巽齋文集

Xùnzhāi wénjí 巽齋文集

Collected Writings of [the Studio of] Compliance by 歐陽守道 (撰)

About the work

The literary collection of Ōuyáng Shǒudào 歐陽守道 (b. 1209), a Jízhōu 吉州 scholar of independent neo-Confucian conviction, lecturer at the Báilùzhōu 白鷺洲 and Yuèlù 岳麓 academies, and — the tíyào notes — the teacher of both Wén Tiānxiáng 文天祥 and Liú Chénwēng 劉辰翁. Twenty-seven juàn divided into five sub-collections (jiǎ 甲, yǐ 乙, bǐng 丙, dīng 丁, wù 戊). The collection is principally important as a window onto independent late-Sòng learning, neither bound to the ZhūXī mainstream nor to any sectarian yǔlù tradition, and as background for the formation of Wén Tiānxiáng’s moral-philosophical commitments.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit: Xùnzhāi wénjí, twenty-seven juàn, was composed by Ōuyáng Shǒudào of the Sòng. Shǒudào, zì Gōngquán 公權, originally named Xùn 巽 with zì Yū 迂, was a man of Jízhōu 吉州. In Jiāyòu 嘉祐 1 [— note: this is a clerical slip in the tíyào; the year of his jìnshì was in fact Chúnyòu 淳祐 1 (1241), as the catalog meta and CBDB confirm —] he obtained the jìnshì and was appointed Magistrate-Recorder (zhǔbù 主簿) of Yúdū 雩都. He was transferred to be Recorder (sīhù 司户) at Gànzhōu 贛州 and entered the central government as Proofreader (zhèngzì 正字) of the Imperial Library, eventually rising to Mìshūláng 秘書郎. He retired and went home. In the third year of Xiánchún 咸淳 (1267), on the recommendation of the Shàofù 少傅 Lǚ Wéndé 吕文徳, he was added by special appointment as Vice-Administrator of Jiànchāngjūn 建昌軍 and was promoted to Zhùzuò zuǒláng 著作佐郎, concurrently serving as Lecturer at the Chóngzhèngdiàn 崇政殿 and acting as Quán Dūguān lángzhōng 權都官郎中. He died in office at Zhùzuòláng. His career details are contained in his biography in the Sòngshǐ 宋史.

This compilation is divided into five sub-collections, jiǎ, yǐ, bǐng, dīng, wù. Examples such as the Reply to Scholar Liú 復劉學士書, refuting Lǐ Xízhī’s 李習之 use of “guard one’s centre” to gloss “watchful in solitude” (shèndú 慎獨) as foreign to the Zhōngyōng 中庸’s original sense; and the Reply to Instructor Dīng 答丁教授書, refuting Liú Jǐngyún 劉景雲’s gloss “centred-mind makes loyalty, like-mind makes reciprocity” as derivative from Wáng Ānshí’s 王安石 Zìshuō 字説 and not from the original meaning of the six categories of characters (liùshū 六書) — all such pieces are well-rooted in their conclusions, not the careless assertions of one who would merely play the contrarian. The history records that Shǒudào lost his father young and was raised in poverty, without a teacher of his own; he worked at his learning by himself, and before reaching the age of thirty had drawn the unanimous esteem of his prefecture as the Confucian elder of the local communities. Plainly his rise was no instance of relying on faction or patronage; what he saw was come at by himself.

The history further records that Jiāng Wànlǐ 江萬里, on founding the Báilùzhōu Academy 白鷺洲書院 [in Jízhōu], first sent for Shǒudào to lecture to its students; and that Wú Zǐliáng 吳子良, then Húnán Transport Sub-Commissioner, also engaged him as head of Yuèlù Academy 岳麓書院. Later, when Jiāng Wànlǐ became Libationer of the National University, he again recommended Shǒudào for the post of Shǐguǎn jiǎnyuè 史館檢閱. Jiāng Wànlǐ died in fidelity to the Sòng cause [— the loyal-martyr biography is in the Sòngshǐ —]; Wú Zǐliáng was a transmitter of the lineage of Yè Shì 葉適, and his Línxià ǒután 林下偶談 shows a marvellous grasp of the joints-and-marrow of prose composition. From the company he kept, one can know his school’s affinities. The Jízhōu rénwén jìlüè 吉州人文紀略 further records that Wén Tiānxiáng 文天祥 and Liú Chénwēng 劉辰翁 were both Shǒudào’s disciples — from which Shǒudào’s stature is doubly clear. This being so, the reader of this collection should not treat it on a par with the various Neo-Confucian yǔlù compilations of the day.

