Zhōngmǐn jí 忠愍集
The Loyal-and-Lamented Collection by 李若水 (撰)
About the work
Zhōngmǐn jí 忠愍集 in 3 juǎn preserves the writings of Lǐ Ruòshuǐ 李若水 (1092–1126), one of the canonical Jìngkāng loyalist martyrs of the Northern–Southern-Sòng transition. The title takes Lǐ’s posthumous canonisation Zhōngmǐn 忠愍 (Loyal-and-Lamented), bestowed by Gāozōng. Lǐ accompanied Qīnzōng into Jurchen custody after the 1126 fall of Kāifēng; he refused to acknowledge Jin sovereignty, cursed the Jin invaders to their faces, and was killed. The collection’s small extent (3 juǎn) reflects his short career — only three years from jìnshì (1123) to martyrdom (1126).
Tiyao
Abstract
Zhōngmǐn jí preserves the writings of one of the most-celebrated Jìngkāng loyalist martyrs. Lǐ Ruòshuǐ’s biographical materials in the Sòng shǐ (j. 446) include the dramatic deathbed account: refusing to bow to the Jin commander, cursing them, and being executed by having his tongue cut out and his throat cut. The episode became a foundational Sòng loyalty-martyrdom narrative, comparable to and contemporary with the more-famous death of Xíng Bǐng 邢昺 and the parallel story of Yán Jìngmǐng 嚴敬明.
The collection includes Lǐ’s Lǐbù memorials, biǎo, cè, and a small body of poetry from his brief court career under Qīnzōng (1126); the prose covers the Jìngkāng military emergency, including memorials advocating resistance against the huáyì (Sino-foreign) crisis. The bracketing of the corpus by his death gives every piece a documentary value for the Jìngkāng moment.
Lifedates 1092–1126 are confirmed by CBDB and Sòng shǐ j. 446. Composition bracket: 1123–1126.
Translations and research
- Sòng-shǐ j. 446 (Zhōng-yì 1) — biography, including the martyrdom account.
- Tao, Jing-shen. Two Sons of Heaven: Studies in Sung-Liao Relations (Tucson 1988). Background on the Jìng-kāng crisis.
- Tillman, Hoyt Cleveland, ed. China Under Jurchen Rule: Essays on Chin Intellectual and Cultural History (SUNY 1995). Touches on the captive-loyalist context.
- No dedicated Western-language monographic study of Lǐ Ruò-shuǐ.
Other points of interest
- The Zhōngmǐn jí — small but textually-significant — is one of the principal Jìngkāng-martyr biéjí, alongside Lǐ Gāng’s much-larger Liángxī jí KR4d0138. Lǐ Ruòshuǐ’s memorial in defense of kàngJīn (resistance) and against the huàJīn (peace-with-Jin) faction (Huáng Qiánshàn, Wāng Bóyàn) parallels Lǐ Gāng’s memorials of the same period.