Jiàcūn lèigǎo 稼村類藁
Manuscripts Classified by the Farmer-of-Jià-cūn by 王義山 (撰)
About the work
The thirty-juàn collected works of Wáng Yìshān 王義山 (CBDB 35302, 1214–1287), zì Yuángāo 元高, self-styled Jiàcūn 稼村 (“the Farmer of Field-Village”), native of Fēngchéng 豐城 (Jiāngxī). A Sòng Jǐngdìng era jìnshì (1262); served as Magistrate of Xīnyú 新喻, hùcáo of Yǒngzhōu; on the Sòng’s fall went on into the Yuán as Tíjǔ Jiāngxī xuéshì (Supervisor of Jiāngxī Confucian Schools). Retired to the East Lake (Dōnghú) of Fēngchéng, where he planted lotus around his hall (named Jūnzǐtáng 君子堂) and inscribed his reading-room Jiàcūn 稼村 (whence his hào and the collection’s title). The Sìkù editors flag that since Wáng held office under the Yuán and accepted Yuán stipend he properly belongs in the Yuán section (the Jiāngxī tōngzhì enters him as a Yuán figure), correcting earlier mis-classifications. The work was edited posthumously by his son Wáng Wéixiào 王惟肖 and contains: three juàn of verse in various forms (the Sìkù editors and Wáng Shìzhèn judged the poetry generally weak); twenty-seven juàn of substantial prose — xù (3), jì, bēi, míngzànsòngfù, bá, shuōjiěbiànzáwén, shū, zhuàn, diàncè, cèwèn, jiǎngyì (4 juàn, on classical exegesis — Wáng’s substantial Sìshū and Classics-commentaries), cèwénzòuzhá (1), jiānbiǎoshūzhuàngcí (1), qǐshì (5), zhá (1), zhùlěixíngzhuàng (1), mùzhìmíng (1), yuèfǔyuèyǔ (1). The 1287 Wáng self-preface (Qiángyúdàyuānxiàn yuèzhèng yuánrì = New Year’s Day 1287) explains the title as referring to the HóngPíngzhāi xiǎocíkē tradition Wáng aspired to revive. The collection is one of the principal documentary archives of the kèjǔ-and-jiǎngxué culture of Jiāngxī SòngYuán transition; the zàncè (Imperial-Palace-strategy) section preserves Wáng’s policy memorials of his Sòng-period and Yuán-period service.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit: Jiàcūn lèigǎo in thirty juàn was composed by Wáng Yìshān of the Yuán. Yìshān’s zì was Yuángāo, a man of Fēngchéng. A Sòng Jǐng-dìng-era jìnshì, Magistrate of Xīnyú; passed through hùcáo of Yǒngzhōu; entered the Yuán, held office as Tíjǔ Jiāngxī xuéshì. He retired and grew old above the East Lake, ringing his residence with planted lotus, naming the hall Jūnzǐ; further inscribing his reading-room Jiàcūn. Yìshān had once eaten the Yuán’s stipend; therefore the Jiāngxī tōngzhì listed him among Yuán people. This book’s original cut was titled as a Sòng person — [that is] in error.
The collection was compiled by his son Wéixiào — in all three juàn of verse in various forms, and twenty-seven juàn of gǔwén and miscellaneous prose. The poetry and prose are all in the late-Sòng píngruò (flat-and-weak) manner — extremely few warning-strikes. Wáng Shìzhèn took [them] as “wúqiǎn wúzúqǔ” (shallow, nothing worth taking), going so far as to deride them as “the most-base, the most-transmissible.” Yet observing Yìshān while in Húnán — a powerful local of Xiāngtánxiàn had once tried to push through a land case [against another party] and lost; presented [the case] to the prefectural school. Yìshān cited the Chūnqiū’s “Qírén lái guī Wènyáng zhī tián” passage to fix that this [land-yielding] was not the gift-of-a-yielded-heart — [his ruling] quite fits the classical meaning. Therefore the collection’s expositions of the Classics also often are able to bring out new meaning. Like his exegesis of Zhōulǐ Shīshì zhí Zhōngdàifū / Bǎoshì zhí Xiàdàfū — saying Zhèng [Xuán]‘s note that “Duke of Zhōu and Duke of Shào held both concurrently” is wrong; and his exegesis that the ancient tiānzǐ miǎnfú fully had twelve zhāng (insignia) — saying Zhèng’s note of “nine zhāng and five zhāng” is wrong — both have a lot of foundation, not stolen-from-prior-works.
As for the various biǎo and qǐ — clear-elegant and flowing-beautiful, weaving naturally — they are in fact in the same line as Liú Kèzhuāng’s Hòucūn jí KR4d0367; we may not, on account of his other prose’s gǔgàn wèi jiān (bone-and-trunk not yet firm), throw it all together and reject it. Respectfully collated, fourth month of Qiánlóng 45 (1780). 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.
(The frontmatter also preserves Wáng’s own substantial 1287 self-preface, explaining the project’s emergence from his disappointment at the xiǎocíkē — the special-and-minor examination on social cí — falling into desuetude after Lǚ Zǔqiān [Dōnglái] and Zhēn Déxiù [Xīshān] in the southeast; locating his examination success in 1262 (rénxū); citing Hóng Píngzhāi’s couplet “Just before [a shì] takes office he reads not the books [that are right]; once in office, books [he has no time to read]”; framing the Lèigǎo as a “Confucian’s personal compendium” rather than a public-ambition literary monument.)
Abstract
Wáng Yìshān (CBDB 35302, 1214–1287) is one of the under-studied but substantial Sòng-to-Yuán transition figures of Jiāngxī, holding office in both dynasties and retiring as a kèjǔ-school administrator-scholar. His career — Sòng jìnshì in 1262; Magistrate of Xīnyú; hùcáo of Yǒngzhōu; Yuán Tíjǔ Jiāngxī xuéshì; retirement to East Lake of Fēngchéng — is a textbook case of the early-Yuán Hàn-Confucian incorporation into the new regime through jiàoshì office. The collection’s substantial jiǎngyì (4 juàn) preserves Wáng’s Zhōulǐ and Five-Classics exegesis — including the discussed rejection of Zhèng Xuán’s Shīshì/Bǎoshì office and tiānzǐ miǎnfú readings — making the collection a minor but real classical-commentarial source. The cèwén (juàn 14–15), addressed to imperial examination essay-questions during Wáng’s career, document the SòngYuán transition in policy discourse. CBDB 35302 confirms 1214–1287. Wilkinson does not single out Wáng but treats the broader Jiāngxī SòngYuán transition (§28.1).
Translations and research
- Méi Xīn-lín 梅新林, Yuán-dài wén-xué shǐ 元代文學史 (Hāng-zhōu: Zhè-jiāng dà-xué chū-bǎn-shè, 2005), passim — Wáng among Jiāng-xī Yuán literati.
- Wáng Bǐng 王冰, “Wáng Yì-shān yán-jiū” 王義山研究 (MA thesis, Jiāng-xī shī-fàn dà-xué, 2010).
- Quán Yuán shī, Quán Yuán wén — collate Wáng’s verse and prose against the present base.
Links
- WYG SKQS V1193.1, p1.
- CBDB person 35302 (Wáng Yìshān)