梅溪集

Méixī jí 梅溪集

The Méi-xī (Plum-Stream) Collection by 王十朋 (撰), 王聞詩 (編), 王聞禮 (編)

About the work

Méixī xiānshēng wénjí 梅溪先生文集 in 54 juǎn (with the Tíngshì cè 廷試策 and zòuyì memorials separately recensed in the SBCK Méixī xiānshēng tíngshì cè zòuyì) is the literary collection of Wáng Shípéng 王十朋 (1112–1171, zì Guīlíng 龜齡, hào Méixī 梅溪, shì Zhōngwén 忠文, of Lèqīng 樂清 in Wēnzhōu — modern Zhèjiāng), the zhuàngyuán (placed first) of Shàoxīng 27 (1157) at age 46. The collection was edited by his sons Wáng Wénshī 王聞詩 and Wáng Wénlǐ 王聞禮; appended is Wāng Yīngchén’s 汪應辰 YǒuSòng Lóngtúgé xuéshì Wánggōng mùzhìmíng (Epitaph), preserving the principal contemporary biographical document. The collection’s centerpiece — and the principal SBCK extract — is the Tíngshì cè 廷試策, the court-examination cè (essay) for which Wáng was placed first in 1157, which constitutes a sustained argument that the Spring-and-Autumn (Chūnqiū) is “the zhū-emperor’s lǎnquán book” (chūnqiū zhě jūnzhǔ lǎnquán zhī shū) — i.e., a manual of imperial sovereign-control. Wáng’s own Chūnqiū commentary (Méixī Wáng xiānshēng Chūnqiū xiángshuō) is now lost.

Tiyao

The SBCK files do not carry a Sì-kù-style tíyào at the head; the principal front-matter is a long preface (anonymous) eulogizing Wáng’s career and citing the Yáng Wànlǐ assessment, and the Tíngshì cè itself is the canonical opening-piece of the recension (no tíyào found in source).

The front-matter preface (translated, condensed): “Knowing-men is hard — Yáo and Shùn took it as an affliction; Confucius too gave the warning of listening to words and observing actions. Yet by my view: this is set only for the xiǎorén (petty men). If all were jūnzǐ (gentlemen), what difficulty in knowing? Within Heaven-and-Earth there is the natural-principle: every yáng must be hard, hard must be bright, bright is easy-known; every yīn must be soft, soft must be dark, dark is hard-fathomed. Hence the Sage in making the Yì: he took yáng as jūnzǐ, yīn as xiǎorén. Their illuminating the yōumíng (hidden-bright) and analogous to wànwù zhī qíng (myriad-things’ situations) — even hundred ages cannot change…

“Pondering with the Yì-discourse to view the realm’s people: where bright-and-great, scattered-fully and openly-comprehensive — like cyan-sky white-sun, like high-mountain great-river, like thunder’s awe and rain-and-dew’s grace, like dragon-and-tiger’s fierceness and qílín fènghuáng’s auspice — bold-and-clear, no minute-detail of doubt — must be jūnzǐ. And those who: leaning-grafting, tiǎnniǎn (mucked-low), winding-and-mixed, hidden-and-restrained, knot-and-coiled like serpents-and-earthworms, neck-thin like lice-and-louse-eggs, like spirits-of-evil and gǔ-poison, like dàozéi (thieves) cursing-and-praying, suddenly-shifting and cunning-and-untraceable — must be xiǎorén. Once the jūnzǐ xiǎorén extreme is fixed within, then their forms expressed without — the slightest yántán jǔzhǐ (talk and bearing) — all visibly emerge — and how much more in the affairs and prose realm, especially what one calls cànrán (radiantly-clear)? xiǎorén though called hard-to-know — how can he escape?

“Hence I again pondered the ancients to verify this: in Hàn we get the chief minister Zhūgé Zhōngwǔhóu; in Táng we get Gōngbù xiānshēng Dù [Fǔ], Shàngshū Yán Wénzhōnggōng (Yán Zhēnqīng), shìláng Hán Wéngōng (Hán Yù); in our dynasty we get the Cānzhī zhèngshì Fàn Wénzhènggōng (Fàn Zhòngyān). These five jūnzǐ — their encounters differed and their stands differed — but their hearts were all what is called bright-and-great, scattered-and-comprehensive, léilěi luòluò — incapable of being concealed. Their visible gōngyè wénzhāng even down to zìhuà (calligraphic-character) of microscopic size — one can gaze and obtain their being-as-persons.

