Dōngyuán wénjí 東園文集
Eastern-Garden Literary Collection by 鄭紀 (撰)
About the work
Dōngyuán wénjí 東園文集 in 13 juǎn (with fùlù 1 juǎn) — the prose of Zhèng Jì 鄭紀 (1433–1508), zì Tínggāng 廷綱, biéhào Dōngyuán xiānyóu rén 東園仙逰人 (‘Eastern-Garden Immortal-Wanderer’). Native of Xiānyóu 仙游 (Pǔtián / Quánzhōu vicinity, Fújiàn). Tiānshùn gēngchén (1460) jìnshì; office reaching Nánjīng Hùbù shàngshū 南京戶部尚書. Author also of Dōngyuán yíngǎo 東園吟稿 (poetry — separately catalogued?), Guītián lù 歸田錄, Yìjù jiāfàn 義聚家範, Zēngxiū xiāngyuē 增修鄉約 (community-compact). After his Hànlín career he retired to Píngshān 屏山 to read books for 20+ years; composed without forced thought, without revising drafts; let his prose go and never sought it again. The pupil Wú Yǎn 吳儼’s framing: his prose is very like Lǎoquán (Sū Xún 蘇洵); qí qì chāng, qí sī shēn, qí cí zhèng ér bù ē, qí biàn bó ér bù zá (his force flourishing, his thought deep, his words correct without flattery, his discrimination broad without confusion). The collection’s structure: 1 juǎn jīngyán jiǎngzhāng / jiān; 3 juǎn memorials; 2 juǎn jì; 3 juǎn xù; 1 juǎn shū; 1 juǎn tíbá / shuō / zàn; 1 juǎn mínglèi / xíngzhuàng / zhuàn; 1 juǎn zhùwén / shàngliángwén / jìwén / zázhù; fùlù 1 juǎn. The Sìkù literary judgement positive: memorials kǎizhì xiángmíng qièzhōng shízhèng (sincere-cutting, clear-and-bright, hitting-the-target on current government); other prose forms yǒuguān shìjiào (relating to age-instruction). The Guītián zīmù shí tiáo 歸田咨目十條 (Ten Items of Self-Direction in Retirement) particularly jīngjīng yǐ lǐfǎ zìchí (vigilantly self-supporting in ritual-and-law). Original printing-blocks long lost; recut by Zhèng’s ninth-generation descendant Zhèng Yīngliáng 鄭英梁 et al.
Tiyao
Dōngyuán wénjí in 13 juǎn, fùlù 1 juǎn — by Zhèng Jì of the Míng. Jì, zì Tínggāng, biéhào Dōngyuán xiānyóu rén; Tiānshùn gēngchén (1460) jìnshì; office reaching Nánjīng Hùbù shàngshū. He composed the Dōngyuán yíngǎo, Guītián lù, Yìjù jiāfàn, Zēngxiū xiāngyuē and other books; this collection is all miscellaneous prose. Jì entered the Hànlín, then returned to lie at Píngshān, reading books for 20+ years; in his lifetime composing prose without forced thought, without revising drafts; what people borrowed and took, he did not ask after. The pupil Wú Yǎn 吳儼 says his prose is very like Lǎoquán (Sū Xún): his force flourishing, his thought deep, his words correct and not flattering, his argument broad and not mixed. Now examining the collection’s various memorial pieces, all are kǎizhì xiángmíng (sincere-cutting, clear-and-detailed) on current government. The various forms of prose are also mostly compositions relating to shìjiào (age-instruction). In the zázhù section the Guītián zīmù shí tiáo — also all jīngjīng yǐ lǐfǎ zìchí. Clearly his personal character is duānjǐn (correct-and-cautious), particularly something to be weighted. The original cutting of the collection has long been destroyed; this is what his ninth-generation descendant Yīngliáng and others recut. Compiled and presented respectfully in the tenth month of Qiánlóng 42 (1777). Chief Compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Editor: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Zhèng Jì is the late-Chéng-huà / Hóng-zhì-era yǐnshì (recluse-after-office) literary type — the jìnshì who reaches senior office (Nánjīng Hùbù shàngshū) and then retires to extended reading-and-composition in his native place. The 20-year retirement composition window (c. 1488–1508 if his retirement is dated to his late 50s) gives the Dōngyuán wénjí its principal substance — jīngyán jiǎngzhāng (imperial-lecture lecture-essays), memorials drafted before retirement, and the substantial post-retirement compositions including the Guītián zīmù shí tiáo.
The pupil Wú Yǎn 吳儼’s Sū Xún comparison is one of the cleaner mid-Míng examples of explicit literary-lineage placement on the Sān Sū model — Wú Yǎn (1457–1519) was himself a Hóng-zhì-era Hànlín scholar of substance, so the comparison is a near-peer judgement.
The descendant-recovery (9th-generation Zhèng Yīngliáng + others) is one of the longest-family-line recoveries in this division, suggesting the recension dates to the late-Míng / early-Qīng period of family-line biéjí preservation.
CBDB id 34525 (1433–1508) confirms 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 Zhèng Jì.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.4 (Míng bié-jí).
- Míng shǐ j. 184 — Zhèng Jì biography.
Other points of interest
The Zēngxiū xiāngyuē (Augmented-Edited Community-Compact) is one of the cleaner mid-Míng witnesses to the late-15th-century xiāngyuē revival movement that culminated in the early-16th-century xiāngyuē of Wáng Yángmíng and the Lǚshì xiāngyuē revival.