Xuěchuāng jí 雪窗集
Collected works of [Sūn] Snow-Window by 孫夢觀 (撰)
About the work
Two juan of court memorials (juan 1, zòuyì 奏議) and “matter-of-state” essays (juan 2, gùshì 故事) by Sūn Mèngguān 孫夢觀 (Shǒushū 守叔, hào Xuěchuāng 雪窗, 1200–1257), a Bǎoqìng 2 (1226) jìnshì of Cíxī 慈溪 (Qìngyuán 慶元 / Níngbō, Zhèjiāng), with a one-juan appendix containing his epitaph and a zàn by his contemporaries plus the běnzhuàn 本傳 (his official biography drafted by the early-Míng Yuán-loyalist Wēi Sù 危素, 1303–1372). The Sìkù exemplar derives from the Míng Jiājìng (1522–1566) recutting by his descendant Sūn Yìngkuí 孫應奎.
Tiyao
A respectful submission. Xuěchuāng jí, two juan with a one-juan appendix, by the Sòng [author] Sūn Mèngguān. Mèngguān, zì Shǒushū, hào Xuěchuāng, of Cíxī. Took the jìnshì in Bǎoqìng 2 (1226), and rose to Vice Director of the Ministry of Personnel; later requested an outer post and was given concurrently the rank of Editor of the Hall of Assembled Brilliance and prefect of Jiànníngfǔ. His career is given in his Sòng shǐ biography. The present edition was collated and printed in the Míng Jiājìng period by his descendant Yìngkuí 應奎. Liú’s collation post-face says: “the collection has two juan, namely zòuyì ‘memorials and submissions’ and gùshì ‘matters-of-state’; his epitaph, zàn, and dirges form the appendix in one juan.” Under gùshì he cites passages from old books at the head and adds his own discussion at the end, presenting them in turn before the throne and using the matter to remonstrate; his contemporary Lǐ Céngbó 李曾伯’s collection occasionally records the same form. This was the form of the genre at the time. His zòuyì run from Jiāxī 4 (1240) down to Bǎoyòu 4 (1256), the years of the Sòng polity’s worst rot, and what he says is in every case earnest, sharply spoken, deeply learned in current affairs: as when he says “His Majesty Lǐzōng can entertain straight talk but cannot use it,” or that “scholar-officials whose great virtue is leniency lend the state no benefit at all” — these strike to the very heart of the late-Sòng disease, and beside them the pedantic disquisitions on antiquity by men who would rescue a fire or a flooded man with talk of the Three Dynasties cannot be mentioned in the same breath. Submitted reverentially, Qiánlóng 44, fifth month [June–July 1779]. Editors-in-chief Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; chief collator Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Sūn Mèngguān was a jìnshì of Bǎoqìng 2 (1226), the same exam-year as Xú Jīngsūn 徐經孫 KR4d0343, and like him a Lǐ-zōng-era court official whose career was shaped by his stand against Lǐzōng’s late-reign favourites and the influence of Dīng Dàquán 丁大全 and Jiǎ Sìdào 賈似道. After serving as a tutor in the various princely schools and the Imperial University, he rose through the standard sequence of Censorate, drafting, and ministerial roles and was named Vice Director of the Ministry of Personnel before requesting a regional post. The biography preserved at the back of this collection — drafted by Wēi Sù — gives a long quotation of his yánshì 言事 utterances: he warned that “the censorial ground has yet to see ten memorials concerted against a single villain; the rejection-and-correction office has yet to see three drafters refuse to write a decree,” and frequently identified the late-Sòng habit of court-favourite engrossment as the principal political illness. Refusing to use his Jiànníngfǔ tax revenues for the Court Revenue Bureau’s “exorbitant” demands he wrote: “I would rather hand over my office and depart than damage the people to keep my position.” He died at Jiànníng of illness in 1257 (Bǎoyòu 5), aged 58. The catalog meta dates 1200–1257 are confirmed by CBDB (id 21356) and by Wēi Sù’s biography. Wilkinson does not treat Sūn Mèngguān individually but his political milieu is covered in Chinese History: A New Manual under the late Southern Sòng.
The appended gùshì genre — paired classical-historical citations with contemporary admonition — is a characteristic late-Sòng court-instruction form, also represented in the collected works of Lǐ Céngbó (the Kězhāi zágǎo KR4d0335).
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language monograph located. For Chinese-language scholarship see the entries in Quán-Sòng wén 全宋文 vol. 343–344 (introduction by Zēng Zǎo-zhuāng 曾棗莊 and Liú Lín 劉琳, Shàng-hǎi cí-shū / Ān-huī jiào-yù, 2006); studies of late-Sòng remonstrance literature; and Wēi Sù’s biographical preface itself as a source.
Other points of interest
The biography preserves the exceptional anecdote that, on Sūn Mèngguān’s death, the people of Jiànníngfǔ saw a “dream-rider” 夢從者 emerging from the local mountain shrine — recognized as Sūn himself — which gave rise to a local cult. The detail is preserved in Wēi Sù’s biography and reflects the late-Sòng tendency to local-cult absorption of upright official figures.
Links
- CBDB id 21356 for 孫夢觀
- Sòng shǐ juan 424 biography
- Wēi Sù 危素 (1303–1372), drafter of the běnzhuàn preserved in the appendix