Fúxī jí 浮溪集
The Floating-Stream Collection by 汪藻 (撰)
About the work
Fúxī jí 浮溪集 in 32 juǎn (Sìkù reconstruction) preserves the writings of Wāng Zǎo 汪藻 (1079–1154), the most-celebrated early-Southern-Sòng címìng (court drafter) — compared to Lù Zhì of the Táng. The title takes Wāng’s hào Fúxī xiānshēng 浮溪先生. Originally 60 juǎn; lost from late Sòng. The cardinal documents preserved here are: (1) the Yuányòu tàihòu shǒushū — drafted by Wāng to legitimate Gāozōng’s accession after the Jīngkāng catastrophe — with the famous lines Hànjiā zhī è shíshì, yí Guāngwǔ zhī zhōngxīng; Xiàngōng zhī zǐ jiǔrén, wéi Chóngěr zhī shàng zài (the Han house’s calamity in the tenth generation, fitting was Guāngwǔ’s resurgence; Duke Xiàn’s nine sons — only Chóngěr [Wéngōng] still alive); (2) the Sòng Qíyú zécí, with yì zhòng yú shēng (righteousness weighs more than life) etc.; (3) the Zhāng Bāngchāng zécí on the puppet emperor.
Tiyao
Abstract
Fúxī jí is the foundational documentary witness to Wāng Zǎo’s central role as the chief címìng of the early-Southern-Sòng court. The Yuányòu tàihòu shǒushū — the proclamation justifying Gāozōng’s accession by invoking the precedent of Hàn Guāngwǔdì (Eastern Han founder, whose accession after Wáng Mǎng’s usurpation paralleled Gāozōng’s accession after the Jin invasion) and Jìn Wéngōng (the Chóngěr fugitive prince — only one of nine sons surviving, paralleling Gāozōng surviving while his father and brother were captured) — is one of the most-quoted political documents of the period and the foundational early-Southern-Sòng dynastic-legitimacy text.
The Sòng Qíyú zécí (rebuking Sòng Qíyú for surrendering to the Jin) and the Zhāng Bāngchāng zécí (rebuking the Jin-installed puppet emperor) similarly establish the early-Southern-Sòng moral-political register through formal címìng prose. As the Sìkù tíyào on the Fúxī wéncuì KR4d0146 notes, Wāng Zǎo is reckoned alongside Lù Zhì of the Táng as one of the canonical court-prose stylists of the dynasty.
The Hóng Mài Róngzhāi suíbǐ citations of these three documents — preserved in their canonical four-six prose passages — are widely-cited Sòng literary criticism of the címìng tradition’s most-elevated moments. Wāng’s biéjí preserves these and other formal compositions of the same register.
The recensional history: original 60 juǎn lost. Sìkù reconstruction 32 juǎn from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn recovers approximately half. Lifedates 1079–1154 are confirmed by CBDB.
Translations and research
- Sòng-shǐ j. 445 (Wén-yuán) — biography.
- Hóng Mài 洪邁, Róng-zhāi suí-bǐ — preserves and discusses Wāng’s cí-mìng.
- Tao, Jing-shen. Two Sons of Heaven (Tucson 1988). Background.
- Hartwell, Robert M. (various studies of Sòng official-prose tradition).
- No dedicated monographic study of Wāng Zǎo located in Western languages.
Other points of interest
- The Yuányòu tàihòu shǒushū — drafted by Wāng for the empress-dowager — is one of the most-influential early-Southern-Sòng political documents; its dynastic-legitimacy argument shaped Gāozōng’s reign and the subsequent historiographical treatment of the Jīngkāng catastrophe.
- The Míng-period zhāicí compilation Fúxī wéncuì KR4d0146 preserves the most-celebrated 85 pieces in a separate compact form, parallel to the Ōuyáng wéncuì / Huáng Tíngjiān jīnghuálù tradition.