文獻集

Wénxiàn jí 文獻集

The Wén-xiàn (Posthumous-name) Collection by 黃溍 (撰), edited by 張儉 (編)

About the work

The collected works of Huáng Jìn 黃溍 (1277–1357), zì Jìnqīng, late-Yuán Hànlín xuéshì chéngzhǐ and one of the Jīnhuá sìxiānshēng. The title takes Huáng’s posthumous name Wénxiàn 文獻. The transmission is unusually layered:

1. Huáng’s own original Rìsǔnzhāi gǎo 日損齋稿 (25 juǎn) — printed posthumously at Yìwū county by the xiànyǐn Hú Wéixìn 胡惟信 (preface by Sòng Lián 宋濂).
2. Wēi Sù’s 危素 23-juǎn recension.
3. The Jiājìng xīnmǎo (1531) Wénxiàn jí — re-edited by Zhāng Jiǎn 張儉 with Yú Shǒuyú 虞守愚 as joint editor, “ancient version much defective, with miscellaneous spurious responses to heterodox requests not in line with Huáng’s intent” — Zhāng “asks for a good copy from the family and added Huáng’s Bǐjì, slightly cut, and gave it to Jiànǒu xiànyǐn Shěn Bì 沈璧 and Chén Guī 陳珪 to re-print.”
4. The Wēnlíng Zhāng Wéishū 張維樞 / Kuàijī Wáng Tíngzēng 王廷曾 further-edited recension — title-page of the present 10-juǎn WYG block.

The Sìkù tíyào observes that this 10-juǎn version preserves only roughly 40% of the original recension; it is the most heavily mediated of the major Yuán biéjí to enter WYG. None of the three earlier recensions (SòngLián, WēiSù, HúWéixìn) survives intact.

Tiyao

Wénxiàn jí, 10 juǎn. By Huáng Jìn of the Yuán. Jìn has the Rìsǔnzhāi bǐjì KR3j0058 already in the catalog. His prose is rooted in classical learning; it answers the plumb-line and ink-cord, moves within the law and standard. Scholars who received his teaching mostly achieved something — both Sòng Lián 宋濂 and Wáng Wěi 王禕 studied under him. Sòng’s preface says Huáng’s Rìsǔnzhāi gǎo was in 25 juǎn, printed by the xiànyǐn Hú Wéixìn after Huáng’s death; there is also Wēi Sù’s recension in 23 juǎn — but both are now lost. The present recension is only 10 juǎn, still carrying Sòng’s preface at the front, but the juǎn-count is reduced by six-tenths — so it has been pruned by later hands and is not Sòng’s original version. The juǎn-head bears the entry “Yú Shǒuyú, Zhāng Jiǎn jiào”; further: “Wēnlíng Zhāng Wéishū chóngxuǎn, Kuàijī Wáng Tíngzēng bǔdìng” — so these two further mangled the text — neither version even matches the version Jiǎn printed. The Jiājìng xīnmǎo (1531) Zhāng Jiǎn preface says: “The old version was much defective, and included transient responses to heterodox demands — surely not Huáng’s intent. I sought a good copy at the family seat and also Huáng’s Bǐjì and lightly emended it; I gave the materials to Jiànǒu xiànyǐn Shěn Bì and Chén Guī for re-printing.” So Jiǎn had already cut — and his is not Sòng Lián’s version. The varying juǎn-counts have a long history. The Míng-era licentiousness — every ancient book once cut suffers a re-emendation, and after several mutations the original is lost — generally goes like this. Yet what is privately sǔn (cut) need not also be privately yì (added). Even fragmentary and incomplete, it still suffices to indicate Huáng’s outline. Respectfully collated, twelfth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781).

Abstract

The principal extant text of one of the four canonical late-Yuán prose masters. Huáng Jìn’s prose stood as the model of yǎzhèng “decorous and correct” composition rooted in classical learning — the formal counterpart to Yú Jí’s more poetically inflected manner. His role as teacher of both Sòng Lián and Wáng Wěi made him the proximate ancestor of early-Míng official-prose style; the Yuánshǐ itself was compiled by his pupils. The Jiā-jìng-era editorial cascade documented in the tíyào (Hú Wéixìn → Wēi Sù → Zhāng Jiǎn → Zhāng Wéishū → Wáng Tíngzēng) is a representative case of late-Míng textual layering — a single Yuán collection mediated through five editorial hands. Composition window: from Huáng’s 1315 jìnshì through to his death in office in 1357.

Translations and research

• Yuán-shǐ j. 181 (Huáng Jìn biography, in fact composed by Sòng Lián).
• John W. Dardess. 1983. Confucianism and Autocracy. UC Press.
• Yáng Lián 楊鐮. 2003. Yuán-shī shǐ.

Other points of interest

The catalog meta names the editor as 張儉; this is the Jiā-jìng-era 張儉 (Yú Shǒuyú’s co-editor), not to be confused with the Eastern Hàn 張儉 or other homonyms. The further editorial layer of 張維樞 + 王廷曾 was not registered in the catalog meta but is documented in the Sìkù tíyào.

Links

• WYG SKQS V1209.2, p215.
• Wikipedia, 黃溍