青崖集

Qīngyá jí 青崖集

The Qīng-yá (Green-Cliff) Collection by 魏初 (撰)

About the work

The five-juàn literary collection of Wèi Chū 魏初 (CBDB 28839, 1232–1292), zì Tàichū 太初, hào Qīngyá 青崖 (“Green-Cliff”), native of Shùnshèng 順聖 in Hóngzhōu 宏州 (modern Shǎnxī). Adopted son of his cousin-grandfather Wèi Pán 魏璠, the eminent Jīn-end Hànlín xiūzhuàn whose principled directness so impressed Khubilai Khan that he summoned Pán to the Mongol court at Hélín 和林. Wèi Pán being childless, Wèi Chū was raised as his successor; the family connection gave him direct entry to the early-Khubilai court. The Sìkù base is a Yǒnglè dàdiǎn reconstruction (the original 10-juàn Qīngyá jí recorded by Jiāo Hóng’s Jīngjí zhì, and the 7-册 Wèi Tàichū Qīngyá wénjí of the Wényuāngé shūmù, having been lost in Míng).

The collection’s principal historical interest is the zòuyì (memorial-discussion) section, preserving Wèi’s career as a senior Khubilai-era censor (Nántái yùshǐ zhōngchéng — Vice-Censor-in-Chief at the Southern Censorate). Wèi served as one of the Khubilai-era founding institutional architects, particularly in matters of legal codification (qǐng dìng fǎlìng), court ritual (qǐng sù cháoyí), tax-and-corvée management (qǐng huǎn zhuāng pèi yánhuò, qǐng jìn diāodèng kèmǐ), Confucian-household protections (qǐng yōuhù rúhù), Hénán military demobilization (qǐng bà Hénán qiānjūn), and recognition of Mencius (qǐng xiū Mèngzǐ miào). Several of these memorials are reproduced in his Yuánshǐ j. 164 biography.

Tiyao

The Qīngyá jí, 5 juàn, by Wèi Chū of the Yuán. Chū, zì Tàichū, hào Qīngyá, [was] a Shùnshèng man of Hóngzhōu. [His] cóngzǔ (cousin-grandfather) [Wèi] Pán at the end of the Jīn served as Hànlín xiūzhuàn — known for his upright frankness. The Yuán Shìzǔ (Khubilai) summoned [him] to Hélín, [where Pán] was much honoured. Pán being childless, [he] took [Wèi] Chū as [his] successor. Young [Wèi] Chū entered the Imperial Secretariat as a clerk; resigned and returned. [Someone] recommended [him] to the court — the emperor inquired and learned [he was] Pán’s son — therefore appointed [him] Guóshǐyuàn biānxiū. Soon [he] received [office as] Censor; his office reached Nántái yùshǐ zhōngchéng. His deeds are in the Yuánshǐ běnzhuàn.

Jiāo Hóng’s Jīngjí zhì records Wèi Chū’s Qīngyá jí in 10 juàn; the Wényuāngé shūmù also records Wèi Tàichū Qīngyá wénjí in 7 cè — so at the beginning of Míng the original collection was still extant. Subsequently [it] gradually was lost. Now from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn-stored poetry and prose [we have] gathered-up and bound-into 5 juàn — still can be seen its outline. The history calls Chū good-at-reading-books, especially eminent in the Chūnqiū, [his] prose simple-and-having-method. In the collection [it is] recorded that [Wèi] together-with Jiāng Yù — both suffered the teachings of Yíshān xiānshēng (Yuán Hǎowèn); also called [that] when the master entered Yān, Chū morning-and-evening attended [his] staff-and-sandals — so his learning truly came-out from Yuán Hǎowèn — having indeed [a poetic] origin-current. Therefore what he composed [is] all gélǜ jiāncāng (form-and-regulation firm-and-grey), not losing the previous-elders’ established tracks.

Again at the time of Shìzǔ, [Wèi] for the first time entered by [submitting] the classics for [imperial] reading; soon [he] went-through jiàn offices; encountering events [he] dared to speak. The state-founding regulations rather depended-on [him] for benefit. The collection’s zòuyì gate, all detailed-in-noting year-and-month [and] arranged-by-category-and-listed. Some, like Qǐng dìng fǎlìng and Qǐng sù cháoyí, the Yuánshǐ all included in [his] biography. Others, like Qǐng huǎnzhuāngpèiyánhuò, Qǐng jìndiāodèng kèmǐ, Qǐng yōuhù rúhù, Qǐng jīng Zhèng Jiāng sǐjié, Qǐng xiū Mèngzǐ miào, Qǐng hé gù gōngjiàng, Qǐng bà Hénán qiānjūn — and the various discussions, what the Yuánshǐ did not record — all [were] at-the-time vital-affairs, qièzhōng shìqíng (cutting-into the essence of the situation). Now fortunately [the] surviving collection just-barely [is] preserved — particularly sufficient to supplement the Yuánshǐ’s lacunae — certainly not merely to be valued for [his] wénzhāng.

Respectfully collated, ninth 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

Wèi Chū (CBDB 28839, 1232–1292) is one of the principal early-Khubilai-era Hàn-Confucian censor-officials, the founding-generation institutional architects of Mongol-Yuán administrative-Confucian practice. The Sìkù editors specifically emphasize the zòuyì section as supplementing the Yuánshǐ j. 164 biography: those memorials — on legal codification, court ritual, tax-corvée management, salt-trade matters, military demobilization, Confucian-household protections, and the canonization of Mencius — preserve substantive primary documentation of Khubilai-era governance. The Sìkù editors evaluate the collection as principally valuable for its zòuyì documentation rather than for its literary merit, although they note Wèi’s poetic-and-prose origins in Yuán Hǎowèn’s 元好問 tutelage (the Yíshān school) and that Wèi’s verse retains the gélǜ jiāncāng (firm-and-vigorous regulated-verse) tradition of his teacher.

The original 10-juàn Qīngyá jí was lost by mid-Míng; the present 5-juàn Sìkù base is a Yǒnglè dàdiǎn reconstruction. Composition window: from Wèi’s earliest court appearances (after 1260) through his death in 1292.

Translations and research

• Hok-lam Chan, “Wei Chu (1232–1292)”, in Igor de Rachewiltz et al. (eds.), In the Service of the Khan. The principal English-language biographical study.
• Yuán-shǐ j. 164 (Wèi Chū biography).

Other points of interest

The Sìkù editors’ explicit valuation of Wèi Chū as “supplement to the Yuánshǐ’s lacunae” — bǔ shǐquē — represents one of their clearest statements of the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn-reconstruction methodology: recovered Yuán-period bureaucratic documentation is valued as primary historical source-material independent of literary merit. The Qǐng xiū Mèngzǐ miào memorial — requesting the imperial restoration of the Mencius shrine — is one of the foundational Yuán-period institutional-Confucian documents.

Links

• WYG SKQS V1198.9, p689.
• CBDB person 28839 (Wèi Chū)
• Yuánshǐ j. 164