Liǎngxī wénjí 兩谿文集
Two-Streams Literary Collection by 劉球 (撰)
About the work
Liǎngxī wénjí 兩谿文集 in 24 juǎn — the prose of the early-Míng martyr-remonstrant Liú Qiú 劉球 (1392–1443), zì Qiúlè 求樂 (later changed to Tíngzhèn 廷振), native of Ānfú 安福 (Jíān, Jiāngxī). Yǒnglè xīnchǒu (1421) jìnshì; appointed Lǐbù zhǔshì 禮部主事; recommended by Yáng Shìqí 楊士奇 (楊士奇) to attend the jīngyán; reassigned shìjiǎng 侍講. After offending the great eunuch Wáng Zhèn 王振 by frank memorial, thrown into the zhàoyù and killed by Wáng Zhèn’s confederate Mǎ Shùn 馬順. Posthumously gifted Hànlín xuéshì and titled Zhōngmǐn 忠愍 in early Jǐngtài. The collection was edited 28 years after Liú Qiú’s death by his son Liú Yuè 劉鉞 (then Guǎngdōng bùzhèngsī cānzhèng) jointly with his brother Liú Yú 釪 (Zhèjiāng fùshǐ); prefaces by Péng Shí 彭時 and Liú Dìngzhī 劉定之 (both Tàihé/Jíān colleagues from the TiānshùnChénghuà cabinet). The Sìkù tíyào emphasizes the contrast between Liú’s fierce moral conduct in life — confronting the all-powerful Wáng Zhèn — and the hépíng wēnyǎ (peaceful-and-elegant) tone of the prose itself; the explanation is that Liú’s courage was yìlǐ zhī yǒng, fēi qìzhì yòngshì (righteousness’s courage, not the body-temper acting). Shěn Défú 沈德符’s Yěhuò biān records that even after his execution, Liú appeared as an èrguǐ (avenging spirit) at Mǎ Shùn’s house — a striking near-contemporary anecdote.
Tiyao
Liǎngxī wénjí in 24 juǎn — by Liú Qiú of the Míng. Qiú, zì Qiúlè, again zì Tíngzhèn, native of Ānfú. Yǒnglè xīnchǒu (1421) jìnshì; appointed Lǐbù zhǔshì. By Yáng Shìqí’s recommendation, [made] shì jīngyán and reassigned shìjiǎng. Later, offending Wáng Zhèn, thrown into the zhàoyù; killed by Zhèn’s clique-member Mǎ Shùn. In early Jǐngtài, gifted Hànlín xuéshì, posthumous title Zhōngmǐn. The events are detailed in his biography in Míng shǐ. The present compilation is all his miscellaneous prose; 28 years after Qiú’s death, his son the Guǎngdōng bùzhèngsī cānzhèng Yuè 鉞 edited it; Péng Shí and Liú Dìngzhī both made prefaces for it. When Wáng Zhèn was at his height, marquises, dukes, and grand ministers anxiously hurried at his wind-direction lest they be late; but Qiú as a single weak literary minister relied on the great-righteousness to confront him, even to the point of zhījiě cǎnsǐ (limb-by-limb dismemberment, miserable death) — yì bù shǎo náo (firmly without yielding). Shěn Défú’s Yěhuò biān records that after his death he became a fierce-spirit at Mǎ Shùn’s house — this is his firm-resolute spirit spanning life-and-death and not to be effaced. Looking at his prose now, it is mostly hépíng wēnyǎ (peaceful-and-elegant), distinctly unlike his person — surely his is yìlǐ zhī yǒng, fēi qìzhì yòngshì (righteousness’s courage, not the body-temper acting). Yet savouring its meaning, generally guāngmíng lěiluò (bright-and-upright), without yīē tiǎnniǎn (clinging-bowing, deferential) bearing — what is called jūnzǐ zhī wén (the gentleman’s prose). Although a fragment-and-broken volume should still be treasured — how much more so when the complete collection is fully present? It is fitting that we hasten to extract and record it, to encourage and promote míngjiào (the name-teaching). 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
Liú Qiú is the canonical Sìkù-era model of the Wáng Zhèn-era civilian-martyr (Wáng Zhèn 王振, the great Zhèng-tǒng-era eunuch dictator who eventually engineered the Tǔmù disaster of 1449). The remonstrance-and-execution sequence (Wáng Zhèn at the height of his power, Liú alone among the cabinet officials confronting him on principle, the dismemberment-execution by Mǎ Shùn 馬順) was one of the formative incidents of the YīngzōngJǐngdì transition; in early Jǐngtài (1450–51), with the Wáng Zhèn faction destroyed, Liú was posthumously rehabilitated. CBDB id 34501 (1392–1443) confirms the catalog meta dates.
The Sìkù tíyào’s psychological-moral analysis — Liú’s prose is hépíng wēnyǎ despite his fierce moral conduct because his courage is yìlǐ zhī yǒng (Confucian principled courage) rather than qìzhì zhī yǒng (temperamental courage) — is one of the cleaner formulations of the Lǐxué / xìnglǐ psychological-moral diagnostic in the Sìkù corpus.
The Shěn Défú Wànlì yěhuò biān anecdote (Liú’s èrguǐ — vengeful spirit — at the Mǎ Shùn household after the execution) is a notable case of the Sìkù editors keeping a near-contemporary supernatural anecdote as evidence of moral force, against their general tendency to suppress such material.
The two-stage transmission (1471 family compilation by Liú’s two sons → Péng Shí + Liú Dìngzhī prefaces) means the recension is one of the more institutionally substantial Tiān-shùn-Chéng-huà-era recoveries; both prefacers were Liú’s Jíān fellow-townsmen at the highest cabinet level.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Major notice of Liú Qiú.
- Frederick W. Mote and Denis Twitchett, eds. The Cambridge History of China, vol. 7, The Ming Dynasty. Cambridge UP, 1988. Treatment of Wáng Zhèn and the lead-up to Tǔ-mù.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí).
- Míng shǐ j. 162 — Liú Qiú biography.
Other points of interest
The Liú Qiú / Lǐ Shímiǎn (KR4e0098) pairing — both Yǒng-lè-era jìnshì both eventually crushed by the Wáng Zhèn machine but on different timelines (Lǐ surviving multiple near-deaths, Liú executed) — is one of the cleaner documentary cases of the civilian-bureaucratic resistance to eunuch power in the Zhèngtǒng era.