歸田類稿

Guītián lèigǎo 歸田類稿

Manuscripts Classified after Retiring to the Fields by 張養浩 (撰)

About the work

The poetic and prose collection of Zhāng Yǎnghào 張養浩 (CBDB 27993, 1270–1329; zì Xīmèng 希孟, hào Yúnzhuāng 雲莊, posthumous shì Wénzhōng 文忠), the great Yuán-period reform-minded scholar-official from Jǐnán who served as Censor, Vice-Director of the Court of the Heir Apparent, and Vice-Director of the Department of State Affairs; resigned in 1321 to mourn his father; refused repeated imperial summons through eight successive offers across eight years until the Tiānlì 2 (1329) drought relief mission in Shǎnxī, on which he died of overwork on the road at age 60. The collection’s complex textual history is carefully reconstructed by the Sìkù editors: Zhāng’s own self-preface to a 40-juàn recension (gathering “more than 900 poems, fù, prose, and yuèfǔ”) names the work Guītián lèigǎo; Fùzhūlǐ Chōng 富珠哩翀 (originally Bóshùlǔ Chōng 孛朮魯翀, the Yuán Jiāngzhè cānzhīzhèngshì) wrote a preface to a 38-juàn recension dated yǐhài (1335); the Wényuāngé shūmù records a one-cè Yúnzhuāng chuánjiā jí and a three-cè Yúnzhuāng jí; Jiāo Hóng’s Jīngjí zhì records a Zhāng Yǎnghào wénzhōng jí in 18 juàn; Wú Shīdào’s 吳師道 preface explains the divergence: Zhāng’s autograph 40-juàn Yúnzhuāng jí (the Guītián lèigǎo) was cut at the Lóngxīng (Hóngzhōu) Academy; Wēi Sù 危素 履 abridged this to the 18-juàn selection of administrative-and-public-import pieces (the Wénzhōng jí); the Wényuāngé one-cè “Chuánjiā jí” represents the later supplementary collection from descendants. The present base is a Míng-late 27-juàn recension with extensive losses and arrangement-disorder, supplemented from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn — yielding the Sìkù recension of 24 juàn in 584 pieces (88 záwén + 3 fù + 463 shī — already more than half the 900-piece original).

Tiyao

We respectfully submit: Guītián lèigǎo in twenty-two juàn was composed by Zhāng Yǎnghào of the Yuán. Yǎnghào has the Sānshì zhōnggào, already entered in the catalog. This compilation is his poetry and prose. Yǎnghào once self-prefaced his collection saying: “Retreated to rest in the wilderness, I record what I have got — poetry, prose, and yuèfǔ — more than 900 pieces; divided into 40 juàn, named Guītián lèigǎo.” Fùzhūlǐ Chōng’s preface (note: “Fùzhūlǐ Chōng” was originally written “Bóshùlǔ Chōng”; now corrected) makes [it] 38 juàn — the juàn count is already different.

The Wényuāngé shūmù records “Yǎnghào Yúnzhuāng chuánjiā jí one cè; Yúnzhuāng jí three cè.” Jiāo Hóng’s Guóshǐ jīngjí zhì makes [it] “Zhāng Yǎnghào Wénzhōng jí 18 juàn” — both the title and juàn counts further do not match Yǎnghào’s self-preface. Huáng Yújì’s Qiānqǐngtáng shūmù records the name Guītián lèigǎo but again has no juàn count. Examining Wú Shīdào’s preface: “The Lord’s Yúnzhuāng jí in 40 juàn was already cut at the Lóngxīng Academy. Línchuān’s Wēi Sù lǚ (履) [履] gathered those bearing on government-and-teaching’s general body to make this compilation, and entrusted me with [the writing of] the preface” — so what was cut at Lóngxīng is in fact what Yǎnghào himself edited as the Lèigǎo, changing its name to Yúnzhuāng jí — likewise the Wényuāngé shūmù’s three cè; what [Wēi] Sù-lǚ selected-and-fixed is in fact the Jīngjí zhì’s Zhāng Wénzhōng jí 18 juàn; and what is called the [Chuán-]jiā jí one cè must be derived by later persons’ gathering — being the wàijí bǔyí type.

However, Sū Tiānjué’s Yuán wén lèi records only Yǎnghào’s prose 2 pieces. Therefore Míng Yè Shèng’s Shuǐdōng rìjì somewhat ridicules [Sū] Tiānjué’s failure-to-record the JiànDēngshān shū. By the late Yuán [Zhāng’s collection] had already been rarely circulated. Recently Wáng Shìzhèn coincidentally got Yǎnghào’s Wáng Yǒukāi mùzhì, exclaiming at its strangeness, recording [it] in the Huánghuá jìwén — so also [Wáng] had not seen the complete collection.

