Yuè Wǔmù yíwén 岳武穆遺文
Yuè Wǔ-mù (Surviving) Writings by 岳飛 (撰), edited by 徐階 (編)
About the work
Yuè Wǔmù yíwén 岳武穆遺文 in 1 juǎn is the surviving fragment of the writings of Yuè Fēi 岳飛 (1103–1141), the famous loyalist Sòng general executed by Qín Guì 秦檜 in 1141. The original 10-juǎn Yuè Wǔmù jí recorded by Chén Zhènsūn KR3h0011 was destroyed in the political-cultural elimination project — Wànsì Xiè 万俟卨’s confiscation of Yuè’s family papers (including imperial yùzhá / handwritten edicts) per Sòng shǐ — leaving only fragments. The Míng Jiājìng / Lóngqìng statesman Xú Jiē 徐階 徐階 gathered the fragments. Contents (per the Sìkù tíyào): 1 shàngshū; 16 jiāzǐ; 2 zòu; 2 zhuàng; 1 biǎo; 1 xí; 1 bá; 1 méngwén; 3 tíshí; 4 poems; 2 cí. The Sìkù editors flag systematic missing-fragments — only the third of a multi-part cí Zhènnánjūn chéngxuānshǐ survives; only the fourth of a multi-part jiāzǐ on the ennoblement of his son Yuè Yún survives; etc.
Tiyao
Yuè Wǔmù yíwén in 1 juǎn, by Yuè Fēi of the Sòng. [Yuè] Fēi’s career detailed in Sòng shǐ běnzhuàn. Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí records Yuè Wǔmù jí in 10 juǎn — today no-longer-transmitted. This yíwén in 1 juǎn is what Míng Xú Jiē compiled. Altogether: shàngshū 1 piece; jiāzǐ 16 pieces; zòu 2 pieces; zhuàng 2 pieces; biǎo 1 piece; xí 1 piece; bá 1 piece; méngwén 1 piece; tíshí 3 pieces; poetry 4 pieces; cí 2 pieces.
The Cí Zhènnánjūn chéngxuānshǐ — only-has the third zòu; Cí kāifǔ — only-has the fourth jiāzǐ; Cí nán Yún zhuǎnguān — only-has the second jiāzǐ; Cí nán Yún tèzhuǎn ēnmìng — only-has the fourth jiāzǐ; Cí Shàobǎo — only-has the third jiāzǐ and fifth jiāzǐ; Qǐ xùlì Wáng Cìwēng xià — only-has the second jiāzǐ; Qǐ jiě shūbǐng — only-has the third jiāzǐ; Cí chú liǎngzhèn — only-has the second jiāzǐ. So the lost pieces surely bù kě dān shǔ (cannot be exhaustively counted).
The shǐ says Wànsì Xiè reported to Qín Guì to record-Yuè’s-family — taking-the-time’s yùzhá (handwritten-imperial-letters) and storing-them, to miè jī (eliminate the traces). Then memorials, drafted-edicts, and prose — together suffered destruction-and-discarding — really the situation’s necessity.
But Sòng Gāozōng’s imperially-written Shèngxián xiàngzàn — engraved on the great-school stone — Qín Guì composed-record on-its-back. Míng Xuāndé (1426–35), Sòng Nè 宋訥 polished-and-removed it. Yuè’s broken-pieces-and-cut-lines — later-persons gathered from the moth-eaten and ash-burnt’s remnant. The shìfēi (right-and-wrong) judgment for-thousand-autumns is not-perished; certainly not by-the-pieces’ few-or-many discussed.
[Xú] Jiē’s edited-version originally appended at-the-back of the Yuèmiào jí; the front headed-with later-persons’ poetry-and-prose 4 juǎn — already dàozhì (inverted-place). Within: Míng-persons’ bad-letters — for-example Tíxué qiānshì Cài Yǎn poem says: “Qiāngǔ rén lái xiào Huìzhī; Huìzhī què kǒng xiào jīnshí; ruò jiào sì wǒ dāng jūnzhóu, wèibì xiāngzhī Yuè Shàoshī” — especially the dǐngshàng zhī huì (the chamber-pot’s filth). Today together cut-and-removed; and only with [Yuè] Fēi’s yíwén recorded into the jíbù — to display biǎozhāng zhī yì (display-and-honour intent) of the Sage Dynasty. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 46 (1781), 4th month.
Abstract
The Yuè Wǔmù yíwén preserves a fragmentary but essential corpus of Yuè Fēi’s writings: 1 shàngshū, 16 jiāzǐ memorials, 2 zòu, 2 zhuàng, 1 biǎo, 1 xí (proclamation-of-war), 1 bá, 1 méngwén, 3 tíshí, 4 poems, 2 cí (including the famous Mǎnjiānghóng — though the Sìkù editors do not enumerate which two cí are preserved, the canonical Mǎnjiānghóng was already standard in Míng circulation). The Sìkù editors’ systematic enumeration of incomplete-multi-part documents (eighth-fragments-of-a-fuller-text) preserves a precise measure of Yuè’s textual destruction.
The Wànsì Xiè confiscation episode preserved by Sòng shǐ — and by the Sìkù editors here — is the canonical account of the political destruction of Yuè’s papers under the Qín Guì chancellery. Imperial yùzhá (handwritten Gāozōng letters to Yuè) were specifically targeted, along with memorials, zhìgào, and prose — the principal evidence that would have demonstrated the falsity of the mòxūyǒu charge.
The Sìkù editors’ editorial-policy is unusually pointed: they excise the appended Míng-period bad-poetry (specifically the Cài Yǎn shī mocking Qín Guì), reorganise the structure (placing Yuè’s writings forward), and place the result in the jíbù canon as part of the imperial biǎozhāng (display-and-honour) project. The editorial work is itself a Qián-lóng-period contribution to the canonisation of Yuè Fēi.
CBDB id 8175 confirms 1103–1141.
Translations and research
- Sòng shǐ j. 365 — Yuè Fēi biography (the principal source).
- Yuè-é jí jiào-zhù 岳鄂集校註 — modern critical edition.
- Hellmut Wilhelm, “From Myth to Myth: The Case of Yüeh Fei” (1962, in Confucian Personalities) — classic Western study of the Yuè Fēi tradition.
- No dedicated Western-language critical edition located.
Other points of interest
- The collection is bibliographically unusual: a biéjí whose author’s writings were systematically destroyed by political enemies, leaving the surviving fragment a documentary witness to the destruction itself. Read together with the canonical biographies in Sòng shǐ and the historiographic record in Sāncháo běiméng huìbiān KR2c0009 for the full reconstruction.