Wényì jí 文毅集
Collection of [the Posthumous Title] Wén-yì by 解縉 (撰), 解悅 (編)
About the work
Wényì jí 文毅集 in 16 juǎn — the late-Kāng-xī recension of the surviving writings of Xiè Jìn 解縉 (1369–1415; zì Dàshēn 大紳, posthumous title Wényì 文毅, 1565), the great early-Míng Hànlín scholar, chief mind behind the initial 1404 phase of the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn 永樂大典, jìnshì of Hóngwǔ wùchén (1388) at age 19, eventually imprisoned and killed in 1415 in the wake of his support for the heir-apparent Zhū Gāochì against the second prince Zhū Gāoxù. Native of Jíshuǐ 吉水 (Jíān, Jiāngxī). The transmission has gone through four major recensions: (1) Hóngwǔ-era Báiyún gǎo 白雲稿, Dōngshān jí 東山集, Tàipíng zòushū 太平奏疏 — all largely lost on Xiè’s posthumous proscription; (2) early Tiānshùn (c. 1457) compilation by Huáng Jiàn 黃諫 of Jīnchéng in 30 juǎn, also gradually lost; (3) Jiā-jìng-era 10-juǎn compilation by the great Jiā-jìng-era philosopher Luó Hóngxiān 羅洪先 jointly with Xiè’s grand-nephew Xiè Xiàng 解相; (4) the present 16-juǎn recension by Xiè’s tenth-generation descendant Xiè Yuè 解悅 in Kāngxī wùxū (1718). Huáng Yújì’s Qiānqǐngtáng shūmù additionally lists Sì Luóyǐn jí 似羅隱集 in 1 juǎn and a Xuéshì jí 學士集 in 20 juǎn — both now lost.
Tiyao
Wényì jí in 16 juǎn — by Xiè Jìn of the Míng. Jìn, zì Dàshēn, native of Jíshuǐ. Hóngwǔ wùchén (1388) jìnshì. In early Yǒnglè, Hànlín xuéshì; sent out as Jiāngxī cānyì; reassigned Jiāozhǐ; slandered by the Hànwáng Gāoxù 漢王高煦; thrown into prison and died there. The events are detailed in his biography in Míng shǐ. Jìn’s writings include Báiyún gǎo, Dōngshān jí, Tàipíng zòushū, etc.; after his death they were largely scattered. In early Tiānshùn, Huáng Jiàn of Jīnchéng first compiled his surviving writings into 30 juǎn; later this too gradually faded. In the middle of Jiājìng, his fellow-townsman Luó Hóngxiān together with Jìn’s grand-nephew Xiàng compiled them again in 10 juǎn. Qiānqǐngtáng shūmù also records a Sì Luóyǐn jí in 1 juǎn and a Xuéshì jí in 20 juǎn — neither now seen. The present text in 16 juǎn is the supplementary recompilation by his tenth-generation descendant Yuè in Kāngxī wùxū (1718). Jìn’s talent is fàngyì (free-and-untrammelled); when his brush dropped he could not stop himself; in his time he had the title of cáizǐ. Down to today, what circulates from the back-alleys is much regarding his early-genius prodigy stories — these are mostly base-and-fabricated and not classical. So Lǐ Dōngyáng’s 李東陽 Huáilùtáng shīhuà says of his poetry that no complete manuscript exists, and the genuine and the fake are half-and-half — clearly because much of what survives is later interpolation. Yet among them good lines are still preserved, and these are not less than the great masters’. As for his memorials such as the Dàpáo xīfēngshì 大庖西封事 and the [memorial] clearing the false accusation against Lǐ Shàncháng 李善長, all are clear-and-direct, sincerely-cutting. Huáng Rǔhēng’s 黃汝亨 Kuángyán jìlüè 狂言紀畧 disparages his prose as yìfán, ǒushǐ dāng Jiǎ Chángshā zhí shì núlì (using such expressions, were he to face Jiǎzǐ of Chángshā [Jiǎ Yì 賈誼], it would simply be the language of a slave) — too harsh. Also: in the Dàpáo xīfēngshì there is a passage saying “Your Majesty enjoys looking at yùnfǔ miscellaneous books — the compilations are filthy-and-overgrown, with no literary lustre. If you take pleasure in their convenience for searching, I beg that one or two Confucian flowers be gathered, and according to subject classified by category, polished into a single Classic” — etc. Later when Chéngzǔ compiled the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn, Jìn was in fact the chief editor, and indeed used the method of dividing-by-rhyme and editing-by-category, polishing into a great compendium — and through this every surviving text and dropped fragment depended upon it for transmission to the present, awaiting our Sage Court’s recognition. Even on the principle of his merit lying in the canonical-bibliographic record, his writings should be preserved — one need not weigh them by zhūzhū liǎngliǎng (gram-by-gram, ounce-by-ounce). Compiled and presented respectfully in the fifth month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778). Chief Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Editor: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The Sìkù editors’ assessment is unusually candid and double-edged: they acknowledge the poetic transmission as half-genuine-half-counterfeit (citing Lǐ Dōngyáng’s Huáilùtáng shīhuà — Lǐ Dōngyáng is the author of KR4e0120 catalogued elsewhere in this division); they reject Huáng Rǔhēng’s harsh dismissal of Xiè’s prose; and they make the explicit historiographical argument that even if Xiè’s biéjí were of mediocre literary quality, his canonical merit as the chief editor of the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn would alone justify preservation. The clinching detail is the Dàpáo xīfēngshì memorial’s proposal — already in the early Yǒnglè reign — that the disorderly yùnfǔ compendia should be replaced by a single rhyme-organized, category-arranged Classic — a direct anticipation of the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn’s actual organizational method.
The transmission tells a four-stage story typical of Yǒng-lè-era proscribed authors recovered slowly across the MíngQīng centuries: original Hóngwǔ-era collections destroyed in the 1415 proscription; Tiān-shùn-era 30-juǎn recovery by Huáng Jiàn 黃諫; Jiā-jìng-era 10-juǎn re-recovery by Luó Hóngxiān 羅洪先 (the great Jiājìng Lǐxué philosopher) and Xiè’s grand-nephew Xiàng; the present Kāngxī 1718 16-juǎn recension by Xiè Yuè 解悅 — Xiè’s tenth-generation descendant — surviving as the WYG base text. The Sì Luóyǐn jí and 20-juǎn Xuéshì jí recorded by Huáng Yújì 黃虞稷 are unrecovered.
The 1565 posthumous rehabilitation as Wényì (Cultured-and-Resolute) is the source of the collection’s title.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Major notice of Xiè Jìn.
- David B. Honey, “The Yongle Encyclopedia and the Hongwu Reign,” in Beyond the Bamboo Curtain. (For the institutional history of Xiè’s role in the Dà-diǎn.)
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí) and §47.2 (encyclopaedias / lèi-shū) on the Yǒng-lè dà-diǎn.
- Míng shǐ j. 147 — Xiè Jìn biography.
Other points of interest
The Dàpáo xīfēngshì anticipation of the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn is one of the cleanest documentary cases of an early-Míng administrative memorial directly proposing — and then being implemented as — a major imperial cultural project. The Sìkù editors’ use of this anticipation as an a-fortiori argument for preserving the collection is also a notable historiographical move.