Dìngzhāi jí 定齋集
The Dìng-zhāi Collection by 蔡戡 (撰)
About the work
Dìngzhāi jí 定齋集 in 20 juǎn is the Sìkù-reconstructed biéjí of Cài Kān 蔡戡 (b. 1141, zì Dìngfū 定夫), of Xiānyóu 仙遊 in Xīnghuàjūn 興化軍 (modern Fújiàn), great-great-grandson of the Duānmíngdiàn xuéshì Cài Xiāng 蔡襄 (the famous calligrapher and statesman, 1012–1067). His grandfather Cài Shēn 蔡紳 settled the family at Wǔjìnxiàn 武進縣 in Chángzhōu 常州 during Shàoxīng. Jìnshì of Qiándào bǐngxū (2nd year, 1166), passing in the jiǎkē (top class). Held office to Bǎomógé zhí xuéshì. The Sòngshǐ did not give him a biography; the Sìkù editors reconstructed his career from the collection itself plus collateral sources (Wànxìng tǒngpǔ, etc.), establishing service as Jīngxī and Guǎngdōng yùnpàn, Húběi xiàn, Jīngzhào yǐn, Húnán and Huáixī zǒnglǐng, and Guǎngxī jīnglüè. The original 40-juǎn recension was cut at Méishān in Shàodìng 3 (1230) by Cài Kān’s youngest son Cài Yì 蔡廙, with a preface by Lǐ Tāo 李&KR1033;.
Tiyao
The Dìngzhāi jí in 20 juǎn was composed by Cài Kān of the Sòng. Kān’s zì was Dìngfū. His ancestors were of Xiānyóu in Xīnghuàjūn; he was the great-great-grandson of the Duānmíngdiàn xuéshì [Cài] Xiāng. His grandfather Shēn during Shàoxīng held office to zuǒ zhōng dàfū and first settled at Wǔjìnxiàn in Chángzhōu. Kān in his youth, on the strength of family-shadow patronage, was supplemented as Lìyáng wèi; afterwards passing the jìnshì jiǎkē of Qiándào bǐngxū (1166); held office to Bǎomógé zhí xuéshì. The Sòngshǐ did not establish a biography for him, therefore his deeds are not generally known. Líng Dízhī’s Wànxìng tǒngpǔ records: Kān bore the staff at Wǔyáng and substituted-paid the tax-silver — the people were greatly relieved. Was Húnán judicial-supervisor with achievements in pacifying disorder. Was Jīngzhào yǐn (mayor of Chángān) — in a year of flood when grain-purchase was difficult, he urgently requested to release the granaries and the people relied [on this] to be saved. The narrative is fairly detailed; however, examining the various biǎo and qǐ in the collection, [we see] he also once held Jīngxī yùnpàn, Guǎngdōng yùnpàn, Húběi zǒnglǐng, Guǎngxī jīnglüè, Huáixī zǒnglǐng and other offices; his retirement zhāzǐ and the BáiLètiān-imitating self-recital poem also rather show his outline. But Dízhī mentions none of these — indeed because the collection was long lost-and-untransmitted, Dízhī could not be detailed. The collection’s original 40 juǎn — Shàodìng 3 (1230), [his] youngest son the Hùbù lángguān and Sìchuān cáifù zǒnglǐng Yì cut and printed at Méishān, and Lǐ Tāo prefaced it — is seen in Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí. Now according to what is recorded in the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn, gathering and editing, and from the Lìdài míngchén zòuyì obtaining 20 unrecorded pieces, mutually correcting, [we have] divided into 20 juǎn; compared to the original count, scarcely five-tenths is obtained. Tāo’s preface says: Kān was upright-and-firm not bending; repeatedly went through complex-and-difficult [posts]; effort-applied to the four directions, none not exhaustive; finally with whole integrity beginning-and-ending. Now examining the zòuzhā submitted in the collection — itemized and clear — all are forthright-loyal-bright, [the] words of jīngshì yǒuyòng (statecraft of practical use). His discussions of frontier affairs centered on strict preparation and self-defense, not anxious about war-or-peace — far-thought and deep-plan, not what those who love mischief or seek temporary ease can match. Compared with the famous ministers of his time, he is the secondary-stream of Gōng Màoliáng 龔茂良. Lamentable that the historians did not preserve his life, [he was] nearly eradicated. Now fortunately the surviving collection is again revealed — still able to verify his great outline. Respectfully drawing on biographies and traditions for what can be cross-checked of names, deeds, and facts, all are mutually compared and brought to light, somewhat to supplement the omissions of the Sòngshǐ. Qiánlóng 46 (1781), 9th month, respectfully collated.
Abstract
Dìngzhāi jí is the principal source for the career of Cài Kān, a senior late-Southern-Sòng administrative official whom the Sòngshǐ compilers — for reasons not fully clear — failed to give a biography. The Sìkù editors used this fact as a polemical lever, reconstructing Cài’s career from the biéjí’s memorials, biǎo, and self-references and arguing that he was of the rank of Gōng Màoliáng, deserving recognition. The collection’s zòuzhā on frontier strategy — defensive-deterrent, anti-war-faction, anti-appeasement — make Cài an interesting middle voice in the late-12th-c. SòngJīn policy debates.
The transmission is asymmetric: the original 40-juǎn recension was cut by Cài Kān’s son Cài Yì 蔡廙 at Méishān (in Sìchuān, where Yì was Sìchuān cáifù zǒnglǐng) in Shàodìng 3 (1230), with Lǐ Tāo’s yuánxù preserved at the front of the WYG. The Sìkù editors recovered roughly half the original from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn and supplemented with 20 memorials from the Lìdài míngchén zòuyì. The dating bracket: 1166 (Cài’s jìnshì) to 1230 (the Shàodìng publication of his collection — his death year is unknown but CBDB id 3860 gives birth 1141, no death; the lower bound on the bracket is the terminus ante quem publication year). The author was descendant of the Northern-Sòng calligrapher and statesman Cài Xiāng 蔡襄.
Translations and research
- No substantial secondary literature located in Western languages on Cài Kān; the principal references are the Sòng-rén zhuàn-jì zī-liào suǒ-yǐn and CBDB.
Other points of interest
This is a paradigmatic case of Sìkù editorial-scholarly practice: the editors used a recovered biéjí as primary evidence to identify and partially correct an omission in the Sòngshǐ’s biographical canon. Their tíyào explicitly says “somewhat to supplement the omissions of the Sòngshǐ” (shāo bǔ Sòngshǐ zhī quēlòu) — an unusually direct statement of the Sìkù project’s textual-historical ambitions.