聞分館君 Ask BunKanKun

夾漈遺稿

5 min read

Text ID
KR4d0218
Date
1130–1162
Dynasty
宋

Jiājì yígǎo 夾漈遺稿

The Jiā-jì Surviving Drafts by 鄭樵 (撰)

About the work

Jiājì yígǎo 夾漈遺稿 in 3 juǎn is the surviving literary collection of Zhèng Qiáo 鄭樵 (1104–1162, zì Yúzhòng 漁仲, of Pútián, Fújiàn; self-styled Xīxī yímín 溪西遺民 — “Surviving People of the Western Stream” — by his Mt. Jiājì residence). Zhèng was one of the great Sòng jīngshǐ polymaths, whose 200-juǎn Tōngzhì KR2d0006 is the second of the San tōng (Three Comprehensive Compendia, with Mǎ Duānlín’s Wénxiàn tōngkǎo and Dù Yòu’s Tōngdiǎn). The literary collection is small (3 juǎn: 56 poems + 7 prose pieces) and is a side-product of his intellectual life — Zhèng was famous for his prodigious scholarship, not his belles-lettres. The Sìkù editors observe that Zhèng’s character flaw was over-confidence: his memorials to the throne, to chief ministers, and to the Lǐbù shàngshū exhibit unusual self-praise and dismiss the entire post-Qín-Hàn bibliographic tradition; in this respect he resembles the late-Táng Lǐ Guān 李觀, Sūn Qiáo 孫樵, and Liú Tuì 劉蛻.

Tiyao

The Sìkù tíyào: the Jiājì yígǎo in 3 juǎn was composed by Zhèng Qiáo of the Sòng. Qiáo’s zì was Yúzhòng, a man of Pútián. He dwelt in the Jiājì Mountains, self-styling Xīxī yímín. In the Shàoxīng era he was summoned by recommendation, granted Yǒu Dígōngláng, Bīngbù jiàgé. Soon transferred to Jiān Tánzhōu Nányuèmiào, given paper to copy his completed Tōngzhì book, and finally entered as Shūmìyuàn biānxiūguān.

Throughout life he was sharp on composition. Of works completed there were 41 in all; of unfinished, 8 — all visible in his Memorial Submitted to the Emperor. Hence at the time he was known for breadth-of-things and far-hearing, and was never famous for wénzhāng. From Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí downward, the [bibliographic catalogs] also do not list this collection.

This běn has neither preface nor colophon — we do not know who edited it. Shàngjuǎn: ancient and modern-style poems, 56 pieces. Zhōngjuǎn: 1 jì (record), 1 lùn (discussion), 2 letters. Xiàjuǎn: 3 letters. The poems are not much polished, but easy and free, with no vulgar rhyme. The prose is overflowing and unrestrained, much resembling Lǐ Guān, Sūn Qiáo, and Liú Tuì of the Táng — a separate tone among Sòng writers.

His Memorial Submitted to the Emperor praises himself extravagantly. The Memorial Submitted to the Chief Minister and the Memorial to the Director of the Board of Rites speak unrestrainedly, dismissing the ancients — none of the works of the various authors from QínHàn onward could meet his approval. As to the Letters to the Privy Councilor Yǔwén and to the Court-Adviser Jiāng — abandoning learning and exalting his own ambition — he is even more arrogantly looking-down-on-the-age. His qìliàng (capacity-and-measure) is rather narrow.

But for the breadth of memorization and the diligence of evidential research, between Northern and Southern Sòng none truly surpass Qiáo. His high self-positioning is also not entirely groundless. Looking at this collection, the start-and-end of his learning may also be glimpsed in outline. Qiánlóng 46 (1781), 4th month, respectfully collated.

Abstract

The Jiājì yígǎo is the literary side-product of Zhèng Qiáo’s life as a Tōngzhì compiler. The principal interest of the collection is biographical-intellectual: it preserves Zhèng’s Memorial Submitted to the Emperor (1149), his memorials to the chief minister and to the Board of Rites, and his letters to senior officials Yǔwén Xūzhōng and Jiāng — collectively the principal documentation of Zhèng’s vision for Sòng historiography and his self-presentation. As the Sìkù editors observe, these documents are remarkable for their unguarded self-praise and dismissal of the entire post-Qín-Hàn bibliographic tradition, in a manner unusual among Sòng biéjí and reminiscent of the late-Táng gǔwén movement (Lǐ Guān, Sūn Qiáo, Liú Tuì).

The 3-juǎn recension has no preface or colophon and no certain editor. It does not appear in Chén Zhènsūn’s late-Sòng Shūlù jiětí, suggesting that the literary corpus was largely lost between Sòng and Yuán; the surviving material was preserved by his late-Míng / early-Qīng descendants and constituted the present 3-juǎn book.

The dating bracket: notBefore 1130 (Zhèng’s mature scholarly career on Mt. Jiājì) through notAfter 1162 (his death year, with the Tōngzhì deposit at court).

Translations and research

  • Zhāng Wéi (張偉). 2017. Zhèng Qiáo yán-jiū. Treats Zhèng’s biography and scholarship in detail.
  • Wilkinson, Endymion. 2018. Chinese History: A New Manual §49.4 (encyclopaedias and reference works). Treats the Tōng-zhì’s structure and place in the San tōng.
  • Han, Yu-shan. 1955. Elements of Chinese Historiography. Discusses Zhèng’s historiographic program.

Other points of interest

The collection’s testy late-Táng-style prose memorial-letters are an unusual literary witness to a Southern-Sòng polymath’s self-conception, and they go some way to explaining why Zhèng’s monumental Tōngzhì faced resistance at court despite its eventual canonization in the San tōng.

Graph View