Yōngzhāi jí 庸齋集
Collected works of [the studio called] Yōng-zhāi by 趙汝騰 (撰)
About the work
Six-juan literary remains of Zhào Rǔténg 趙汝騰 (Màoshí 茂實, hào Yōngzhāi 庸齋, d. 1261), Sòng imperial-clansman (太宗七世孫, “seventh-generation descendant of Tàizōng”), Mǐn (Fúzhōu) man, Bǎoqìng 2 (1226) jìnshì, late-Sòng court Confucian, and one-time Hànlín xuéshì chéngzhǐ 翰林學士承旨. The collection — including the unsupported (Zhèjí-style) entries Yōngzhāi Péngláigé Zǐxiázhōu jí, Yōngzhāi Suǒtà jí, etc. — was reconstructed by the Sìkù editors from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn; Zhào’s collection had not survived in independent transmission and is missing from the Sòngshǐ yìwénzhì.
Tiyao
A respectful submission. Yōngzhāi jí in six juan, by the Sòng [author] Zhào Rǔténg. Rǔténg, zì Màoshí, Yōngzhāi being his self-given sobriquet, was a seventh-generation descendant of [Sòng] Tàizōng and lived in Fúzhōu. He was a Bǎoqìng 2 (1226) jìnshì and rose to Editor of the Hall of Bright Vision (Duānmíngdiàn xuéshì), to Concurrent Director of the Hall of the Spirit’s Aid (Tíjǔ Yòushénguān), and to Hànlín xuéshì chéngzhǐ. His career is given in his Sòng shǐ biography. His collection is recorded in neither Sòngshǐ yìwénzhì nor in any of the standard catalogues. Lì È’s 厲鶚 Sòngshī jìshì lists 75 imperial-clansmen poets but does not have Rǔténg’s name. Only the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn under various rhyme-headings preserves his prose; some pieces are headed Zhào Yōngzhāi jí, others Zhào Yōngzhāi Péngláigé Zǐxiázhōu jí, others again Yōngzhāi Suǒtà jí, and the old prefaces have been lost: the original juan-order cannot be recovered. We have therefore patched together what survives and ordered it into six juan, the volume being modest enough to make multiple sub-titles unnecessary; the whole has been simply called Yōngzhāi jí under one title. Rǔténg was born in the territory of Zhū Xī and could indeed take the wash of his stream — he was capable of jiǎngxué (academic discussion). The histories say he kept upright and unbending. As Vice Director of the Ministry of Rites with concurrent right of gěishìzhōng (rejecting and correcting drafts) he submitted memorials sharply impeaching the lying flatterers and self-enriching ministers as exhausting the state’s vitality, and reproved Lǐzōng for his private favours to small men. The two leading-petition memorials (“first” and “second”) of Rénzǐ 6 (i.e. Bǎoyòu 4, 1256), here in this collection, are precisely the full text of those: detailed and back-and-forth, sharply on point. Again, in the prefaces to drafted internal and external decrees in this collection he calls himself one who “once crossed Shǐ Sōngzhī by drafting decrees and was sent away from court,” and says “when men of integrity such as Wáng Sānjùn 王三俊 and Lǐ Bóyù 李伯玉 were unjustly demoted, in every case the yellow-paper draft would not be written, and rescue memorials were submitted on their behalf, blocking the move.” His high spirit was steady and lofty — truly no shame to the school of Zhū Xī, no mere borrower of its threshold. But examining Zhōu Mì’s 周密 Guǐxīn zázhì 癸辛雜識 we read that “Rǔténg as one of the cóngguān (deputy officials) strongly recommended Xú Lín 徐霖 of Sānqú as Editor in the Zhùzuòjú, going so far as to compare him to Fàn Wénzhènggōng [Fàn Zhòngyān]; but Xú’s bearing was bizarre and self-aggrandizing, his impudence boundless. All of this stemmed from Rǔténg’s indulging his wildness, calling him ‘Great Master Confucian’ and being addressed by him as ‘Little Master Confucian’ — they ranged each other. When Xú was dismissed, Rǔténg could not himself feel at ease and asked for an outer post.” On examining the present collection: among the chànghé exchange-poems, those with Xú Jìngpō 徐徑坡 are the most numerous — Jìngpō being Xú Lín’s zì. The poem given to a student calling at Xú Jìngpō says “I look upon Jìngpō: he is the Sìshuǐ of our day [i.e. Confucius’s birthplace].” Again, in the lecture-tablet inscription celebrating Xú Jìngpō’s prefectship at Kēshān: “establishing the heart of heaven-and-earth, sounding the bell of the Way, opening the eyes of the masses, knowing the master.” His words of praise and elevation are incoherent and excessive — Zhōu Mì’s report is plainly accurate. This must be among the practices of late-Sòng scholar-officials of “exalting dàoxué and inflating one’s name through stridency” — and we cannot pretend it does not exist on Rǔténg’s account either. To look at this collection is, indeed, a mirror for a thousand ages. Submitted reverentially, Qiánlóng 46, ninth month [October–November 1781]. Editors-in-chief Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; chief collator Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Zhào Rǔténg was a Fúzhōu Sòng-clansman of the zǐlǚ generation (太宗七世孫), a Bǎoqìng 2 (1226) jìnshì, and a court official whose career reached the Hànlín xuéshì chéngzhǐ rank under Lǐzōng (1224–1264). His biographical entry is in Sòng shǐ juan 413 (the same juan as Sūn Mèngguān). The Sìkù tíyào gives him a balanced — quite unusually two-sided — portrait: an upright Daoxue-trained official who openly confronted the chief councillor Shǐ Sōngzhī 史嵩之 and the Lǐ-zōng-era favourites; but also (per Zhōu Mì) an exemplar of the late-Sòng jiǎojī gūmíng 矯激沽名 (“ostentatious self-promotion”) tendency, conspicuous in his patronage of Xú Lín 徐霖. The catalog meta gives “d. 1261” without a birth year; CBDB (id 10948) likewise has no birth year, only the death year 1261, which is followed here as well. The death year places his end in the Jǐngdìng (1260–1264) reign, the final years before Mongol pressure became overwhelming. Wilkinson notes the late-Sòng Sòng-clansman literati but does not single out Zhào.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language secondary literature located. For Zhào’s place in the late-Sòng Daoxue network and the patronage controversy with Xú Lín see Yú Yīng-shí 余英時, Zhū Xī de lì-shǐ shì-jiè 朱熹的歷史世界 (Sān-lián, 2003) — discussion of late-Sòng Daoxue politicization. The dispute is also covered in the introduction to the Quán-Sòng wén vol. 347 ed. of his works.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù tíyào for Yōngzhāi jí is unusual for the candor with which Jì Yún 紀昀 and his collators identify in Zhào Rǔténg a paradigm case of late-Sòng Daoxue-faction self-promotion. The tíyào explicitly cites Zhōu Mì’s Guǐxīn zázhì against Zhào — and reads the man’s own poetry against him, citing his praise of Xú Lín as “the Sìshuǐ [Confucius] of our day” as proof of Zhōu’s accusation. As literary judgment on a Sòng jí this is rare and unusually direct.
Links
- CBDB id 10948 for 趙汝騰
- Sòng shǐ juan 413 biography
- Zhōu Mì 周密 (1232–1308), Guǐxīn zázhì 癸辛雜識 (cited by the Sìkù editors against Zhào)