Jiāoqiū wénjí 椒邱文集
Pepper-Hill Literary Collection by 何喬新 (撰)
About the work
Jiāoqiū wénjí 椒邱文集 in 34 juǎn — the writings of Hé Qiáoxīn 何喬新 (1427–1502), zì Tiānfǔ 天甫, hào Jiāoqiū 椒邱, native of Guǎngchāng 廣昌 (Jíān, Jiāngxī). Has the Zhōulǐ jízhù 周禮集註, separately catalogued. Míng shǐ records his career as inner-and-outer office mostly with zhèngjì (administrative achievements); yǐ qìjié gāngfāng wéi WànĀn LiúJí suǒ pái (suppressed by Wàn Ān 萬安 and Liú Jí 劉吉 because of his vigour-and-integrity), so never granted great office. The Jiā-jìng-era wú Shìzhōng 吳世忠 sòngyuān (vindication-of-injustice) memorial is preserved: it argued that the Zōu Lǔ 鄒魯 attack on Hé Qiáoxīn was as excessive as the Sòng Jiǎng Zhīqí 蔣之竒 attack on Ōuyáng Xiū 歐陽修, or Hú Hóng 胡紘’s attack on Zhūzǐ 朱子. The Sìkù editors note the comparison is tài guò (excessive) but conclude that examining Hé’s standing-in-court yuèyuè huáifāng (mountain-eminent, holding-square), zài Chénghuà Hóngzhì zhī jiān bùnéng bù wèi zhī míngchén (in the Chénghuà Hóngzhì period one cannot but call him a míngchén — illustrious minister). The collection’s structure: 3 juǎn cèlüè (examination policy) — i.e. kējǔ zhī xué (examination-system learning); 5 juǎn shǐlùn (history essays); 12 juǎn miscellaneous prose; 5 juǎn poetry; 6 juǎn bēilěi; 3 juǎn zòuyì; 1 juǎn wàijí (correspondence). Editor: Yú Yíng 余瑩 of Wùyuán 婺源. The Sìkù literary judgement: Hé did not aim at literary fame but his prose is xiángmíng kǎiqiè zhíshū xiōngyì (clear-and-bright, sincere-and-cutting, directly expressing the bosom); his xuéwèn jīngjì shí jùjiàn yú sī (learning and economy substantially manifest here). History says he comprehensively read groups-of-books; hearing of unusual books, immediately borrowed and copied; accumulated 30,000+ zhì (volumes), all personally collated; writings extremely abundant.
Tiyao
Jiāoqiū wénjí in 34 juǎn — by Hé Qiáoxīn of the Míng. Qiáoxīn has the Zhōulǐ jízhù, already recorded. Míng shǐ Qiáoxīn’s biography records that of his successive offices in the inner-and-outer (court), most had administrative achievements; people, on account of his vigour-integrity firm-and-square, were suppressed by Wàn Ān and Liú Jí, so never received great employment. Also records that Jiāngxī xúnfǔ Lín Jùn 林俊 requested a posthumous title for Qiáoxīn; at the time the zhōngzhǐ (palace edict) interrogated Qiáoxīn’s reason for retirement; jǐshìzhōng Wú Shìzhōng 吳世忠 vindicated his injustice with the [argument] that Zōu Lǔ’s attack on Qiáoxīn was [as bad as] Jiǎng Zhīqí attacking Ōuyáng Xiū or Hú Hóng attacking Zhūzǐ — this is truly excessive. Yet examining his standing-in-court start-and-end, yuèyuè huáifāng (mountain-eminent, holding-square), in the Chénghuà Hóngzhì period [we] cannot but call him a famous minister. The collection’s first 3 juǎn are cèlüè — clearly kējǔ zhī xué; next 5 juǎn are shǐlùn; next 12 juǎn are miscellaneous prose; next 5 juǎn are poetry; next 6 juǎn are bēilěi; next 3 juǎn are memorials; wàijí 1 juǎn — wǎnglái zèngdá zhī wén (give-and-receive correspondence) — edited by Yú Yíng of Wùyuán. Qiáoxīn does not bear the name of literature, yet what he made is xiángmíng kǎiqiè zhíshū xiōngyì; his learning and economy substantially appear here. History says he comprehensively read group-books; on hearing of unusual books immediately borrowed-and-copied them; accumulated 30,000+ zhì, all shǒu zì jiàochóu (personally collated); writings extremely abundant — therefore yǒuběn zhī yán (the words of one with foundation), fittingly differ from those who xiāofù gāotán (empty-bellied, high-talking). Compiled and presented respectfully in the ninth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Chief Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Editor: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Hé Qiáoxīn is the canonical Hóng-zhì-era qīngliú (pure-stream) frank-speech minister: like Xú Pǔ (KR4e0116) and the LiúXièXú Hóngzhì cabinet, but as an outsider — suppressed by the late-Chéng-huà Wàn Ān / Liú Jí dominant cabinet faction and unable to reach senior office. The Jiā-jìng-era posthumous-title controversy and the Wú Shìzhōng vindication-memorial — comparing the Zōu Lǔ attack to historic anti-Confucian-sage attacks on Ōuyáng Xiū and Zhū Xī — preserves a substantive documentary witness to mid-Míng intra-bureaucratic moral-historiographic discourse.
The 30,000-zhì personal library — all personally collated — is a notable case of mid-Míng official-collector book-culture; the Wùyuán editor Yú Yíng preserves the recension. The collection-structure (cèlüè, shǐlùn, miscellaneous prose, poetry, bēilěi, memorials, wàijí) follows the standard Hóng-zhì-era biéjí organizational pattern.
CBDB id 34522 (1427–1502) confirms the catalog meta dates.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. Notice of Hé Qiáo-xīn.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí).
- Míng shǐ j. 183 — Hé Qiáo-xīn biography.
Other points of interest
The Wú Shìzhōng vindication-memorial parallel — comparing Zōu Lǔ’s attack on Hé Qiáoxīn to the historic attacks on Ōuyáng Xiū (by Jiǎng Zhīqí) and on Zhū Xī (by Hú Hóng) — is one of the cleanest preserved documentary cases of Jiā-jìng-era moral-historiographic argument from analogy with canonical Sòng intra-Confucian persecution narratives.