Yán xíng guī jiàn 言行龜鑑
A Tortoise-Mirror of Words and Deeds
by 張光祖 (Zhāng Guāngzǔ, zì Shàoxiān 紹先), Yuán official, fl. early 14th c., Prefect of Quánzhōu in Dàdé 5 (1301).
(Note: the catalog meta entries give Zhāng’s lifedates as 1285–1346, but the Sìkù tiyao does not record his dates. The composition date is anchored by Chén Pǔ’s Dàdé guǐmǎo (1303) preface and Xióng Hé’s Dàdé jiǎchén (1304) preface.)
About the work
An 8-juàn Yuán jiāxùn and worthy-conduct compendium by 張光祖 (Zhāng Guāngzǔ). Zhāng was a Xiāngguó 襄國 man (modern Xíngtái 邢台), serving in Dàdé xīnchǒu (1301) as Quánzhōu tuīguān (Investigator at Quánzhōu). Two SòngYuán transition moralists wrote prefaces: Chén Pǔ 陳普 (Shítáng xiānshēng, Dàdé guǐmǎo 1303) and Xióng Hé 熊禾 (Wùxuān xiānshēng, Dàdé jiǎchén 1304) — both eminent Sòng-loyalist Confucians whose endorsement gives the work additional weight.
The work was developed from Zhào Shànliáo’s earlier Zì jǐng biān (KR3j0183). Zhāng wanted to print the Zì jǐng biān; Xióng Hé pointed out that Zhào’s compilation had passages not fully revised and excised. So Zhāng, using Zhào’s old work as foundation, expanded with the Diǎn xíng lù, Hòu dé lù, Shàn shàn lù, the Míng chén yán xíng lù, and broadly gathered material from famous-minister stele inscriptions and epitaphs — collected, arranged, and edited into this book. The original arrangement: eight mén (gates): Xué wèn (learning), Dé xíng (virtue), Jiāo jì (social relations), Jiā dào (family), Chū chù (taking/refusing office), Zhèng shì (administration), Mín zhèng (popular administration), Bīng zhèng (military administration); Huáng Yújì’s Qiānqǐngtáng shūmù records the work as 8 juàn (one mén per juàn). The original preface gives 82 sub-categories with 955 entries. The original layout has been lost; what survives in the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn preserves 472 entries; the 82 sub-categories cannot be recovered. The Sìkù editors note that Táng-and-earlier classified-books gave only broad headings (easy to comprehend); Sòng men loved fine sub-divisions, the finer the more entangled — so the loss of the sub-categories is not entirely a misfortune. Each mén in the original arrangement opens with shàn xíng (good deeds) then jiā yán (excellent words) — putting practice before discussion. But since words and deeds were separately edited, a single person’s name appears repeatedly within one category and chronology gets jumbled; and a single event-and-person where words and deeds both appear is hard to divide. The Sìkù editors therefore reorganize: arranging entries by person.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Yán xíng guī jiàn in 8 juàn was compiled by Zhāng Guāngzǔ of the Yuán. Guāngzǔ has no biography in the Yuán shǐ; the gazetteers also do not record his name; his beginning and end cannot be investigated. Only Chén Pǔ in Dàdé guǐmǎo (1303) wrote a preface to this book, saying: “Xiāngguó Mr. Zhāng, zì Shàoxiān; in Dàdé xīnchǒu (1301) was Quánzhōu tuīguān; observing his successive offices and administration, [I am] confident he was a rénrén and jūnzǐ.” Also a Dàdé jiǎchén (1304) Xióng Hé preface, saying: “Guāngzǔ’s substance is fine, eager in learning, has ambition for the world and for posterity.” Chén Pǔ is the scholar known as Shítáng xiānshēng; Xióng Hé is the scholar known as Wùxuān xiānshēng — both SòngYuán dǔxíng chúnrú (men of pure conduct and Confucian classicism) who do not lightly endorse [others]; by what they say, Guāngzǔ was also a jūnzǐ rén.
