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四朝聞見錄

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Text ID
KR3l0075
Date
1225–1235
Dynasty
南宋

Sìcháo wénjiàn lù 四朝聞見錄

Record of Things Heard and Seen under Four Reigns by 葉紹翁 (撰)

About the work

A five-juàn historical bǐjì by 葉紹翁 Yè Shàowēng 葉紹翁 (zì Sìzōng 嗣宗, hào Jìngyì 靖逸; fl. 1190s–1230s) covering the four Southern-Sòng reigns named in the title: Gāozōng 高宗 (r. 1127–1162), Xiàozōng 孝宗 (r. 1162–1189), Guāngzōng 光宗 (r. 1189–1194), and Níngzōng 寧宗 (r. 1194–1224). The book is organised into five anecdote-sets labelled by the heavenly stems — jiǎ 甲, yǐ 乙, bǐng 丙, dīng 丁, wù 戊 — totalling 207 entries; the dīng set is exceptional in restricting itself to two topics, Níngzōng’s accession (1194) and the Qìngyuán dǎngjìn 慶元黨禁 (1195–1202, the anti-Dàoxué proscription). Composed in the late Bǎoqìng — Shàodìng period (c. 1225–1235), within a decade or so of Níngzōng’s death, by an author who had moved in the circles of 真德秀 Zhēn Déxiù 真德秀 and 朱熹’s direct disciples; the work is, together with 李心傳 Lǐ Xīnchuán 李心傳’s Jiànyán yǐlái cháoyě zájì KR2k0006, the principal yěshǐ 野史 source for late-Southern-Sòng court politics.

Tiyao

Your servants report: Sìcháo wénjiàn lù in 5 juàn, by the Sòng Yè Shàowēng. Shàowēng styled himself a man of Lóngquán 龍泉; in the book, the entry on Chéng Gōngxǔ’s 程公許 letter on the posthumous-title deliberation for Zhēn Déxiù 真德秀 addresses him by the zì “Jìngyì 靖逸”; but Lì È’s 厲鶚 Sòng shī jì shì 宋詩記事 gives his zì as Sìzōng 嗣宗 and him as of Jiànān 建安 — divergent from his self-description. Examining the entry on Gāozōng’s sea-flight, he calls his own běnshēng (natal) grandfather Lǐ Yǐngshì 李頴士, a man of Pǔchéng 浦城 in Jiàn (-zhōu) — so Jiànān was perhaps his ancestral place. His official career start-to-finish is not recoverable. Observing the entry on the gēngchén (1220) capital fire, in which Zhōu Cháoduān 周朝端 mocked his discussions, and the entry on privately collating diànshì (palace-examination) papers with Zhēn Déxiù, he seems also to have once been a court official — but in what office cannot be detailed.

What is recorded is divided into five sets, jiǎ, yǐ, bǐng, dīng, wù, totalling 207 entries. The jiǎ, yǐ, bǐng, wù four sets all mix anecdotes of the four reigns Gāo, Xiào, Guāng, Níng, each with a title, not arranged in chronological order; only the dīng set records merely two affairs — Níngzōng’s accession and the Qìngyuán party-proscription — and treats no others. Shàowēng was a friend of Zhēn Déxiù, and his learning therefore took Zhū Zǐ 朱子 (i.e., 朱熹) as its source. Yet the “selling of Wǔyí Mountain” 賣武夷山 entry deeply laments Zhū Zài’s 朱在 ruin of his family’s reputation (note: Zài was Zhū Zǐ’s son, then serving as Hùbù shìláng 戶部侍郎) and conceals nothing — so he is not of the type that fawns on a master’s gateway. His discussions are therefore mostly fair-minded.

