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文莊集

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Text ID
KR4d0017
Date
1050–1781
Dynasty
宋

Wénzhuāng jí 文莊集

The Wén-zhuāng Collection (of Xià Sǒng) by 夏竦 (撰)

About the work

Wénzhuāng jí 文莊集 is the 36-juǎn Sìkù reconstitution of the literary collection of Xià Sǒng 夏竦 (984–1050, zì Zǐqiáo 子喬, posthumous Wénzhuāng 文莊), a powerful but morally compromised Northern-Sòng councillor of the Qìnglì reform period. The original 100-juǎn collection — recorded by Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì — was lost; the present recension was reassembled from Yǒnglè dàdiǎn fragments and other works. The Sìkù tíyào is unusual in pointedly distinguishing the man (whose moral character it judges severely) from the writing (whose literary value it endorses), and in valuing the collection chiefly as a historical source — Xià’s writings often correct factual errors in the Sòngshǐ.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit: the Wénzhuāng jí in 36 juǎn was composed by Xià Sǒng of the Sòng. Sǒng has the Gǔwén sìshēng yùn already in the catalog. His original collection was 100 juǎn, recorded by Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì; now lost. We have here used the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn and supplemented from other works to recover 36 juǎn of poetry and prose. The man is not worth taking; but his prose has rich elegance and lofty bone-structure, still preserving the manner of Yàn 燕 (Zhāng Yuè 張說) and Xǔ 許 (Sū Tǐng 蘇頲). The Guītián lù, Qīngxiāng zájì, Dōngxuān bǐlù, Zhōngshān shīhuà, Yùhǎi, Kùnxué jìwén — all cite from him. Lǚ Zǔqiān’s compilation Wén jiàn also took rather many. Plainly his prose is to be valued, not to be discarded for the man. The collection is full of court ceremonial and diǎncè drafts — these were his strength. The recorded events: Tàizōng as Jīngzhào yǐn summoning Wèi Xiánxìn — in Qiándé 5 (967) — but the Sòngshǐ has it in the Kāibǎo era; the Chányuān river running clear in Duāngōng 1 (988) — but the Shǐ has it in Yōngxī 4 (987); Xià’s appointment to the Jíxián office for presenting writings — the Shǐ has him called from Tōngpàn — all instances where his record corrects the Sòngshǐ. Likewise Lǐ Fǎng’s posthumous enfeoffment as Hánguógōng, Wáng Zēng’s holding of Bīngbù lángzhōng, Lǔ Zōngdào’s holding of Jǐshìzhōng, Rén Zhōngzhèng’s holding of Yòujiànyìdàfū — the Shǐ fails to record them all; likewise. So Tuō Tuō (托克托) and his colleagues, distant in time from the events, could not match Sǒng’s contemporaneous records. The collection’s biǎozòu contains drafts written for Wáng Zēng, Wáng Dàn, Kòu Zhǔn — crosschecking against history, Sǒng was a Hóngzhōu magistrate who could break heretical practice and destroy obscene shrines; under Rénzōng he proposed the Xiánliáng etc. six categories, restored the bǎiguān zhuǎnduì system, set up the Lǐjiǎnshǐ 理檢使. The Hǎoshuǐchuān affair — discussants laid the blame on Hán Qí; Xià obtained from Rèn Fú’s belt a memorandum from Hán Qí and submitted it, clarifying that Hán was not at fault; so Xià though scheming was somewhat removed from Dīng Wèi 丁謂 and Wáng Qīnruò 王欽若 — perhaps that is why upright men still consented to lend him their pens — or perhaps they were taken in by his charm and had not yet seen through his treachery. Xià’s learning broadly embraced the hundred schools and the two doctrines; his prose’s allusions are deep and broad; copyists who could not understand made many errors. We have referred to other works to correct them, each with case-notes; what cannot be settled we leave alone. Qiánlóng 46 (1781) 9th month, respectfully collated.

Abstract

Xià Sǒng’s career was contested even in his lifetime. He served as principal financial-military councillor (Shūmìshǐ) under Rénzōng during the early SòngXīXià war, and was the central court target of the Qìnglì reform faction (Fàn Zhòngyān, Ōuyáng Xiū, Hán Qí) — Ōuyáng’s Péngdǎng lùn 朋黨論 was written in part against Xià. He died in 1050, age 67, with the canonization Wénzhuāng 文莊 — the Sòngshǐ biographical assessment treats him as morally suspect but administratively capable. Xià’s literary stature, as the Sìkù concedes, is independent of these charges: his prose is in the high piānlì register inherited from Zhāng Yuè 張說 and Sū Tǐng 蘇頲 of the High Táng (the “YànXǔ” mode of imperial-document drafting), and his memorials and cèwén drafts were preserved in Yùhǎi and Kùnxué jìwén as authoritative. Xià is also the author of the Gǔwén sìshēng yùn 古文四聲韻 KR1j0027 — one of the few Sòng works on pre-Qín seal-script paleography. The Sìkù recension here is a fundamental factual control on the Sòngshǐ: where the official history’s chronology diverges from Xià’s contemporary memorials, the latter are usually correct.

The dating bracket here covers Xià’s death (1050) — the latest possible composition date — to the Sìkù reconstitution from Yǒnglè dàdiǎn (1781).

Translations and research

  • Smith, Paul Jakov, and Richard von Glahn, eds. 2003. The Song-Yuan-Ming Transition. Harvard. Treats the Qìng-lì faction battles in which Xià was a principal target.
  • Levine, Ari Daniel. 2008. Divided by a Common Language: Factional Conflict in Late Northern Song China. Hawai’i. Earlier Qìng-lì factional context.
  • Liú Lè 劉勒. 1990. Xià Sǒng yán-jiū 夏竦研究. Wǔ-hàn dàxué chūbǎnshè. Standard Chinese monograph treating both Xià’s career and his literary corpus.

Other points of interest

The Wénzhuāng jí’s value as a factual control on the Sòngshǐ — explicitly highlighted by the Sìkù compilers — is the principal reason later Sòng historians have repeatedly drawn on it; the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn preserved enough of the original text that the modern reconstitution at 36 juǎn is comparatively rich, even though the original 100-juǎn corpus is gone. Xià’s Gǔwén sìshēng yùn — the seal-script lexicon — sits alongside this collection as the technical complement to his literary career.

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