Mì’ān jí 密庵集
Collected Works of [the Master of] the Secluded Hermitage by 謝肅 (撰)
About the work
Mì’ān jí 密庵集 in eight juǎn gathers the surviving poems and prose of Xiè Sù 謝肅 (zì Yuángōng 原功), native of Shàngyú 上虞 (in Kuàijī 會稽, Zhèjiāng). Xiè Sù was a Yuán–Míng transitional figure who in the late Zhìzhèng period sought audience with Zhāng Shìchéng 張士誠 at Wú; rebuffed, he withdrew to Yuè 越. Under Hóngwǔ he was raised by the míngjīng 明經 examination and appointed Fújiàn ànchá sī qiānshì 福建按察司僉事, then implicated in a case, imprisoned and died. The work circulated in ten juǎn under the Míng (recorded in the Míng shǐ Yìwénzhì and Jiāo Hóng 焦竑’s Guóshǐ jīngjízhì), but the printed tradition lapsed; the present eight-juǎn recension is the Sìkù editors’ reconstruction from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn 永樂大典 supplemented by the two original prefaces of Dài Liáng 戴良 (preserved separately in his Jiǔlíng jí 九靈集).
Tiyao
The Mì’ān jí in eight juǎn — by Xiè Sù of the Míng. Sù, zì Yuángōng, native of Shàngyú. At the end of Yuán Zhìzhèng, when Zhāng Shìchéng 張士誠 had occupied Wú, Sù in indignation wished to call on the chancellor and present a strategy of stilling weapons and giving rest to the people; in the end he met no opportunity and returned to live in seclusion in Yuè. Under Hóngwǔ he was raised by the míngjīng and appointed Fújiàn ànchá sī qiānshì; on account of an affair he was arrested, sent down to prison, and died there. The Míng shǐ Yìwénzhì, Jiāo Hóng’s Guóshǐ jīngjízhì, and Huáng Yúji 黃虞稷’s Qiānqǐngtáng shūmù all record Sù’s Mì’ān jí in ten juǎn; but the printed copies were long secreted, and bibliophiles rarely entered them in their lists. Only in the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn are Sù’s poems and prose tolerably abundant — for at that time Sù was not long dead, and Yáo Guǎngxiào 姚廣孝 and others were already copying his surviving collection and ranking him together with the ancients, which shows that they esteemed his writings already at that day.
Zhū Yízūn 朱彝尊 in his Jìngzhìjū shīhuà 靜志居詩話 says that Sù first paid his respects to Gòng Shītài 貢師泰 at the Yǎnggāo tíng 仰高亭 on Wúshān; at the time Gòng was serving by imperial order transporting grain to Fújiàn and Guǎngdōng, and as he was about to set out by sea Sù went on board with him as far as Hǎichāng 海昌, lodging north of that prefecture, holding the classic and questioning him. With every poem completed, every essay finished, they would weigh and discuss it until it perfectly accorded with reason and only then desist. Thus the deep source of Sù’s learning truly issued from Shītài. Examining the xù to “Tiānfēng hǎitāo tíng” 天風海濤亭 in the collection, he says “Using a line from a poem chanted by my late master Shàngshū Gōng Wánzhāi 貢公玩齋 as my opening” — looking up to him. Moreover Shītài’s surviving collection was also printed by Sù; in every case he was unwavering in remembering his root. For this reason his gǔwéncí compositions follow exact rules and form. His one poem from Wéizhōu 濰州 sent to a friend records the names of ten men who were summoned together with him to compile the rites — Zhāng Shēn 張紳, Yáng Hé 楊翮, and the rest — names not reached by the Míng shǐ Lǐzhì. And his poem on sending Cài Tiānyīng 蔡天英 by imperial order to bestow the seal of the King of Liúqiú 琉球國印寶: examining the Míng shǐ Wàiguózhuàn, there is only the matter of bestowing on the three kings of Chūshān 中山, Shānnán, and Shānběi rituals of gilt-silver seals, and no mention of sending an envoy. Cases such as these are particularly profitable for historical investigation. Respectfully selecting and editing, [the editors] divided it into eight juǎn; and Dài Liáng’s two original prefaces, separately seen in the Jiǔlíng jí 九靈集, are now both taken and placed at the front, slightly restoring its old aspect.
Abstract
Xiè Sù’s lifedates are not exactly known. Per CBDB entry 28452 (citing the Wǔdài yánjiū genealogical apparatus) he was executed at age 53, which is consistent with the tíyào notice that he was imprisoned and died on charges under Hóngwǔ. The original prefaces in the SBCK recension preserved here — by his friend Dài Liáng 戴良 (the Jīnhuá Jiǔlíng shānrén 金華九靈山人, 1317–1383) — make Xiè Sù an active gǔwén and gǔshī poet of the late 1350s and 1360s, with extensive travels through Shāndōng, Héběi, Shānxī, and Hénán. The collection’s distinctive feature is its very large body of jìxíng 紀行 (journey-record) poetry along the Yuán postal routes, which Dài Liáng’s preface ranks with Dù Fǔ’s QínShǔ 秦蜀 journey poems. After his execution the work was suppressed and circulated only in manuscript; under Tiānqǐ 5 (1625) the seventh-generation descendant Xiè Wěi 謝偉 re-cut the blocks at Gǔxīn 古新 (in Guǎngdōng), as his postface records. The Sìkù editors based their text on the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn fragments; both this Wányǔangé recension and the SBCK recension (titled 密菴藁) descend from related stems.
A point of historical interest noted by the Sìkù tíyào: Xiè Sù’s collection preserves names of ten Hóngwǔ-era ritualist compilers (Zhāng Shēn, Yáng Hé etc.) absent from the Míng shǐ “Treatise on Rites,” and records the otherwise unattested dispatch of envoy Cài Tiānyīng 蔡天英 to bestow a seal on the king of Liúqiú 琉球 — useful supplementary evidence for early-Míng administrative history.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located. The collection has not been the subject of a Western-language monograph; Goodrich & Fang, Dictionary of Ming Biography (1976), does not give Xiè Sù a separate entry. Brief notices in PRC reference works (Zhōngguó wénxué dà cídiǎn 中國文學大辭典, Yuán Míng shī gài-guān 元明詩概觀).
Other points of interest
The original printed edition was lost in a fire (the postface of Xiè Wěi 謝偉 dated Tiānqǐ 5 / 1625 reports that his Gǔxīn-state reprint was made because the earlier Jìnlíng 晉陵 blocks, prepared by his father in three years’ work, were destroyed in the zhùróng 祝融 fire of the bǐngwǔ year [1606]). The Kanripo file delivers the SBCK recension (titled Mì’ān gǎo 密菴藁) with Dài Liáng’s preface and the Xiè Wěi postface, while the catalog meta points to the eight-juǎn WYG recension titled Mì’ān jí.
Links
- Sìkù tíyào, Kyoto Zinbun digital edition
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng biéjí).