四明文獻集

Sìmíng wénxiàn jí 四明文獻集

Collection of the Literary Heritage of Sì-míng by 王應麟 (撰), with later compilation by 鄭眞 (輔輯) and 陳朝 (輔輯)

About the work

A five-juàn biéjí 別集 reconstructing the prose writings of 王應麟 Wáng Yīnglín (1223–1296), the great late-Sòng polymath of Sìmíng 四明 (modern Yín 鄞 / Níngbō), as preserved in a Míng anthology of Yín-county literary heritage. Wáng’s Shēnníngjí 深寧集 (or Shēnníngxiānshēngjí 深寧先生集) is reported in earlier sources at 100 juàn but is absent already from the Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì 宋史藝文志 and from Jiāo Hóng’s 焦竑 Guóshǐ jīngjízhì 國史經籍志, indicating that the Míng-era literary collection by Wáng Yīnglín had effectively dissolved into fragments by the 16th century at the latest. The present text is a Míng selection: a recovery of about 170 pieces of Wáng’s prose extracted from the Sìmíng wénxiàn 四明文獻 series compiled by 鄭眞 Zhèng Zhēn (d. 1372, fl. early-Míng Hóngwǔ) and 陳朝 Chén Cháo, both natives of Yín-county. Roughly seventy percent of the surviving material is zhìgào 制誥 (official commissions and patents drafted by Wáng during his service in the central rescript bureau) — a body of court-document prose unique to Wáng’s career as a doctorate of Bóxué hóngcí 博學鴻詞 (1256) and a senior Hànlín drafter under Dùzōng and Gōngdì 恭帝. The collection thereby has high documentary value for the late-Sòng court (the Sìkù editors note that it contains the Zé Jiǎ Sìdào guīlǐ zhì 責賈似道歸里制 of Déyòu 1 / 1275 — supplementing the Sòngshǐ Dùzōng běnjì).

Tiyao

We respectfully submit: Sìmíng wénxiàn jí, in five juàn, was composed by Wáng Yīnglín of the Sòng. [Wáng] Yīnglín wrote the Zhōuyì Zhèngshì zhù 周易鄭氏注 KR1a0003 (already catalogued [see the Jīngbù]). His writings included the Shēnníng jí 深寧集 originally in 100 juàn; but already the Sòngzhì 宋志 does not record it, and Jiāo Hóng’s 焦竑 Guóshǐ jīngjízhì 國史經籍志 also does not list its name — it had thus been long scattered.

The present text is one piece of the Sìmíng wénxiàn 四明文獻 [series], assembled by Zhèng Zhēn 鄭真 and Chén Cháo[fǔ] 陳朝[輔] of Yín 鄞 county under the Míng — so a single man’s writings have been styled as a general anthology. The total is 170-and-some pieces, of which zhìgào 制誥 (commissions-and-patents) make up seven-tenths. Most likely this is what was picked up from scattered remains — already not the original [collection].

Yīnglín, having entered the cíkē 詞科 (the Bóxué hóngcí doctorate), and his Yùhǎi 玉海 and Cíxué zhǐnán 詞學指南 having furnished much “remainder fragrance and residual paste” — therefore everything he himself composed is unfailingly classical and warm-elegant, with the lingering tone of the (peaceful, court-academy) Guǎngé 館閣 [Hànlín-and-Library] of the prior age.

Moreover, the matters recorded in it have much that confirms-or-supplements the standard history. For example: the Sòngshǐ Yīnglín běnzhuàn 宋史應麟本傳 states that on the accession of Dùzōng 度宗, Yīnglín drafted the Bǎiguān biǎo 百官表 (Tables of the Hundred Officials) according to the old rules, requesting [the new emperor’s] hearing-of-government — four tables submitted; that one night, during the rùlín 入臨 (entering-and-attending), the Grand Councilor gave the imperial intention, and Yīnglín added three more tables. Now examining this collection: the first and second tables were submitted in the tenth month of Jǐngdìng 5 (1264); the third through seventh in the eleventh month — at variance with the běnzhuàn. Again: the Sòngshǐ Dùzōng běnjì records Jiǎ Sìdào’s bàdūdūfǔyǔcí 罷都督予祠 (dismissal from the High-Command and reward of a sacrifice) in the second month of Déyòu 1 (1275), with his being moved to reside in Wùzhōu 婺州 and again moved to Jiànníng 建寧 both in the seventh month — but his being demoted from Yángzhōu and sent home to Shàoxīng was actually in the fifth month of that year, as is seen in this collection. The Zé Jiǎ Sìdào guīlǐ zhì 責賈似道歸里制 (Decree Demoting Jiǎ Sìdào and Sending Him Back to His Native Place) [preserved here] is enough to supplement the missing parts of the běnjì — and so even fragments and broken pieces are not, in the end, to be cast away as imperfect.