Only in the Míng late-period there is a 27-juàn printed base still preserved in the world — already with many omissions and abbreviations, the biāncì also losing its proper [classification]. We now use [it] as the base, and separately gather from what the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn records, deleting the duplicate, supplementing the missing — getting záwén 88 pieces, fù 3 pieces, poetry 463 pieces — in all 584 pieces, dividing into 24 juàn. Compared with the 900 original count, we already have more than half — also sufficient to see the outline.

Further, in the collection there is the HéTáo shī xù (Preface to harmonizing-Táo [Qián] poetry), which self-says: “Aged 52, retired and at ease without affairs, I daily read Táo poetry; imitating its titles to issue my own intent — obtaining [thus] 若干 pieces of poetry,” and so on. The present collection then has not a single piece — presumably it was separately one compilation, not entered into [this] collection; therefore the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn did not record [it].

Yǎnghào was a famous Yuán-dynasty minister, not [taking] cíhàn (literary brushwork)‘s skill-or-clumsiness as light-or-heavy; yet reading his collection — pieces like “Memorial Discussing Current Affairs” — the fēngcǎi (manner) is stern-and-forbidding; while “Mourning the Refugees Operation” and the “Chángān xiàozǐ Jiǎ Hǎi shī” (Poem on the Filial Son Jiǎ Hǎi of Chángān) — pieces of loyal-thick-faithful-bitter-feeling — overflowing in ǎihū (intermingled) words of a humane man; even discussing them on literary grounds, [they] are not without being lofty-and-transmissible. Respectfully collated, twelfth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). 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.

Abstract

Zhāng Yǎnghào (CBDB 27993, 1270–1329) is the foremost Yuán-period reform-minded scholar-official and the principal sǎnqǔ poet of the Yuán dynasty among the official-class composers. His career — passed jìnshì in Dàdé 8 (1304); rose through Magistrate of Tāngyì, Yùshǐ / Jiānchá yùshǐ, Vice-Director of the Court of the Heir Apparent, Cānzhīzhèngshì — culminated in his 1321 retirement to mourn his father and his subsequent eight-year refusal of imperial summons. The 1329 Shǎnxī drought-relief mission, on which he died of overwork, is one of the most-cited episodes of Yuán dynastic xúnlì (model-administrator) hagiography. The collection’s principal historiographical importance is the cycle of memorials and fù on Yuán-period administrative reform: the JiànDēngshān shū (Memorial Remonstrating Against the Lantern-Mountain) protesting Yīngzōng’s expensive 1320 lantern festival; the Wànyán shū (Ten-Thousand-Word Memorial) attacking late-Rén-zōng administrative drift; the Sānshì zhōnggào 三事忠告 KR2l0021 (his administrative manual, separately catalogued). The sǎnqǔ “Shānpō yáng — Tóngguān huáigǔ” 山坡羊・潼關懷古 — composed on the Tóngguān approach during the 1329 mission, with its line “xīng — bǎixìng kǔ; wáng — bǎixìng kǔ” (“when [a dynasty] rises — the common people suffer; when it falls — the common people suffer”) — is among the most-cited single Yuán literary statements. The present Sìkù recension is a 24-juàn Yǒnglè dàdiǎn-supplemented reconstruction of approximately 65% of the original 900-piece collection. CBDB 27993 firmly establishes 1270–1329; the Yuánshǐ j. 175 biography fully corroborates. Wilkinson treats Zhāng extensively (§35).

Translations and research

• John Dardess, Confucianism and Autocracy: Professional Elites in the Founding of the Ming Dynasty (Berkeley: UCLA Press, 1983) — Zhāng as foundational figure of the Yuán-Míng professional-Confucian elite continuity.
• Cui Zhi-yun 崔治雲, Zhāng Yǎng-hào yán-jiū 張養浩研究 (Bǎo-dìng: Hé-běi dà-xué chū-bǎn-shè, 2008). Major modern monograph.
• Sūn Yī 孫一, Zhāng Yǎng-hào yǔ Yuán-dài sǎn-qǔ 張養浩與元代散曲 (Tài-yuán: Shān-xī rén-mín chū-bǎn-shè, 2010).
• Wayne Schlepp, San-ch’ü: Its Technique and Imagery (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1970) — translates and discusses Zhāng’s Tóng-guān huái-gǔ.
• Yuán-shǐ j. 175 (Zhāng Yǎng-hào biography) — the standard biography.

Other points of interest

The HéTáo shī xù (Preface to harmonizing-Táo-Qián poetry) at age 52 (1321, the year of retirement) — explicit Yuán-period yǐnshì literary affiliation to Táo Qián’s Eastern-Jìn tradition — is one of the most-cited Yuán-period documents on Sinitic literati identity-construction under Mongol rule, parallel to Liú Yīn’s and Wú Chéng’s Táo affiliations. The actual harmonization-cycle is preserved as a separate work apart from this collection and is now mostly lost.

Links

• WYG SKQS V1192.2, p471.
• CBDB person 27993 (Zhāng Yǎnghào)
• Yuánshǐ j. 175
• Wikipedia, 張養浩