Xuéyán gǎo 學言稿
Draft of the Learning’s Speech by 吳當 (撰)
About the work
A six-juǎn poetry collection by Wú Dāng 吳當 (1297–1361), style-name Bóshàng, of Chóngrén 崇仁 in Jiāngxī, grandson of the great Yuán Neo-Confucian classicist Wú Chéng 吳澄 (Cǎolú; see KR4d0446 Wú Wénzhèng jí). The original recension was nine juǎn; the Míng Chóngrén magistrate Yè Liángguì 葉良貴 of Xīn’ān cut a nine-juǎn print, which the early-Qīng Línchuān scholar Lǐ Fú 李紱 later abridged and re-cut as the present six-juǎn form (it is Lǐ Fú’s recension that the SKQS preserves). The work showcases Wú Dāng’s verse — his prose magnum opus, the Zhōulǐ zuǎnyán 周禮纂言, is lost.
Tiyao
Xuéyán shīgǎo, 6 juǎn. By Wú Dāng of the Yuán. Dāng, style-name Bóshàng, was a man of Chóngrén and grandson of Wú Chéng. He received office by inheritance as zhàomó of the Wànyì sìkù (Four-storehouses); recommended as Guózǐ zhùjiào (Imperial-college assistant lecturer); participated in compiling the Sòngshǐ, Liáoshǐ and Jīnshǐ; appointed Hànlín xiūzhuàn; eventually rose to zhíxuéshì. When the southern military rose, he was made Jiāngxī sùzhèng liánfǎngshǐ, then demoted to Fǔzhōu lù zǒngguǎn and soon dismissed home. Later raised again to cānzhīzhèngshì of the Jiāngxī Mobile Province, but before he could enter office Chén Yǒuliàng overran Jiāngxī. He thereupon went into hiding. Chén Yǒuliàng sent messengers to summon him; Wú swore on a stiff-pillow-and-death (jiānwò yǐ sǐ zìshì) that he would not yield. They carried him bed-and-all to Jiāngzhōu and held him for a year — he never bent. When Chén was destroyed he was released. In the early Hóngwǔ a Míng official again pressed him to court; on seeing the Tàizǔ he gave only a chángyī salutation without prostration, and was eventually let go. He retired to live at Gǔpíng of Jíshuǐ, completing his integrity to the end. His writings included a Zhōulǐ zuǎnyán, now lost; only this collection survives. The original was 9 juǎn, cut by the Míng Chóngrén magistrate Yè Liángguì of Xīn’ān; the present 6 juǎn form is the merger re-cut by Lǐ Fú of our dynasty (Línchuān). [Of Wú] Chéng’s son [Dāng] — although in the Yuán he reached high office and was styled Tàirú, in fact [Wú Chéng] was a Sòng Xiánchún provincial graduate. The matter of his coming-and-going [under both dynasties] still cannot be exempted from criticism from the wise. Dāng did not accept the false summons of the rebels, and is therefore higher than Zhāng Xiàn 張憲 and his fellows. And in that, even when the realm was settled, he still did not perform the rites toward the wànshèng (the emperor), he stands especially above Yáng Wéizhēn and the rest. In effect he had long ago committed himself beyond the line of life and death; that he did not become a Xiè Fāngdé (i.e. survive in resistance) was sheer accident of fortune. Among the surviving men of the old Yuán he was the most stiff-spined. His poetry’s manner is strong and firm; the zhōngyì spirit is starkly alive as if breathing. He too was an outstanding figure of the late Yuán. Gù Sìlì’s Yuán bǎijiā shī preserves only three of Wú’s verses from “GānXūnyáng zhōuzhōng” and one verse “Sòng Fán xiùcái”, appended to Wú Chéng’s Cǎolú jí at the back — possibly Gù did not see this present book. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng forty-third (1778), fifth month. Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; head proofreader: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Xuéyán gǎo is the surviving verse-corpus of Wú Dāng, a major Yuán official-classicist who is biographically extraordinary in twice resisting a non-Yuán political reality — first refusing the Chén Yǒuliàng usurpation under literal duress (a year of confinement), then refusing prostration to the Míng Tàizǔ. The tíyào compilers explicitly rank him as the highest-integrity Yuán yílǎo (loyal survivor), placing him above Zhāng Xiàn (KR4d0555) and Yáng Wéizhēn (KR4d0585). His major prose work Zhōulǐ zuǎnyán was lost between the Míng and Qīng, leaving only the poetry; this is therefore a more partial textual witness than the biographical importance of the man would warrant. The Lǐ Fú abridgement is the form transmitted; the original nine-juǎn Yè Liángguì cut is not consulted here. Composition window: the bulk of the verse falls in the 1340s–1361, with the most striking zhōngyì-keyed pieces presumably composed during and after the Chén Yǒuliàng confinement of c. 1360. Wú Dāng is also one of the principal editors of his grandfather Wú Chéng’s Wú Wénzhèng jí (KR4d0446).
Translations and research
- Treated in modern Chinese-language studies of late-Yuán Jiāngxī loyalist literature.
- Frederick W. Mote, Imperial China 900–1800, discusses Yuán-Míng loyalist figures of this rank.
Other points of interest
The catalog meta gives no dates; CBDB (id 34567) confirms 1297–1361. The tíyào situates Wú Dāng at the head of the late-Yuán loyalist hierarchy, above the cluster of figures whose lives he overlapped — notable for the textbook of comparative yílǎo judgment.
Links
- WYG SKQS V1217.4, p253.