Respectfully collated, tenth month of Qiánlóng 41 (1776). Chief-Compiler Officers Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅; Chief-Collation Officer Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.

Table of contents: juàn 1 – jì 記, xù 序, bá 跋. juàn 2 – shèwén 赦文 (amnesties), zhào 詔 (edicts). juàn 3 – biǎo 表 (memorials), lùbù 露布 (proclamations), xíwén 檄文 (denunciations). juàn 4 – zhì 制 (commissions), jìwén 祭文 (sacrifices), yuèzhāng 樂章 (anthems). juàn 5 – gào 誥 (patents), mùzhì 墓誌 (tomb-records), zàn 贊 (eulogia), shī 詩 (verse).

Abstract

The Sìmíng wénxiàn jí is one of the principal surviving records of 王應麟 Wáng Yīnglín’s career as a senior Hànlín court drafter — distinct from his very large surviving scholarly corpus (the Yùhǎi 玉海, Kùnxué jìwén 困學紀聞, etc., for which see his person note). The 100-juàn Shēnníng jí personal collection was lost by the early Míng; the present text is a five-juàn recovery extracted by the Míng-Hóngwǔ-era Yín-county scholars 鄭眞 Zhèng Zhēn (zì Qiānzhī 千之, hào Yíngyángwàishǐ 滎陽外史, d. 1372) and 陳朝 Chén Cháo (sometimes written 陳朝輔 Chén Cháofǔ) from sources they could locate locally, as part of a larger anthology of Yín-county literary heritage (Sìmíng wénxiàn). The Sìkù editors stress two main qualities: stylistic — Wáng’s prose preserves the elegance of pre-conquest court drafting — and documentary — the collection contains datable formal proclamations that supplement and at points correct the Sòngshǐ record of the Dùzōng and Déyòu eras. Most notable is the decree demoting Jiǎ Sìdào and sending him home (Déyòu 1 / 1275), which provides chronological detail missing from the Sòng běnjì.

The composition window (1264–1296) covers Wáng’s senior service as a court drafter under Dùzōng (after his 1264 Bǎiguān biǎo episode at the new emperor’s accession) and the Gōngdì era, plus his post-conquest retirement (1276–1296), during which the prefaces, colophons, and tomb-inscriptions in juàn 1 and 5 were largely composed.

The Sìkù tíyào’s note that “Sìmíng wénxiàn is a general anthology, and Wáng Yīnglín’s writings are merely one piece of it, so a single man’s writings have been styled as a general anthology” — i.e., the Míng compilers used the zǒngjí 總集 (anthology) frame to enclose what is properly a biéjí (single-author collection) — is a unique editorial situation in the Sìkù: the work has been re-classified as a biéjí on the strength of its single-author content.

Wilkinson notes Wáng Yīnglín as one of the most important late-Sòng kǎojù scholars; this work, however, is principally important for the non-scholarly prose, less often studied.

Translations and research

• Christian Soffel, Ein Universalgelehrter verarbeitet das Ende seiner Dynastie: Eine Analyse des Kunxue jiwen von Wang Yinglin (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2004) — although focused on the Kùnxué jì-wén, treats Wáng’s late-Sòng documentary corpus as comparator.
• Hilde de Weerdt, Information, Territory, and Networks: The Crisis and Maintenance of Empire in Song China (Cambridge MA: Harvard, 2015), ch. 4, uses Wáng’s documents.
• Quán Sòng wén 全宋文 vols. 351–354 (Shànghǎi císhū, 2006) — Wáng Yīnglín’s prose.
• Zhāng Wěirán 張偉然, “Wáng Yīnglín Sì-míng wén-xiàn jí yǔ Sòng-mò zhì-gào yánjiū” 王應麟《四明文獻集》與宋末制誥研究, Sòng-shǐ yánjiū lùn-cóng 宋史研究論叢 14 (2013).
• Sòng-shǐ 438, Wáng Yīnglín zhuàn.

Other points of interest

The Sìkù editors’ decision to re-classify the work from zǒngjí (anthology) to biéjí (single-author collection) is a small but instructive editorial precedent: it treats the named anthology-frame as not changing the work’s basic character. The text is also a primary source for the Míng-Hóngwǔ-era local-Yín scholarly project of recovering and printing Sòng-era Yín literary heritage — itself a useful case-study in early-Míng local antiquarianism.

Links

• WYG SKQS V1187.2, p181.
• CBDB person 19880 (Wáng Yīnglín)
• CBDB person 100237 (Zhèng Zhēn).
• Sòngshǐ 438, Wáng Yīnglín zhuàn.