Dìng’ān lèigǎo 定庵類稿
The Dìng-ān Categorized Drafts by 衞博 (撰)
About the work
Dìngān lèigǎo 定庵類稿 in 4 juǎn is the surviving recension of the literary collection of Wèi Bó 衞博 (style-name and lifedates not preserved). The author has no Sòngshǐ biography. The principal anchoring evidence: the Sòng zhōngxìng bǎiguān tímíng jì records that in Qiándào 4 (1168) 1st month Wèi Bó was Shūmìyuàn biānxiūguān, and in the 4th month retired. The collection’s Sòng Yáng Shūzhōu shī (Seeing-off Yáng to Shūzhōu poem) contains the line “Wǒ xī huái jūnshū / Xī xíng jìn HuáiSì” — indicating Wèi served briefly in a military headquarters. The collection’s striking feature is that “9 in 10” of its surviving biǎo, zhá, jiān, qǐ, xù, jì, shū, and shūshū (memorial-letters) are dàicǎo (drafts-on-behalf-of-others) — i.e., compositions Wèi drafted for senior figures: the catalog identifies Huáng Zǔshùn 黄祖舜, Yáng Cúnzhōng 楊存中, and senior chief ministers Wèi Qǐ 魏杞, Yè Yóng 葉顒, Hóng Zūn 洪遵, Zhōu Kuí 周葵, Jiǎng Fú 蔣芾 as the named recipients. Wèi was apparently a senior literary draftsman whose career was spent ghosting documents for the great names of the early-Lóng-xīng era.
Tiyao
The Sìkù tíyào: the Dìngān lèigǎo in 4 juǎn was composed by Wèi Bó of the Sòng. Bó has no Sòngshǐ biography; his collection too is not listed by the various house-catalogs; only seen scattered in the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn. Examining the Sòng zhōngxìng bǎiguān tímíng jì, Qiándào 4 (1168) 1st month, Wèi Bó was Shūmìyuàn biānxiūguān; 4th month retired — so we know he ended in this office. But his life-deeds are no longer ascertainable. Only the collection’s Sòng Yáng Shūzhōu shī contains “Wǒ xī huái jūnshū / Xīxíng jìn HuáiSì” — so we know he once participated in a military mù (headquarters).
What he composed — biǎo, zhá, jiān, qǐ, xù, jì, shū, shūshū — all complete; but 9 in 10 are drafted on behalf of others. Only the original běn mostly directly-inscribes the title without recording the specific era — hence often cannot be distinguished. We now use the Sòng shǐ to cross-verify: e.g., the Címiǎn zhímíng zhá contains “Gēnghuà zhī chū dāo jū zhèngdì” and “Chángshā Zīdiàn” etc. — should be drafted for Huáng Zǔshùn. The Cí Yùyíngshǐ JiāngHuái dūdū biǎo contains “Rónglù qīnzhēng” and “Tàishàng qǐ chén yú róngmǎ yǐnJiāng zhī jì / Bìxià juàn chén yú Lóngfēi yùjí zhī chū” etc. — should be drafted for Yáng Cúnzhōng. Further among the various qǐ (greeting-letters) addressed to senior figures: Wèi cānzhèng is Wèi Qǐ; Yè cānzhèng is Yè Yóng; Hóng cānzhèng is Hóng Zūn; Zhōu cānzhèng is Zhōu Kuí; Jiǎng shūmì is Jiǎng Fú — all yīshí míngchén (one-time famous ministers).
There are also various biǎo on Fèngshǐ Biànjīng Zhēndìngfǔ Yānbīnguǎn cìyàn — appearing as if he once accompanied an embassy to Jin; but the collection’s Sòng Xuē Zuǒsī xù says: “Jiàn dàfū Wáng gōng jiāng chū jiāng / Qiú mùxià shì / Jiānchéng Táo gōng yǐ mǒu jìn / Huì jí zuò bù guǒ” — examining the shǐ, the embassy to Jin was Wáng Zhīwàng 王之望 — soon recalled. So Bó in fact did not go north — those various biǎo are perhaps pre-drafted but never used.
In general, Bó was originally proficient in biǎo zòu sìliù (memorial-and-letter parallel-prose); hence often was sought-after by the contemporary prominent. And looking at his work — mostly steady-and-flowing, with the surviving wind of Wāng Zǎo 汪藻 and Sūn Dí 孫覿 — not those whom yìngchóu qiānshuài (responding-and-rushing-along) can match. Pity that his transmission was not broad — almost reaching to be lost. We respectfully transcribe-and-gather, edited as 4 juǎn, preserving its outline so that he may not in the end be buried-and-lost. Qiánlóng 46 (1781), 9th month, respectfully collated.
Abstract
Wèi Bó is a senior Southern-Sòng literary draftsman whose entire surviving corpus consists almost exclusively of dàicǎo (compositions drafted on behalf of others) — the senior literary-draftsman role of yìngchóu wén (response-composition prose) at the start of the Lóngxīng era. The Sìkù editors’ identification of named recipients — Huáng Zǔshùn, Yáng Cúnzhōng, Wèi Qǐ, Yè Yóng, Hóng Zūn, Zhōu Kuí, Jiǎng Fú — gives the principal documented archive of Lóng-xīng-era senior literary-ghostwriting. The collection is a unique Southern-Sòng witness to this layer of late-imperial bureaucratic practice.
The dating bracket: 1162 (a conservative notBefore for Wèi’s documented Lóng-xīng-era activity) through 1170 (a conservative notAfter; precise lifedates unknown). The catalog meta gives “fl. 1168” — based on the single firm date of his Shūmìyuàn biānxiūguān tenure in Qiándào 4 / 1168.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The dàicǎo corpus — composed for chief ministers Wèi Qǐ, Yè Yóng, Hóng Zūn, Zhōu Kuí, and Jiǎng Fú — is one of the most concentrated yìngchóu archives surviving from Southern Sòng. The pre-drafted Fèngshǐ Biànjīng embassy-memorials never used (because Wáng Zhīwàng 王之望’s embassy was recalled before Wèi could be assigned) are an unusual example of unused literary preparation preserved in a biéjí.
Links
No substantial external biographical resources located.