Míngxián shìzú yánxíng lèigǎo 名賢氏族言行類稿
Categorized Manuscript of Words and Deeds of Eminent Worthies by Lineage
by 章定 (Zhāng Dìng, Southern Sòng, 撰).
About the work
A 60-juan Southern-Sòng hybrid work combining surname-genealogy (pǔdié 譜牒) and biographical anecdote (zhuànjì 傳記) — what the Sìkù editors describe as a fusion in one work of two genres that earlier compendia had kept apart. Composition date is precisely fixed by the compiler Zhāng Dìng 章定 himself: Jiādìng 嘉定 jǐsì = 1209. Zhāng Dìng was a native of Jiànān 建安 (mod. Fújiàn). His specific career is not recorded; the work itself, at juan 26, gives some family information — his great-grandfather Zhāng Yuánzhèn 章元振 was Jiànyán (1127–1130) jìnshì and Tījǔ Guǎngdōng chángpíng 提舉廣東常平; his grandfather Zhāng Cáishào 章才劭 in youth studied with Yáng Shí 楊時 (Yáng Guīshān 楊龜山, the great Northern-Sòng Chéng-school disciple) and held Zhī Línhè 知臨賀 and Zhī Chényáng 知辰陽.
The work organizes 1,189 surnames (1,121 single and 68 compound) by rhyme-class. For each surname, the genealogy is given first (origin myth, jùnwàng), followed by biographies and anecdotes of eminent members in chronological order. The model is the lost Suí work Xìngshì yīngxián pǔ 姓氏英賢譜 (100 juan) by Jiǎ Zhí 賈執, of which Lǐ Shàn’s 李善 Wénxuǎn zhù preserves fragments showing the same arrangement. The work is principally valuable for its Sòng-period biographical entries — many drawn from Sòng bǐjì and family-source materials no longer extant, including details on Sòng-specific figures not preserved in the Sòng shǐ. The Sìkù editors note this as one of the work’s enduring contributions despite its faults of category-order and one-sided selection.
Tiyao (abridged)
We respectfully submit that the Míngxián shìzú yánxíng lèigǎo in 60 juan by Zhāng Dìng of the Sòng. Dìng was a Jiànān man; his career is not recoverable; only this book at juan 26 records: his great-grandfather Yuánzhèn was Jiànyán-period jìnshì, Tījǔ Guǎngdōng chángpíng; his grandfather Cáishào in his youth studied with Yáng Shí; held the prefectures of Línhè and Chényáng — that is all.
The book was made in Jiādìng jǐsì [1209]. It arranges surnames by rhyme-class; for each, it first lays out the origin, then assigns the words and deeds of lìdài míngrén (eminent persons of the dynasties) by surname. This combines pǔdié (genealogy) and zhuànjì (biographical anecdote) into one book. Check: the Suí shū · Jīngjí zhì records Jiǎ Zhí’s Xìngshì yīngxián pǔ in 100 juan — long lost — but Lǐ Shàn’s Wénxuǎn zhù citations show: rank-and-village first, then events — the same tǐlì as the present book. Zhāng Dìng was perhaps imitating it.
The work lists 1,189 surnames in all: 1,121 single, 68 compound. The pre-Sòng entries sometimes have inversions and gaps: Féng surname starts with Chūnqiū Féng Jiǎnzǐ 馮簡子, then Féng Táng 馮唐, then Féng Huān 馮驩 — putting the Hàn-period figure before the Zhànguó — and Shàngdǎng Magistrate Féng Tíng 馮亭 (whose deeds are zhāngzhāng clearly attested) is omitted. The selection-principle is to provide model material for letter-writing, so it records only the good and not the bad — to the point of including Yáng Zàisī 楊再思 and his ilk, suppressing their great vices and recording only their petty merits — not an honest record either.
But of the Sòng-period entries, the records are rather detailed; the people and events recorded often fail to appear in the standard histories — quite useful for filling gaps and checking variants. So although this in Sòng times was only a shūsì (book-shop) printing-edition, transmission has made it a resource for the evidential scholar — like Hàn-period stelae and seals: the village clerks and craftsmen of the day could make them, but a single character of theirs survives and is treasured by later ages as an ancient pattern.
Respectfully revised and submitted, seventh month of the forty-sixth year of Qiánlóng [1781].
General Compilers: Jǐ Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. General Reviser: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
The Míngxián shìzú yánxíng lèigǎo is the principal late-Southern-Sòng surname-prosopography hybrid: a comprehensive list of 1,189 surnames (1,121 single + 68 compound), each opened with a genealogical statement (origin myth, jùnwàng) and continued with biographical entries on eminent persons of the surname, in chronological order. Composition is firmly fixed by Zhāng Dìng’s own statement to Jiādìng 2 (1209). The compiler was a Jiànān (Fújiàn) man whose family preserved a strong connection to the Northern-Sòng Chéng-school: his grandfather had studied with Yáng Shí, one of the two great disciples of Chéng Yí (Yáng Shí and Yóu Zuò). Zhāng Dìng’s own career is essentially unknown.
The work’s principal scholarly value, as the Sìkù editors emphasise, is for Sòng prosopography. The pre-Sòng material is selective and tendentious (the bǔyí jiànqǐ 補遺箋啟 use — supplying material for letter-writing — meant entries omit unfavourable material), but the Sòng-period biographical entries, drawn from family records and bǐjì literature, often preserve information not in the Sòng shǐ. The work is therefore a useful supplementary source for Southern-Sòng (and even Northern-Sòng) prosopography. The standard modern edition is the Zhōnghuá shūjú photo-reprint of the Sìkù recension (1980); no critical edition exists.
Translations and research
- Hú Dào-jìng 胡道靜, Zhōngguó gǔdài de lèishū (Zhōng-huá, 1982), §Sòng.
- Cén Zhòng-miǎn 岑仲勉, Yuán-hé xìng-zuǎn fù sì-jiào jì (Zhōng-huá, 1994), draws on Zhāng Dìng for Sòng prosopography.
- Wang Shǔ-jí 王樹楫, Sòng-dài xìng-shì shū yán-jiū 宋代姓氏書研究 (Zhōng-huá, 2010), §IV.
No European-language translation.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù tíyào’s point that the work was originally a shūsì (commercial book-shop) printing — that is, a piece of Sòng-period popular reference literature rather than an imperial commission — and that its enduring evidential value comes precisely from its preservation of social-history materials that the standard histories omit, is a good example of Qīng kǎozhèng methodology’s attention to non-élite documentary sources.
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Lèishū lèi, Míngxián shìzú yánxíng lèigǎo entry.
- Wikidata: Q11074320.