中丞集

Zhōngchéng jí 中丞集

The Vice-Censor Collection by 練子寧 (撰)

About the work

Liàn Zhōngchéng jí 練中丞集 in two juǎn (the WYG title preserves the office-name Zhōngchéng 中丞 = zuǒ fù dū yùshǐ 左副都御史) is the surviving literary collection of Liàn Zǐníng 練子寧 (d. 1402), personal name Liàn Ānān 練安, conventionally known by his zì Zǐníng 子寧, hào Sōngyuè jūshì 松月居士, native of Xīngàn 新淦 (Jiāngxī). Hóngwǔ yǐchǒu (1385) jìnshì. Under Jiànwén rose to zuǒ fù dū yùshǐ 左副都御史. When the Yǒnglè armies entered Nánjīng at the close of the Jǐngnán zhī yì 靖難之役, Liàn died as a xùnjié (martyr-for-loyalty). His record is in Míng shǐ Liàn Zǐníng zhuàn. Yǒnglè specifically suppressed the writings of the Jiànwén loyalists; the writings of Liàn and the other jiànwén dǎng 建文黨 were placed under ban (jīn qí wénzì shèn yán 禁其文字甚嚴). In Hóngzhì era, Wáng Zuǒ 王佐 first compiled the surviving fragments under the title Jīnchuān yùxiè 金川玉屑 (“Gold-Stream Jade-Shavings” — the figure for the precious surviving fragments). The present recension was re-edited by Guō Zǐzhāng 郭子章 of Tàihé 泰和, with an appended yíshì 遺事 (one juǎn) and further additions by Liàn’s descendant Liàn Qǐ 練綺.

Tiyao

The Liàn Zhōngchéng jí in two juǎn — by Liàn Zǐníng of the Míng. Zǐníng, personal name Ān, conventionally known by his zì; hào Sōngyuè jūshì, native of Xīngàn. Jìnshì of Hóngwǔ yǐchǒu (1385); under Jiànwén officiated as zuǒ fù dū yùshǐ; on the Yán army’s entering, xùnjié sǐ (died as martyr). His career is in Míng shǐ běn zhuàn. At the early stage when Yánwáng 燕王 [Yǒnglè] cuànlì (usurped-the-throne), the Jiànwén ministers were falsely accused as jiāndǎng (treasonous-faction); jīn qí wénzì shèn yán (the prohibition of their writings was very strict). In Hóngzhì era, Wáng Zuǒ 王佐 first compiled his yíwén under the title Jīnchuān yùxiè. Therefore Xú Tài 徐泰’s Shīshuō 詩說 has the saying “Jīnchuān Liàn Zǐníng / Yùxiè wú duō wéi shì suǒ bǎo” (“Jīnchuān’s Liàn Zǐníng — his Jade-Shavings, not many, are treasured by the world”). This copy was re-edited by Guō Zǐzhāng 郭子章 of Tàihé, with an appended yíshì in one juǎn; his yìsūn (descendant) Qǐ 綺 again supplemented and compiled it.

