Wénmǐn jí 文敏集
Collection of [the Posthumous Title] Wén-mǐn by 楊榮 (撰)
About the work
Yáng Wénmǐn jí 楊文敏集 in 25 juǎn — the cabinet-corpus of Yáng Róng 楊榮 (1370–1440), zì Miǎnrén 勉仁, native of Jiànān 建安 (Jiànníng, Fújiàn), posthumous title Wénmǐn 文敏. Yáng Róng is the second of the Sān Yáng (Three Yangs: Yáng Shìqí (KR4e0090), Yáng Róng, Yáng Pǔ); served the four reigns Tàizōng (Yǒnglè), Rénzōng (Hóngxī), Xuānzōng (Xuāndé), Yīngzōng (early Zhèngtǒng); accompanied Chéngzǔ on the northern campaigns (his Hòu Běizhēng jì 後北征記 is separately catalogued in KR2c). The Sìkù tíyào notes that he was particularly trusted for dá zhèngwù shàn yìngbiàn (mastering affairs of state, skilled at responding to changes); the cabinet drafted zhìgào and bēibǎn often passed through his hand. The collection’s literary register is yōngróng píngyì (leisurely-and-mild), xiāo qí wéi rén (resembling his person); the Sìkù editors place him alongside Yáng Shìqí as joint mainstay of one age’s literary authority (zhǔ yī dài zhī wénbǐng 主一代之文柄). The famous defence — that the Táigé tǐ school’s later degeneration into fūkuò rǒngcháng (surface-and-shallow, redundant-and-long) is no more the fault of Yáng Shìqí and Yáng Róng than the Hòuqīzǐ later degeneration was the fault of Hé [Jǐngmíng] / Lǐ [Mèngyáng] — is the standard Sìkù line.
Tiyao
Yáng Wénmǐn jí in 25 juǎn — by Yáng Róng of the Míng. Róng has the Hòu Běizhēng jì, already recorded. Róng met the day of the Míng’s full-flourishing; passed through four reigns; ēnlǐ (favour-and-rite) start-and-end without interruption — a Confucian’s encounter that may be called the height of glory. So what comes forth as prose has fully the air of fùguì fúzé (riches-and-honour, blessing-and-favour). His yìngzhì (responding-to-imperial-command) compositions are fēngfēng yǎyīn (full and elegant tonality); other prose and poetry are likewise yōngróng píngyì (leisurely-and-mild), in the likeness of his person. Although without deep-and-far thought or vertical-and-horizontal galloping talent, sufficient to zhènyào yī shì (shake-illuminate one age) — and wēiyí yǒu dù (yielding-and-meandering with measure), chúnshí wú cī (pure-and-substantial without flaw): this is what makes táigé literature differ from the shānlín (mountain-forest) kūgǎo (parched) writing. With Yáng Shìqí jointly holding one age’s literary authority — there is reason. After holding the country [in the cabinet] for long, the late juniors successively imitated — the city’s high coiffure spread to four directions for a foot, etc. — the diluted waves and ripples gradually flowed into surface-and-shallow, redundant-and-long, qiān piān yī lǜ (a thousand pieces all one rhythm). When matter is exhausted it transforms — and so Hé [Jǐngmíng] and Lǐ [Mèngyáng] rose abruptly, championing the doctrine of fùgǔ (returning to antiquity); and Shìqí, Róng and the others then became the yìlín (literary establishment)‘s scapegoat. Reasoned with calm heart: when the force of any prose is sufficient to zhuǎnyí yī shì (turn-shift one age), at its beginning it must be able to make itself one school; in its long course, none has not produced abuses. Not only the Dōnglǐ school — even the Front and Back Seven Masters, who is not also so? One cannot use the predecessors’ shèng to huíhù (turn-and-cover) the successors’ shuāi; nor can one use the successors’ shuāi to yǎnmò (cover-and-bury) the predecessors’ shèng. Where is the room to use the eddy-tail’s loss to summarily condemn Yáng Shìqí and Yáng Róng? 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 tíyào is one of the cleaner statements of the late-Qiánlóng historiographic principle on literary-school responsibility: each school should be evaluated for its founder’s accomplishment, not penalized for the diluted later-generation degeneration; the principle applies symmetrically to both the Táigé tǐ (whose founders were Yáng Shìqí and Yáng Róng) and the Hòuqīzǐ fùgǔ movement (whose founders were Lǐ Mèngyáng and Hé Jǐngmíng). The clinching couplet jiāngyīn — chéngzhōng gāojì sìfāng yī chǐ — is from a popular satirical yáo about imitative imitation.
The Wáng Zhí 王直 yuánxù (preserved at the head) is one of the principal early-Yǒng-lè documentary sources for the early-Míng cabinet’s editorial collaboration: Wáng Zhí himself entered the Hànlín in Yǒnglè 2 (1404), worked alongside Yáng Róng for 37 years, and left a 30+ year personal-witness account. The Wáng Zhí biéjí is catalogued separately in this division as KR4e0095 Yìān wénjí.
CBDB id 28347 (1370–1440) confirms the catalog meta. Yáng Róng was a member of the pact-of-mutual-death at the Yān-army’s entry into Nánjīng (per the KR4e0077 Chúráo jí tíyào), and the two principal Yǒng-lè-era survivors of that pact (Yáng Shìqí, Yáng Róng) became the joint Táigé tǐ founders.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Major notice of Yáng Róng.
- Frederick W. Mote and Denis Twitchett, eds. The Cambridge History of China, vol. 7, The Ming Dynasty. Cambridge UP, 1988.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí) and §28.6 (Tái-gé tǐ).
- Míng shǐ j. 148 — Yáng Róng biography.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù tíyào’s symmetric defence — that the Táigé tǐ and the Hòuqīzǐ fùgǔ schools should each be judged by their founders’ accomplishment, not by their later-generation degeneration — is one of the cleanest statements of late-Qiánlóng kǎozhèng / literary-historiographic principle in the Sìkù corpus.