Jìngxué wénjí 靜學文集
Literary Collection of [the Studio of] Quiescent Learning by 王原采 (撰)
About the work
Jìngxué wénjí 靜學文集 in 1 juǎn (with 1-juǎn běnzhuàn 本傳 appendix), the surviving fragment of the literary works of Wáng Yuáncǎi 王原采 (also written 元采; 1372–1402), better known by his zì Shūyīng 叔英, hào Jìngxué 靜學, native of Huángyán 黃巖 (Táizhōu, Zhèjiāng). Wáng was raised by his mother in the Chén household after his father’s death (hence sometimes recorded as Chén Yuáncǎi 陳元彩) and lived at Tínglǐng 亭嶺 (modern Tàipíng xiàn). In Hóngwǔ he was summoned alongside Yáng Dàzhōng 楊大中, Yè Jiàntài 葉見泰, Fāng Xiàorú 方孝孺, and Lín Yòu 林佑; he declined and returned home, only later taking up the appointments Xiānjū xùndǎo 僊居訓導 → Déān jiàoshòu 德安教授 → Hànyáng zhīxiàn 漢陽知縣 → (Jiànwén era) Hànlín xiūzhuàn 翰林修撰. When the Yān army crossed the Huái, Wáng was sent to recruit troops; reaching Guǎngdé and learning that Qí Tài 齊泰 had likewise fled defeated, he composed his juémìng cí 絶命詞 (testament-poem) and hanged himself at the Yuánmiàoguàn 元妙觀. His wife Jīn 金 was killed in prison; his two daughters drowned themselves in a well. The Qiánlóng court canonized him posthumously as Zhōngjié 忠節 in Qiánlóng 41 (1776). The collection’s 30-piece original is reduced in the WYG to xù 序 and jì 記 only — the famous Zīzhì bācè 資治八策 (Eight Essentials of Statecraft) and the letter to Fāng Xiàorú on the impracticability of jǐngtián (well-field) restoration are no longer present.
Tiyao
Jìngxué wénjí in 1 juǎn — by Wáng Shūyīng 王叔英 of the Míng. Shūyīng’s name was Yuáncǎi 原采; he went by his zì; native of Huángyán. In Hóngwǔ he was summoned together with Yáng Dàzhōng 楊大中, Yè Jiàntài 葉見泰, Fāng Xiàorú 方孝孺, and Lín Yòu 林佑; Shūyīng firmly declined and returned home. Later by recommendation he became Xiānjū xùndǎo, then Déān jiàoshòu, then Hànyáng zhīxiàn. In the Jiànwén era he was summoned as Hànlín xiūzhuàn. When the Yān troops reached the Huái, by edict he raised soldiers and reached Guǎngdé, where he met Qí Tài fleeing in defeat. Knowing the cause was lost, he wrote his juémìng cí and hanged himself at the Yuánmiàoguàn. Investigators came to his house and his wife Jīn and two daughters likewise died as martyrs. The events are detailed in his biography in Míng shǐ. In Qiánlóng 41 (1776) he received the posthumous title Zhōngjié. [Míng]-shǐ says that in the Jiànwén court Shūyīng once submitted Zīzhì bācè (Eight Essentials of Statecraft); also that when Fāng Xiàorú wished to put the jǐngtián (well-field) system into practice, Shūyīng wrote to him saying: “There are matters that worked in antiquity and may also work today — the Xià calendar, the Zhōu cap-and-crown are of this kind. There are matters that worked in antiquity but cannot work today — the well-field and the enfeoffment systems are of this kind. What can be done, when done, is easy for people to follow and the people receive its benefit; what is hard to do, when done, is hard for people to follow and the people receive its harm…” Now the present collection of 30 pieces preserves only xù and jì — the Eight Essentials and the letter to [Fāng] Xiàorú are alike absent. According to Xú Jìngfú’s 徐敬孚 bá (postface): Yáng Shìqí 楊士奇 once wished to compile Shūyīng’s writings but could find no complete copy and lamented this deeply. In the Chénghuà era one Xiè Shìxiū 謝世修 wished to fund a printing in order to spread it widely — this is therefore a search-and-mend re-editing, not the original. The Lín Yòu 林佑 xù at the head of the juǎn, dated to the Hóngwǔ era, is a later interpolation, not composed for this recension. Shūyīng once said himself: “The nobility of Zhào Mèng I do not envy; the wealth of Táo Zhū I do not desire. To make my prose like that of the sages — that is my heart.” Examining the present collection, it generally takes Hán Yù 韓愈 (Chānglí 昌黎) as model, somewhat lacking spontaneity but simple and rule-bound, not careless or unedited. Although what survives is little, it is enough to glimpse his lifetime. The biography by Huáng Wǎn 黃綰 prefacing the collection says of him: “His prose has root-foundation; he knew the times and reached situations — a Confucian for application to the world.” This is no exaggeration. Compiled and presented respectfully in the second month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Chief Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Editor: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Wáng Yuáncǎi (Shūyīng) is one of the canonical Jiàn-wén-era martyrs alongside Fāng Xiàorú, Liàn Zǐníng, Huáng Guān, Zhōu Shìxiū (KR4e0077), and Chéng Tōng (KR4e0075). The CBDB records his lifedates as 1372–1402 (cbdbId 34448) — the catalog meta gives only “d. 1402”, followed here. Birth date 1372 (CBDB) gives him a 30-year life ending in self-killing at Guǎngdé in the third lunar month of Jiànwén 4 (1402).
The textual situation is acute: the WYG recension preserves only 30 pieces, all xù and jì; the politically sensitive material — the Zīzhì bācè memorial and the famous letter to Fāng Xiàorú on the impracticability of jǐngtián (well-field) — is missing. The běnzhuàn appended after the tíyào, however, fully transmits the substance of the Bācè (eight headings: wù xuéwèn, jǐn hàowù, biàn xiézhèng, nà jiànzhèng, shěn cáifǒu, shèn xíngshǎng, míng lìhài, dìng fǎzhì) and quotes at length from the letter to Fāng on enfeoffment-and-well-field, so the substantive content survives in the wrapper material. The běnzhuàn also preserves the moving anecdote of Wáng’s deference to Yáng Shìqí (whom Wáng had himself recommended for Hànyáng fǔxué xùndǎo in his earlier zhīxiàn tenure) and Yáng’s lifelong attempts to find and educate Wáng’s exiled son.
The Wáng / Fāng Xiàorú correspondence on jǐngtián — Wáng arguing that what worked in antiquity may not work today — is one of the canonical late-classical texts on the limits of antiquity-emulation in statecraft.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Notice of Wáng Shū-yīng among Jiàn-wén loyalists.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí).
- Míng shǐ j. 143 (Liè-zhuàn 31) — Wáng Shū-yīng biography among the Jiàn-wén martyrs.
Other points of interest
The transmission of the Zīzhì bācè and the jǐngtián letter only through the běnzhuàn (biography appendix), with the original memorial and letter no longer in the collection proper, is an unusual case where the wrapper has displaced the wrapped — the biography preserves what the original collection failed to.