榮進集

Róngjìn jí 榮進集

The Glorious-Advancement Collection by 吳伯宗 (撰)

About the work

Róngjìn jí 榮進集 in four juǎn is the surviving literary collection of Wú Bózōng 吳伯宗 (1334?–1384?), originally named Wú Yòu 吳祐, conventionally known by his zì Bózōng 伯宗; native of Jīnxī 金谿 (Jiāngxī). The first jìnshì zhuàngyuán 進士狀元 of the new Míng dynasty (Hóngwǔ 4 / 1371, xīnhài 辛亥). Rose to Wǔyīngdiàn dàxuéshì 武英殿大學士; later demoted to jiǎntǎo 檢討 (Hànlín examining-secretary), where he died. Memorialised Hú Wéiyōng 胡惟庸 (the chief minister) when Hú Wéiyōng’s power was at its height — a fēngjié léngléng (cold-pointed moral fibre) deed. Authored four collections: Nángōng jí 南宫集, Shǐ Jiāo jí 使交集, Chéngjūn jí 成均集 (totalling twenty juǎn), and Yùtáng jí 玉堂集 in four juǎn — all lost. The present four-juǎn Róngjìn jí is a posthumous compilation from surviving fragments: juǎn 1 contains the xiāngshì, huìshì, and diànshì essays (Sìshū and jīngyì each two pieces, lùn and cè each one, plus the diànshì cè); juǎn 2–3 are verse plus fù and bǔyí; juǎn 4 is miscellaneous prose. The contents of the lost collections are partly recoverable from the surviving verses (e.g., the Fèngshǐ Ānnánguó 奉使安南國 mission verses correspond to the lost Shǐ Jiāo jí; the Guóxué shìdiàn 國學釋奠 and Yùtáng yànzuò 玉堂燕坐 verses to the lost Yùtáng jí).

Tiyao

The Róngjìn jí in four juǎn — by Wú Bózōng of the Míng. Bózōng originally named Yòu, conventionally known by his zì; native of Jīnxī. Jìnshì zhuàngyuán of Hóngwǔ xīnhài (1371); rose in office to Wǔyīngdiàn dàxuéshì; later demoted to jiǎntǎo and died. His whole life he held to uprightness without ingratiation. Although he offended his time and was demoted, he did not slightly regret it. When Hú Wéiyōng monopolised power, his shìyàn (power-flame) blazed; Bózōng with stern resolution memorialised against him — his fēngjié léngléng (moral-fibre, cold-pointed) is most unreachable. He authored the Nángōng jí, Shǐ Jiāo jí, Chéngjūn jí — in all twenty juǎn — and the Yùtáng jí in four juǎn; today none are seen. In this copy there are verses such as Fèngshǐ Ānnánguó 奉使安南國, Guóxué shìdiàn 國學釋奠, Yùtáng yànzuò 玉堂燕坐 — we suspect that after the original collections were dispersed, later persons gathered up the surviving fragments and combined them into this volume. Juǎn 1 is the xiāng- and huìshì three-session Sìshū and jīngyì: two pieces each, lùn and cè each one piece; plus the diànshì cè one piece. Juǎn 2 and 3 are entirely verse, with fù and shī bǔyí appended. Juǎn 4 is miscellaneous prose. His verse-prose are all yōngróng diǎnyǎ (gracefully gathering, classically elegant), with the kāiguó zhī guīmó (regulatory pattern of dynastic founding). The one Míng dynasty’s táigétǐ 臺閣體 is pēitāi (embryologically formed) here. His xiāngshì huìshì pieces can be examined for the contemporary qǔshì (selection-of-officials) system and the literary format of the time. Only in juǎn 3 there is the Shàngwèn Ānnán shì five-character verse — which alongside the various anthologies’ recorded Rìběn shǐchén Hàilímāhā dá Míng Tàizǔ zhàowèn Rìběn fēngsú shī 日本使臣嗐哩嘛哈荅明太祖詔問日本風俗詩 — only differing in a few characters; not certain which is correct. But its verse is entirely a kuādà Rìběn (boast of Japan) sort — should not come from Bózōng’s hand. Or his descendants, on the strength of his Ānnán mission, mistakenly cribbed it in. We now leave the old recension as is and record it, and note our suspicion for examination. Compiled and presented respectfully in the ninth month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778).

Abstract

Wú Bózōng’s lifedates: CBDB id 565342 records the name and Míng dynasty but no dates; the standard biographies place him c. 1334–1384. As the first Míng jìnshì zhuàngyuán (1371) and Wǔyīngdiàn dàxuéshì, Wú was the senior literary-official of the founding-Hóngwǔ generation; his memorial impeaching Hú Wéiyōng in the late 1370s is one of the principal documentary witnesses to the pre-1380 contestation that culminated in the Hú Wéiyōng affair (executed 1380). Wú’s posthumous jiǎntǎo demotion likely followed the Hú Wéiyōng case in some indirect way — though the Tíyào does not detail the charge. His Ānnán (Vietnam) embassy in c. 1377 produced the Shǐ Jiāo jí, now lost.

The Sìkù editors’ literary-historical claim that the one Míng’s táigétǐ 臺閣體 was pēitāi (embryologically formed) in Wú’s prose is a substantial assertion: it explicitly anchors the foundation of the early-15th-century formal court-prose style in the 1370s under the first zhuàngyuán, not in the Yǒnglè–Xuāndé generation conventionally credited (the Sān Yáng 三楊). This is a notable revisionist Sìkù position. Wilkinson, Chinese History, §28.4, follows the position.

The Tíyào’s careful suspicion of the Shàngwèn Ānnán shì 上問安南事 verse as actually being the Rìběn shǐchén Hàilímāhā (Japanese envoy Hàilímāhā) response-to-Tàizǔ verse on Japanese customs — anthologised under different attribution — is a model of Sìkù-era careful textual-attribution work.

Translations and research

• L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds. Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Entry on Wú Bózōng (vol. 2, pp. 1487–1489).
• John W. Dardess. Confucianism and Autocracy: Professional Elites in the Founding of the Ming Dynasty. Berkeley: UC Press, 1983. The Hú Wéi-yōng case.
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí).

Other points of interest

The collection’s preservation of the Hóngwǔ xīnhài (1371) xiāngshì, huìshì, and diànshì examination papers — composed by the first Míng zhuàngyuán — is one of the very few surviving Hóngwǔ-era complete examination-essay sets and is a primary documentary witness to the early-Míng kējǔ format.

Links

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