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水東日記

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Text ID
KR3l0085
Date
1460–1474
Dynasty
明

Shuǐdōng rìjì 水東日記

Diary East of the Water by 葉盛 (撰)

About the work

A 38-juàn (with an appended zhāichāo 摘抄) bǐjì of court anecdote, institutional history, jīnshí notes, and miscellaneous yíwén yìshì by 葉盛 Yè Shèng 葉盛 (1420–1474; zì Yǔzhōng 與中, hào Tuìān 蛻菴, called Kūnshānrén 崑山人 for his native place; posthumous title Wénzhuāng 文莊). Yè was Zhèngtǒng yǐchǒu (1445) jìnshì; he rose to Lìbù zuǒ shìláng (Vice-Minister of Personnel) and was one of the leading bibliophiles of the early-to-mid Míng — his library studio the Lǜzhútáng 菉竹堂 in Kūnshān housed a celebrated collection catalogued in the Lǜzhútáng shūmù 菉竹堂書目, a copy of which still survives. The title refers to Yè’s residence east of the Wúsōngjiāng 吳淞江 (“the river” of the title), where the entries were composed across the Tiānshùn — Chénghuà period (c. 1460–1474). The work is one of the principal early-Míng bǐjì and a fundamental source for YuánMíng transitional history, zhèngtǒng — jǐngtài — tiānshùn court matter, and Míng bibliography.

Tiyao

Your servants report: Shuǐdōng rìjì in 38 juàn, by the Míng Yè Shèng. Shèng, zì Yǔzhōng, of Kūnshān; Zhèngtǒng yǐchǒu (1445) jìnshì; reached Lìbù zuǒ shìláng; posthumous title Wénzhuāng. His career is recorded in the Míng shǐ biography. The book records Míng institutions and the lost writings and unrecorded matters of his own time, much of which can be cross-checked against the standard shǐzhuàn. Among them the citations are abundant, and inevitably contain occasional contradictions; the discussions also sometimes incline to one-sided polemic. He is also fond of recounting his own life at court and in office in various entries — verging on the reproach of “lù cái yáng jǐ” (showing off his talent and exalting himself), and contrary to the proper form of compilation. As for his disputation of the petition to “forbid the household servants of officials’ residences from practising military exercises” — claiming someone had falsely accused his son of fighting quails with the children of another official’s residence, that he had lost, and that the petition had been submitted for that reason — he dissects the matter at great length through whole sheets without stopping; this is also rather shallow. Yet Shèng’s heart was set on zhǎnggù (precedent and institutional record), and his investigation of the dynasty’s old statutes is the most detailed. His house was rich in books and charts; his Lǜzhútáng shūmù still has transmitted copies, containing many a rarity unseen in the world. Hence the works he draws on as authority are also, in comparison with other compilers who merely peddle hearsay, especially broad and well-rounded. If one strips away the prolix and dispensable and takes the essence — what may be called “pīshā jiǎnjīn” (washing sand to pick out gold), often a treasure comes into view. Respectfully checked, Qiánlóng 43 (1778), 9th month. Chief Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. Chief Collator: Lù Fèichí.

Abstract

Yè Shèng (CBDB id 35164; 1420–1474) was the leading Kūnshān bibliophile of his generation, in succession to the late-Yuán / early-Míng Wúzhōng tradition (Yáng Wéizhēn, Sòng Lián, Yáng Shìqí) and a precursor of the great mid-Míng Sūzhōu collectors (Wú Kuān, Wén Zhēngmíng, then later Chángshú’s Qián Qiānyì). His official career — jìnshì of 1445, service through the Tǔmù crisis (1449), then provincial appointments in the Jǐngtài — Tiānshùn and Chénghuà reigns culminating as Lìbù zuǒ shìláng — gave him a long view of the early-to-mid Míng state, and the Shuǐdōng rìjì draws on that personal experience as well as on his library. The work was composed in the last years of his life, roughly Tiānshùn 4 (1460) to Chénghuà 10 (1474); internal references and his death in 1474 set the notAfter.

