Yǎngméng wénjí 養蒙文集
The Yǎng-méng Collection by 張伯淳 (撰)
About the work
The ten-juàn collected works of Zhāng Bóchún 張伯淳 (CBDB 28490, 1243–1303), zì Shīdào 師道, hào Yǎngméng 養蒙 (“Cultivating the Untaught”), posthumous shì Wénmù 文穆, native of Chóngdé 崇徳 in Jiāxīng 嘉興 (Zhèjiāng). Sòng-end Tóngzǐkē (Child-Prodigy Examination) graduate; Zhìyuán 23 (1286) inducted by recommendation as jiàoshòu of Hángzhōulù; in Dàdé era (1297–1307) reached Hànlín shìjiǎng xuéshì — the office that gave the collection its weight. Yú Jí 虞集 (1272–1348, then Kuízhānggé shìshū xuéshì jiān Hànlín shìjiǎng xuéshì) supplied the principal preface (dated Zhìshùn 3 = 1332), comparing Zhāng to the Hàn-dynasty Jiǎ Yì 賈誼 — particularly for the famous “shùshí tiáo” (Several-Tens Policy Items) Zhāng presented in audience to Yuán Shìzǔ (Kublai), proposing administrative reforms including “abolishing the dìngguānfāng” (which the Sìkù editors note was opposed by senior Mongol officials at court). Dèng Wényuán 鄧文原 (1259–1328) supplied a second preface (1326), comparing Zhāng to the Táng minister Lù Zhì 陸贄. Both prefaces note that the substantial policy memorials documented by these two were not preserved in the present collection — they were “miànchén wèi jù shū” (orally-presented and not put into prose-memorial), confirming the loss. The corpus survives partially — Lì È of Qiántáng’s copy from the Xiùgǔ Wú family is the base, with substantial losses; arranged in 10 juàn (6 of prose: cè / zhào / zhì / biǎo; xù; jì; bēimíng; sòngmíngzànzhēnshuōtíbá; jìwénshū; plus 3 of poetry: gǔshī; juéjù / wǔlǜ; qīlǜ; plus 1 of cí). Zhāng’s student-link: through him, the late-Sòng Tóngzǐkē tradition passed into the early Yuán Hànlín establishment. The Sìkù editors are sharply critical of the poetry (“bǐzhuō shūshèn — base-and-clumsy, extreme; gǔtǐ particularly bad” — agreeing with Wáng Shìzhèn’s Jūyì lù) and discover that one poem traditionally attributed to Zhāng (Tí Xiānyú Bójī suǒ cáng Huángtíng jīng) is actually by Zhào Mèngfǔ 趙孟頫 — wrongly attributed in the present recension. Prose is praised — “源出韓愈, 多謹嚴峭健” (“source emerges from Hán Yù, mostly meticulous-strict-sharp-vigorous”).
Tiyao
We respectfully submit: Yǎngméng jí (note: catalog “養䝉集” same as “養蒙集”) in ten juàn was composed by Zhāng Bóchún of the Yuán. Bóchún’s zì was Shīdào, a man of Chóngdé in Jiāxīng. At the end of the Sòng he was raised by the Tóngzǐkē. In Zhìyuán 23 (1286) by recommendation he was appointed Hángzhōulù jiàoshòu. In the Dàdé era he held office up to Hànlín shìjiǎng xuéshì. Yú Jí prefaced his collection, detailing his lifetime extremely closely, comparing him with the Hàn-dynasty Jiǎ Yì. Dèng Wényuán’s preface likewise compares him with [Lú] Zhì. However, what is called “lùnshì shùshí tiáo” (Discussing-Affairs in Several Tens of Items) — today is not in the collection — presumably zhàoduì miànchén (called-to-audience orally presenting), not [put as] preliminary memorial. [Dèng] Wényuán also calls his prose: “ashamed-to-prefer the hooked-and-thorny [style]; [instead] tilling-and-rocking, twisting-and-extending, ringing like the joint-issuing of metal-and-stone” — yet [Dèng] is “not happy to use brush-and-flourish [zǎohàn] to name himself; on his death there was no completed manuscript; his son the Hédōng xuānwèi fùshǐ [Zhāng] Cǎi 采 [and] eldest grandson the Wǔkāngxiàn yǐn [Zhāng] Jiǒng 炯 sought out and surveyed [the] surviving and dispersed [pieces]; arranged-and-divided into ten juàn.”
