Xūzhōu jí 虛舟集
Empty-Boat Collection by 王偁 (撰)
About the work
Xūzhōu jí 虛舟集 in 5 juǎn — the surviving poetic collection of Wáng Chēng 王偁 (c. 1370–1415), zì Mèngyáng 孟揚 (also written 孟敭), hào Xūzhōu 虛舟, native of Yǒngfú 永福 (Fúzhōu, Fújiàn). Wáng was the son of the late-Yuán loyalist Wáng Hàn 王翰 (Cháozhōu zǒngguǎn), who refused to submit to the Míng and committed suicide in early Hóngwǔ; Wáng Chēng, then aged 6, was raised by his mother and (per other sources) by Wú Hǎi 吳海 to whom Wáng Hàn entrusted him. Ruòguàn (capping at 20) tribute-recommended; declined office to nurse his mother. After Yǒnglè’s accession (1402) summoned to Nánjīng and appointed Guóshǐyuàn jiǎntǎo 國史院檢討; vice-chief-editor (fù zǒngcái 副總裁) of the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn. Implicated as an associate of Xiè Jìn 解縉 (解縉, catalogued in this division as KR4e0083); imprisoned and died in prison c. 1415. The catalog meta’s dates: 12th cent is a slip — Wáng Chēng is the early-15th-cent. Yǒng-lè-era figure, not a Sòng homonym. The catalog’s editions: WYG covers all 5 juǎn of poetry. The contents are the various poetic forms (4-character gǔ, 5-character gǔ, 7-character gǔ, 5-character lǜ and páilǜ, 7-character lǜ, etc.); the Wáng Rǔyù 王汝玉 preface (early Yǒnglè) and two Xiè Jìn prefaces (one for Xūzhōu jí, one for qí wénjí — i.e. for the now-lost prose collection) survive at the head; a Sāng Yì 桑懌 preface from Hóngzhì 6 (1493) attests the Yuánzhōu shǒu Wáng Shìyīng 王世英 reprint of Xūzhōu jí, by which date the prose-collection had already been lost.
Tiyao
Xūzhōu jí in 5 juǎn — by Wáng Chēng of the Míng. Chēng, zì Mèngyáng, native of Yǒngfú; son of [Wáng] Hàn 翰, Cháozhōu zǒngguǎn 潮州總管 of the Yuán. Hàn at the beginning of the Míng resisted [the new dynasty] and died for [his] integrity. Chēng was just 6 years old; his mother taught him to read books. At capping-age (ruòguàn, c. 20), tribute-recommended; begged to return to nourish his mother. When Chéngzǔ acceded, [Chēng] was summoned to the capital, appointed Guóshǐyuàn jiǎntǎo, made vice chief-editor of the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn. Implicated in Xiè Jìn’s faction, thrown into prison and died there. [The work consists] of poetry of the various forms in 5 juǎn. At the head is Wáng Rǔyù’s preface; also two prefaces by Xiè Jìn, one titled Xūzhōu jí, the other titled “his prose-collection” (qí wénjí). A Hóngzhì 6 (1493) preface by Sāng Yì is for the Yuánzhōu shǒu Wáng Shìyīng’s reprint of Xūzhōu jí — it does not say there is also a separate prose-collection. Clearly by then [the prose-collection] had already been lost in transmission. At the end of the collection are appended the Xùshūpíng 續書評 and a zìshù lěi 自述誄. Chēng was a friend of Xiè Jìn; their talent and learning were roughly similar, so Jìn extolled him highly. They both ended up by slander and died. Yet Jìn’s poetry is somewhat piāozhí (sharp-direct); whereas Chēng’s tiánhé ānyǎ (peaceful-and-elegant) — perhaps superior. The zìshù (self-statement) says: “I have studied the various Sages, hunted the hundred schools, exhausted the dark and the bright; whenever I have ascended a height to mourn antiquity, kǎirán 慨然 [moved] I have brought forth my sorrow-and-grandeur, joy-and-pleasure — all reposed in writing.” In poetry his meaning-design is also far from careless. So in the collection the Gǎnyù 感寓 pieces follow the model of Shíyí 拾遺 [Chén Zǐáng], the several Yǒngshǐ 詠史 follow jìshì (Yán Yánzhī? — jìshì = Záoyú jì room?), and the Jiāng jìn jiǔ 將進酒 and Xínglùnán 行路難 also enter and leave the Tàibái 太白 (Lǐ Bái) gēxíng. Although not entirely conforming to the ancients, one scale, half a claw showing through the cloud-fringe is more than the Yīguān Yōu Mèng (the costumed mock-actor [Yōu Mèng]). Compiled and presented respectfully in the eighth month of Qiánlóng 44 (1779). Chief Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Editor: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The catalog meta’s dates: 12th cent is a homonym confusion: there is a Sòng historian Wáng Chēng (12th cent.); the present author is the early-Míng Yǒng-lè-era Hànlín scholar (c. 1370–1415). The death-date 1415 is fixed by Wáng’s death in the Xiè Jìn proscription; the birth-date is calculable from the tíyào’s Hàn died early in Míng, Chēng was just 6 (Hóngwǔ 11 = 1378 is the conventional date for Wáng Hàn’s suicide, giving Chēng’s birth as 1372 or 1373; the existing person note’s 1370 is within range).
The collection is one of the more direct documentary witnesses to the Xiè Jìn faction that perished in the 1407–1415 wave: Wáng Chēng was in Xiè Jìn’s personal-and-literary circle (the two Xiè Jìn prefaces survive at the head of the collection) and as vice chief-editor of the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn he was operationally Xiè’s deputy. The Sìkù editors’ literary judgement — Wáng’s tiánhé ānyǎ poetry is perhaps superior to Xiè Jìn’s piāozhí (cf. KR4e0083) — is candid and notable.
The transmission shows the same partial-recovery pattern as KR4e0083: a separate prose-collection (wénjí) attested by Xiè Jìn’s preface was already lost by Hóngzhì 6 (1493), only 78 years after Wáng’s death, leaving only the present poetic collection. The 1493 Yuánzhōu reprint by Wáng Shìyīng is the proximate ancestor of the WYG text.
The zìshù lěi (self-eulogy) appended at the end is one of the more striking zìzhuàn (self-narrating) pieces in the early-Míng biéjí corpus.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Brief notice of Wáng Chēng under the Xiè Jìn case.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí).
- Míng shǐ j. 286 (Wén-yuàn 2) — Wáng Chēng appended.
Other points of interest
The collection’s three surviving Sòng-Yuán-style prefaces (one Wáng Rǔyù, two Xiè Jìn) constitute one of the better-preserved early-Yǒng-lè xùbá (preface-postface) clusters: the second Xiè Jìn preface (for the now-lost prose-collection) is one of the few surviving witnesses to the lost Wáng Mèngyáng wénjí.