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雪樓集

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Text ID
KR4d0466
Date
1280–1318
Dynasty
元

Xuělóu jí 雪樓集

The Xuě-lóu (Snow-Tower) Collection by 程鉅夫 (撰)

About the work

The 30-juàn monumental collection of Chéng Jùfū 程鉅夫 (CBDB 27853, 1249–1318), zì Méngqīng 孟卿 (originally given-name Wénhǎi 文海; for tabbu-avoidance — Wǔzōng’s miàohuì “Hǎishān” — Chéng used his zì; hào Xuělóu 雪樓 (“Snow-Tower”). Native of Yǐngzhōu Yǐngchuān 郢州京山 (modern Húběi Jīngshān). The principal Yuán-period imperial Yùtáng (Hànlín Academy) literary official under three reigns (Khubilai, Chéngzōng, Wǔzōng, Rénzōng); the founding figure of Yuán-imperial-Hàn-Confucian cultural-recovery of southern literati after 1276. Most-celebrated for: (1) the southern-recruitment mission of Zhìyuán 23 (1286) — by imperial commission Chéng went south to recruit Sòng-remnant scholars for Yuán court service; this mission recovered Zhào Mèngfǔ 趙孟頫 KR4d0445, Yú Jí 虞集 KR4d0493, and dozens of other major figures into Yuán imperial service; (2) the founding of the Hàn-lín-led Yuán imperial cultural-canonization program. The collection appended an Yuánshǐ běnzhuàn (1 juàn) as fùlù.

The collection’s structure is Yù-táng-centric (organized around Chéng’s Hànlín functions):

  • juàn 1–9: Yùtáng lèigǎo 1–9 — Hànlín drafts (imperial zhìzhào, yú, cèwén, jìwén, zhāiyì, qīngcí, zhùwén; subsequently zhìcí (decree-words) in juàn 2–4; biǎo, jiān, zhìyǔ in juàn 4)
  • juàn 5–9: Chìcì bēi 敕賜碑 — imperially-commissioned steles (the largest single category — for senior Mongol-Khangli aristocrats and Hàn-Confucian elders)
  • juàn 10: Zòuyì cúngǎo — memorial-and-discussion drafts
  • juàn 11–13: jì
  • juàn 14–15: xù, yǐn
  • juàn 16–18: bēimíng
  • (remainder: mùzhì, zàn, míng, shī, etc.)

Tiyao

[The Sìkùtíyào for this collection appears at front; the source-file as provided gives only the table of contents and front matter; the tíyào text is preserved in the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn-reconstructed Sìkù base.] The Sìkù editors evaluate Chéng’s collection as the principal documentary archive of the Khubilai-and-successor Yuán imperial-Confucian cultural policy. Chéng was raised in the Yùtáng (Hànlín) office for over three decades; his Chìcì bēi (imperially-commissioned steles) form the largest single body of state-prose memorial documentation of the late-13th- and early-14th-century Yuán elite. His zòuyì (memorial-discussions) preserve the substantive deliberative record of Yuán imperial cultural-policy formation. The collection’s fùlù contains the Chéng Jùfū Yuánshǐ běnzhuàn (j. 172).

Abstract

Chéng Jùfū (1249–1318) is the singular Yuán-imperial Hàn-Confucian bridge figure between Khubilai’s pre-1286 northern administration and the post-1286 mature bēnshī tóngzhì (north-south integrated) imperial Confucianism. His historical significance is:

  1. Southern-recruitment mission of Zhìyuán 23 (1286). Chéng was the imperial commissioner who travelled south to recruit Sòng-remnant scholars into Yuán court service — the mission that recovered Zhào Mèngfǔ 趙孟頫 (the great calligrapher-painter-scholar), Yú Jí 虞集 (the foundational YuánHànlín scholar), and dozens of other major southern literati into Yuán imperial service. The mission is the single most-consequential Yuán-Confucian recruitment act, structuring the cultural geography of the Yuán empire until its end.

  2. Founding of the Yùtáng (Hànlín) Yuán imperial-cultural canon. Chéng’s nine juàn of Yùtáng lèigǎo preserve the zhìzhào, cèwén, jìwén, zhāiyì, qīngcí, zhùwén, zhìcí, biǎo, jiān, and zhìyǔ — the canonical state-paper genres of Yuán imperial ritual-Confucianism.

  3. The five juàn of Chìcì bēi (imperially-commissioned steles). These memorial inscriptions for the senior Mongol-Khangli and Hàn-Confucian elite — totaling well over a hundred pieces — are the largest single body of Yuán-period imperial-grade epigraphic biography preserved through manuscript transmission.

  4. The zòuyì cúngǎo (preserved memorial-discussions). Substantive deliberative record of Yuán imperial cultural-policy formation across three reigns.

The 30-juàn corpus is preserved largely intact through the WYG SKQS base. The collection was extensively cited by the YuánMíng compiler Sū Tiānjué for the Yuán wénlèi (where many of Chéng’s zhìzhào and bēimíng appear). Yuánshǐ j. 172 (Chéng Jùfū biography).

Composition window: 1280 (Chéng’s earliest Yuán court compositions) through 1318 (his death). The 1286 southern-recruitment mission is documented in the imperial zhìzhào preserved in juàn 1–9.

Translations and research

  • Yuán-shǐ j. 172 (Chéng Jù-fū biography).
  • John D. Langlois (ed.), China under Mongol Rule — multiple chapters discuss Chéng Jù-fū’s role.
  • Hok-lam Chan, “Chinese Official Historiography at the Yuan Court” — context on Chéng’s Hàn-lín leadership.
  • Hé Yòu-sēn 何佑森, studies of Yuán-imperial Confucian cultural policy.

Other points of interest

The Yǐngshān Chéngshì family’s Jīng-shān-region literary tradition (paralleled by the Jiāyú Wúshì Wú Chéng family) reflects the Húběi JiāngHàn jìshū (riverine-cultural) regional Confucian network. Chéng Jùfū’s choice of Méngqīng (after the Hǎishān taboo-avoidance) preserves the principle of imperial-name avoidance through zì-substitution — Chéng is one of the most-cited Yuán-period examples of this practice.

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