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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 Yuán-Hànlín 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 Yuán-Míng 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

Reminder: AI generated list - beware of hallucinations. Corrections and additions welcome

  • 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 Jiāng-Hàn 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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