古今說海

Gǔ jīn shuō hǎi 古今說海

Sea of Ancient and Modern Discourses

by 陸楫 (Lù Jí, 16th c.), son of 陸深 (Lù Shēn), Sōngjiāng (Shànghǎi) literatus.

About the work

A massive Míng cóngshū (compendium) compiled by 陸楫 (Lù Jí), son of the mid-Míng Grand Secretariat Drafter 陸深 (Lù Shēn, 1477–1544). The work survives in 137 juàn (per the catalog meta). The compendium is structured as a deliberately arranged anthology of xiǎoshuō, zájì, zhuànjì (biographical writings), and biànshǐ (compendious histories), divided into four principal bù (sections): Shuō xuǎn bù 說選部 (Selected Discourses), Shuō yuān bù 說淵部 (Deep Discourses), Shuō luè bù 說略部 (Outline Discourses), and Shuō zuǎn bù 說纂部 (Compiled Discourses). Each bù is further subdivided into “families” (jiā): the Shuō xuǎn bù opens with Xiǎo lù jiā 小錄家 (3 juàn, including the Běi zhēng lù, Běi zhēng hòu lù, Běi zhēng jì) and Piān jì jiā 偏記家 (17 juàn, including the Píng xià lù, Jiāng nán bié lù, Sān Chǔ xīn lù, Xī mán cóng xiào, Běi biān bèi duì, Guì hǎi yú héng zhì, Zhēnlà fēngtǔ jì, Běi hù lù, Xī shǐ jì, Běi yuán lù, Diān zài jì, Xīng chá shèng lǎn); the Shuō yuān bù opens with Bié zhuàn jiā 別傳家 (64 juàn, including the Líng yīng zhuàn, Luò shén zhuàn, Mèng yóu lù, Wú Bǎo’ān zhuàn, Kūnlún nú zhuàn, Zhèng Délín zhuàn, Lǐ Zhāngwǔ zhuàn, Wéi Zìdōng zhuàn, and dozens of other classical TángSòng chuánqí). The work thereby gathers an enormous range of biographical, chuánqí, geographical, frontier, and ethnographic literature. The work is one of the principal mid-Míng cóngshū of the xiǎoshuō tradition, preserving texts that would otherwise be lost or hard to access. The Lù family’s connection — Lù Shēn’s antiquarian and literary inheritance flowing into his son’s compilation — gives the work weight in the mid-Míng Sōngjiāng literary culture.

Tiyao

(Note: the Sìkù tiyao for this work is recorded only as a brief notice in the WYG and is principally documented in the published Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào. The KRP source file preserves only the table of contents structure.)

The work is one of the principal Míng cóngshū of the xiǎoshuō tradition, situated between Táo Zōngyí’s Shuō fú (KR3j0185) and Hú Yìnglín’s Shǎo shì shān fáng bǐ cóng (KR3j0190) in the mid-Míng cóngshū sequence. The Sìkù editors’ general assessment is that the work, while uneven in scholarly rigour, preserves substantial source-material that would otherwise be lost.

Abstract

The Gǔ jīn shuō hǎi is the principal mid-Míng cóngshū of biographical, geographical, frontier-ethnographic, and chuánqí literature. Compiled by 陸楫 (Lù Jí), son of 陸深 (Lù Shēn), the work draws on the family’s substantial library and on the broader Sōngjiāng literary culture of the 16th century.

The book’s principal contributions:

1. Comprehensive xiǎoshuō cóngshū. The four-section (shuō xuǎn, shuō yuān, shuō luè, shuō zuǎn) arrangement gives one of the most thoroughly structured mid-Míng anthologies of xiǎoshuō and related minor genres.
2. Preservation of geographic literature. The Piān jì jiā preserves a substantial range of Sòng and Yuán frontier and ethnographic works — including the Guì hǎi yú héng zhì (Sòng Fàn Chéngdà’s southern ethnography), the Zhēnlà fēngtǔ jì (Yuán Zhōu Dáguān’s Cambodian travel record), the Xī shǐ jì (Yuán Liú Yù’s record of the mission to the Mongol West), the Diān zài jì (Yúnnán record), and the Xīng chá shèng lǎn (early-Míng Fèi Xìn’s record of the Zhèng Hé voyages).
3. Preservation of TángSòng chuánqí. The 64-juàn Bié zhuàn jiā preserves the principal TángSòng chuánqí tales — Wú Bǎo’ān zhuàn, Kūnlún nú zhuàn, Lǐ Zhāngwǔ zhuàn, Mèng yóu lù, and dozens more.
4. Successor to Táo Zōngyí, precursor to Hú Yìnglín. Standing between Shuō fú and the Shǎo shì shān fáng bǐ cóng, the work is a key node in the development of the Míng cóngshū tradition.

Dating. Lù Shēn died in 1544; his son’s compilation appears to be late in the father’s life or shortly after his death. NotBefore 1540, notAfter 1544 (an early estimate; some scholars place the work slightly later). Catalog meta records Lù Jí as “16th cent” without firmer dates.

Translations and research

• The Zhēn-là fēng-tǔ jì preserved here has been translated by Paul Pelliot, Mémoires sur les coutumes du Cambodge, in Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient, vol. 2, 1902; and again by Peter Harris, Zhou Daguan: A Record of Cambodia, The Land and Its People, Bangkok: Silkworm Books, 2007.
• The Xī shǐ jì preserved here is treated in Bretschneider, Mediaeval Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources, 1888.
• The Xīng chá shèng lǎn by Fèi Xìn (preserved here) is translated by J. V. G. Mills, Hsing-ch’a Sheng-lan: The Overall Survey of the Star Raft, Wiesbaden, 1996.

Other points of interest

The Gǔ jīn shuō hǎi is the principal source for many of the works it preserves; modern critical editions of Zhēnlà fēngtǔ jì, Xī shǐ jì, and Xīng chá shèng lǎn all collate against this Míng cóngshū. Lù Jí is also famous in Chinese economic-historical scholarship for his essay Jiàn lùn (which is, however, in his separate literary collection, not in this cóngshū) — a remarkably early Chinese argument for the social and economic benefits of luxury consumption.

Links

• Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Zájiā lèi 6, Gǔ jīn shuō hǎi entry.
• Wikipedia: Lu Ji (Ming dynasty).