Huáng Pǔ 黃溥’s Jiǎnjí yíwén 簡籍遺聞 once noted three suspicious matters in the collection: (1) the Sòng Huā zhuàngyuán guīqǔ shī 送花狀元歸娶詩 — but from Hóngwǔ xīnhài (1371) to Jiànwén gēngchén (1400), the zhuàngyuán are only Wú Bózōng 吳伯宗, Dīng Xiǎn 丁顯, Rèn Hēngtài 任亨泰, Xǔ Guān 許觀, Zhāng Xìn 張信, Chén Jiào 陳䢿, Hú Jìng 胡靖 — seven persons; no so-called zhuàngyuán Huā Lún 花綸. Huā Lún was second in the Hóngwǔ 17 (1384) Zhèjiāng xiāngshì; he should have no fèngzhào guīqǔ (Imperially-decreed home-marriage) matter. (2) The Gù qílǎo Lǐ Tíng Huánggōng mùzhì 故耆老理庭黃公墓誌 says Zǐníng’s jídì (jìnshì) was in Hóngwǔ 18 (1385); this zhì is dated “Hóngwǔ bǐngchén sānyuè zhī jí” (Hóngwǔ bǐngchén / 1376 third-month, an auspicious day) — Hóngwǔ 9 (1376) — should not be signed “cì jìnshì jídì shòu Hànlínyuàn xiūzhuàn” since the jìdì was nine years later. (3) The end of the collection’s zákǎo (miscellaneous examination) quotes Yè Shèng 葉盛’s Shuǐdōng rìjì: “Chánglè Zhèngshì has a shǒujuǎn of Liàn Zǐníng’s fù; Zhāng Xiǎnzōng 張顯宗 wrote a bá — saying Xiǎnzōng zhuàngyuán jídì in Hóngwǔ” — but at that time there was no such zhuàngyuán. His words are quite hé (sound). Probably Zǐníng was a yīdài wěi rén (giant of his age); people contended to be associated with him — and so yǐngzhuàn (false impersonations) arose. But ultimately we do not throw out the zhēn (real) on account of the wěi (forged). Compiled and presented respectfully in the sixth month of Qiánlóng 42 (1777).

Abstract

Liàn Zǐníng’s death-date 1402 is fixed by the Jǐngnán zhī yì (Yǒnglè’s seizure of Nánjīng in jǐmǎo 7th-month / July 1402). His birth-date is not transmitted; the 1385 jìnshì implies birth in the 1350s–1360s. CBDB id 34446 records the name without dates.

The collection is the most-cited surviving biéjí of the Jiànwén loyalists — the literary-political group decimated by Yǒnglè’s purges of 1402. Wáng Zuǒ’s Hóngzhì-era compilation of the Jīnchuān yùxiè — a deliberately Daoist-alchemical title (“Gold-Stream Jade-Shavings” — yùxiè implies the precious surviving residue of a destroyed treasure) — is one of the foundational documents of mid-Míng biǎozhōng (vouching-for-loyalty) recovery of Jiàn-wén-period writings. Xú Tài’s contemporary couplet — “Jīnchuān’s Liàn Zǐníng / Yùxiè, not many, treasured by the world” — became the canonical mid-Míng formula for the yíwén (surviving writings) of the Jiànwén loyalists.

The Sìkù editors’ careful preservation of Huáng Pǔ’s three documented suspicions of forged or misattributed pieces — alongside the principled position “zhōng bù yǐ wěi fèi qí zhēn” (we ultimately do not abandon the genuine on account of the forged) — is a model textual-evaluation. Guō Zǐzhāng 郭子章 (1542–1618, the Wàn-lì-era Tàihé scholar and Jiāngxī literary-historian) is named as the principal re-editor; his descendant Liàn Qǐ’s additions are also noted.

Wilkinson, Chinese History, §28.4, places Liàn Zǐníng at the head of the Jiànwén loyalist literary tradition; §43.7 documents the Yǒnglè purges of Jiànwén writings as one of the key Míng literary-political-historical episodes.

Translations and research

• L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds. Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Entry on Liàn Zǐ-níng (vol. 1, pp. 919–921).
• Hok-lam Chan. “The Chien-wen, Yung-lo, Hung-hsi, and Hsüan-te reigns, 1399–1435.” In Cambridge History of China, vol. 7. Cambridge UP, 1988. The Jǐng-nán affair and the Jiàn-wén loyalists.
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí); §43.7 (Jiàn-wén loyalists).

Other points of interest

The title Jīnchuān yùxiè 金川玉屑 — under which Wáng Zuǒ 王佐 first compiled Liàn Zǐníng’s surviving writings in the Hóngzhì era — is a deliberately Daoist-alchemical figure: the yùxiè (jade-shavings, the precious residue) of a treasure that the Yǒnglè purges had tried to destroy. The title was widely echoed in subsequent compilations of Jiàn-wén-loyalist writings.

Links

• Lian Zining (Wikipedia, Chinese)
• Sìkù tíyào, Kyoto Zinbun digital edition
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng biéjí); §43.7 (Jiànwén loyalists).