Shàngjiōngzhāi jí 尙絅齋集
The Collection of the Studio of Honouring Simplicity by 童冀 (撰)
About the work
Shàngjiōngzhāi jí 尙絅齋集 in five juǎn is the literary collection of Tóng Jì 童冀 (fl. 1376), zì Zhōngzhōu 中州, native of Jīnhuá 金華. Born late in the Yuán, summoned in Hóngwǔ 9 / bǐngchén (1376) to the shūguǎn 書館 to participate in court compilations; later Education Officer of Húzhōu 湖州 prefecture, transferred to Běipíng 北平; died in custody on an unstated charge. The collection’s editorial history is severely confused: an unknown later compiler split the original — which had stood as four sub-collections (Jīnhuá jí 金華集, Nánxíng jí 南行集, Zháchuān jí 霅川集, Běiyóu jí 北游集), each mixing verse and prose — into two separate volumes by genre, scrambling sequence and stranding several entries with only headings and no text. The Sìkù editors restored the four-sub-collection arrangement from internal evidence; note that the yǒu lù wú shū (entry but no text) sections are preserved as such — five missing pieces from the closing of the Zháchuān jí.
Tiyao
The Shàngjiōngzhāi jí in five juǎn — by Tóng Jì of the Míng. Jì, zì Zhōngzhōu, native of Jīnhuá; born late in the Yuán. In Hóngwǔ bǐngchén (1376) he was summoned and entered the shūguǎn; later he was Education Officer of Húzhōu prefecture; transferred to Běipíng; charged with an offence, he died. This collection — we do not know by whom it was edited — splits the verse and prose into two volumes; the layout is mixed and confused, all but unreadable. From the table of contents we can examine the original layout, which should have been the four sub-collections Jīnhuá, Nánxíng, Zháchuān, and Běiyóu. The first three sub-collections all bear verse and prose together; only the Běiyóu jí bears verse alone with no prose. A later editor, unaware of the old method, put verse with verse and prose with prose, dividing into two collections; and within the verse and prose he did not arrange them by sub-category — so what is doubled before is overlapped behind. Fortunately, though it has been cut up, it has not yet been scrambled by interpolation; threads can still be found. We have now carefully checked the headings and again divided the work into the four sub-collections. There are scattered missing portions throughout. Also: at the end of the Zháchuān jí, the Bá Táng wǔwáng zuìguī tú 跋唐五王醉歸圖 (one piān), the Shū Liǔ Zǐhòu Yīyǐn wǔjiù Jié zàn hòu 書柳子厚伊尹五就桀贊後 (one piān), the Shū Wáng Jiǎn sǐshì zhuàn hòu 書王簡死事傳後 (one piān), the Shū Jīn Jiéfù zhuàn hòu 書金節婦傳後 (one piān), the Shū Jífāng shīwén juàn hòu 書集芳詩文巻後 (one juǎn) — and the Bǔ shì 卜釋 (one piān) — all have entries but no text; the dùshí worms have eaten through. We have left these in their original state. In the early Míng, Jì was in correspondence and harmonisation with Sòng Lián 宋濂, Zhāng Yǔ 張羽, and Yáo Guǎngxiào 姚廣孝. His diction is clear and firm, untainted by the late-Yuán florid manner. Although not particularly famous, he stands without shame as a shoulder-to-shoulder author of his moment. Compiled and presented respectfully in the third month of Qiánlóng 44 (1779).
Abstract
Tóng Jì’s lifedates are not precisely fixed. CBDB (id 100241) records fl. 1361, slightly earlier than the catalog meta’s fl. 1376; the latter is the date of his first attested court summoning, while CBDB’s 1361 may reflect Yuán-period activity. The cluster of correspondents — Sòng Lián, Zhāng Yǔ, Yáo Guǎngxiào 姚廣孝 (the future imperial counsellor to Chéngzǔ 成祖) — places him within the early-Hóngwǔ Jīnhuá literary network with cross-connections to the Sūzhōu circle and to Yáo’s emergent Yánjīng Buddhist-secular literary milieu. The unknown but apparently violent end of Tóng Jì in Běipíng likely associates him with one of the periodic Hóngwǔ purges of shūguǎn personnel — possibly the Kōngyìn 空印 affair of 1376–1383 — though no specific charge survives. Wilkinson, Chinese History, §28.4, does not discuss Tóng Jì specifically; he belongs to the second tier of Hóngwǔ literary figures whose principal interest lies in the textual transmission rather than in literary innovation.
The principal scholarly interest in the collection lies in the Sìkù editors’ four-sub-collection reconstruction. The four jí themselves correspond to four phases of Tóng’s career: Jīnhuá (the native-place / pre-summons phase), Nánxíng (southward travel to Húzhōu), Zháchuān (Húzhōu / Zháxī = Tàihú area), Běiyóu (the final Běipíng phase containing only verse — likely the prose was lost early). The five yǒu lù wú shū entries at the close of Zháchuān jí preserve the table-of-contents witness without text and are an unusually transparent record of dùshí damage in the manuscript transmission.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
Tóng Jì’s correspondence with Yáo Guǎngxiào 姚廣孝 (later Dàoyǎn 道衍 / 廣孝, the Buddhist-monk imperial advisor to Chéngzǔ) is a notable Hóng-wǔ-era cross-confessional literary friendship, paralleled by Sòng Lián’s and Shī Zōnglè 釋宗泐 (KR4e0072)‘s friendships. Yáo’s only surviving early-Hóng-wǔ verse exchanges with secular literati are with Tóng and a small circle of Jīnhuá poets.
Links
- Sìkù tíyào, Kyoto Zinbun digital edition
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng biéjí).