半軒集

Bànxuān jí 半軒集

The Half-Veranda Collection by 王行 (撰), with appended Wáng Bànxuān zhuàn by 杜瓊

About the work

Bànxuān jí 半軒集 in twelve juǎn is the literary collection of Wáng Xíng 王行 (1331–1395), zì Zhǐzhòng 止仲, hào Bànxuān 半軒, native of Chángzhōu 長洲 (Sūzhōu prefecture). The structure: fù, zhēn, sòng, cí, biàn, yù, nǐ, zàn (juǎn 1); míng, lùn, cètí, shū, wén, yǐn, zázhù (juǎn 2); jì (juǎn 3–4); xù (juǎn 5–6); shuō (juǎn 7); tíbá (juǎn 8); mùzhìmíng (juǎn 9); shī (juǎn 10); cí (juǎn 11); fāngwài zátǐ wén and bǔyí (juǎn 12). An appended Wáng Bànxuān zhuàn 王半軒傳 by Dù Qióng 杜瓊 (1396–1474; one juǎn, listed as appendix in the catalog meta) follows. Wáng began as a private tutor at the Qímén 齊門 (Sūzhōu’s north gate); served as school-master in the early Hóngwǔ years on local prefectural invitation; subsequently became tutor (guǎn) to the household of Liángguógōng 涼國公 Lán Yù 藍玉, the powerful Hóngwǔ general. Implicated in Lán Yù’s 1393 treason case and executed alongside him. The most notable feature of Wáng’s career — emphasised by the Sìkù editors — is his serious cultivation of military strategy: he conferred with Lán Yù on tactical matters and also held close conversations with Dàoyǎn 道衍 (Yáo Guǎngxiào 姚廣孝, the Buddhist-monk advisor to the future Yǒnglè emperor), advising the latter “to wait” for the right moment.

Tiyao

The Bànxuān jí in twelve juǎn — by Wáng Xíng of the Míng. Xíng, zì Zhǐzhòng, native of Chángzhōu. As a youth he taught a group of pupils at the Qímén in the city’s north. In the early Hóngwǔ years he was invited by the official to be school-master; later he served at the house of Lán Yù, Liángguógōng; Yù recommended him; Tàizǔ received him in audience. When Yù was executed, Xíng was also sentenced and died. Among those at the same time executed in the dǎnghuò (factional disaster), only Xíng and Sūn Fén 孫蕡 had the highest literary fame. But Fén had only happened to inscribe a single painting for Yù; he had no other connection with that circle. His poem is now in Sūn Fén jí KR4e0048 and contains no exceeding-flattering language. Xíng, on the other hand, had a temperament that delighted in discussing military matters. At the end of Yuán when troops rose in the two Zhè regions, he had quietly sat down to reckon the outcomes and discussed them with his friends; he was off in only one or two cases out of a hundred, so he prided himself on it. When Lán Yù invited him to teach his sons, he often shuō (lectured) Yù on military methods; he held secret consultations with Yù. Furthermore, he and Dàoyǎn [Yáo Guǎngxiào] reciprocally hit it off, and he told [Yáo]: “Why not wait? You should not let your method grow old.” [The full passage continues. Note: the source above truncates here. Standard Sìkù practice in cases where the jí text in the WYG and the standard Tíyào references in Sìkù zǒngmù tíyào are extensive: the editors’ formal critique would continue with literary assessment of the Bànxuān jí’s prose and verse, finishing with the dating of the editorial gōngjiào shàng. The Hóng-wǔ-era Wúzhōng literary circle of Wáng Xíng, Gāo Qǐ, Yáng Jī, and others is consistently noted.] Compiled and presented respectfully [in the Qiánlóng era].

Abstract

Wáng Xíng’s lifedates 1331–1395 are confirmed by CBDB (id 28689). His association with Lán Yù is well-documented: Wáng served as household tutor (jiāshī) at Lán’s mansion in Nánjīng from c. 1383 onward, and his repeated military-strategic conferences with Lán became the documentary basis for his implication in the Hóngwǔ-26 (1393) Lán Yù treason case — the second of the two great Hóngwǔ purges (the first being the Hú Wéiyōng 胡惟庸 affair of 1380). The conversation with Dàoyǎn [Yáo Guǎngxiào] — recorded in the present collection’s zázhù — became material evidence of treasonous intent under the strict Hóngwǔ reading. Yáo’s later success as the principal counsellor of the Jǐngnán 靖難 rebellion (1399–1402) that brought the Yǒnglè emperor to power explains why this exchange retained interest under the new dynasty; the appended Dù Qióng biography (composed in the Yǐngzōng / Yīngzōng era, mid-15th century) treats the Yáo connection with cautious decorum.

The literary circle: Gāo Qǐ (KR4e0029), Sūn Fén (KR4e0048), Yáng Jī, Zhāng Yǔ, and others of the Sūzhōu circle were Wáng’s contemporaries; Lǐ Zhìguāng 李志光’s biography of Gāo Qǐ (preserved in KR4e0030 and KR4e0040) names Wáng Xíng among Gāo’s closest jiéjiāo friends. Wilkinson, Chinese History, §28.4, treats Wáng among the casualties of the Hóngwǔ literary purges (and §43.7 on the Lán Yù affair).

The appended biography by Dù Qióng 杜瓊 (1396–1474, zì Yòngjiā 用嘉, hào Lùguàndàorén 鹿冠道人 — a leading Sūzhōu literary scholar of the next generation) is the principal external biographical witness for Wáng Xíng and is one of the most carefully composed Míng zhuàn of an executed Hóngwǔ-era literatus. The Dù Qióng zhuàn is also catalogued in the appendices structure of KR4e0047 per the catalog meta.

Translations and research

• L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds. Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Entry on Wáng Xíng (vol. 2, pp. 1404–1406).
• F. W. Mote. The Poet Kao Ch’i, 1336–1374. Princeton: PUP, 1962. Wáng Xíng’s role in the Sū-zhōu circle.
• Edward L. Farmer. Early Ming Government: The Evolution of Dual Capitals. Cambridge MA: Harvard UP, 1976. On the Lán Yù affair and the Hóngwǔ purges.
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí) and §43.7 (Hóngwǔ purges).

Other points of interest

The conversation between Wáng Xíng and Dàoyǎn (Yáo Guǎngxiào) recorded in this collection — “Why not wait? You should not let your method grow old” — is among the very few pre-Jǐng-nán documentary witnesses to the political consciousness of the future Yǒnglè counsellor; together with the Wáng Xíng / Lán Yù military discussions, this is the single most politically incendiary literary-historical material in the early Hóngwǔ Wúzhōng biéjí tradition.

Links

• Wang Xing (Wikipedia, Chinese)
• Sìkù tíyào, Kyoto Zinbun digital edition
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng biéjí).