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攻媿集

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Text ID
KR4d0243
Date
1163–1213
Dynasty
宋

Gōngkuì jí 攻媿集

The Gōng-kuì (Attacking-Shame) Collection by 樓鑰 (撰)

About the work

Gōngkuì jí 攻媿集 in 112 juǎn is the literary collection of Lóu Yuè 樓鑰 (1137–1213, zì Dàfáng 大防, hào Gōngkuì zhǔrén 攻媿主人 — “The Attacking-Shame Master” — shì Xuānxiàn 宣獻, of Màoshān 鄮山 / Sìmíng 四明 / modern Níngbō, Zhèjiāng), one of the most consequential Southern-Sòng senior officials, Cānzhī zhèngshì under Níngzōng, and a leading literary figure of the late-12th / early-13th century. The Zhēn Déxiù 真德秀 yuánxù (Original Preface) — written shortly after Lóu’s death (1213) — establishes the canonical Sòng-end reception: Lóu’s prose ranks with Lǐ Hànlǎo 李漢老 (Lǐ Gāng) and Wāng Yànzhāng 汪彥章 (Wāng Zǎo) as the three Southern-Sòng equals of the high-Northern-Sòng prose masters. The collection’s principal documentary value is twofold: (a) the Běixíng rìlù 北行日錄 — Lóu’s 1169 diary as junior member of the Sòng embassy to the Jin court (separately listed in Shǐbù); (b) the substantial body of memorials, letters, and jì documenting the late-Xiào-zōng / Guāngzōng / early-Níng-zōng court politics, including Lóu’s role at the start of the 1196 Qìngyuán dǎngjìn (Lǐxué proscription) — when Lóu, then Suǒtà (Office-pivot Censor), publicly defended Zhū Xī 朱熹 against Hán Tuōzhòu’s purge.

Tiyao

The SBCK file’s front-matter consists of Zhēn Déxiù’s 1213/1217 yuánxù and the document-tables; no Sì-kù-style tíyào at the head of source files (no tíyào found in source).

The Zhēn Déxiù 真德秀 1213 yuánxù (Original Preface, translated, condensed): “Màoshān (mountain) Cānzhèng Lóu Gōng Gōngkuì xiānshēng wénjí in 120 juǎn. Jiànān Zhēn Déxiù fúdú (prostrate-reading) and sighing said: Alas! In this one can observe the Master’s standing-at-court and serving-the-prince’s great-jié (cardinal moral). The Master’s prose is like the Three-Lights and the Five-Stars sēnlì (forest-arranged) on the TiānHàn — zhāozhāo (radiant) one can observe but not exhaust; like Tài Huá and Qiáo Yuè (great mountains), accumulating-and-releasing cloud-and-rain, yányán (towering) one cannot fathom its summit-and-edge; like the Nine Rivers and the Hundred Streams’ wave-and-surge — yuānyuān (deep) one does not see its shore.

“People only see the yīnghuá (flowering glory) released-without abundance, but do not know its root has where it lies. At the start of Qìngyuán (1195), Hán Tuōzhòu was appointed Zhī Hémén shì (Director of the Closer-Audience Gate). The Zhōngsù Pénggōng (i.e., Péng Guīnián) forcefully remonstrated; Tuōzhòu was changed to Nèicí (Inner Sacrificial Office). Pénggōng got a jùn; Master at the Suǒtà (Office-pivot, the Hànlínyuàn) extremely discussed: ‘The departing one will not return to attend left-and-right; the staying one will be summoned and seen without time — finally cannot be made distant.’ At the time Tuōzhòu’s evil was not yet manifest. Soon he secretly wielded national power, with party-discussion completely barred the realm’s worthy gentlemen. Provoking the enemy, abandoning the league. Inside-and-outside fluttering. The realm only then submitted to the Master’s prior-vision.

“Master Zhū Wéngōng [Zhū Xī] attended the Jīngyán; an internal-batch granted cí. The Master held the command and did not hand-down — saying: ‘In the present time, the men’s hopes — Rúzōng — none surpasses Xī.’ Although the memorial was buried, in this time of xiéshuō chōngsài (heretical-doctrines stuffing-up-and-blocking), [Lóu] led the way scholars-and-officials in jointly venerating Master Zhū. Later, on his words, the xuéjìn (learning-prohibition) was opened, and the Dàotǒng had continuation. Then by observing the Master’s lifetime great-jié, one can read the Master’s prose.