Respectfully collated, fifth month of Qiánlóng 45 (1780). Chief-Compiler Officers (ministers) Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅; Chief-Collation Officer (minister) Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.

Abstract

The Xùnzhāi wénjí is one of the most historically consequential late-Sòng biéjí on account of Ōuyáng Shǒudào’s role as the teacher of Wén Tiānxiáng 文天祥 (KR4d0365, KR4d0366) and Liú Chénwēng 劉辰翁: the moral-philosophical idiom of late-Sòng resistance to the Yuán has one of its principal academic roots in the Báilùzhōu Academy under Ōuyáng Shǒudào’s headship, and so this collection is essential reading for the formation of Wén Tiānxiáng. The Sìkù tíyào’s observation that Shǒudào’s positions are “rooted, not careless contrarianism” responds to the late-Sòng xuéàn problem of how to classify a scholar who participates in the broader Cheng-Zhu intellectual world but never anchors himself in a school-line: Wú Zǐliáng’s mentorship of him places him within the Yè Shì 葉適 (Yǒngjiā 永嘉) school by transmission, while his independence of position keeps him from being a Yǒngjiā doctrinaire.

Catalog-vs-source discrepancy on the jìnshì year. The tíyào gives “Jiāyòu 嘉祐 1” — that is, 1056 — which is impossible (the Sòngshǐ biography places Shǒudào in the mid-13th century). This is a Qīng clerical slip for Chúnyòu 淳祐 1 (1241), confirmed by CBDB (person 20765) and by the Sòngshǐ biography. The correction is noted here in the translation and accounts for the composition window 1241 (jìnshì) – c. 1273 (Shǒudào’s death, traditionally placed in the early 1270s).

The work’s structural division into five sub-collections (jiǎyǐbǐngdīngwù 甲乙丙丁戊) follows a Han-and-Six-Dynasties manuscript convention used in Fánnán jiǎyǐ jí 樊南甲乙集 (Lǐ Shāngyǐn) and Yuánshì zhǎngqìng jí 元氏長慶集 (Yuán Zhěn), among others. For wider context on late-Sòng academies, see Linda Walton, Academies and Society in Southern Sung China (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999). For Wén Tiānxiáng’s formation under Shǒudào, see Davis, Wind Against the Mountain (1996), pp. 13–14. See also Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §63 on late-Sòng intellectual networks.

Translations and research

• Linda Walton, Academies and Society in Southern Sung China (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999) — touches on Ōuyáng Shǒudào’s role at Bái-lù-zhōu.
• Richard L. Davis, Wind Against the Mountain: The Crisis of Politics and Culture in Thirteenth-Century China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 1996) — places Ōuyáng as Wén Tiānxiáng’s teacher.
• Sòng-shǐ 宋史, juàn 411, biographical entry on Ōuyáng Shǒudào.
• Sòng-Yuán xué-àn 宋元學案, juàn 88, the Xùn-zhāi xué-àn 巽齋學案 — case dedicated to Ōuyáng.

Other points of interest

The Báilùzhōu 白鷺洲 academy, where Ōuyáng Shǒudào lectured at Jiāng Wànlǐ’s invitation, was the institutional cradle of Jízhōu late-Sòng patriotism. Among the academy’s products — alongside Wén Tiānxiáng and Liú Chénwēng — were Xiè Fāngdé 謝枋得 (KR4d0367) and other figures of the post-1276 resistance. The Xùnzhāi wénjí thus has weight beyond its formal literary content as the master-record of the academic milieu that produced the Sòng’s most iconic loyalist generation.

Links

• WYG SKQS V1183.7, p501.
• CBDB person 20765
• Sòngshǐ 411 biographical entry.