Wénquánzǐ jí 文泉子集
The Master Wén-quán Collection by 劉蛻 (撰)
About the work
The (severely fragmentary) prose collection of Liú Tuì 劉蛻 劉蛻 (zì Fùyú 復愚, of Chángshā — though his son’s record places him at Shāngzhōu, and Sūn Guāngxiàn’s Běimèng suǒyán makes him a Tónglú man, suggesting either multiple homonyms or unsettled biographical record). Jìnshì of Dàzhōng 4 (850); rose under Xiántōng (860–874) to Zuǒ shíyí; demoted as Huáyīn lìng after impeaching Lìnghú Tāo’s son Lìnghú Hào 令狐滈 for trading on his father’s power and accepting bribes (Jiù Tángshū Lìnghú Chǔ zhuàn). Liú is the canonical example of the obscurer xiǎnjué gǔwén school of the WǎnTáng — at the xiǎn end of the spectrum running Lǐ Guān (= KR4c0057) → Sūn Qiáo (= KR4c0083) → Liú Tuì → Fán Zōngshī (= KR4c0063).
The original collection in 10 juǎn — described in Liú’s own self-preface (preserved here) as organized by date-range and theme, with title meaning “literature flowing inexhaustibly like a spring” — was already lost by the Míng. The present 1 juǎn is a Chóngzhēn gēngchén (1640) compilation by Hán Xī 韓錫 of Mǐn (Fújiàn), gathered from the Wényuàn yīnghuá and other anthologies. It preserves Liú’s most-anthologized prose pieces, including the Wén zhǒng míng 文冢銘 (“Inscription for the Tomb of My Writings”) — the canonical surviving yùyán (parable-essay) on a writer’s burying his unsuccessful drafts.
Tiyao
Wénquánzǐ jí in 1 juǎn — by Liú Tuì of the Táng. Tuì zì Fùyú, of Chángshā; Dàzhōng 4 jìnshì; Xiántōng period rose to Zuǒ shíyí; demoted as Huáyīn lìng. But Wáng Dìngbǎo’s Táng zhāiyán records Liú Zuǎn — Tuì’s son, of Shāngzhōu, also a fine prose-writer — so Tuì should be of Shāngzhōu. And Sūn Guāngxiàn’s Běimèng suǒyán records Liú Tuì of Tónglú, official rising to zhōngshū shèrén, with anecdote about his father’s command “die rather than sacrifice [to ancestors]” — biographical details inconsistent. Possibly a different Liú Tuì; details unclear.
The text has a self-preface: “from [taking] the hèyī (commoner cloth, i.e., before passing the jìnshì); from xīnmǎo (his examination year, Dàzhōng 4 = 850 reading) onward; xīnchǒu (presumably Xiántōng 2 = 861) downward; gathered the subtle words concerning ancient and modern, divided into inner and outer chapters; further gathered the resentment-suppressed and the song-record bound up in rén and yì, mixed in as miscellaneous pieces. Things cannot end mixed, so divided into 10 juǎn. Divided yet not severed in title, hence titled Wénquán. Tán with the Nine Schools’ meaning is Wén; pèi with the inexhaustible meaning is quán. Cliffs and valleys produce pearl-and-jewel; if obscured I will save it. Rain-and-thunder strain the millet-grain; if dry I will save it. Is this empty rhetoric?” Title-meaning shows considerable self-confidence.
The Wén zhǒng míng (Inscription for Buried Writings) is most-celebrated. Other pieces all root in Yáng Xióng; many odd-and-mysterious; harsher than Sūn Qiáo, easier than Fán Zōngshī. General intent close to Yuán Jié — wishing to pull the late-classical era back to antiquity. But “antiquity” tends to root in Lǎozǐ — not fully aligned with sage-virtue tracks. And many pieces full of grief-and-resentment — also not the rényì ǎirú (warm-virtuous) flavor. Yet at the late-Táng moment when all chased zǎnzǔ páilì (parallel-prose embroidery), Tuì alone took fùgǔ (return-to-antiquity) as task — tèlì (standing-distinct) indeed. Gāo Yànxiū’s Táng quē shǐ records Tuì’s identifying a forged Qí Huángōng àng (sacrificial vessel) — his learning had roots. Jiù Tángshū Lìnghú Chǔ zhuàn records Xiántōng 2: Zuǒ shíyí Liú Tuì impeached Lìnghú Tāo’s son Hào for shìquán nàhuò (trading on power, accepting bribes), demoted as Huáyīn lìng — Tuì’s fēngcái jiǎojiǎo (upright-conduct) at the time, fitting his prose’s bású (going-beyond-the-common). Original collection 10 juǎn, no longer transmitted. This is Chóngzhēn gēngchén (1640) Mǐnrén Hán Xī edited; only 1 juǎn gathered from Wényuàn yīnghuá and other books — not the original. Preserved as one of the Táng-prose families. Suffices to glimpse the rough.
Abstract
Liú Tuì represents the xiǎnjué (precipice-jutting, deliberate-obscurity) end of the Yuánhé / WǎnTáng gǔwén spectrum. His career — Dàzhōng 4 jìnshì, anti-corruption Zuǒ shíyí impeacher of Lìnghú Tāo’s son, eventually demoted as Huáyīn lìng — gave him moral standing matching his stylistic uncompromisingness. The Wén zhǒng míng — composed when Liú gathered drafts he had decided were unsuccessful and ceremonially “buried” them with an inscription — is the most famous single Chinese prose piece on the difficulty of writing well, and was endlessly imitated through the late imperial period. The original 10-juǎn collection lost by the Míng; the present 1-juǎn Hán Xī (1640) recovery from anthologies preserves perhaps a tenth of the original corpus. CBDB id 190147 gives ?–868. The catalog’s “850” = his jìnshì date.
Translations and research
- 王梓材 Wáng Zǐ-cái, 馮雲濠 Féng Yún-háo. 1838. Sòng-Yuán xué-àn bǔ-yí — preserves further Liú Tuì fragments.
- No substantial Western-language secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The Wén zhǒng míng — closing with the line zhī wǒ zhě bù wǒ wàng / bù zhī wǒ zhě bù wǒ wàng (“those who know me will not forget me; those who do not know me will not forget me”; the second clause sometimes read with negation: “those who do not know me forget me anyway”) — became a stock model for later writers’ ritual-of-burying-unsuccessful-drafts, persisting from the Sòng (Sū Shì’s Wénbēi míng) into the late Qīng. The piece is the most-anthologized prose-essay of Liú Tuì across the Tang-Sòng-Yuán-Míng-Qīng anthology tradition.