吳文正集

Wú Wénzhèng jí 吳文正集

Collected Works of Wú “Wén-zhèng” [Chéng] by 吳澄 (撰), 吳當 (編)

About the work

The hundred-juàn collected works of Wú Chéng 吳澄 (1249–1333), the great Yuán Neo-Confucian classicist (zì Yōuqīng 幼清, hào Cǎolú 草廬, posthumous shì Wénzhèng 文正), assembled by his grandson Wú Dāng 吳當. The collection was first cut in the Yǒnglè bǐngxū year (1406) by Wú Chéng’s fifth-generation descendant Wú Guàn 吳爟; an earlier Yuán woodblock had been destroyed by warfare. The Sìkù base derives from this Yǒnglè reprint and is therefore a cánquē (deficient) recension — the prefatory bá by Wú Guàn records that only fragments of the original blocks survived, and several titles in the juàn-end deficiency-tables (juàn 17, 54, 57; one note in juàn 37) remained unrestored. The Sìkù editors prefaced the collection with the niánpǔ 年譜, shéndào bēi 神道碑 (by Jiē Xīsī 揭傒斯), xíngzhuàng 行狀, and guóshǐ zhuàn 國史傳.

Tiyao

The Wú Wénzhèng jí, 100 juàn, by Wú Chéng of the Yuán. Chéng has the Yì zuǎn yán already catalogued. This collection was edited by his grandson [Wú] Dāng. In the Yǒnglè bǐngxū year (1406) his fifth-generation descendant [Wú] Guàn re-cut [it]. Following [the volume] there is a bá by Guàn saying:

“The Zhīyán jí in 100 juàn and the Sīlù in 2 juàn were all edited by my late grandfather, the District-Magistrate gentleman, with his own hand, and circulated in the world. Unfortunately the cut blocks were all destroyed by the fires of war. Of the old recension, those which were preserved were occasionally also deficient. Reaching the Yǒnglè jiǎshēn year (1404), [I] for the first time was able to take the old cut recension preserved in the family and re-publish [it] on [new] blocks; the chapter-classifications and juàn-orders followed entirely the old [arrangement, and I dared] not change them. Only at the head of the juàn did I add the niánpǔ, shéndào bēi, xíngzhuàng, and guóshǐ zhuàn to crown them. But the deficient sections in the old [recension], I sought-after-broadly but could not obtain complete copies; so I have merely listed the deficient piān-titles at the end of each juàn to await later restoration.”

So this base is what was left over from deficiency, not the original cut. Yet examining its juàn-end deficiency-lists, only “[The] Xú Jūnshùn shī xù” of juàn 17, “[The] Tí Zhào Tiānfàng Táoyuán juàn hòu” of juàn 54, “[The] Tí Yuēshuō hòu” of juàn 57, and a note “[from] here below there is deficient text” at the end of “[The] Húnán Wáng xiānshēng cítáng jì” of juàn 37 — and that is all. What was lost was not yet much.

When Xǔ Héng died, [the court] decreed Ōuyáng Xuán to compose the Shéndào bēi; and when Chéng died, [the court] again decreed Jiē Xīsī to compose [a] Shéndào bēi. The opening calls “the Imperial Yuán received the Mandate; Heaven sent down [a] Zhēnrú (True Confucian) — in the north there was Xǔ Héng, in the south there was Wú Chéng — by whom [they] expanded and broadened the Ultimate Way and polished-with-colour the Great Enterprise, by which we know that this wén [tradition] has not perished and the great fortune [of the realm] is just beginning to flourish”; etc. At that time, indeed, [people] took the two as the patriarchs of southern and northern learning. Yet Héng’s learning principally [was] in dǔshí (sincere-practice) by which to transform people; Chéng’s learning principally [was] in writings-and-compositions by which to establish [the] teaching. Therefore the world transmits Héng’s Lǔzhāi yíshū in only a few sparse juàn; while Chéng — beyond his commentaries on the classics — corrected the books of Zhāngzǐ and Shàozǐ, branching out to the Lǎozǐ, Zhuāngzǐ, Tàixuán, Yuèlǜ, Bāzhèntú, Zàngjīng and the like — all having compositions and discussions — and his literary collection still gathers up to fill 100 juàn.

Héng’s compositions are clear-and-plain, simple-and-substantial — they convey [the] meaning and stop. Chéng then [is] cíhuá diǎnyǎ (worded-floridly and elegantly-classical), always fěirán kě guān (vividly-patterned and viewable). On the basis of their wénzhāng, Chéng more-than [Héng] [is] the bīnbīn [literary-cultivated one]. What Wú Dāng edited was excessive in seeking completeness — a half-phrase or single character was not [left] unpicked-up; and there are things not necessary to preserve which yet are preserved — unavoidably [making the collection] suffer from being somewhat làn (excessive). Yet this too is a common defect of the [practice of] editing surviving collections since the Southern Sòng — [we] cannot for that reason hold [Wú] Dāng alone responsible.

Respectfully collated, second month of Qiánlóng 54 (1789). 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

The principal literary monument of Wú Chéng 吳澄, edited by his grandson Wú Dāng 吳當 (himself a Yuán official; presented graduate of the jīnshì examination of 1342). The collection survives only in the deficient Yǒnglè 1406 re-cut by Wú Guàn 吳爟 (Wú Chéng’s fifth-generation descendant) — the original Yuán blocks having been destroyed by the warfare of the Yuán–Míng transition. The Sìkù editors evaluate Wú Chéng’s literary style as elegant and ornate (cíhuá diǎnyǎ) in contrast to the plain, didactic prose of his northern counterpart Xǔ Héng KR4d0453 — the two figures being canonized in Jiē Xīsī’s shéndào bēi as “Heaven’s True-Confucians” of north (Héng) and south (Chéng). The Sìkù editors note that Wú Dāng’s editorial method was over-inclusive — preserving fragments and trivial pieces that bloat the collection — but note this is the common defect of post-Sòng editorial practice. The 100-juàn extent — though deficient — is exceptional for a Yuán biéjí, exceeded only by Wáng Yún’s Qiūjiàn jí KR4d0464. Composition window: from Wú’s earliest extant writings (c. 1280, late Southern-Sòng) through 1333.

Translations and research

• David Gedalecia, The Philosophy of Wu Ch’eng: A Confucian Scholar of the Yuan Dynasty (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1999). The principal English-language monograph.
• David Gedalecia, A Solitary Crane in a Spring Grove: The Confucian Scholar Wu Ch’eng in Mongol China (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2000). Translated xíng-zhuàng and substantial textual study.
• Yuán-shǐ j. 171 (Wú Chéng biography).

Other points of interest

The Yǒnglè 1406 reprint by Wú Guàn is one of the better-documented YuánMíng biéjí transmission cases — Guàn’s preface preserves the explicit statement that the original Yuán blocks had been destroyed, and that only a partial old recension survived in family hands. The juàn-end deficiency-tables — a Yǒnglè editorial device — preserve titles of pieces that had been lost from the recension but were known to have existed.

Links

• WYG SKQS V1197.1, p1.
• Wikipedia, 吳澄
• Yuánshǐ j. 171