Zhēnsùzhāi jí 貞素齋集
Collection of the Pure-and-Plain Studio by 舒頔 (撰)
About the work
An eight-juǎn literary collection by Shū Dí 舒頔 (1304–1377) of Jīxī, with an appended single juǎn Běizhuāng yígǎo 北莊遺稿 (verses of his brother Shū Yuǎnxùn 舒遠遜) and an appendix fùlù of one juǎn containing memorial inscriptions (míngjì) by Yú Xīlǔ 俞希魯, Táng Zhòngshí 唐仲實 and others. The collection was reconstructed in the Jiājìng era by Shū’s great-grandson Shū Xù 旭 and his fourth-generation descendant Shū Kǒngzhāo 孔昭, with the Jīxī magistrate Zhào Chūn 趙春 of Suìníng arranging the print. The collection’s self-positioning is anomalous: in Shū’s own preface and self-biography (both included) he models himself on Táo Qián, but the literary contents frequently praise the Míng’s gōngdé (merit and virtue). The tíyào compilers explicitly defend this: as one of those whose moral loyalty was to the old state but who could not deny the legitimacy of the new, Shū’s case is to be distinguished from the discredited model of Jù Qín Měi Xīn (the Hàn-era panegyrists of Qín and Wáng Mǎng).
Tiyao
Zhēnsùzhāi jí, 8 juǎn, with Běizhuāng yígǎo 1 juǎn. By Shū Dí of the Yuán. Dí, style-name Dàoyuán, was a man of Jīxī. In Zhìyuán dīngchǒu the Jiāngdōng xiànshǐ recruited him as jiàoyù of Guìchí; at term’s end he was reposted to Dāntú; in Zhìzhèng gēngyín he was transferred to Táizhōu lù rúxué zhèng. With the roads cut by war he could not go and retired to the hills. After the Míng’s rise he was repeatedly summoned but did not come out. He named his abode Zhēnsùzhāi (“Pure-and-Plain Studio”), making known his determination to keep himself. His writings included Gǔdàn gǎo and Huáyáng jí, all now untransmitted. This text is the work edited in the Jiājìng era by his great-grandson Xù and fourth-generation grandson Kǒngzhāo and others, printed by the Jīxī magistrate Zhào Chūn of Suìníng. His prose is fairly disciplined; his verse is bold and free, not in the late-Yuán mannered fine-weaving habit. His seven-character old-style is the strongest. The opening of the juǎn has Dí’s own preface and his own xiǎozhuàn (brief autobiography), both modelling himself on Táo Qián. Yet his actual writings often praise the Míng’s merit and virtue. With the Yuán principle losing its grip, sea-water flying-and-scattering, the virtuous would arise, and the people return to Heaven’s bestowal — there was originally no room for resentment. Only the yílǎo (loyalist old men) and gūchén (lone subjects) cleave by yì to the former lord, holding their petty determination. Dí does not forget the favor of the old country, which makes for the propriety of his coming and going; yet he does not eclipse the merit of the new dynasty, which is the gōng (fairness) of judgment — to be sure not to be lumped with Jù Qín Měi Xīn. The appendix of one juǎn contains several míngjì by Yú Xīlǔ, Táng Zhòngshí and others. The Běizhuāng yígǎo of one juǎn is the surviving poetry of Dí’s younger brother Yuǎnxùn, also gathered by Kǒngzhāo. We preserve the whole as it stands. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng forty-sixth (1781), tenth month. Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; head proofreader: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Zhēnsùzhāi jí preserves the literary output of a typical Huīzhōu xiàng yílǎo — a local Confucian functionary who refused Míng service but did not become a confrontational loyalist. The text’s documentary anchor is Shū’s own 1371 (Hóngwǔ xīnhài 辛亥) preface, which dates his preservation effort: most of his old drafts were destroyed in the late-Yuán jīnjí (the disorder of rénchén 1352, Red Turban activity in Huīzhōu); the present collection is what he could re-gather. His self-biography (Zìzhuàn, also included) is one of the more interesting YuánMíng transition autobiographical statements — modelled on Táo Qián but with a sharper self-deprecating closing (zàn) lamenting his lineage’s prospective decline. The composition window is c. 1340 (when his teaching career began) through to his death in 1377. Běizhuāng yígǎo, the appended brother’s collection, supplies a comparison set within the same family. The full corpus is significant for late-Yuán Huīzhōu local literary history; it is also one of the texts the Sìkù compilers explicitly use to defend a moderate position on dynastic loyalty.
Translations and research
- Used in studies of late-Yuán Huīzhōu literary culture (e.g. work by Wáng Shìxīn 王世新, Huīzhōu wényuàn).
- No substantial Western-language treatment located.
Other points of interest
- The 1371 self-preface dates Shū’s literary salvage explicitly to the immediate aftermath of the YuánMíng transition.
- The Sìkù tíyào uses this entry to articulate a moderate Qīng-period position on YuánMíng yílǎo judgment — that a yílǎo may praise the new dynasty without becoming a Jù Qín Měi Xīn turncoat. This is a useful documentary anchor for Qīng-era treatments of dynastic-transition loyalty as a literary category.
Links
- WYG SKQS V1217.9, p547.