履齋遺稿

Lǚzhāi yígǎo 履齋遺稿

Surviving Drafts of the Lǚ-zhāi (Wú Qián) by 吳潛 (撰), edited by 梅鼎祚 (編)

About the work

Lǚzhāi yígǎo is the 4-juǎn late-Ming reassembly, by Méi Dǐngzuò 梅鼎祚 of Xuānchéng (active late sixteenth century), of the surviving writings of Wú Qián 吳潛 (d. 1262; zì Yìfū 毅夫, jìnshì 1217 — first place — Right Grand Councillor 1251–52, Left Grand Councillor 1259–60, posthumously honoured Shǎoshī). The original writings were lost; Méi’s recension comprises 1 juǎn of shī, 1 juǎn of cí (shīyú), and 2 juǎn of miscellaneous prose. Wú Qián is one of the most celebrated Southern-Sòng cí-poets of the háofàng register, and his prose memorials (esp. on the rebuilding of the capital after the 1230 fire, on military readiness against the Mongol advance, and his memoranda to Shǐ Míyuǎn) are among the principal documents of the late-Sòng court.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit: the Lǚzhāi yígǎo in 4 juǎn was composed by Wú Qián of the Sòng. Qián, zì Yìfū, a man of Níngguó in Xuānzhōu, took first place in the jìnshì of Jiādìng 10 (1217); served as Vice-Director of Affairs of State (參知政事), Right Grand Councillor concurrently Privy Councillor, advanced to Left Grand Councillor and enfeoffed Duke of Xǔ 許國公; later demoted to Tuánliàn Commissioner of Huàzhōu and exiled to Xúnzhōu, where he died. His career is in his Sòngshǐ biography. The present collection was edited by Méi Dǐngzuò of Xuānchéng at the end of the Ming: 1 juǎn of poetry, 1 of shīyú (cí), 2 of miscellaneous prose. It is plainly compiled, not the original. Among the cí there is one to the rhyme of the Vice-minister Lǚ Jūrén 呂居仁 — Jūrén being the zì of Lǚ Běnzhōng 呂本中, son of Lǚ Hǎowèn, and an old member of the Jiāngxī school spanning the Northern–Southern transition; whereas in Bǎoyòu 4 (1256) Qián’s discussion of the attack on Èzhū says he was “approaching seventy”, which puts his birth at the close of Xiàozōng’s reign — how then could he have personally met Běnzhōng to harmonise verses with him? The gleaning of fragments has clearly admitted some pieces by other hands. His Sòngshǐ biography records that, when promoted Shàngyòu lángguān, he submitted the memorial on the great fire of the capital, plus another on storing up talent in advance, and in Duānpíng 1 (1234) the memorial on Nine Matters; as Vice Transport Commissioner of Jiāngxī he submitted a fifteen-point memorandum on the standardising of dǒuhú measures; as Prefect of Tàipíngzhōu, the memorial on the urgent relief of Xiāngyáng, with a memorial requesting recruitment by route; as Prefect of Zhènjiāngfǔ, a memorandum in fifteen points on frontier provisioning and defence; as Vice-Commissioner of the Zhèxī Pacification Bureau, a memorial on the defence of the river and sea; as Minister of Personnel, a memorial requesting careful selection of imperial intimates; and as Left Grand Councillor, a memorial directing court ministers to lay out their views, the memorial on Èzhōu under enemy assault, and the impeachment of Dīng Dàquán 丁大全 — none of these is now in the collection; what is lost is yet considerable. Again, his Tí Jīnlíng Wūyī yuán Mǎnjiānghóng uses Dù Fǔ’s “every time Tiān once smiles, again it is as though all things spring” — Dù Fǔ in turn drew on the Shényì jīng tale of the Jade Maiden’s pitch-pot, where Tiān “smiled at it”; this is hardly an obscure source, and yet Méi annotates “tiān perhaps should be tiān (a different graph)” — his collation, then, is also riddled with arbitrary emendation. Yet the original being lost, in collecting the strewn remnants and preserving an outline Méi is not without merit. Qián’s shī is rather flat with many awkward lines; full pieces as well-formed as the sòng on parting with Hé Xīrǔ 何錫汝 (a wǔyán lǜshī) are not many. His cí, however, is by turns intense and stirring or movingly sorrowful — in the Southern Sòng he is a master of the first rank. Of the prose, though little is left, his correspondence with Shǐ Míyuǎn argues with a clarity and uprightness that conjures up a man of upright temper not to be cowed — and so his rank deserves respect not merely for his character but for his work. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 46 (1781), 9th month. Chief Editors (subject) Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅; Chief Collator (subject) Lù Fèichí 陸費墀. (The volume continues with the běnzhuàn — Wú Qián’s Sòngshǐ biography — appended in the WYG edition.)

Abstract

Wú Qián is among the major political figures of the last generation of the Southern Sòng. Jìnshì zhuàngyuán of 1217, his career bridged the chancellorships of Shǐ Míyuǎn and the early Mongol crisis: as Right Grand Councillor (1251) and Left Grand Councillor (1259) under Lǐzōng he repeatedly memorialised against the rising favourite Dīng Dàquán 丁大全 and the cabal around Zhāng Jiàn 章鑑 and Shěn Yán 沈炎; on the question of the heir, he privately memorialised that “your servant has not Míyuǎn’s talent; King Zhōng has not your majesty’s blessing” — referring to the future Dùzōng — and was thereby driven from office and exiled to Xúnzhōu, where he died (probably by enforced suicide) in Jǐngdìng 3 (1262). Posthumously rehabilitated and given his original posts back in Déyòu 1 (1275); promoted Shǎoshī in Déyòu 2 (1276) on Liǔ Yuè’s 柳岳 petition.

In Chinese literary history he is principally remembered as a cí-master in the háofàng tradition descending from Sū Shì and Xīn Qìjí: his Mǎnjiānghóng on the Wūyī yuán of Jīnlíng, his Hè xīn láng, and his Yǒngyù lè on Xúnzhōu are anthology pieces. The 4-juǎn Sìkù reconstitution preserves only a fraction of the documented prose corpus (the Sìkù tíyào lists more than a dozen lost memorials by name), and silently admits some misattributions (the so-called Lǚ Jūrén harmony piece is impossibly early). Méi Dǐngzuò’s late-Ming compilation is — for all its editorial defects, including the arbitrary emendation flagged by the Sìkù — the indispensable transmission of what little of Wú Qián’s prose survives. The dating bracket spans his death (1262) to the Sìkù recension (1781).

Translations and research

• Davis, Richard L. 1996. Wind against the Mountain: The Crisis of Politics and Culture in Thirteenth-Century China. Harvard UP. Treats Wú Qián’s role in the late-Sòng court extensively.
• Hé Yán-fāng 何彥芳. 1996. Wú Qián cí xīn-lùn 吳潛詞新論. Various journal articles.
• Modern critical editions of Wú Qián’s cí are included in Quán Sòng cí 全宋詞 (vol. 4).

Other points of interest

The famous Mǎnjiānghóng on the Wūyī yuán of Jīnlíng — with its line “Tiān yī xiào, mǎn yuán luóqǐ, mǎn chéng xiāo dí” 天一笑滿園羅綺滿城簫笛 — is one of the most quoted late-Sòng cí and was the locus classicus used by twentieth-century Chinese critics to discuss the háofàng register’s late development.

Links

• Wu Qian (Wikipedia)
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.1; §54 (Sòng cí).