Yěgǔ jí 野古集
Wild-and-Antique Collection by 龔詡 (撰)
About the work
Yěgǔ jí 野古集 in 3 juǎn — author’s own preface (Tiānshùn guǐwèi, 1463) explains the studio name as a self-deprecating composite of yě (rustic) and gǔ (antique-and-upright). The author Gōng Xǔ 龔詡 (1382–1469), zì Dàzhāng 大章, native of Kūnshān 崑山 (Sūzhōu, Jiāngsū), is one of the more striking Jiàn-wén-loyalist personalities of the long-lived survivor type: his father Gōng Chá 詧, jǐshìzhōng 給事中 in the Hóngwǔ era, was banished by yánshì (frank-speech) censure to Wǔkāiwèi 五開衛, and Gōng Xǔ was therefore enrolled in the military registry. Stationed as a guard at the Jīnchuānmén 金川門 of Nánjīng when the Yān prince’s army arrived (the very gate at which the Jiànwén regime fell), Gōng Xǔ on the Yǒnglè usurpation changed his name and surname, fled, and lived out his remaining 67 years selling medicines and teaching pupils in the Sūzhōu / Sōngjiāng area. Twice in the Zhèngtǒng era (the 1430s–40s) he was recommended for xuéguān (Education-Officer) posts at Sōngjiāng and Tàicāng by Zhōu Chén 周忱 (the great Jiāngnán xúnfǔ); twice he refused, telling Censor-in-Chief Wú Nè 吳訥: “Office in itself does no harm to righteousness — but I fear betraying that one weeping at the city-gate.” Died Chénghuà jǐchǒu (1469) at age 88. The collection is the late-Míng (Chóngzhēn yǐhài, 1635) printing by his eighth-generation collateral descendant Gōng Tǐng 龔挺, with Lǐ Jìzhēn 李繼貞 preface — Lǐ pruned 20–30% [of the rougher pieces].
Tiyao
Yěgǔ jí in 3 juǎn — by Gōng Xǔ of the Míng. Xǔ, zì Dàzhāng, native of Kūnshān. His father Chá in the Hóngwǔ era was jǐshìzhōng; banished for yánshì (frank speech) to garrison Wǔkāiwèi. Xǔ was therefore enrolled in the military registry. Later transferred to guard the Jīnchuānmén. After the Yān prince usurped the throne, Xǔ changed his name and surname, fled, and supported himself selling drugs and teaching pupils. In the Zhèngtǒng jǐwèi (1439) the xúnfǔ Zhōu Chén recommended him as a Sōngjiāng xuéguān — he did not take it; recommended again as Tàicāng xuéguān — also did not take it. Once said to the Censor-in-Chief Wú Nè: “Xǔ’s serving in office does no harm to righteousness — but I fear betraying that one tòng (weeping) at the city-gate of that day.” Chénghuà jǐchǒu (1469) he then died, aged 88. Míng shǐ records him appended to the Niú Jǐngxiān 牛景先 biography. The present collection is the printing made by his eighth-generation collateral descendant Tǐng 挺 in Chóngzhēn yǐhài (1635), with a preface by Lǐ Jìzhēn 李繼貞 saying I deleted 20–30%. Xǔ’s poetic mode falls between the Chángqìng jí (Bái Jū-yì-school) and the Jīrǎng jí (Shào Yōng): what is rough-and-base or shallow-and-sloppy, Lǐ Jìzhēn has somewhat purged. Yet his nature-and-feeling is deep-and-sincere, directly expressing his bosom; measured by xuǎnshēng pèisè (selecting-tones, matching-colours) and diāozhāng zhuójù (carving-chapter, polishing-line), he truly cannot contend in craft with [polished] wénshì (literary men); but measured by the import of gāngcháng míngjiào (cardinal bonds, name-teaching), he is rarely out of accord with the fēngrén (poets of the Shī school). Appended at the end: a letter to Zhōu Chén, family-biographies and tomb-inscriptions by Wáng Zhílǐ 王執禮 and Zhāng Dàfù 張大復, posthumous-title-discussions, image-encomia and so forth. There is also a niánpǔ (chronological biography) said to be compiled by Gōng Xǔ’s clan-nephew Fú 紱 — under the entry for Jiànwén 4 (1402) it says “It was rumoured that the Imperial Carriage had departed [in disguise]”; under Zhèngtǒng 7 it says “The old ruler returned to the capital, and the master composed Luòyè yín (Falling-Leaves Chant) to express his meaning.” Now Fú composed the niánpǔ in Chénghuà 13 (1477); the matters of Yáng Yìngnéng 楊應能 [a monk who supposedly