“The Master was born in a gùjiā (old-house), connected with the Central-Court literary-elegance, broadly extreme in many books, knew ancient prose strange characters; wén prepared the various styles — not like others narrowly-and-strangely-and-tortuously, by one strength named-as-house. Further sent-forth by zhōngxiào (loyal-and-filial) and rooted in rényì (humanity-and-righteousness). His dàdiǎncè dàyìlùn (great-canonical-policies and great-discussion-papers): there world-way’s rise-and-decline, learning-and-art’s abolition-and-revival, good-class’s separation-and-joining were tied. In the ChúnShào eras, hóngshuò mǎn cháo (great-talents filled court). Each time a memorial-piece emerged whose evidence was comprehensive and meaning-and-principle line-by-line connected — scholar-officials reading it must say: ‘This is Lóu Gōng’s prose.’ One zhàolìng down whose cíqì was vast-and-comprehensive and bǐlì yǎjiàn (brush-power elegant-and-strong) — also must say: ‘This is Lóu Gōng’s prose.’ Alas! What’s called yǒu běn (having root) — is this not so? Is this not so?

“The Master after yàshàn (snipping-and-pruning) Tuōzhòu’s edge, tuìjū quèsǎo (retreated-residence, brushing-out-the-mat) for fourteen years. Jiādìng 1 (1208) rose as Nèixiàng (Inner-Court Director); soon assisted in great-government. Earlier same-rank-fellows had passed-away exhaustively; only the Master towered-alone-survived; thus became the era’s wénzōng (literary patriarch). Déxiù once silently judged: since the southern-crossing, círén numerous, but their strength-and-spirit comparable to former-worthy-time figures of the high-Sòng — only Jùyě Lǐgōng Hànlǎo (Lǐ Gāng), Lóngxī Wānggōng Yànzhāng (Wāng Zǎo), and the Master — three persons only.

“Recalling old-time at the Nángōng checking-art and at the Dōngfǔ checking-affairs — sometimes pure-discourse to day’s-end, sometimes extreme-discussion to dawn — Déxiù retreated and wrote-on-his-girdle and recited it lifelong. Why? Because still considered-by the era’s good-people gentleman in not yet ending-as-a-stranger — Master’s instruction. The Master’s youngest son Zhì asked-prefacing the collection — Déxiù how dare decline. Jiànān Zhēn Déxiù respectfully prefaces.”

Abstract

The Gōngkuì jí is the canonical late-Southern-Sòng senior literary corpus. Lóu Yuè’s career trajectory — 1163 jìnshì; 1169 junior embassy member to Jin (the source of the Běixíng rìlù); a long career through Hànlín xuéshì, Lǐbù shàngshū; 1195 censorial defense of Péng Guīnián and Zhū Xī against Hán Tuōzhòu (the precipitating moment of the Qìngyuán dǎngjìn); fourteen-year retirement after Hán’s purge; 1208 return as Nèixiàng under the post-Hán reform government — places him at every consequential late-12th / early-13th-century court juncture. His memorial defending Zhū Xī and his demand that Zhū’s jīngyán (Imperial Sermon) appointment be retained (“the man whom the realm hopes for as Rúzōng is none other than Xī”) was the precipitating intervention that, after Hán Tuōzhòu’s 1207 fall, led to the lifting of the Lǐxué proscription and the rehabilitation of the Dàotǒng.

The 112-juǎn recension preserves Lóu’s substantial poetry corpus (the first 14 juǎn — 1078 poems, by counts in the mùlù), then his biǎo, qǐ, zhá, drafted edicts, prefaces, jì, bá, letters, and zhìmíng — an unusually comprehensive senior-official literary archive. The Běixíng rìlù 北行日錄 (separately listed in Shǐbù) is one of the principal Sòng-Jin diplomatic records.

The dating bracket: 1163 (Lóu’s jìnshì year) through 1213 (his death year, CBDB id 3624).

Translations and research

  • Franke, Herbert, ed. 1976. Sung Biographies. Steiner. Treats Lóu in detail.
  • Hartwell, Robert. 1983. “Demographic, Political, and Social Transformations of China.” Harvard. Treats the Lóu family of Sì-míng / Níng-bō.
  • Schmidt-Glintzer, Helwig. 1979. “Die Verhandlungen zwischen Sung und Jin.” Oriens Extremus 26. Treats the 1169 embassy in which Lóu participated.
  • 蔣方. 2014. Lóu Yuè yán-jiū. Shàng-hǎi. The principal modern monograph.

Other points of interest

The 1195 Suǒtà memorial — recorded at Zhēn Déxiù’s preface as Lóu’s yán “the realm hopes for Rúzōng — none other than Xī” — is one of the principal documents that linked the senior-official defense of Zhū Xī to the eventual lifting of the Qìngyuán dǎngjìn. Lóu Yuè’s 1169 embassy diary Běixíng rìlù is among the most cited Sòng diplomatic-history sources for life and ritual at the Jin court.

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