Shěnshì sān xiānshēng wén jí 沈氏三先生文集
The Combined Collection of the Three Shěn Masters by 沈遘 (撰), 沈遼 (撰), 沈括 (撰)
About the work
Shěnshì sān xiānshēng wén jí 沈氏三先生文集 is the 61-juǎn combined-cutting of the literary collections of three Northern-Sòng scholar-officials of the Hángzhōu Qiántáng Shěn 沈 family — Shěn Gòu 沈遘 (1025–1067), his younger brother Shěn Liáo 沈遼 (1032–1085), and his cousin the celebrated polymath Shěn Kuò 沈括 (1031–1095). The constituent collections are Shěn Gòu’s Xīxī wén jí 西溪文集 (10 juǎn; same as KR4d0049), Shěn Liáo’s Yúncháo biān 雲巢編 (about 20 juǎn), and Shěn Kuò’s Chángxìng jí 長興集 (about 41 juǎn in Sòng witnesses; the SBCK preserves a defective text). The catalog meta records the unattributed editor of the combined cutting as “qūmíng” 闕名 (anonymous Sòng compiler).
Tiyao
No tíyào in the Kanripo source — the SBCK file is digitized from a Sòng manuscript witness. The combined-cutting was a SòngYuán family editorial project to keep the three Shěn collections together; it is not the Sìkù recension (which catalogues each separately). The Sìkù WYG records Chángxìng jí of Shěn Kuò separately, but does not include Shěn Gòu’s Xīxī jí in the WYG; only Shěn Liáo’s Yúncháo biān enters the WYG as 20 juǎn. The combined SBCK Sān xiānshēng wén jí is therefore the principal SòngYuán witness for the Shěn-family corpus en bloc.
Abstract
Shěn Kuò 沈括 (1031–1095, zì Cúnzhōng 存中) is the most famous of the three: author of the Mèngxī bǐtán 夢溪筆談 KR3l0028 (Sòng’s most celebrated bǐjì, the source of foundational documentation on Sòng technology, mathematics, music, geology, geography, optics, and many other fields); supervisor of major Sòng infrastructure projects; Hànlín xuéshì; Sānsī shǐ; demoted to Yánzhōu in 1080 over the Wǔyuán defeat in the SòngXīXià war; ended his life in retirement on his Mèngxī 夢溪 estate at Zhènjiāng. Shěn Gòu 沈遘 was Shěn Kuò’s elder cousin: jìnshì of Huángyòu 1 / 1049 in second place, zhīzhìgào under Rénzōng, prefect of Hángzhōu and Yuèzhōu; died young at age 43 in 1067. Shěn Liáo 沈遼 was Shěn Gòu’s younger brother: a noted poet and minor official, exiled and later retired. The three are conventionally bracketed as the Qiántáng Sān Shěn 三沈 in late-Northern-Sòng literary history.
The combined cutting probably circulated in Hángzhōu / Qiántáng in the late Northern Sòng / early Southern Sòng under family auspices; the SBCK reproduces a YuánMíng witness derived from this Sòng line. The dating bracket marks Shěn Kuò’s death (1095) — the latest of the three deaths — to the late-Northern-Sòng / Southern-Sòng terminus ante quem of the combined recension.
Translations and research
- Sivin, Nathan. 1995. “Shen Kua.” In Science and Civilisation in China, ed. Joseph Needham. Cambridge UP. The classic Western treatment of Shěn Kuò.
- Sivin, Nathan. 1995. “Shen Kuo: A Preliminary Assessment.” Reprinted in his Medicine, Philosophy and Religion in Ancient China. Variorum.
- Hartwell, Robert. 1971. “Financial Expertise, Examinations, and the Formulation of Economic Policy in Northern Sung China.” Journal of Asian Studies. Treats Shěn Kuò’s fiscal-administrative career.
- Zhāng Jiā-jū 張家駒. 1962. Shěn Kuò 沈括. Shàng-hǎi rénmín. The standard older Chinese biography.
Other points of interest
The Sān Shěn combination as a literary unit is unusual in Sòng publishing: the two collections of Shěn Gòu and Shěn Kuò are independently transmitted (Gòu’s at KR4d0049 Xīxī jí; Kuò’s Chángxìng jí in WYG), but the family-published Sān xiānshēng wén jí presents them together as a lineage gesture characteristic of the Northern-Sòng jiāfēng (family-style) book culture. The unique value of the combined SBCK reproduction is the inclusion of Shěn Liáo, whose Yúncháo biān did not enter the Sìbù tradition as widely.
Links
- Shen Kuo (Wikipedia)
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §47 (Sòng science); §28.1 (Sòng biéjí).