Liángyuán yùgǎo 梁園寓稿
Sojourning Drafts at the Liáng Garden by 王翰 (撰)
About the work
Liángyuán yùgǎo 梁園寓稿 in nine juǎn is the verse collection of Wáng Hàn 王翰, zì Shíjǔ 時舉, native of Yǔzhōu 禹州 (Hénán). The title Liángyuán — literally “Liáng Garden”, the famous Hàn-era hunting park of Liáng Xiàowáng 梁孝王 near Kāifēng — is the figure for Hénán. Wáng was a late-Yuán hermit in Zhōngtiáoshān 中條山 (the mountain range between Shǎnxī and Shānxī); on the founding of the Míng he emerged to be chángshǐ 長史 of the Zhōuwáng 周王 (Princely Establishment of Zhōu at Kāifēng, under Zhū Sù 朱橚 [1361–1425], Hóngwǔ’s fifth son). The Zhōuwáng was jiāo yǒu yìzhì (proud with treasonous intent); Wáng remonstrated upright but was not heeded; he duànzhǐ yángkuáng qù (cut off his finger and feigned madness and left). When the Zhōuwáng’s plot was discovered, Wáng was not implicated. Later he was employed as Hànlínyuàn biānxiū 翰林院編修; demoted to Liánzhōu jiàoshòu 廉州教授 (in Guǎngxī, on the Beibu-Gulf coast); died when Liánzhōu city fell in an aboriginal-southern (yíliáo 夷獠) uprising. The case is recorded in Míng shǐ Zhōuwáng zhuàn (the biography of Zhū Sù). The Míngshǐ Yìwén zhì records two collections: Bìzhǒu jí 敝帚集 in five juǎn (now lost) and Liángyuán yùgǎo in nine juǎn (the present text). Jiāo Hóng 焦竑’s Jīngjí zhì records the Yùgǎo in two juǎn only — incorrect. Also recorded by Jiāo is Shānlín qiáochàng 山林樵唱 in one juǎn, now also lost.
Tiyao
The Liángyuán yùgǎo in nine juǎn — by Wáng Hàn of the Míng. Hàn, zì Shíjǔ, native of Yǔzhōu. At the end of Yuán lived in retirement in Zhōngtiáoshān. In the early Míng emerged to be Zhōuwáng Sù chángshǐ. The prince was always proud and had treasonous intent; [Wáng] remonstrated upright but was not heeded; cut off his finger, feigned madness, and left. When the prince’s plot was discovered, [Wáng] was not implicated. The affair is recorded in Míng shǐ Zhōuwáng zhuàn. Later he was employed as Hànlín biānxiū; demoted to Liánzhōu jiàoshòu; when the yíliáo (aboriginal-southern peoples) rebelled and the city fell, he died in the disaster. The Míng shǐ Yìwén zhì records his works as Bìzhǒu jí 敝帚集 in five juǎn and Liángyuán yùgǎo in nine juǎn. The Bìzhǒu jí is now not seen. This book’s juǎn count agrees with the Míng shǐ. Jiāo Hóng’s Jīngjí zhì only calls it Yùgǎo in two juǎn — mistaken. Jiāo’s catalog separately records Hàn’s Shānlín qiáochàng in one juǎn; today also not seen — perhaps lost together? Hàn first opposed the proud prince, then was killed serving the state — his life-conduct has běnmò (root and branch). Yet at the time he was not known by literary skill, so his ancient form often has zhíyǔ (plain words). However, zìshū xìngqíng (self-expressing nature and feeling), without the nóngxiān (dense-fine) habit of the Yuán people. His seven-character modern style is also of fairly gāolǎng (high-clear) tone-resonance. The present dynasty’s Zhū Yízūn compiled the Míngshīzōng but did not record Hàn’s verse — must be that he had not seen this collection. Today we, on the strength of the man, preserve [the collection] — to display the sagely dynasty’s biǎozhāng zhōngliè, chǎnyáng yōuyǐn (illuminating the loyal-and-fierce, expounding the hidden-and-secluded) sense. Compiled and presented respectfully in the fifth month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778).
Abstract
Wáng Hàn’s lifedates are not securely fixed. The catalog meta gives 1333–1379, which is wrong: that’s the lifedates of CBDB id 35495, a different person — the Tangut-descent Yuán-loyalist Wáng Hàn who committed suicide in 1378 — see person note. The present Wáng Hàn (zì Shíjǔ, native of Yǔzhōu, Hénán) is a different person whose career as Zhōuwáng Sù chángshǐ implies activity well into the 1390s and 1400s. The Zhōuwáng (Zhū Sù 朱橚) was first demoted to Yúnnán in Hóngwǔ 22 (1389) and again charged with treasonous intent in Yǒnglè 1 (1402–3); Wáng Hàn’s chángshǐ service would have been at one of these points. The Liánzhōu aboriginal uprising — likely a Yáo or Lǎo uprising in the late Hóngwǔ or Yǒnglè period — fixes his death in the early 15th century.
The collection’s significance is twofold: (1) as a zhōngliè (loyal-and-fierce) literary document — Wáng’s duànzhǐ yángkuáng (cutting off his finger and feigning madness) to escape implication in the prince’s treason, and his subsequent death in office defending an aboriginal-attacked southern frontier town, is one of the most dramatic Hóngwǔ-Yǒng-lè-era literati biographies; (2) as a documentary witness to early-Míng princely-establishment politics — specifically the Zhōuwáng household at Kāifēng. The Qián-lóng-era Sìkù editors’ explicit framing of the collection’s preservation as the “sagely dynasty’s expounding of the hidden-and-secluded” makes the zhōngliè frame especially clear.
Note on attribution: this Wáng Hàn is NOT the homonymous Tangut Yuán-loyalist 王翰 whose suicide is celebrated in the Yuán-loyalist tradition (see the separate person-note entry). The catalog meta’s date assignment to this entry is a homonym confusion that should be corrected. The two surviving collections — KR4d0551 Yǒushí shānrén yígǎo 友石山人遺稿 (by the Tangut Wáng Hàn) and this KR4e0065 Liángyuán yùgǎo — should be carefully distinguished.
Wilkinson, Chinese History, §28.4, treats Wáng Hàn (of Yǔzhōu) among minor early-Míng loyalists; the principal documentary anchor is the Míng shǐ Zhōuwáng zhuàn notice.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds. Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Notice of Wáng Hàn (under Zhū Sù, vol. 1, p. 343).
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí); §31 (princely establishments).
Other points of interest
Wáng Hàn’s duànzhǐ (finger-cutting) and yángkuáng (feigning madness) escape from implication in Zhū Sù’s treason — followed by service as Hànlín biānxiū and then death as Liánzhōu jiàoshòu in an aboriginal uprising — is one of the most dramatic biographical narratives in the early-Míng biéjí tradition. The catalog meta’s misattribution of his dates to the Tangut Wáng Hàn (CBDB 35495) needs correction.
Links
- Sìkù tíyào, Kyoto Zinbun digital edition
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng biéjí).