Zhēnbái yígǎo 貞白遺稿
Surviving Manuscripts of Zhēnbái by 程通 (撰), 程長 (輯)
About the work
Zhēnbái yígǎo 貞白遺稿 in 10 juǎn, with the 2-juǎn appendix Xiǎnzhōng lù 顯忠錄, is the recovered remnant of the works of Chéng Tōng 程通 (1364–1402), zì Yànhēng 彥亨, hào (and studio name) Zhēnbái 貞白, native of Jìxī 績溪 (Huīzhōu, Ānhuī). Chéng entered the Tàixué by gòng in Hóngwǔ 18 (1385), placed first in the Hóngwǔ 23 (1390) yìngtiān xiāngshì with a cè (essay-question) on enfeoffment policy, and was appointed Liáofǔ jìshàn 遼府紀善, then promoted zuǒ zhǎngshǐ 左長史 in the Liáo princely establishment. After the Yānwáng (Zhū Dì) revolt opened the Jìngnán civil war (1399), Chéng submitted a several-thousand-character memorial on defensive grand strategy. Following Yǒnglè’s accession (1402), Chéng was denounced by Jǐnyīwèi dūdū Jì Gāng 紀綱, sent in chains to Nánjīng, and executed together with his two sons. His original collected works (more than 100 juǎn) were destroyed by official seizure. A decade later the Liáo prince delivered Chéng’s portrait and surviving drafts to Chéng’s younger brother (Yàndí 彥廸); the recovered material was edited in the Jiājìng era by Chéng’s grand-nephew Chéng Cháng 程長 in 6 juǎn, with 4 juǎn of contemporary zèngyán (presentation pieces) and xíngzhuàng — total 10 juǎn — and supplemented in the Tiānqǐ era by the descendant Chéng Shū 樞 with the 2-juǎn Xiǎnzhōng lù of memorial-shrine and posthumous-canonization documents.
Tiyao
Zhēnbái yígǎo in 10 juǎn, with Xiǎnzhōng lù in 2 juǎn appended — by Chéng Tōng of the Míng. Tōng, zì Yànhēng, Zhēnbái being his studio name, native of Jìxī. Hóngwǔ yǐchǒu (1385) tribute-entered the Tàixué; gēngwǔ (1390) succeeded in the Yìngtiān xiāngshì. At the time the [court] was sending the various princes out to lead troops, and accordingly tested the gòngshì (tribute candidates) at court with a cè on the policy of enfeoffment. Tōng’s response met with imperial approval; he was elevated to first place and appointed Liáofǔ jìshàn, then promoted to zuǒ zhǎngshǐ. After the Yānwáng rebellion, Tōng submitted a memorial of several thousand words discussing the grand strategy of war and defense. In early Yǒnglè, the Jǐnyīwèi dūdū Jì Gāng 紀綱 exposed the affair; an edict put Tōng in chains and brought him to the capital, where with his two sons he was condemned to death. The events are detailed in his biography in Míng shǐ. Of his more than one hundred juǎn of writings, all were destroyed by the authorities. Ten years later, his younger brother went to Jīngzhōu; the Liáo wáng gave him a portrait of Tōng and the surviving drafts. In the middle of the Jiājìng era, when the proscription was gradually relaxed, his grand-nephew Cháng and others searched out the lost pieces and gathered them into 6 juǎn, with the Liáo prince’s [pieces] together with the contemporaries’ presentation-words, xíngzhuàng, brief biographies and so forth made into a separate 4 juǎn. In the middle of the Tiānqǐ era, his descendants Shū and his son Yīngjiē further compiled the texts of front-and-back temple-foundings and posthumous-honour requests into the 2 juǎn Xiǎnzhōng lù, appended at the end — this is the present recension. Originally Tōng, on account of his grandfather having long served on garrison duty, chénqíng (memorialized) begging that he be allowed to return home; people praised his filial piety. When in the Jiànwén era he met the national disaster and submitted fángyù fēngshì (defence sealed-memorials), and was finally killed for it, people praised his loyalty. Today the chénqíng memorial is fully present, but the sealed memorials [on defence] have only titles and no text — clearly because in the Jiājìng printing of the collection there was still something to be tabooed and they did not dare to preserve them. The two cè on enfeoffment are the basis on which he was recognized by Tàizǔ, holding sound argument; his other poetry and prose are also pure-and-simple and rule-following. Although what survives is not much, his great moral integrity (dàjié) is awe-inspiring, not to be discussed merely on literary grounds — fittingly transmitted alongside the collections of Fāng [Xiàorú] 方[孝孺] and Liàn [Zǐníng] 練[子寧] without decay. Compiled and presented respectfully in the tenth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Chief Compilers: Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. General Editor: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
Chéng Tōng was one of the principal Jiàn-wén-era loyalists executed in the immediate aftermath of the Yǒnglè usurpation. The Sìkù editors place him in the same moral company as Fāng Xiàorú 方孝孺 and Liàn Zǐníng 練子寧 — the canonical Jiànwén martyrs. The yuánxù by Hú Sōng 胡松 (Jiājìng era) names his Jiàn-wén-era circle: Fāng Xiàorú 方孝孺, Zhōu Shìxiū 周是修 (also catalogued in this division as KR4e0077), Huáng Guān 黃觀, Zhuó Jìng 卓敬 — a who’s-who of the Jiànwén loyalist faction.
The transmission story is one of the more striking in early-Míng literary history: Chéng’s entire 100+ juǎn corpus was destroyed by official seizure when his family was bùlù (registered for proscription); only after the Yǒnglè proscription relaxed could the surviving Liáo-prince-rescued drafts be reassembled. The Jiājìng compilation by Chéng Cháng 程長 (Chéng Tōng’s cóngsūn / collateral grand-nephew, surnamed in the catalog as 輯) is therefore the foundation of the received text. Even so, the Sìkù editors note that the fángyù fēngshì (defence sealed-memorials) — Chéng’s most politically sensitive Jiàn-wén-era documents — have only titles preserved and no body text, because in the Jiājìng printing of the collection there was still something to be tabooed and they did not dare to preserve them. This is a documentary witness to the long shadow of Yǒng-lè-era proscription on Jiànwén literary recovery.
Persons attested in the yuánxù
The Jiājìng yuánxù by Hú Sōng 胡松 names Chéng Tōng’s Jiàn-wén-era circle: Fāng Xiàorú 方孝孺, Zhōu Shìxiū 周是修 (KR4e0077), Huáng Guān 黃觀, Zhuó Jìng 卓敬.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Brief notice of Chéng Tōng among Jiàn-wén loyalists.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí).
- Míng shǐ 明史 j. 143 (Liè-zhuàn 31) — biography of Chéng Tōng among the Jiàn-wén martyrs.
Other points of interest
The textual lacuna for the fángyù fēngshì (titles only, no body) is one of the cleanest documentary cases of the Yǒng-lè-era proscription’s lasting effect on early-Míng literary transmission, persisting more than a century after the events.
Links
- Sìkù tíyào, Kyoto Zinbun digital edition
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng biéjí).