Chúráo jí 芻蕘集
Collection of the Grass-Cutter and Wood-Gatherer by 周是修 (撰)
About the work
Chúráo jí 芻蕘集 in 6 juǎn (3 juǎn of poetry, 3 juǎn of fù and miscellaneous prose) is the surviving work of Zhōu Shìxiū 周是修 (1354–1402; original name Dé 德, went by his zì Shìxiū), native of Tàihé 泰和 (Jíān, Jiāngxī). Zhōu rose by míngjīng recommendation in the Hóngwǔ era to Huòqiū xùndǎo 霍邱訓導, then Zhōufǔ jìshàn 周王府紀善 (where his Xiūjǐ shízhēn 修己十箴 and Bǎoguó zhíyán 保國直言 were composed in repeated remonstrance against the unruly Zhōu prince), then was alone exempt from the Zhōu prince’s downfall, transferred Héngfǔ jìshàn 衡王府紀善, then entered Hànlín in attendance and on the editorial staff. In Jiànwén 4 (1402), as the Yān army closed on Nánjīng, Zhōu, with Yáng Róng 楊榮 (楊榮), Yáng Shìqí 楊士奇 (楊士奇), Hú Jìng 胡靖, and Jīn Yòuzī 金幼孜 (金幼孜), made a sworn pact to die together; when the Yān troops entered, the others raced to acclaim the new ruler, and Zhōu alone went up the Zūnjīnggé 尊經閣 and hanged himself. Posthumously canonized Zhōngjié 忠節 in Qiánlóng bǐngshēn (1776). The collection survives through the printing made by Zhōu’s grandson Zhōu Yìngáo 周應鰲**.
Tiyao
Chúráo jí in 6 juǎn — by Zhōu Shìxiū of the Míng. Shìxiū’s original name was Dé; he went by his zì; native of Tàihé. In Hóngwǔ raised in the míngjīng and appointed Huòqiū xùndǎo; transferred Zhōuwángfǔ jìshàn. The prince was much in the wrong; Shìxiū often restrained him with ritual. In the present collection the Xiūjǐ shízhēn (Ten Admonitions on Self-Cultivation) and the two pieces of Bǎoguó zhíyán (Plain Words on Protecting the Country) were both composed at this time. After the Zhōu prince’s downfall, his establishment officials were all incriminated; Shìxiū alone, for his ability to remonstrate, was exempted, and was reassigned Héngfǔ jìshàn; then entered Hànlín in attendance and joined the [Tàizǔ shílù] editorial project. In Jiànwén 4 (1402), when the Yān prince’s troops were besieging the capital, Shìxiū, together with Yáng Róng, Yáng Shìqí, Hú Jìng, Jīn Yòuzī and others, made a sworn pact to die together for the country in this calamity. The others outwardly assented. When the Yān troops entered, Shìqí and the others vied to acclaim [the new ruler]; Shìxiū alone went to the Zūnjīnggé and hanged himself. In Qiánlóng bǐngshēn (1776), the imperial gift of the posthumous title Zhōngjié. The events are detailed in his biography in Míng shǐ. Later Xiè Jìn 解縉 wrote his zhìmíng (epitaph) but said only that he returned to the capital as jìshàn and joined the Hànlín editorial project — completely passing over the matter of his martyrdom. Yáng Shìqí wrote his zhuàn (biography) and there said that he hanged himself at the Yìngtiān fǔxué. Xiè Jìn’s epitaph is from Yǒnglè 1 (1403); Yáng Shìqí’s biography is from Xuāndé 4 (1429). The biography also says that Shìxiū repeatedly discussed great matters of state, even going so far as to denounce by name the powerful figures who were destroying the country; the powerful were enraged and the crowd jointly suppressed him — etc. — clearly intending to make clear that Shìxiū was not of the Qí [Tài]–Huáng [Zǐchéng] faction, in order to avoid the taboo of the times. But at the moment of géchú (the dynastic-replacement / Yǒnglè usurpation), the test of qǔ yì chéng rén (taking righteousness, completing humanity) was simply whether one died at the moment of crisis, not whether one’s policy was the same. Even if [Zhōu] had been of [Qí and Huáng’s] faction, this would not have impaired his loyalty; one cannot use this to disparage Shìxiū. The collection is the printing made by his grandson Yìngáo 應鰲: 3 juǎn of poetry, 3 juǎn of fù and miscellaneous prose. Not only is the awe-inspiring moral integrity overflowing in the ink and paper — but considered as literature alone, it likewise does not shame the [great] authors. Appended at the end are Xiè Jìn’s epitaph and Yáng Shìqí’s biography — these may be called the báimáo zhī jiè (white-grass cushion: a respectful framing). They are kept together [with the collection] in order further to make Shìxiū manifest. Compiled and presented respectfully in the sixth month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778). Chief Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Editor: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Zhōu Shìxiū is a third member of the Jiànwén loyalist circle catalogued here together with Chéng Tōng (KR4e0075) and Wáng Yuáncǎi (KR4e0076). The CBDB id 34449 (1354–1402) gives his birth as 1354, consistent with a Hóngwǔ-era míngjīng recommendation career.
The Sìkù tíyào notes a striking discrepancy in the early documentary record: Xiè Jìn’s 1403 epitaph (composed under Yǒnglè) suppresses Zhōu’s martyrdom entirely; Yáng Shìqí’s 1429 biography records the suicide but at Yìngtiān fǔxué (rather than the Zūnjīnggé) and goes out of its way to dissociate Zhōu from the Qí Tài 齊泰 / Huáng Zǐchéng 黃子澄 faction. The Sìkù editors’ counter-argument — at the moment of dynastic replacement, the only test is whether one died at the moment of crisis, not whether one’s policy was the same — is a clear formulation of late-Qiánlóng-era Sìkù-historiographical principle on Jiànwén loyalty.
The pact-of-mutual-death anecdote is one of the most-quoted texts in early-Míng political history: Zhōu Shìxiū, Yáng Róng, Yáng Shìqí, Hú Jìng 胡靖 (= Hú Guǎng 胡廣, zì Guāngdà), and Jīn Yòuzī swore together to die for the Jiànwén court, but only Zhōu carried it out; Yáng Róng, Yáng Shìqí, Hú Guǎng and Jīn Yòuzī all became Yǒng-lè-era cabinet ministers. The Sìkù tíyào’s clean documentation of the pact and its asymmetric outcome makes this collection a primary witness to the moral catastrophe of the Jiànwén transition for the early-Míng literary establishment.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Notice of Zhōu Shì-xiū among Jiàn-wén loyalists.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí).
- Míng shǐ j. 143 (Liè-zhuàn 31).
Other points of interest
The pact of mutual death recorded by Yáng Shìqí in his 1429 biography of Zhōu is one of the cleanest documentary witnesses to the moral asymmetry of the Jiànwén → Yǒnglè transition: of the five who swore the pact, only Zhōu kept it. The Sìkù editors’ decision to print Xiè Jìn’s evasive 1403 epitaph alongside Yáng Shìqí’s 1429 biography — and to gloss the discrepancy in the tíyào — is itself a piece of kǎozhèng historiography.