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白雲集

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Text ID
KR4d0460
Date
1290–1337
Dynasty
元

Báiyún jí 白雲集

The Bái-yún (White-Cloud) Collection by 許謙 (撰), 李伸 (編)

About the work

The literary collection of Xǔ Qiān 許謙 (1270–1337) — Báiyún xiānshēng 白雲先生, posthumous shì Wényì 文懿 — the fourth and last of the BěiShān sì xiānshēng 北山四先生 (Hé Jī 何基 → Wáng Bǎi 王柏 → Jīn Lǚxiáng 金履祥 → Xǔ Qiān): the Jīnhuá / Wùzhōu 金華 / 婺州 Yuán transmission of Sòng ZhūXué orthodoxy. The Sìkù base derives from the SBCK reproduction of the standard transmitted Wú-region recension. The collection was compiled and printed by the Míng-period scholar-official Chén Xiāng 陳相 of Jīnhuá in Chénghuà 2 (1466) — Chén’s preface (preserved in the volume) records that he obtained a manuscript in 4 juàn from the Fāngbó (Provincial-Governor) Zhānggōng (of Jiāngpǔ 江浦) while serving on imperial commission to East-Guǎng. Chén notes that the Wù-region (Jīnhuá) SòngYuán Neo-Confucian lineage — Lǚ Zǔqiān (the Sòng Dōnglái Lǚ chénggōng) → Wáng Wénxiàn → Hé Wéndìng → the Yuán Jīn Wénān 金文安 (Jīn Lǚxiáng) → Báiyún Xǔ Wényì — derives canonically from the Zhū-Xī-via-Huáng Miánzhāi 黃勉齋 transmission. The collection’s prefaces serially link Xǔ Qiān into the trans-dynastic Confucian dàotǒng canon.

Prefaces

The SBCK base preserves several Míng-period prefaces:

  1. Chén Xiāng’s preface (Chénghuà 2 = 1466), recording the manuscript discovery and the local Jīnhuá Neo-Confucian lineage.
  2. A second preface (also Míng-period) tracing the Dào lineage from YáoShùnYǔTāng → Confucius-Mencius → through the HànTáng Confucians (Jiǎ Yì, Dǒng Zhòngshū, Hán Yù) → to the Sòng patriarchs Zhōu / Chéng / Zhāng / Zhū → through Zhēn Xīshān (Zhēn Déxiù), Cài Jiǔfēng, Hú Wéndìng → to the Yuán worthies Xǔ Lǔzhāi 許衡, Liú Jìngxiū 劉因, Wú Cǎolú 吳澄 — and finally to Xǔ Qiān as receiving the zhèngchuán (direct-orthodox transmission) of Zhū Xī.

The collection itself contains shī, cí, fù, prose, xù, jì, bēimíng, zàn, míng in 4 juàn. The principal contents are exhortations to study, jì (records) of Confucian academies and shrines, philosophical letters, and bēizhì (epitaphs) for fellow Jīn-huá-school members.

Abstract

The collected works of Xǔ Qiān (1270–1337), the fourth-generation patriarch of the BěiShān 北山 (North-Mountain) Yuán ZhūXué transmission centered at Jīnhuá in Wùzhōu (modern Zhèjiāng). For full biographical detail see the person note. Xǔ refused all imperial office and lived as the most famous Yuán-period Confucian teacher of his generation — students reportedly came from across the Yuán empire. Yuánshǐ Rúlín zhuàn gives the principal biographical record; Huáng Jìn 黃溍 composed the epitaph (preserved in Jīnhuá Huáng xiānshēng wénjí).

The Báiyún jí itself is principally a record of Xǔ’s pedagogical and dàoxué-lineage activities — academy-establishment records, exhortations to students, ritual-and-shrine inscriptions — rather than independent literary composition. The Sìkù-canonized Xǔ Qiān corpus consists of four works: his Shàngshū commentary KR1b0028 Dúshū cóng shuō 讀書叢說; his Shī jí zhuàn míng wù chāo 詩集傳名物鈔; his Sì shū cóng shuō 四書叢說; and the present Báiyún jí — making him one of the more comprehensively-transmitted Yuán Neo-Confucians.

The Míng compiler Lǐ Shēn 李伸 (an early/mid-Míng scholar) is named in the catalog as editor, but the editorial work is mostly attributable to Chén Xiāng’s Chénghuà 1466 print, with Lǐ Shēn’s earlier compilation underlying.

Composition window: from Xǔ Qiān’s adult literary activity (after his 1290 entry into Jīn Lǚxiáng’s school, when Xǔ was 21) through his death in 1337.

Translations and research

  • John W. Chaffee, The Thorny Gates of Learning in Sung China (1985) — context on Jīn-huá Neo-Confucianism.
  • Hoyt C. Tillman, Confucian Discourse and Chu Hsi’s Ascendancy (1992) — discusses the Běi-Shān school.
  • Hé Yòu-sēn 何佑森, Yuán-dài Jīn-huá xué-pài de yán-jiū — major monograph-scale study of the Jīn-huá school.
  • Yuán-shǐ Rú-lín zhuàn — standard biography of Xǔ Qiān.

Other points of interest

The Chén Xiāng 1466 print preface — preserving the Wù-region ZhūXī dàotǒng genealogy — is an important Míng-period statement of the YuánJīnhuá school’s self-understanding of its place in the SòngMíng Lǐxué succession. The two prefaces together place Xǔ Qiān into the canonical dàotǒng sequence ending with the Míng founder-scholars Sòng Lián 宋濂 (景濂) and Wáng Zǐchōng 王子充 (王禕) — both Jīnhuá natives — making Xǔ the proximate Yuán-source of Míng-founding Confucian institutionality.

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