At the outset, Sòng Zhào Shànliáo made the Zì jǐng biān, recording the jiā yán shàn xíng of earlier worthies to demonstrate the standard. Guāngzǔ wished to print and circulate it. Xióng Hé thought what Shànliáo had compiled still had material not fully revised, and so Guāngzǔ took Shànliáo’s old text and added to it the Diǎn xíng lù, Hòu dé lù, Shàn shàn lù, the Míng chén yán xíng lù, and broadly gathered material from famous-minister stele inscriptions and epitaphs — collecting and arranging into this compilation.
According to the original preface: divided into Xuéwèn, Déxíng, Jiāojì, Jiādào, Chūchù, Zhèngshì, Mínzhèng, Bīngzhèng — eight mén. Huáng Yújì’s Qiānqǐngtáng shūmù records it as 8 juàn — apparently one mén per juàn. The original preface further says: classified into 82 sub-categories; listed into 955 entries. Today the original is scattered; only those preserved in the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn still amount to 472 entries; but the 82 sub-categories cannot be recovered. Yet for Táng and earlier fēnlèi books, no more than the broad outline was given, easy to encompass. Sòng men in their writings loved to establish sub-categories — the finer the categories, the more easily the placement entangles. Now the sub-categories cannot be verified; only the eight mén are followed for type-arrangement, which proves convenient for review.
Also the original preface says: in each category, shàn xíng (good deeds) first, then jiā yán (excellent words) — practice before discussion. But since words and deeds are separately edited, in one category a single person’s name appears successively repeated, and chronology is inverted. Or one event-one-person has yán and xíng both visible — especially hard to divide. The arrangement is not well done. Now we order by person.
[The Sìkù tiyao ends here in the source; cut at “now we order by person.“]
Abstract
The Yán xíng guī jiàn is a Yuán-dynasty expansion and rearrangement of Zhào Shànliáo’s late-Sòng Zì jǐng biān (KR3j0183), produced by 張光祖 (Zhāng Guāngzǔ) during his tenure as Investigator at Quánzhōu in the Dàdé era (early 14th century). It is one of the principal Yuán-era contributions to the míngchén yánxíng (famous-ministers’-words-and-deeds) tradition.
The work’s principal contributions:
- Continuity from Sòng to Yuán. The book transmits the Southern-Sòng Zì jǐng biān method into the Yuán via a careful expansion, drawing in additional sources including the Diǎn xíng lù, Hòu dé lù, Shàn shàn lù, the Míng chén yán xíng lù, and various stele inscriptions and epitaphs.
- Sòng-loyalist endorsement. The prefaces by Chén Pǔ (Shítáng xiānshēng) and Xióng Hé (Wùxuān xiānshēng) — both eminent SòngYuán transition Confucians — give the work substantial moral and intellectual weight in the early-Yuán Daoxue tradition.
- Eight-mén arrangement. The eight-section structure (learning, virtue, social relations, family, taking/refusing office, administration, popular administration, military administration) refines the Zì jǐng biān’s eight-category arrangement and becomes a standard jiāxùn template.
- Yǒnglè dàdiǎn preservation. The original text was lost and the present recension reconstructed from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn — 472 of an original 955 entries — making the book also an important case-study in Yǒnglè dàdiǎn textual recovery.
Dating. The Chén Pǔ preface is dated 1303; the Xióng Hé preface 1304. NotBefore 1301 (Zhāng’s tuīguān appointment at Quánzhōu), notAfter 1310. Zhāng’s lifedates per the catalog meta are 1285–1346, but this would place him at age 16 as tuīguān — implausible. The Sìkù tiyao records no firm dates, and the meta’s dates are likely an error; the composition window 1301–1310 is anchored on the prefatory documentation.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language treatment located. For the míng-chén yán-xíng tradition see Hilde de Weerdt, Information, Territory, and Networks: The Crisis and Maintenance of Empire in Song China, Harvard, 2015.
Other points of interest
The book demonstrates the early-Yuán intellectual continuity between Sòng-loyalist Confucianism (Chén Pǔ, Xióng Hé) and the new Yuán bureaucracy (Zhāng Guāngzǔ as Quánzhōu tuīguān) — the Confucian moral literature of office adapted to the new dynastic context.
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Zájiā lèi 5, Yán xíng guī jiàn entry.