鈍吟雜錄

Dùn yín zá lù 鈍吟雜錄

Dull-Chanter Miscellaneous Records

by 馮班 (Féng Bān, 1614–1671, zì Dìngyuǎn 定遠, hào Dùn yín jūshì 鈍吟居士), early-Qīng Chángshú poet and critic; compiled and edited by his nephew 馮武 (Féng Wǔ).

About the work

A 10-juàn posthumous compilation by 馮班 (Féng Bān)‘s nephew 馮武 (Féng Wǔ), gathering the principal essays and notebook material of his uncle. The book is divided into ten distinct works: Jiā jiè shàng / xià 家戒 (Family Admonitions, 2 juàn, juàn 1–2); Zhèng sú 正俗 (Correcting Customs, juàn 3); Dú gǔ qiǎn shuō 讀古淺說 (Shallow Discussions Reading the Ancients, juàn 4); Yán shì jiū miù 嚴氏糾繆 (Errors of Mr. Yán, juàn 5 — a polemic against Yán Yǔ 嚴羽’s Cāngláng shī huà); Rì jì 日記 (Daily Notes, juàn 6); Jiè zǐ tiē 誡子帖 (Letter Admonishing His Son, plus appended shèyuē social-association rules, juàn 7); Yí yán 遺言 (Bequeathed Words, juàn 8); Tōng jiàn gāngmù jiū miù 通鑑綱目糾繆 (Errors of the Tōngjiàn gāngmù, juàn 9); Jiāng sǐ zhī míng 將死之鳴 (Song of One About to Die, juàn 10). Féng Bān styled himself Shàngdǎng (his ancestral seat) at the front of the book. His writings had been numerous; after his death more than half were scattered. His nephew Féng Wǔ collected the remaining drafts and could recover only these nine works (the Yán shì jiū miù and Yánshī jiū miù are sometimes counted as separate, giving ten juàn total). The Jiā jiè range over moral, historical, and personal-survival matters; the Yán shì jiū miù is a vigorous polemic against the orthodox Yán Yǔ poetics — the principal early-Qīng critical attack on Yán, and the foundation of the Tán lóng lù controversy (see Wáng Shìzhēn’s Fēngān yúhuà KR3j0165 for the counter-attack). The book is paired with Wáng Shìzhēn’s bǐjì as the two principal early-Qīng shīhuà manifestos — Wáng championing Yán Yǔ’s “Cāngláng” miào wù (mysterious apprehension) doctrine, Féng championing a more concrete and rule-bound poetics.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit that Dùn yín zá lù in 10 juàn was compiled by Féng Bān of the Guócháo. Bān’s zì was Dìngyuǎn, hào Dùn yín jūshì, a Chángshú man. At the front of the juàn he signed himself Shàngdǎng from the ancestral seat. The book has: Jiā jiè in 2 juàn; Zhèng sú in 1 juàn; Dú gǔ qiǎn shuō in 1 juàn; Yán shì jiū miù in 1 juàn; Rì jì in 1 juàn; Jiè zǐ tiē in 1 juàn; Yí yán in 1 juàn; Tōng jiàn gāngmù jiū miù in 1 juàn; Jiāng sǐ zhī míng in 1 juàn.

Bān’s compositions were quite numerous; after his death more than half scattered. His nephew Wǔ sought out the surviving drafts and gathered only nine works, edited into a compilation.

The Jiā jiè mostly contains discussions about navigating the affairs of the age. His discussion of late-Míng rú — [the text continues but is cut off in the source].

[The Sìkù tiyao continues to detail Féng Bān’s anti-Yán Yǔ position and notes the controversy with Wáng Shìzhēn.]

Abstract

The Dùn yín zá lù is the principal posthumous collection of essays and critical writings of 馮班 (Féng Bān, 1614–1671), the leading early-Qīng poet and critic of the Chángshú school and the foundational opponent of Yán Yǔ’s Cāngláng poetics. Gathered and edited by his nephew 馮武 (Féng Wǔ), the work contains ten distinct compositions across family admonitions, customs criticism, classical reading, polemics, daily notes, letters to descendants, deathbed reflections, and historical-critical writing.

The book’s principal contributions:

1. Yán shì jiū miù. The polemic against Yán Yǔ’s Cāngláng shī huà is the foundational early-Qīng critique of Yán’s “miào wù” (mysterious apprehension) poetics. It launched the Tán lóng lù controversy: Féng’s disciple Zhào Zhíxìn 趙執信 published the Tán lóng lù attacking Wáng Shìzhēn’s Shényùn (Spirit-Resonance) school; Wáng counter-attacked Féng’s polemic in his Fēngān yúhuà (KR3j0165).
2. Jiā jiè and Jiè zǐ tiē. Family admonitions and the letter to his son contain substantial reflections on late-Míng / early-Qīng survival, the failures of late-Míng Confucianism, and the moral demands of the new dynastic order.
3. Tōng jiàn gāngmù jiū miù. The polemic against Zhū Xī’s Tōngjiàn gāngmù method is a substantive early-Qīng critique of the orthodox Sòng historiographical method.
4. Jiāng sǐ zhī míng. The “Song of One About to Die” is a literary-philosophical deathbed composition — substantive in its own right and biographically valuable.

Dating. Féng Bān died in 1671; composition spans his middle and late career. His nephew Féng Wǔ’s compilation took several years. NotBefore 1660, notAfter 1685 (Féng Wǔ’s compilation). The Tán lóng lù controversy with Wáng Shìzhēn falls in the 1700s, after Féng’s death.

Translations and research

• Richard John Lynn, “Orthodoxy and Enlightenment: Wang Shih-chen’s Theory of Poetry and Its Antecedents,” in The Unfolding of Neo-Confucianism, Columbia, 1975 — treats the Féng Bān / Wáng Shìzhēn debate.
• Jiǎng Yīn 蔣寅, Wáng Yú-yáng yǔ Qīng-chū shī-tán (Beijing, 2001) — definitive Chinese treatment of the Tán lóng lù controversy.
• Modern Chinese editions: Dùn yín zá lù, ed. in the Sì-bù bèi-yào and later Sì-kù quán-shū series.

Other points of interest

The Féng Bān / Wáng Shìzhēn debate — fought primarily through Féng’s Yán shì jiū miù and Wáng’s Fēngān yúhuà — is the defining poetic-critical controversy of the early Qīng. Féng’s nephew Féng Wǔ was himself a poet and the principal editor of the collected works; the editorial nephew-uncle relationship is a model case of early-Qīng family scholarly inheritance.

Links

• Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Zájiā lèi 6, Dùn yín zá lù entry.
• Wikipedia: Feng Ban.