Fúzhǐ jí 浮沚集
The Floating-Islet Collection by 周行己 (撰)
About the work
Fúzhǐ jí 浮沚集 in 8 juǎn (Sìkù reconstruction) preserves the writings of Zhōu Xíngjǐ 周行己 (c. 1067–c. 1125), Yǒngjiā Yuányòu 6 / 1091 jìnshì and one of the foundational figures of the Yǒngjiā (Yǒngjiā utilitarian) school of Sòngrú learning. The title takes Zhōu’s hào Fúzhǐ xiānshēng 浮沚先生. Originally in 16 juǎn of qiánjí + 3 juǎn of hòují per Chén Zhènsūn’s Zhízhāi shūlù jiětí (Chén’s grandmother was Zhōu’s third daughter — making Chén the most-reliable witness). Sòng shǐ Yìwénzhì gives 19 juǎn (the front and back together) but separately also lists Zhōu bóshì jí in 10 juǎn — a contradiction; Chén’s record is preferred. Lost from late Sòng; Sìkù reconstruction preserves c. half. Structural: zòuyì 2, biǎo 2, jīngjiě 12, cè 3, cèwèn 12, xù 12, jì 2, shū 5, qǐ 9, zázhù 32, jìwén 9, zhìmíng 13.
Tiyao
The Sìkù tíyào: Fúzhǐ jí in 8 juǎn, by Zhōu Xíngjǐ of the Sòng. Xíngjǐ, zì Gōngshū, of Yǒngjiā. Jìnshì of Yuányòu 6; office to Mìshūshěng zhèngzì; out as Zhī Lèqīngxiàn. Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí says he was Tàixué bóshì; due to elderly parents returned to teach at his hometown; re-entered as guǎnzhí; out again as xiàn (county-magistrate) — the people-of-the-place to-this-day call him Zhōu bóshì — taken from his initial appointment. Chén records Fúzhǐ xiānshēng jí 16 juǎn, hòují 3 juǎn; Sòng shǐ Yìwénzhì records Zhōu Xíngjǐ jí 19 juǎn — exactly matches the qiánhòu liǎngjí count, but separately lists Zhōu bóshì jí 10 juǎn — already self-contradictory. Wànlì Wēnzhōu fǔzhì further says Xíngjǐ jí 30 juǎn — even more deviating. Examining: Chén’s grandmother was Xíngjǐ’s third daughter — Chén’s records must not err — Sòng shǐ and Wēnzhōu zhì are both transmission errors.
Xíngjǐ early travelled with Yīchuān (Chéng Yí), transmitted his lineage-discourse — really opening the Yǒngjiā xuépài (Yǒngjiā school) of [Sòng] fú (drift). Collection has Shàng zǎixiàng shū saying: “In youth I admired the cúnxīn yǎngxìng discourse — toward Zhōu, Kǒng, Buddha, and Lǎozǐ — none I did not seek; never had intention toward advancement.” Further Shàng jìjiǔ shū says: “At 15 learned to compose prose; at 17 was registered Tàixué student, learned the kējǔ; another two years read books, more saw moral-pattern; thereupon learned the xiūdé lìxíng of the ancients” etc. Reading his self-narrative, his lifetime xuéwèn gist may already be partly seen — so what came forth as wénzhāng míngbái chúnshí (clear-and-pure-and-substantial), a Confucian-thinker’s words — naturally have source.
Further Xíngjǐ’s learning, although emerging from Chéng’s school, exchanged poems with Zēng Gǒng, Huáng Tíngjiān, Cháo Yuèzhī, Qín Gòu, Lǐ Zhīyí, Zuǒ Yù — collection has the Jì Lǔzhí xuéshì poem saying dāngjīn wénbó méiyáng Sū (“today’s literary-leader is Méiyáng Sū” [Sū Shì]; Sū was originally of Méizhōu) — to Sū Shì he was extremely admiring; not establishing the LuòShǔ ménhù (sectarian-divisions). Hence soaked-and-tinged — his poetry-and-prose also all xiányǎ yǒu fǎ (refined and elegant, with method) — particularly what Dàoxué jiā find difficult.
The collection long lost transmission; now from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn loaded — searched-and-arranged — total got 8 juǎn; compared to original-edition got perhaps half — still enough to see the broad outline. Qiánlóng 47 (1782), 4th month, respectfully collated.
Abstract
Fúzhǐ jí preserves the foundational writings of the Yǒngjiā school’s first generation. Zhōu Xíngjǐ’s significance is twofold: (1) as a personal student of Chéng Yí, he transmitted Luòxué (LuòYáng Cheng-Yí school) into Yǒngjiā 永嘉, where it would mutate into the distinctive Yǒngjiā xuépài — the utilitarian-statecraft tradition that produced Chén Fùliáng 陳傅良, Yè Shì 葉適, and others; (2) his ecumenical position — corresponding warmly with Sū Shì, Zēng Gǒng, Huáng Tíngjiān, and Cháo Yuèzhī alongside the Chéngmén — makes him an important pre-orthodoxy Sòngrú figure who refuses the LuòShǔ sectarian distinction.
The Sìkù tíyào’s careful explanation of the Zhōu bóshì nickname — derived from Zhōu’s Tàixué bóshì initial appointment, retained by his Wēnzhōu compatriots after his withdrawal — records a small but vivid piece of local cultural memory. Zhōu’s zìxù (autobiographical statement) — preserved in the letters to the chief councillor and to the Jìjiǔ — is one of the more articulate self-presentations of late-Northern-Sòng intellectual self-formation.
The lifedates: c. 1067–c. 1125, with jìnshì date 1091 confirmed by the catalog.
Translations and research
- Sòng yuán xué-àn 宋元學案 j. 32 (Zhōu, Xǔ zhū-rú xué-àn 周許諸儒學案) — Huáng Zōng-xī’s intellectual-genealogy account.
- Tillman, Hoyt Cleveland. Confucian Discourse and Chu Hsi’s Ascendancy (Hawaii 1992). Background on the Yǒng-jiā school’s emergence.
- Lo, Winston W. The Life and Thought of Yeh Shih (Hawaii 1974). Treats the late-stage Yǒng-jiā school whose origins Zhōu’s bié-jí documents.
- Sòng-shǐ j. 444 (Wén-yuán) — biography (very brief).
Other points of interest
- Zhōu’s anti-ménhù (anti-sectarian) position — exchanging poems with Sū Shì while studying with Chéng Yí — is one of the most articulated late-Northern-Sòng arguments against the LuòShǔ divide. The Southern-Sòng would harden these distinctions; Zhōu’s pre-Jiànyán moment is correspondingly more ecumenical.