Yìān wénjí 抑菴文集
Yì-Hut Literary Collection by 王直 (撰), 王䆅 (編), 王稹 (編)
About the work
Yìān wénjí 抑菴文集 in 13 juǎn, with Hòují 後集 in 37 juǎn — the cabinet-corpus of Wáng Zhí 王直 (1379–1462), zì Xíngjiǎn 行儉**, native of Tàihé 泰和 (Jíān, Jiāngxī), eventually Lìbù shàngshū 吏部尚書, posthumous title Wénduān 文端. Yǒnglè jiǎshēn (1404) jìnshì; selected shùjíshì (Hànlín bachelors); appointed xiūzhuàn 修撰; through Rénzōng and Xuāndé reigns to shàozhānshì; in Zhèngtǒng promoted Lìbù shàngshū — held the office for 16 years, the longest tenure of the early-Míng period. When Yīngzōng was held in the northern wastes (the Tǔmù crisis of 1449), the Jǐngdì 景帝 was reluctant to receive him; Wáng Zhí shǒu qǐng qiǎnshǐ, lìchí zhèngyì (was the first to request that envoys be sent, firmly maintaining the orthodox position). He retired by petition on grounds of age in early Tiānshùn (1457). The Sìkù tíyào notes that he and Wáng Yīng 王英 were jointly known as XīWáng DōngWáng (West-Wáng and East-Wáng) early-Yǒng-lè cabinet drafters. Edited by his son Wáng Bǎo 王䆅 (the jiǎntǎo) and supplemented in early Chénghuà by his second son Wáng Zhěn 王稹 (= 楨), who added the hòují of 37 juǎn containing what was not in the original recension and what was composed after retirement. The total 50 juǎn (13 + 37) is one of the larger early-Míng biéjí — second only to KR4e0090 Dōnglǐ jí’s 93 juǎn.
Tiyao
Yìān wénjí in 13 juǎn; hòují in 37 juǎn — by Wáng Zhí of the Míng. Zhí, zì Xíngjiǎn, native of Tàihé. Yǒnglè jiǎshēn (1404) jìnshì; reassigned shùjíshì; appointed xiūzhuàn. Passed through Rénzōng and Xuāndé to shǎozhānshì. In Zhèngtǒng granted Lìbù shàngshū. In early Tiānshùn, on grounds of age and illness, begged retirement; on death, posthumous title Wénduān. The events are detailed in his biography in Míng shǐ. Zhí’s qìshí (capacity-and-knowledge) was deep-and-weighty, with the bearing of a great minister. In the Quáncáo (Selection Bureau, i.e. the Ministry of Personnel) he was 16 years; fèngzhí gōngyǔn wéi yīshí zhī zuì (held office fairly, the foremost of his time). When Yīngzōng was held captive in the northern wastes, Jǐngdì was reluctant to receive him; Zhí was the first to request that envoys be sent and firmly maintained the orthodox argument. His great moral integrity is especially not to be removed. His prose-and-poetry is diǎnyǎ chúnzhèng (canonical-elegant, pure-correct), with the surviving manner of SòngYuán. From Yǒnglè time he was commanded into the cabinet, in charge of zhìgào; the great court compositions mostly came from his hand. At the time he was paired with Wáng Yīng, with the appellation Xī Wáng Dōng Wáng; but Zhí especially long-lived, guīrán (eminent) bearing one age’s heavy weight. Xiāo Zī says of his prose: hànmàn yǎnyí, ruò dàhé chángchuān, yánhuí qūzhé, shūxiè wànzhuàng — gài yóu xù zhī shēn, gù liú zhī yě yuǎn (vast-and-meandering, like great-river long-stream, sloping-and-twisting, pouring out ten-thousand shapes — clearly because what is stored is deep, what is poured is far). His extolling unavoidably exceeds [the reality] a little. Yet from the middle of the Míng, the doctrine of the Běidì 北地 [Lǐ Mèngyáng] / Xìnyáng 信陽 [Hé Jǐngmíng] arose, and ancient prose daily turned to false [imitation]. Zhí was at the time of Xuāndé and Zhèngtǒng, not far from the early Míng, and the practice of chúnpǔ (pure-and-simple) was not yet vanishing — what he made looks plain-and-easy on the surface but is in substance wēnhòu hépíng (warm-thick, peaceful), really not what later [generations] reach. Although unable to track the ancient writers, he can be said still to have diǎnxíng (canonical model). The collection was edited by his son the jiǎntǎo Bǎo 䆅; in early Chénghuà his second son Zhěn 稹 again added editorial work, taking what the original collection had not recorded, and what was composed after the retirement-and-home-residing, and made these into a separate xùjí appended at the back. Compiled and presented respectfully in the ninth month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778). Chief Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Editor: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Wáng Zhí is the great institutional figure of the early-Míng Lìbù (Ministry of Personnel) — Lìbù shàngshū for 16 years (1443–1459), the foundational period of the Míng civil-service personnel system. The historiographical case rests not on his literary accomplishment as such (which the Sìkù editors place modestly behind Yáng Shìqí and Yáng Róng) but on his moral-political stand during the Tǔmù crisis: as the first cabinet voice to demand the recall of the captured emperor against Jǐngdì’s reluctance, he secured Yīngzōng’s eventual return and the Tiānshùn restoration. The Sìkù tíyào’s dàjié yóu bùkě duó (the great moral integrity is not to be removed) is the standard Confucian framing.
CBDB id 34493 (1379–1462) confirms catalog meta and Míng shǐ j. 169.
The two-stage compilation history (son Wáng Bǎo 王䆅 prepared the original zhèngjí in 13 juǎn; second son Wáng Zhěn 王稹 added the 37-juǎn hòují in early Chénghuà) preserves the entire post-retirement output (1457–1462) which would otherwise have been lost. Wáng Zhí is also the author of the Yáng Róng KR4e0091 Wénmǐn jí head preface (one of the principal early-Yǒng-lè documentary witnesses to cabinet collaboration).
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Major notice of Wáng Zhí.
- Frederick W. Mote and Denis Twitchett, eds. The Cambridge History of China, vol. 7, The Ming Dynasty. Cambridge UP, 1988. Treatment of the Tǔ-mù crisis and the recall of Yīng-zōng.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí).
- Míng shǐ j. 169 — Wáng Zhí biography.
Other points of interest
The Tǔmù-crisis recall-of-Yīng-zōng intervention is the most-cited single political act associated with Wáng Zhí; the Sìkù editors’ use of it as the principal moral-political defence of an otherwise modest Táigé tǐ literary corpus is one of the cleaner cases of Sìkù-era moral-historiographic editorial framing.