450–1524, zì Jìzhī 濟之, hào Shǒuxī 守溪 or Zhènzé xiānshēng 震澤先生), grand secretary and Sūzhōu literatus.

About the work

A 2-juàn mid-Míng bǐjì compiled by 王鏊 (Wáng Áo) after his retirement to Sūzhōu c. 1510. The book is divided into thirteen categories: jīngzhuàn (classics and exegesis), guóyóu (state policy), guānzhì (officialdom), shíhuò (economy), xiàngwěi (astronomy and portents), wénzhāng (literature), yīnlǜ (musical pitch), yīnyùn (phonology), zìxué (script), xìngshì (lineage), zálùn (miscellaneous), xiānshì (Daoists and Buddhists), mèngzhào (oracle dreams). The book belongs to Wáng’s Zhènzé xiānshēng biéjí compiled by his great-grandson Wáng Yǒngxī 王永熙, but circulated separately. The Sìkù editors praise its sound grounding in classical learning, contrasting it favourably with the xīnxìng-fixated late-Míng bǐjì of the Lóngqìng / Wànlì era.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that Zhènzé cháng yǔ in 2 juàn was compiled by Wáng Áo of the Míng. Áo’s Shǐyú is already recorded [elsewhere in the Sìkù catalog]. The present book is a suíbǐ (running-brush) compilation he made when he had retired to his native place. It is divided into thirteen categories: jīngzhuàn (classics), guóyóu (state policy), guānzhì (officialdom), shíhuò (economy), xiàngwěi (astronomy and portents), wénzhāng (literature), yīnlǜ (musical pitch), yīnyùn (phonology), zìxué (script), xìngshì (surnames), zálùn (miscellaneous), xiānshì (Daoists and Buddhists), and mèngzhào (oracle dreams). Áo’s prose is upright and pure; he lived during the Míng’s flourishing era when scholar-officials still valued shíxué (solid learning), unlike the Lóngqìng and Wànlì periods when men gathered followers, planted factions, and used xīnxìng (mind-and-nature) talk to advertise themselves. So his theses have grounding.

Only his discussion of the Sīlún bù (Silken-Cord Book) of successive courts — preserved at the Nèigé (Grand Secretariat), and not, as some say, privately delivered by Yáng Shìqí 楊士奇 to the Sīlǐ jiān (Eunuch Ceremonial Office) — Jiāo Hóng 焦竑’s Bǐ shèng relied on it to refute the accusation against Yáng Shìqí. Yet when one examines the Fùbì lù (Record of the Restoration), it records that early-court directives mostly came from the Grand Secretariat, where drafts were retained in the cabinet, called sīlún bù; later, when eunuchs grew powerful, they memorialized that the registers be moved into the palace. After Xú Yǒuzhēn 徐有貞 gained authority and favour, he reported to the throne and had them returned to the cabinet by the old practice. So the register Áo saw was reinstalled by Xú Yǒuzhēn — it cannot be used to prove Yáng Shìqí never sent them. So his investigation here is occasionally unrigorous.

Further his wish to try the jǐngtián (well-field) system in Héběi is rather impractical; and his entry on mèngzhào (oracle dreams) — firm belief in divination signs — is not a Confucian’s words. These are blemishes on otherwise white jade.

The book has a preface by Hè Cànrán 賀燦然, saying that Áo’s great-grandson Yǒngxī cut the blocks for Cháng yǔ and Jì wén, together with his father Zūnkǎo’s Jì wén xùjuàn and Yǐngshì jìluè, collectively titled Zhènzé xiānshēng biéjí. The present book is one item from that biéjí; but as the old text circulated separately, so we now also record [each] separately.

Respectfully revised and submitted, sixth month of the forty-third year of Qiánlóng (1778).

Abstract

The Zhènzé cháng yǔ is a substantive Sūzhōu bǐjì from the early Zhèngdé era, the work of 王鏊 (Wáng Áo, 1450–1524), one of the most prominent Sūzhōu literati and statesmen of the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Wáng was jìnshì of Chénghuà 11 (1475), Grand Secretary under Zhèngdé, and a key opponent of the eunuch Liú Jǐn 劉瑾. He retired in 1510 and lived another fourteen years at his native Sūzhōu, the prosperous Zhènzé (Tài Lake) region from which the book takes its title.

The book’s value lies in:

1. Thirteen-category arrangement. The systematic organization — across classics, statecraft, economy, astronomy, literature, music, phonology, script, lineage, religion, and divination — makes it one of the more deliberately structured early-Míng bǐjì, unusual for its breadth.
2. Mid-Míng “solid learning” voice. The Sìkù editors emphasize Wáng as exemplifying pre-Wànlì literati seriousness — substantive scholarship before the xīnxìng faction-politics of the late Míng. He is a touchstone for mid-Míng Sūzhōu Confucianism.
3. Statesman’s perspective. Wáng’s notes on the Sīlún bù (Grand Secretariat archives), on the jǐngtián utopia in Héběi, and on Ming institutional history reflect his decades at the highest levels of government.

Dating. Wáng retired in 1510 (Zhèngdé 5) and died in 1524 (Jiājìng 3); the book is post-1510. NotBefore 1510, notAfter 1524.

The book was originally part of the Zhènzé xiānshēng biéjí compiled by his great-grandson Wáng Yǒngxī with prefatory matter by Hè Cànrán, but circulated separately and so is catalogued separately.

Translations and research

No substantial Western-language treatment. Wáng Áo’s biography and political activity are treated in F. W. Mote, The Cambridge History of China, vol. 7 (Ming Dynasty, Part 1), Cambridge, 1988, and in DMB (Dictionary of Ming Biography), pp. 1343–1347. The Zhèn-zé cháng yǔ is cited in modern Chinese scholarship on mid-Míng bǐjì and Sūzhōu intellectual history.

Links

• Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Zájiā lèi 3, Zhènzé cháng yǔ entry.
• Dictionary of Ming Biography, “Wang Ao.”