The book’s contributions are several. (1) It is one of the most useful sources for the YuánMíng transition, preserving anecdote about late-Yuán literati (Yáng Wéizhēn, Yú Jí), the WúYuè coastal warlord Zhāng Shìchéng, and the Hóngwǔ — Yǒnglè court (entries on the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn compilation, on the Jiànwén succession dispute, on early-Míng exams). (2) It is a principal bǐjì source for the Zhèngtǒng tǔmù crisis and the Jǐngtài — Tiānshùn succession, including matter Yè acquired by personal proximity to the actors. (3) It is one of the earliest Míng works to record extensive jīnshí (epigraphic and bronze-vessel) observations from his own collection and from his travels, anticipating the later Jīnshí tradition of the late-Míng (Zhào Hán) and Qīng (Gù Yánwǔ, Qián Dàxīn). (4) Its embedded references to the contents of the Lǜzhútáng library — works rare or otherwise unattested in the Wényuāngé shūmù — make the Shuǐdōng rìjì a piece of bibliographic evidence in its own right; the Sìkù compilers specifically singled out this feature (“his house was rich in books and charts … the works he draws on are especially broad”).

The Sìkù warning on the work’s defects — Yè’s habit of personal self-vindication (especially the quail-fighting entry); occasional partisan judgment; some internal contradiction — is fair but does not undermine the work’s status. The Sìkù metaphor “pīshā jiǎnjīn” (panning gold from sand) became the standard Qīng judgment of the work.

Standard modern edition: the punctuated 1980 Zhōnghuá edition (in the YuánMíng shǐliào bǐjì cóngkān series), the basis for all subsequent citation.

Translations and research

  • Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A New Manual (Harvard, 6th edn. 2022), §63: standard reference, locates the Shuǐdōng rìjì in the early-Míng bǐ-jì tradition.
  • Zhōnghuá shūjú, ed. Shuǐdōng rìjì (Zhōnghuá 1980; in Yuán-Míng shǐ-liào bǐ-jì cóngkān series). The standard punctuated and collated edition.
  • Brokaw, Cynthia. Commerce in Culture: The Sibao Book Trade in the Qing and Republican Periods (HUP 2007). Cites Yè Shèng’s Lǜ-zhú-táng shū-mù and the Shuǐdōng rìjì in its survey of Míng-Qīng book culture.
  • Chia, Lucille. Printing for Profit: The Commercial Publishers of Jianyang, Fujian (11th–17th Centuries) (HUP 2002). Cites the Shuǐdōng rìjì on early-Míng publishing.
  • McDermott, Joseph P. A Social History of the Chinese Book (HKUP 2006). Treats the Lǜ-zhú-táng library and the Shuǐdōng rìjì as principal evidence for the rise of the mid-Míng Jiāng-nán private library.
  • Various entries in the Míng-Qīng cáng-shū-jiā tradition (Yè Chāng-chì 葉昌熾, Cáng-shū jì-shì shī 藏書紀事詩; Yáng Lì-chéng 楊立誠, Zhōngguó cáng-shū-jiā kǎo-lüè 中國藏書家考略) catalogue Yè Shèng prominently.
  • No full European-language translation has been located.

Other points of interest

The Lǜzhútáng shūmù 菉竹堂書目, Yè Shèng’s catalogue of his own library — 6 juàn in its received form — is the principal Míng private-library catalogue surviving from the Tiānshùn — Chénghuà period. Read alongside the Shuǐdōng rìjì it gives a uniquely detailed picture of an early-mid-Míng shìdàfū book collection and its actual usage; the Sìkù compilers’ praise of the Shuǐdōng rìjì’s citational breadth (“rarities unseen in the world”) rests precisely on this catalogue. Together the two works place Yè Shèng at the head of the mid-Míng Jiāngnán bibliophile tradition.

The work’s jīnshí notes — observations on bronze vessels, stelae rubbings, and old seal-inscriptions — are an underappreciated antecedent of the late-Míng / early-Qīng epigraphic revival; they have been mined by 20th-c. scholarship on the SòngMíng transmission of antiquarian knowledge.

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