Of the various unofficial histories after the Southern crossing that can fill gaps in the standard history, only Lǐ Xīnchuán’s Jiànyán yǐlái cháoyě zájì is praised as precise and incisive; next to it comes Shàowēng’s present book. Chén Yù’s 陳郁 Cángyī huàyú 藏一話腴 once corrected the error in this book that took Liú Yǔxī’s 劉禹錫 “Inscription at Shòuān Gāntáng Post-Station” poem as Zhào Zhòngshí’s 趙仲湜 “Wandering at Tiānzhú” poem. Zhōu Mì’s 周密 Qídōng yěyǔ 齊東野語 once corrected the entry that Guāngzōng’s abdication had the Cíyì 慈懿 (Empress Dowager Wú) take the seal from his bed-chamber; also corrected the entry on the boxing of Hán Tuōzhòu’s 韓侂胄 head to sue for peace, mistakenly stated to have been at Zhāng Liángnéng’s 章良能 suggestion; also corrected the Nányuán Xiāngshān 南園香山 entry. Such minor errors and divergences in recording are common to all such houses, and one does not on that account discard the book.

Wáng Shìzhēn’s 王士禎 Jūyì lù 居易錄 alone holds it to be rather miscellaneous and trivial, not the equal of Lǐ Xīnchuán’s book. Examining its style, that judgment is just; therefore Lǐ Xīnchuán’s book enters the shǐ (history) section, while this book is placed among the xiǎoshuō (fiction/anecdote) houses. Qiánlóng 41 (1776), 12th month, respectfully checked and submitted. Chief Compilers: Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. Chief Collator: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.

Abstract

Yè Shàowēng’s biographical record is famously thin: even the Sìkù compilers, with the Wényuāngé at their disposal, could not fix his place of origin (Lóngquán per self-statement, Jiànān per Lì È, Pǔchéng per his own grandfather entry), his exact career-titles, or his exact dates. The internal evidence sets two firm anchors: the gēngchén fire of 1220 (referenced as a past event), and the privately-collated examination papers with Zhēn Déxiù (who died 1235). The Cíyì and Hán Tuōzhòu material, the close knowledge of the Qìngyuán dǎngjìn personnel (the Liù jūnzǐ 六君子 — Zhōu Ruì 周端朝, Zhāng Fú 張道, Yú Dàchéng 徐誼, et al.), and the entries on the 1207 assassination of Hán Tuōzhòu, all point to composition c. 1225–1235, the Bǎoqìng — Shàodìng reign-period. Yè was a friend and protégé of Zhēn Déxiù; his intellectual affiliation is solidly Dàoxué — but, as the Sìkù compilers note, he is not a partisan booster: he can openly criticise Zhū Xī’s son Zhū Zài for selling off the Wǔyí Mountain estate, and his sympathies are not those of a closed-door ménrén (gate-disciple).

The structural peculiarity of the dīng set — 207 entries scattered over five sets, but dīng restricted to exactly two themes, Níngzōng’s accession and the Qìngyuán proscription — reveals the work’s centre of gravity. These are the two episodes for which Yè had the most insider information, and they are the two episodes the Sòng shǐ 宋史 standard-history account most needed correcting. On Níngzōng’s accession (the 1194 nèishàn 內禪 forced by 趙汝愚 Zhào Rǔyú and Hán Tuōzhòu, with the elderly Cíyì dowager pressed to hand over the imperial seal), Yè preserves the version of events that Hán’s faction wanted suppressed. On the Qìngyuán dǎngjìn (the 1195–1202 proscription that labelled 59 men of the Dàoxué faction, headed by Zhào Rǔyú and Zhū Xī, as a “false-learning faction” wěixué dǎng 偽學黨, costing Zhū Xī his offices and Zhào Rǔyú his life), Yè preserves the full name-register, the imperial edicts, and the kǎoyì 考異 (variant-evidence collation) on disputed details — Zhū Xī’s posthumous-title award, the Liù jūnzǐ (six gentlemen) student-protesters, the role of Hú Hóng 胡紘 and Lǐ Mù 李沐 as accusers.

