Jǔshān cúngǎo 矩山存稿
Surviving manuscripts of [Xú] Jǔshān by 徐經孫 (撰)
About the work
The five-juan literary remains of Xú Jīngsūn 徐經孫 (Zhònglì 仲立, hào Jǔshān 矩山, 1192–1273), a Fēngchéng 豐城 (Hóngzhōu 洪州 / Jiāngxī) censor-official and Hànlín academician under Lǐzōng (1224–1264) and Dùzōng (1264–1274). Mostly memorials and policy prose; the verse, the Sìkù editors note, is “doggerel and shallow, decidedly not his strength.”
Tiyao
A respectful submission. Jǔshān cúngǎo in five juan, by the Sòng [author] Xú Jīngsūn. Jīngsūn, zì Zhònglì, originally named Zǐróu 子柔, of Fēngchéng. Took the jìnshì in Bǎoqìng 2 (1226) and was appointed registrar of Liúyáng. He held office through the rank of Vice Director of the Ministry of Punishments and Director of the Heir-Apparent’s Affairs and was raised to Hànlín academician zhī zhìgào 知制誥; for crossing Jiǎ Sìdào 賈似道 he was dismissed and went home, retiring for ten years before dying. He was awarded the posthumous title Gold-Purple Imperial Grand-Master and the canonized name Wénhuì 文惠. His career is given in his Sòng shǐ biography. Jīngsūn’s home stood between Hóng-[zhōu] and Fǔ-[zhōu], with a square upright mountain there, whence he took his sobriquet Jǔshān and named his collection. His whole life he made an oath of upright bluntness, and his great deeds in court office are many to record. Xióng Pénglái 熊朋來 wrote on his tomb that “in the Censorate he did not fear those in power, in the Hànlín he did not fear the imperial favourites” — his stern dignity is plain to see. Literary work was not what he set his heart on, and he therefore often wrote at the brush’s tip, pouring out his breast directly without any concern for studied composition; yet his words run easily and his vital breath moves freely, and he has too the wide and rolling effect. As to his memorials and submissions, when he speaks of contemporary politics or impeaches favourites, in every case he sets out the matter with sharp clarity, and one can see, as if before one’s eyes, the upright tablet and the lowered sash. The cleanness and steepness of his style is something the trafficker in stale phrases could never reach by one ten-thousandth. Only his verse is doggerel and shallow, decidedly not his strength — but the reader may simply value it for the sake of the man. Submitted reverentially, Qiánlóng 45, second month [March 1780]. Editor-in-chief Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; chief collator Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Xú Jīngsūn was a Bǎoqìng 2 (1226) jìnshì, a senior LǐzōngDùzōng court official in the line of upright remonstrators, and a member of the late-Sòng anti-Jiǎ Sìdào 賈似道 faction. His Sòng shǐ biography (juan 410) records the impeachments of high officials and palace intimates that earned him both his reputation and his downfall. The catalog meta gives Xú’s lifedates as 1192–1237; this is incorrect and likely a transcription error. Xú served through the Bǎoqìng (1225–1227) to Xiánchún (1265–1274) reigns and the Sìkù tíyào explicitly states he survived ten years of retirement after his dismissal. CBDB (id 27784) gives 1192–1273, which agrees with the standard biographical compendia and the Sòng shǐ career chronology and is followed here. Xióng Pénglái 熊朋來 (1246–1323) — the Yuán-period Confucian and one-time Sòng official — wrote his tomb inscription, the source of the famous couplet quoted in the tíyào. Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, has no specific entry on Xú Jīngsūn but situates his late-Sòng remonstrant generation in his treatment of Lǐ-zōng-era politics.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language secondary literature located. For Chinese-language treatment see the Sòng shǐ juan 410 biography; the entry in Zhōngguó wén-xué jiā dà cídiǎn (Sòng dài juàn); and selected articles on late-Sòng remonstrance literature.
Links
- CBDB id 27784 for 徐經孫 (1192–1273)
- Sòng shǐ juan 410 biography