Bóān jí 泊菴集
Mooring-Hut Collection by 梁潛 (撰)
About the work
Bóān jí 泊菴集 in 16 juǎn — the surviving prose collection of Liáng Qián 梁潛 (1356–1418), zì Yòngzhī 用之, native of Tàihé 泰和 (Jíān, Jiāngxī). Hóngwǔ 29 bǐngzǐ (1396) jǔrén; appointed Cāngxī xùndǎo 蒼溪訓導 → Sìhuì, Yángjiāng, Yángchūn magistracies; in early Yǒnglè summoned to compile the Tàizǔ shílù; rose by stages to yòu Chūnfáng yòu zànshàn 右春坊右贊善; replaced Lǐbù shàngshū Zhèng Cì 鄭賜 as chief editor of the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn; promoted shìdú 侍讀. In Yǒnglè 15 (1417), during the northern campaign, Rénzōng as regent (jiānguó) — Liáng was implicated in his release of the Chén qiānhù (a thousand-household commander surnamed Chén), arrested and put to death (1418). The Sìkù editors note a critical transmission detail recovered from Xiāo Zī’s 蕭鎡 Shàngyuē jūshì jí and Chén Xún’s 陳循 epitaph: when Liáng was arrested and his property confiscated, his lifetime poems and prose were valued in book-dealer-cash and entered into government property; Chén Xún sent agents at double the price to redeem them; the present printing descends from these redeemed materials. The head Hú Yǎn 胡儼 (胡儼) preface (which says the editor was Liáng’s son Mù 楘) discreetly does not record the death-by-imperial-order. The collection has prose only; the poetic collection (per Tiānqīng’s Kāngxī xīnyǒu / 1681 supplementary printing introduction) was yì wénzhǒng (buried in a literary tomb) and no longer extant.
Tiyao
Bóān jí in 16 juǎn — by Liáng Qián of the Míng. Qián, zì Yòngzhī, native of Tàihé. Hóngwǔ bǐngzǐ (1396) jǔrén; appointed Cāngxī xùndǎo; passed through the magistracies of Sìhuì, Yángjiāng, Yángchūn. In early Yǒnglè summoned to compile the Tàizǔ shílù; promoted by stages to yòu Chūnfáng yòu zànshàn. When the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn was being compiled, [Liáng] replaced Lǐbù shàngshū Zhèng Cì as zǒngcái (chief editor); promoted shìdú. In Yǒnglè 15 (1417) the northern campaign — Rénzōng as regent — by reason of releasing Chén qiānhù, [Liáng was] implicated and put to death. The events are appended in Míng shǐ in the Zōu Jì 鄒濟 biography. The collection has at the head two prefaces, by Wáng Zhí 王直 and Hú Yǎn. Hú’s preface says the editor was Qián’s son Mù 楘. Examining Xiāo Zī’s Shàngyuē jūshì jí: Chén Xún’s epitaph says: “Mr. Liáng Qián, by reason of office-irregularity, was arrested and his property registered; the poetry and prose Liáng had ordinarily made were all valued in book-dealer-cash and entered into government [property]. Xún sent people to seek them out, doubled the price, and redeemed them. Now what is engraved on woodblocks for transmission is what Xún redeemed” — etc. Then his manuscript was self-edited by Qián, and through Xún transmitted to the world. Yǎn’s preface does not record this matter, only mentioning his prose-and-circumstance — clearly tabooing his death-by-imperial-decree. Qián’s prose-style is qīngjùn (clear-and-distinguished) and combines zònghéng hàohàn (vertical-and-horizontal vast) force; in the early Míng he can stand as a school of his own. So Zhèng Yuàn’s 鄭瑗 Jǐngguān suǒyán 井觀瑣言 says of him fēngshàn wěiqū (luxuriant-and-winding), an author of his time. Yáng Shìqí 楊士奇 wrote Qián’s epitaph saying his prose ranges over Sīmǎ Qiān, Hán Yù, Sū Shì, and now-and-then takes Zhuāng[-zǐ] and Liè[-zǐ] for marvel-effects, working hard to remove old phrases and bring forth new meaning; his ancient-style poetry’s high places approach Jìn and Sòng. The present text has prose but no poetry; at the end is a Kāngxī xīnyǒu (1681) 续刻家集小引 (introduction to the supplementary engraving of the family collection) by Qián’s descendant Tiānqīng 天清, saying “the Bóān gōng’s poetry-collection has already been buried in a literary-tomb and no longer exists in the world” — so the old text has long been lost. 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
Liáng Qián is the third Yǒnglè dàdiǎn chief-editor catalogued in this division (with KR4e0083 Xiè Jìn as the principal editor and KR4e0084 Wáng Chēng as vice-editor); he replaced Zhèng Cì in the editorial chair after Xiè Jìn’s 1407 fall, and was himself put to death in 1418 over the Chén qiānhù affair during the Yǒnglè 15 northern campaign. Three of the four catalogued Yǒnglè dàdiǎn editors (Xiè Jìn 1415, Wáng Chēng c. 1415, Liáng Qián 1418) died at imperial command in the same five-year window — the editorial leadership of the great compilation was almost completely destroyed by Yǒng-lè-era court politics.
The Chén Xún 陳循 redemption story (preserved in Xiāo Zī’s Shàngyuē jūshì jí) is one of the more striking documentary witnesses to early-Míng biéjí recovery practice: a fellow-Tàihé-native and Yǒng-lè-era cabinet minister buying back Liáng’s confiscated literary remains at double price from the government book-market. Without this intervention the WYG recension would not exist.
CBDB id 34478 (1356–1418) confirms the catalog meta dates. The Hú Yǎn preface, evasive on the death-by-imperial-decree, is a documented case of the same Yǒng-lè-era taboo that affected the KR4e0083 Xiè Jìn transmission.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Notice of Liáng Qián.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí) and §47.2 (Yǒng-lè dà-diǎn).
- Míng shǐ (Liáng Qián appended to Zōu Jì 鄒濟).
Other points of interest
The combined documentation of the Chén Xún redemption (per Xiāo Zī’s epitaph) and the Hú Yǎn preface’s discreet silence on the death-by-imperial-decree is one of the cleaner documentary cases of the Yǒng-lè-era literary-political-taboo system as it operated in real time on the lifecycle of a major biéjí.