The work is correspondingly the indispensable single source for: (1) Hán Tuōzhòu’s 1194–1207 regency, the 1206 Kāixǐ 開禧 northern campaign, and the 1207 conspiracy by Shǐ Míyuǎn 史彌遠 that produced Hán’s assassination (the hán Hán shǒu 函韓首 entry — boxing Hán’s head as a peace offering to the Jīn — is here in full); (2) the Qìngyuán dǎngjìn legal apparatus and its targets; (3) the late-Xiàozōng — early-Níngzōng succession crisis (趙汝愚’s coup and his subsequent destruction); (4) court material culture and ritual under all four reigns; (5) the Dàoxué movement’s persecution and posthumous rehabilitation (Zhū Xī’s Wén 文 posthumous title, deliberated 1227–1230, is treated at length). The Sòng shǐ compilers (working in the Yuán under Tuōtuō 脫脫) drew heavily on this book; modern Sòng historians — notably Charles Hartman, Conrad Schirokauer, Robert Hymes — likewise use it as one of the two essential primary sources (with Lǐ Xīnchuán) for the period.

The Sìkù placement among xiǎoshuō jiā (anecdotalists) rather than záshǐ (miscellaneous history) reflects Wáng Shìzhēn’s complaint of “miscellaneousness and triviality” — but in modern usage the work is read squarely as historical source-material, and the xiǎoshuō classification is a Qīng-era taxonomic judgement, not a quality judgement.

Standard modern edition: Shěn Xīlín 沈錫麟 / Féng Huìmín 馮惠民, coll., Sìcháo wénjiàn lù (Zhōnghuá 1989, TángSòng shǐliào bǐjì cóngkān series) — collated against the Wényuāngé Sìkù, the Zhībùzúzhāi 知不足齋 edition, and the Xuéjīn tǎoyuán 學津討原 edition.

Translations and research

  • Hartman, Charles. The Making of a Confucian Hero: The Apotheosis of Yue Fei, 1141–1314 (Cambridge UP 2021). Sustained use of Sìcháo wénjiàn lù for the Qìng-yuán dǎng-jìn and Hán Tuō-zhòu’s regency.
  • Hartman, Charles. “The Reluctant Historian: Sun Ti, Chu Hsi, and the Fall of Northern Sung.” T’oung Pao 89 (2003): 100–148. Uses the work for late-Sòng Dào-xué historiography.
  • Schirokauer, Conrad. “Neo-Confucians under Attack: The Condemnation of Wei-hsüeh.” In Crisis and Prosperity in Sung China (ed. John W. Haeger, U Arizona P 1975), 163–198. Foundational study of the Qìng-yuán dǎng-jìn, using Yè Shàowēng as primary source.
  • Hymes, Robert P. Statesmen and Gentlemen: The Elite of Fu-chou, Chiang-hsi, in Northern and Southern Sung (Cambridge UP 1986). Uses Yè for the Dào-xué generation’s social context.
  • Davis, Richard L. Court and Family in Sung China, 960–1279 (Duke UP 1986). Uses Yè on the Shǐ Mí-yuǎn — Hán Tuō-zhòu succession.
  • Zhū Bǎo-jiōng 朱保炯 et al., Sìcháo wénjiàn lù jiàozhèng 四朝聞見錄校證 (forthcoming, Shàng-hǎi gǔ-jí). Critical edition.
  • No full European-language translation has been located; substantial passages are translated piecemeal in Hartman 2021.

Other points of interest

The dīng set’s exclusive devotion to Níngzōng’s accession and the Qìngyuán dǎngjìn — and its kǎoyì (variant-evidence) method, in which Yè explicitly collates four to five alternative accounts of disputed events (e.g., the location of the imperial seal during the 1194 abdication; the authorship of the 1206 peace memorial proposing to box Hán Tuōzhòu’s head) — anticipates the historical-critical method later perfected by Lǐ Xīnchuán. The Sìkù compilers’ decision to demote the work to xiǎoshuō despite its evident historical seriousness reflects the Qīng generic taxonomy more than the work’s substance.

The “hán Hán shǒu” 函韓首 entry — recording how, after Hán Tuōzhòu’s assassination at the hands of Shǐ Míyuǎn’s agents in Kāixǐ 3 (1207), his severed head was boxed in lacquer and sent to the Jīn court at Hán’s home regime’s request as a precondition for the 1208 Jiādìng peace — is the locus classicus of one of the most notorious episodes of late-Southern-Sòng diplomacy, and the Sòng shǐ account of Hán’s death draws directly on Yè’s narrative.

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