Now observing his prose — the source emerges from Hán Yù; mostly meticulous-strict-sharp-vigorous, obtaining the body of lìyán (establishing-words). [Dèng] Wényuán speaks of [it] as “tilling-and-rocking, twisting-and-extending” — not quite resembling. His poetry then is bǐzhuō shūshèn (base-and-clumsy, [in the] extreme); the gǔtǐ is particularly bad. Wáng Shìzhèn’s Jūyì lù sharply censures his shallow-flat. Gù Sìlì’s Yuán shī xuǎn also says of his gǔshī “few works [are] successful.” In the collection there is the “Inscribed on the Huángtíng jīng that Xiānyú Bójī holds” — the language is rather gǔjiàn (ancient-sturdy); but it is in fact Zhào Mèngfǔ’s composition wrongly entered. [Gù Sìlì] further praises that “his recent-style is uniformly yìngchóu (presentation-and-response) compositions” — his words are all just. Only [Gù] Sìlì’s plucked-out fine couplets — 9 — are mostly not well-placed: like the Chūjiāo shī says “shòu qióng zhī chìchú / xiálù xiě zhī yuán” (“Thin staff supports the limping pace; narrow road, where to write [the] foundation”) — what kind of language is this — yet [he] considered [it] fine?
Huángfǔ Shí, Lǐ Áo, and others’ collections all do not include poetry; [yet] this does not damage their being [Huángfǔ] Shí and [Lǐ] Áo. [It] truly is not necessary, for [the work’s] benefit, to make a roundabout defense. His collection’s cut-blocks have long been lost; transfer-and-transcription [has produced] residue-and-incompleteness, rather extreme. This base — in all, prose 6 juàn, poetry 3 juàn, cí 1 juàn — is what the Qiántáng Lì È 厲鶚 copied from the Xiùgǔ Wú family. [Lì] È has done quite a bit of collation, however the omissions ultimately cannot be supplemented. Examining Gù Sìlì’s Yuánshī xuǎn — the missing-characters and this base are uniform — so what [Gù] Sìlì saw is also this base.
Respectfully collated, second month of Qiánlóng 44 (1779). 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 Bóchún (CBDB 28490, 1243–1303) is a representative Hàn-Confucian Yuán court official of the Dàdé era — late-life Hànlín shìjiǎng xuéshì — and one of the rare early-Yuán figures who had passed the Sòng-end Tóngzǐkē (Child-Prodigy Examination, an obsolete special-degree). His policy memorials to Kublai Khan (in audience, miànchén; not preserved as prose) — including the proposal to abolish the dìngguānfāng (official-position-tabulation) — were resisted by senior Mongol officials and led to his suffering attempted ambush on the road from the capital, requiring imperial intervention. The collection is largely prose: 6 juàn of court documents, xù (literary prefaces — important for the cultural network), jì, bēimíng, sòngmíngzànzhēnshuōtíbá, jìwénshū; with 3 juàn of weaker verse and 1 of cí. Composition window: from his 1286 Yuán induction through his 1303 death. The Yú Jí (1332) and Dèng Wényuán (1326) prefaces in the front matter establish the early-Yuán literary-cultural context. CBDB 28490 firmly establishes 1243–1303; the Yuánshǐ j. 178 biography confirms. Wilkinson treats Zhāng as a representative Yuán Hànlín official (§35).
Translations and research
- Sūn Yī 孫一, Zhāng Bó-chún yán-jiū 張伯淳研究 (Hāng-zhōu: Zhè-jiāng dà-xué chū-bǎn-shè, 2008). Major modern monograph.
- Yuán-shǐ j. 178 (Zhāng Bó-chún biography) — the standard biography.
- Quán Yuán shī, Quán Yuán wén — collate Zhāng’s verse and prose against this base.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù editors’ detection of the Zhào Mèngfǔ poem wrongly attributed to Zhāng is a model demonstration of Qián-lóng-era kǎojù attention to biéjí attribution. The Yú Jí 1332 preface is itself a substantial Yuán-period literary document: Yú Jí, then the foremost living Yuán literary master, locating Zhāng in the line of Hàn statesmen-literati (Jiǎ Yì), with explicit Mongol-court politics described in measured terms.
Links
- WYG SKQS V1194.3, p429.
- CBDB person 28490 (Zhāng Bóchún)
- Yuánshǐ j. 178
- Wikipedia, 張伯淳