Guītián gǎo 歸田稿
Returning-to-the-Fields Manuscripts by 謝遷 (撰)
About the work
The surviving 8-juǎn literary remainder of Xiè Qiān 謝遷 (1449–1531), zì Yúqiáo 于喬, hào Mùzhāi 木齋, shì Wénzhèng 文正, Hóng-zhì-era Senior Grand Secretary and one of the three LiúXièLǐ cabinet elders (with Liú Jiàn 劉健 and Lǐ Dōngyáng (李東陽)). Xiè’s complete writings were destroyed in the Jiā-jìng-era wōluàn (Japanese-pirate disturbances) in Zhèdōng; what survives is the personally-titled Guītián gǎo — works composed after his first retirement (Zhèngdé 1 / 1506, forced out by Liú Jǐn 劉瑾 and Jiāo Fāng 焦芳) and during his brief recall (Jiājìng beginning, 1522). The textual recovery was carried out by his 7th-generation descendant Xiè Zhōnghé 謝鍾和 (Dàmíngfǔ tóngzhī) in the Kāngxī era. The Sìkù judgement is unusually political: most of the great memorials of his prime — the ones the Míngshǐ singles out (請罷選妃嬪 begging suspension of palace-lady selection, 禁約內官 restraints on eunuchs) — are no longer in the collection, since they predate the Jiājìng loss. What survives is retirement-era prose: cízhǐ hépíng (wording calm-and-level), with the jiānghú Wèiquè (rivers-and-lakes / palace-courts) longing in huìhuì (devoted-care) fashion.
Tiyao
Guītián gǎo in 8 juǎn — by Xiè Qiān of the Míng. Qiān, zì Yúqiáo, native of Yúyáo. Chénghuà yǐwèi (1475) by edict jìnshì dìyī; appointed xiūzhuàn; through offices to Hùbù shàngshū / Jǐnshēn diàn dàxuéshì; on death awarded Tàifù; shì Wénzhèng. Record in Míngshǐ main biography. Qiān when in the Inner Cabinet was with Liú Jiàn and Lǐ Dōngyáng tóngxīn fǔzhèng (jointly heartedly aiding government); history calls him bǐngjié zhíliàng, jiànshì míngmǐn (firm-in-conduct, straight-and-true, quick-and-clear in seeing affairs); realm-wide called him a xiánxiàng (worthy minister) — almost néng yǐ dào shì jūn (able to serve the ruler by the Way). His full collection-draft was destroyed in the Jiājìng wōluàn (pirate disturbances). This [present] is what he wrote after retirement and during his recall — therefore self-titled Guītián gǎo — and handed to his son to keep. In our dynasty’s Kāngxī, his 7th-generation descendant Dàmíngfǔ tóngzhī Xiè Zhōnghé further rearranged it, cut it for transmission. The collection’s zòushū (memorials) are mostly his late-year chénxiè (presenting-thanks) works; the jiāmó dǎnglùn (excellent counsels and just discussions) of his court years are all lost. Even the works that history calls most outstanding — qǐng bà xuǎn fēipín (begging suspension of selecting palace ladies) and jìnyuē nèiguān (restraining inner-palace eunuchs) — even these are not present here; thus the dispersed amount must be considerable. Yet Qiān after returning home was at exactly the time when Liú Jǐn and Jiāo Fāng were holding grievances and weaving snares; daily in wēiyí zhènhàn (peril-and-shaking); yet his composed poetry-and-prose is for the most part cízhǐ hépíng (calm and level in wording), only quánquán yān (devoted-care) entrusting jiānghú Wèiquè (rivers-and-lakes Wèi-palace) thought, hoping his ruler would once awaken — an old minister’s heart for the state truly liúyì yú bù zìjué zhě (overflowing in [places] he himself does not realise). The reader, knowing where his loyal sincerity lies, certainly need not discuss the work-or-not of words. Compiled and presented in the seventh month of Qiánlóng 44 (1779). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Xiè Qiān is one of the three principal Hóng-zhì-era cabinet elders (Liú Jiàn / Xiè Qiān / Lǐ Dōngyáng) and the model of mid-Míng worthy-minister governance. The Guītián gǎo is documentarily anomalous: the Sìkù preserves only the post-retirement and recall-period works, because Xiè’s complete writings were destroyed in the Jiā-jìng-era Zhèdōng wōluàn (Japanese-pirate disturbances). The survivors are therefore a thin literary tail of an enormously consequential political career.
The historical situation of these post-retirement works is specific: Zhèngdé 1 (1506) forced retirement under the eunuch Liú Jǐn 劉瑾 and his cabinet ally Jiāo Fāng 焦芳, who continued to weave snares against the retired elder through the late 1500s and 1510s; recall in early Jiājìng (1522); brief court reappearance and second retirement. The Sìkù explicitly notes that this period was wēiyí zhènhàn (peril-and-shaking) — and praises the cízhǐ hépíng (calm-and-level wording) of the prose, reading the political tension as latent in the prose-style itself.
CBDB id 34576 gives 1449 for the birth year, against the catalog meta’s 1450 — the CBDB date is followed here. The shì Wénzhèng (Civil-Upright) is the most distinguished of shì in the Míng Confucian tradition.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976: major notice of Xiè Qiān.
- Míng shǐ j. 181 — Xiè Qiān biography.
- Ray Huang, 1587, A Year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty in Decline. New Haven: Yale UP, 1981 — for the Liú Jiàn / Xiè Qiān / Lǐ Dōng-yáng cabinet model.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí) and §27.1 (Míng political history).
Other points of interest
The deliberate exclusion of the Hóng-zhì-era great memorials — including the famously cited qǐng bà xuǎn fēipín (palace-lady-selection) memorial — through the accident of pirate-destruction is one of the cleaner cases in the Míng biéjí corpus where the Sìkù explicitly flags an absent-but-historically-decisive textual layer. The retirement-era cízhǐ hépíng style preserved here was identified by Qiánlóng editors as the implicit register of an old minister still serving his ruler in absentia.