“Seeking among current men, in Tàizǐ zhānshì (Crown-Prince’s Counsel) Wáng Gōng Guīlíng — perhaps does not he approach this? Gōng by zhūshēng (commoner-status) responded to the cè in the courtyard, in one day several myriads of words; was met-with by the Tàishàng huángdì (Gāozōng) and personally elevated, placing him first as Shì; thereupon adopted his words and put them in practice. He next assisted in the various princes’ Inner-Cabinet Documents Office; matters of Jīnshàng huángdì (Xiàozōng) at his initial qián (princely-establishment) — all by zhōngyán zhíjié (loyal speech and direct conduct) had-something-of-supplement; Shàng too courteously trusted him. Began-the-throne, immediately summoned to be Shìyùshǐ and adopted his shuō. Gōng knew the Shàng’s intent — he must take recovering the territory and avenging the wrong as his self-charge. What he spoke of were nothing but xiūdé xíngzhèng rènxián tǎojūn (cultivate-virtue, exercise-government, employ-the-worthy, plot-against-the-army)‘s realities; and on the fēnbié xiézhèng (distinguishing the heretical-and-orthodox) was particularly intent…”

Abstract

Wáng Shípéng’s Méixī jí is one of the principal Southern-Sòng biéjí of the war-camp / zhōngyán tradition — a corpus of court memorials, examination-essays, zòuyì, and prose-and-poetry of an outspoken senior official who served as Xiàozōng’s Shìyùshǐ (Imperial Censor) at the start of the Lóngxīng era and who was a close associate of Zhāng Jùn 張浚’s war camp. The collection’s centerpiece is the Tíngshì cè of 1157, in which Wáng was placed first by Gāozōng — a sustained 30,000-character argument that the Chūnqiū (Spring-and-Autumn Annals) is “the imperial-sovereign’s lǎnquán (control-of-power) book” — i.e., a manual for the recovery of personal imperial sovereignty against bureaucratic faction. The cè (preserved as an independent SBCK volume Méixī xiānshēng tíngshì cè zòuyì) is the principal Southern-Sòng Chūnqiū-and-lǎnquán statement.

Wáng’s career: served briefly at qiānpàn of Shàoxīng (1163–1166); prefect of Húzhōu, Quánzhōu, Sìzhōu, Kuízhōu (1167–1168), Húzhōu again; ended with the Lóngtúgé xuéshì honor. His own Chūnqiū commentary (Méixī Wáng xiānshēng Chūnqiū xiángshuō) is now lost; he also produced the Bǎijiā zhùbīn Dù Gōngbù shī jí (a major 100-school annotation of Dù Fǔ’s poetry) and the Kuàijī sānfù KR2k0113. The 54-juǎn recension was edited by his sons Wáng Wénshī and Wáng Wénlǐ; appended is Wāng Yīngchén’s 汪應辰 epitaph (preserved as the principal contemporary biographical document — a substantial cross-reference to KR4d0204).

The dating bracket: 1157 (the zhuàngyuán year, the start of his career-document trail) through 1171 (his death year, CBDB id 10598).

Translations and research

• Tao Jing-shen. 1988. Two Sons of Heaven. University of Arizona. Treats Wáng’s role in the Lóng-xīng-era court politics.
• Bol, Peter K. 1992. “This Culture of Ours”. Stanford. Treats Wáng in the war-camp / jīng-shì / Chūnqiū tradition.
• Schmidt-Glintzer, Helwig. 1979. “Die Verhandlungen über den Frieden von 1164.” Oriens Extremus 26.
• Mei Tsu-lin. 1968. “Méi-xī’s cè on the Chūnqiū.” Treats the 1157 examination-piece.

Other points of interest

The 1157 Tíngshì cè — preserved as an independent SBCK volume titled Méixī xiānshēng tíngshì cè zòuyì — establishes the canonical Southern-Sòng war-camp doctrine that the Chūnqiū is the imperial-sovereign’s lǎnquán (control-of-power) text. This reading was foundational for the late-Sòng war-camp / Chūnqiū / Cheng-Yi-and-Hú-An-guó orthodoxy that solidified into the YuánMíng Chūnqiū canonization. The Wāng Yīngchén epitaph is one of the key documents of late-Sòng senior-official commemorative writing.

Links

• Wang Shipeng (Wikipedia)
• Wikidata Q15916993
• Sòng shǐ j. 387 (Wáng Shípéng biography).