Báishí shānfáng yìgǎo 白石山房逸藁
Surviving Drafts from the White-Stone Mountain Studio by 張丁 (撰)
About the work
Báishí shānfáng yìgǎo 白石山房逸藁 in two juǎn is the surviving literary collection of Zhāng Dīng 張丁 (commonly known by his zì Mèngjiān 孟兼), native of Pǔjiāng 浦江 (Zhèjiāng), a fellow-townsman of Sòng Lián 宋濂. Zhāng was summoned in the early Hóngwǔ years as Guózǐjiàn xuélù 國子監學錄, participated in the Yuán shǐ compilation, then served as Tàichángchéng 太常丞 before being sent out to Shānxī as ànchá sī qiānshì 按察司僉事, then Shāndōng as ànchá sī fùshǐ 按察司副使; in this last post he was falsely denounced by Wú Yìn 吳印 for inflexibility in applying the law and executed in the market. His record is appended in Míng shǐ Wényuàn zhuàn to Zhào Xūn 趙壎’s biography. The original collection was in six juǎn (so recorded in the Yìwén zhì 藝文志 and Jiāo Hóng 焦竑’s Guóshǐ jīngjí zhì 國史經籍志); it had long been dispersed when his eleventh-generation descendant Zhāng Sīhuáng 思煌 reassembled five juǎn from quotations in other works. The present two-juǎn recension is of unknown editorship but contains several pieces not in Sīhuáng’s reconstruction and is presumed to descend from an earlier (Míng) compilation that Sīhuáng did not see.
Tiyao
The Báishí shānfáng yìgǎo in two juǎn — by Zhāng Mèngjiān of the Míng. Mèngjiān’s personal name was Dīng 丁; he was known by his zì. Native of Pǔjiāng. In the early Hóngwǔ years he was summoned as Guózǐjiàn xuélù, participated in the compilation of the Yuán shǐ; as Tàichángchéng he was sent out as Shānxī ànchá sī qiānshì, then promoted to Shāndōng ànchá sī fùshǐ; for applying the law without favouritism he was falsely denounced by Wú Yìn 吳印 and executed in the market. His record is appended in Míng shǐ Wényuàn zhuàn, in Zhào Xūn 趙壎’s biography. The Yìwén zhì records Mèngjiān’s collection in six juǎn; Jiāo Hóng 焦竑’s Guóshǐ jīngjí zhì gives the same figure. The original recension was long ago dispersed. Recently his eleventh-generation descendant Sīhuáng 思煌 first picked up [pieces] from what is recorded in other works and re-edited them, fixing them at five juǎn — and seven or eight out of ten of the works collected within are pieces by others, harmonising and presented to Mèngjiān. Mèngjiān’s own writings remain so few that they are quite meagre. This present copy — we do not know by whom it was compiled — has several pieces more than Sīhuáng’s copy; we suspect it still derives from a Míng compiler’s collation, which Sīhuáng did not see. Mèngjiān and Sòng Lián 宋濂 were of the same town; when he was summoned, it was Lián who recommended him. Tàizǔ discussed with Liú Jī 劉基 the literary men of the time, and Jī said: “Sòng Lián is first, I am next, and then comes Mèngjiān.” Although today we cannot see his complete works, looking at these two juǎn — his verse and prose are temperate and elegant, clear and refined, properly framed and stylish; yet the soaring, tiger-pacing vigour also subtly hides itself and cannot be repressed. To follow on the tracks of the two [Sòng and Liú] he was indeed fit to draw the carriage. Although Jī’s remark was the conversation of one moment, taking it as a settled judgement is permissible. Compiled and presented respectfully in the ninth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781).
Abstract
Zhāng Dīng (1340?–1380?) is poorly attested: CBDB (id 437598 / 573267) records the name and Ming dynasty but no dates. The execution under Hóngwǔ is the principal fixed point — likely in the late 1370s, consistent with Zhāng’s post-1374 promotion to Shāndōng ànchá sī fùshǐ. The text is one of the most precarious witnesses of the early Hóngwǔ Pǔjiāng / Jīnhuá circle: a six-juǎn original lost early; an Hóngzhì or later five-juǎn descendant-reconstruction; and the present two-juǎn WYG recension extracted from a separate (unidentified) Míng manuscript and judged by the Sìkù editors to be the textually superior witness on grounds of containing material absent from the descendant’s reconstruction. Sòng Lián 宋濂 was the recommender (the two were Pǔjiāng natives), and Liú Jī 劉基’s celebrated ranking — Sòng Lián, Liú Jī, Zhāng Mèngjiān — places Zhāng among the highest-rated literary men of the founding generation; this judgement is the single most-cited assessment of Zhāng’s standing.
The Wú Yìn 吳印 incident is the standard reference for the Hóngwǔ-era purges of the Pǔjiāng / Jīnhuá literary circle: Zhāng was executed alongside several other Jīn-huá-school figures (the same purge wave that also took Wáng Yī 王禕 (KR4e0001) and was felt across the founding-Míng literary community). Wilkinson, Chinese History, §28.4, includes Zhāng among the casualties of the Hóngwǔ literary purges.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The Tíyào’s preservation of Liú Jī’s three-place ranking (Sòng Lián / Liú Jī / Zhāng Mèngjiān) is the principal external witness to Zhāng’s contemporary literary reputation and explains why the Sìkù editors went to such lengths to assemble a usable text from severely dispersed material.
Links
- Sìkù tíyào, Kyoto Zinbun digital edition
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng biéjí).