採芹錄

Cǎiqín lù 採芹錄

Record of Plucking Cress

by 徐三重 (Xú Sānchóng, zì Bófāng 伯方), of Huátíng 華亭; jìnshì of Wànlì 5 (1577).

About the work

A 4-juàn late-Míng jīngshì (statecraft) bǐjì by 徐三重 (Xú Sānchóng). The four juàn are organized by topic: juàn 1 on the nourishment and education of the people (yǎngmín jiàomín); juàn 2–3 on schools, the examination system, and the merits and ills of administration; juàn 4 on appraisal of Míng-period personalities. The title alludes to the Shījīng image of cǎi qín (plucking cress in the school-pond), the iconic phrase for entering the academy. The Sìkù editors regard the book as one of the more sober and balanced late-Míng bǐjì — calm, unfactional, free from private grudges or favoritism — though they criticize the long sequence of entries reviving the jūntián / xiàntián (equal-fields / fields-limit) ideal, judging the proposal historically untenable after two millennia of private landholding. Praised in particular are the rebuttal of Qiū Jùn 邱濬 on maritime grain transport and the rebuttal of Xú Jiē 徐階 on frontier military colonies — both held to be “clear and outstanding discussions.”

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that Cǎiqín lù in 4 juàn was compiled by Xú Sānchóng of the Míng. Sānchóng’s Yú yán is already recorded [elsewhere]. The first juàn of this work discusses the nourishment and education of the people; juàn 2 and 3 mostly discuss the merits and ills of schools, recommendation-examinations, and administration; juàn 4 mostly discusses the appraisal of Míng-period personalities. In general all derive from investigation of statutes and precedents and exhaustive understanding of human affairs, and his discussions are mostly fair and steady, without violent or eccentric views, and without private grudge or favouritism. Better than the shuōbù (notebook genre) works of [other] Míng men, which keep slipping into wine-cup chatter. Sānchóng’s other recorded sayings also borrow a single phrase from Zhōuzǐ on tàijí yīnyáng and then go on page after page, lecturing beyond heaven and earth.

He insists strongly on the jūntián xiàntián (equal-fields-and-fields-limit) proposal, repeatedly citing evidence with great firmness. Yet on examination: since the field-paths (qiānmò) were opened, the cultivation of the land has been with the people and not assigned by officials, for two thousand years now. Even a sage emperor or enlightened king cannot in a single day take from the whole world’s people what they have and add to them what they lack to equalize them. Nor can one investigate and clear out which of the realm’s fields is within or without the limit, which may be bought and sold and which not; the result is that crafty bullies hide and become bandits, while sly clerks press for graft, and the simple folk of village and lane are daily disturbed. Hence Hàn Dǒng Zhòngshū, North-Wèi Lǐ Ānshì, Táng Lù Zhì and Niú Sēngrú, Sòng Liú Zhèng and Xiè Fāngshū, Yuán Chén Tiānlín all argued for it repeatedly, and in the end it could not be carried out — one might say the authority was not with them or the time was not right. But the Sòng came after the desolation of the Five Dynasties, and Gāozōng at the dawn of the southern crossing decided to implement it with imperial authority — yet still without effect. So Sānchóng’s [stance] is impractical and lacks fit.

But on grain-transport, he refutes Qiū Jùn’s argument for maritime transport; on military maintenance, he refutes Xú Jiē’s view that frontier colonies cannot work — these are all clear and outstanding discussions. The rest, too, is mostly grounded and close to reason, sharp on the situation, and may still be called a writer who attends to jīngshì learning.

Respectfully revised and submitted, fifth month of the forty-sixth year of Qiánlóng (1781).

Abstract

The Cǎiqín lù is one of the more level-headed late-Míng jīngshì bǐjì. 徐三重 (Xú Sānchóng), jìnshì of Wànlì 5 (1577), was a Sōngjiāng literatus and prefectural official; his other surviving works include Yú yán 餘言 and an Yùn yán 韻言. The book belongs to the late-Wànlì tradition of administrative-reform bǐjì.

The work’s principal contributions:

1. Statecraft writing. The book’s four-section arrangement — popular livelihood, education, administration, and personalities — gives it the structure of a topical jīngshì manual. Its concrete proposals (on grain transport, on frontier garrison-farming) engage directly with current policy controversies.
2. Critique of Qiū Jùn and Xú Jiē. The rebuttals of Qiū Jùn’s anti-maritime-transport position and Xú Jiē’s anti-colonial-farm position are substantive contributions to the late-Míng debate over the Grand Canal versus sea transport and over the northern frontier defense system.
3. Land-system polemic. Xú’s repeated insistence on reviving jūntián / xiàntián — recognized by the Sìkù editors as historically impractical but defended in painstaking detail — places him in the long line of Confucian reformers, from Dǒng Zhòngshū through Lǐ Ānshì, Lù Zhì, Niú Sēngrú, Liú Zhèng, Xiè Fāngshū, and Chén Tiānlín, who urged restoration of the jǐngtián ideal.

Dating. Composition is mid-to-late Wànlì; bracket notBefore 1577 (his jìnshì), notAfter 1611 (the conventional end of his floruit; CBDB records no firm death date). The Sìkù catalog assigns no specific composition date.

Translations and research

No substantial Western-language treatment located. Cited in modern Chinese scholarship on late-Míng jīng-shì literature and on the Míng grain-transport debate.

Links

• Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Zájiā lèi 3, Cǎiqín lù entry.