aided Jiànwén’s escape] had long been settled and discussed — there should not be such a phrase as “the old ruler returned to the capital.” And the Luòyè yín poem in itself contains no clear pointer; how do we know it is not some other allegorical fěng (satirical reference) and rather is here taken as a piece on Huìdì’s flight and return? It does not show itself so. This niánpǔ — Tǐng obtained the text from his clan-younger-brother Wéizé 維則 in Kāngxī yǐsì (1665); therefore in the original Chóngzhēn yǐhài (1635) printing, the table of contents does not list it together with the tomb-inscriptions and family-biographies. Looking at this single entry, whether it is truly Fú’s composition or not is still in doubt. Yí yǐ chuán yí — leave doubt to transmit doubt — and merely keep them together. Compiled and presented respectfully in the tenth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Chief Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Editor: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The catalog meta gives Gōng Xǔ’s lifedates as 1382–1467; CBDB id 34464 gives 1382–1469. The tíyào says he died Chénghuà jǐchǒu at age 88 — jǐchǒu in Chénghuà is 1469; 1469 − 88 = 1381, so the lifedates 1382–1469 (CBDB and tíyào) are correct, and the catalog meta’s 1467 is a slip (followed here as 1382–1469). The author’s own preface confirms the zhāi (studio) naming logic and dates the preface to Tiānshùn 7 (1463), six years before his death.
Gōng Xǔ is unusual in two ways. First, biographically: he is the only Jiànwén loyalist in the immediate Sūzhōu / Kūnshān cluster who survived the géchú and lived out 67 years as a yímín (left-over subject) on the literary margins. The Sìkù tíyào’s quotation — “Office in itself does no harm to righteousness, but I fear betraying that one weeping at the city-gate” (an oblique reference to his post at the Jīnchuānmén, the very gate through which the Yān army entered Nánjīng) — is one of the most-quoted Jiàn-wén-loyalist self-statements.
Second, literarily: Gōng’s poetic mode is not the orthodox HànWèiTáng model of his contemporaries but the Chángqìng (Bái Jūyì) / Jīrǎng (Shào Yōng) line — colloquial, didactic, philosophical-ballad — which the Sìkù editors candidly call bǐlǐ qiǎnshuài (base-and-shallow). The defence rests on xìngqíng shēnzhì (deep-and-sincere nature-and-feeling) and gāngcháng míngjiào (Confucian moral substance). The Lǐ Jìzhēn preface’s frank admission of pruning 20–30% (i.e., the present text is already a curated subset) is also unusual.
The niánpǔ attached to the WYG recension preserves the Yáng Yìngnéng 楊應能 / Huì-dì-out-and-back legend — the late-Míng / early-Qīng narrative that the Jiànwén emperor escaped Nánjīng disguised as a monk and lived in southwestern China for decades, returning briefly in the Zhèngtǒng era. The Sìkù editors discreetly de-authenticate the niánpǔ, treating it as a Chóng-zhēn-era forgery interpolated into the otherwise-genuine 1635 printing.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Notice of Gōng Xǔ.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí).
- Míng shǐ j. 143 (Liè-zhuàn 31), appended to the Niú Jǐng-xiān 牛景先 biography.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù editors’ kǎozhèng deconstruction of the Yáng Yìngnéng niánpǔ entry — pointing out the historical anachronism (Chénghuà-13 composition of a niánpǔ would not have used jiùjūn huán jīng phrasing for a long-settled question) and the chronological mismatch (the niánpǔ not being in the 1635 table of contents, only added from the Kāng-xī-era manuscript via the descendant Wéizé) — is a textbook example of late-Qiánlóng kǎozhèng method: textual and chronological evidence used to discredit a forged interpolation while still printing it under yí yǐ chuán yí.