Shuōxuézhāi gǎo 說學齋稿
Drafts from the Studio of Discoursing on Learning by 危素 (撰)
About the work
Shuōxuézhāi gǎo 說學齋稿 in four juǎn is a Jiājìng-era Míng recovery of the prose of Wēi Sù 危素 (1303–1372), one of the most learned YuánMíng transition figures, zì Tàipǔ 太樸, native of Jīnxī 金谿 (Jiāngxī), Yuán jìnshì (Zhìzhèng 1, 1341); served the late Yuán as compiler of the dynastic histories of Sòng, Liáo, and Jīn under 脫脫 Tuōtuō in the 1343–1345 project; surrendered to the Míng in 1368 and briefly held the office of Hànlín shìjiǎngxuéshì 翰林侍講學士 before being demoted under the suspicion of having served two dynasties. The transmission of his Shuōxuézhāi prose is one of the most striking cases in Míng bibliographic history: the original fifty-juǎn collection was already lost by the mid-Míng, and the present recovery was assembled in Jiājìng 38 (1559) by Guī Yǒuguāng 歸有光 (1507–1571) from a Wú-family manuscript of Wēi’s own holograph.
Tiyao
Examined respectfully: Shuōxuézhāi gǎo, four juǎn, by Wēi Sù of the Míng. (Wēi’s Cǎolú niánpǔ 草廬年譜 is already recorded in our catalog.) According to the Qiānqǐngtáng shūmù 千頃堂書目, his prose collection was originally fifty juǎn; it had already been dispersed and lost during the Míng period and no longer survived. The present book was obtained by Guī Yǒuguāng 歸有光 in Jiājìng 38 (1559) from a Wúshì family’s holding of Wēi Sù’s manuscript draft and transmitted by hand-copy. The prose is not divided into juǎn; only the year of composition is recorded at the tail of each piece of paper, and all of these dates fall within the Yuán period. Guī Yǒuguāng’s postface (bá) records the total as one hundred and thirty-six pieces; the present book contains only one hundred and thirty-three. Further, Wáng Màohóng 王懋竑 in his Báitián zázhù 白田雜著 has a bá for this collection that lists the total as: fù three, zàn two, míng two, sòng three, jì fifty-one, xù seventy-six — total one hundred and thirty-eight pieces. He takes Guī Yǒuguāng’s bá count to be a copying-error; but on Wáng’s own enumeration the true total is one hundred and thirty-seven, which also disagrees [with both]. Most likely the collection had no carved blocks; the curious passed it from hand to hand in successive copies, so that the piece-count varies and cannot be regularized — but in substance it is one and the same collection.
Wēi Sù’s late conduct [as a holdover serving the Míng] was less than complete, and the world has mocked him; the man himself need not be praised. But his prose stands after [Ōuyáng Xiū] 歐 [陽脩], [Yú Jí] 虞 [集], [Huáng Jìn] 黃 [溍], and [Liǔ Guàn] 柳 [貫] as a great master of the line. Wáng Màohóng’s bá says of his prose that it is rich, sweeping, clear, and deep — that to look at, it appears even and easy, but in reality cannot be reached; “only [Guī] Xīfǔ 熙甫 [i.e. Guī Yǒuguāng] could know its depth.” His treasuring and transmission of the manuscript by hand-copy was therefore not idle. Reverently collated on the fourth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). General compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General collator: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
This is one of the most evidentially complex biéjí of the early-Míng catalog. Wēi Sù’s lifedates 1303–1372 (catalog meta 1295–1372 — checked against CBDB c_personid for 危素: the catalog meta’s birth-year is conventional but the Cǎolú niánpǔ and Yuán/Míng sources clearly establish 1303; the catalog meta’s 1295 is followed in the frontmatter persons annotation but flagged here as too early; the Goodrich & Fang entry 2:1465 gives 1303–1372, which is followed in the body prose). Wēi was one of the principal figures of the Yuán Jìnyǔ Hànlín literary establishment under the Zhìzhèng emperor, co-editor of the Yuán official histories of Sòng, Liáo, and Jīn (1343–45), and the senior Yuán-loyalist among the Yuán literati who served the Míng after 1368. Under the Hóngwǔ emperor he held briefly the post of Hànlín shìjiǎngxuéshì and Tàicháng shǎoqīng but was demoted on the suspicion of double-dynasty service; died in exile or retirement in 1372.
The textual situation is critical. His original fifty-juǎn Shuōxuézhāi gǎo had already disintegrated in the early-mid Míng. The Jiājìng 38 (1559) recovery by Guī Yǒuguāng 歸有光 — the great later Míng gǔwén master — from an autograph manuscript preserved by a Wú-family bibliophile is the source of the present four-juǎn recension. The dating-tags Wēi himself wrote at the foot of each paper all give Yuán-period dates: this means the recovery preserves Wēi’s pre-1368 prose, not his (otherwise lost) Hóngwǔ-era work. Guī Yǒuguāng’s count is 136 pieces; Wáng Màohóng’s later (Qīng) count is 137 (or 138 in his summary line); the present WYG copy contains 133. The numerical discrepancy is the result of successive manuscript transmissions without a cut edition.
The Sìkù tíyào’s distinction between “the man himself need not be praised” and “the prose stands after Ōuyáng, Yú Jí, Huáng Jìn, and Liǔ Guàn as a great master” is the canonical Sìkù-era judgment on Wēi: distasteful as a èrcháo chén 二朝臣 (man of two dynasties), unmatched as a Yuán gǔwén master.
Translations and research
- Goodrich & Fang. 1976. Dictionary of Ming Biography. Columbia UP, 2:1465–1467 (entry on Wēi Sù).
- John D. Langlois Jr (ed.). 1981. China Under Mongol Rule. Princeton UP. Several chapters on the Yuán literary establishment under Tuō-tuō.
- F. W. Mote. 1999. Imperial China 900–1800. Harvard UP. Discusses the Yuán-Míng intellectual transition and Wēi Sù’s place in it.
Other points of interest
- The Wú-family manuscript that Guī Yǒuguāng used as base is one of the most important Yuán-manuscript discoveries of the late Míng; Guī’s postface, preserved in his collected works, is a significant text in Míng literary historiography. The Wú family’s preservation of Yuán materials parallels 文徵明’s preservation of the Hóngwǔ-era Sòng Lián cutting that underlies KR4e0003.
Links
- Wei Su (Wikipedia, Chinese)
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng biéjí); §50 (Yuán historiography under Tuōtuō).