Zhènzé jí 震澤集
Shaking-Lake Collection by 王鏊 (撰)
About the work
The literary collected works of Wáng Áo 王鏊 (1450–1524), zì Jǐzhī 濟之, hào Shǒuxī 守溪 (also Zhènzé xiānshēng 震澤先生 — Zhènzé = Tàihú 太湖 of Sūzhōu), shì Wénkè 文恪, of Wúxiàn 吳縣. Already universally famous in his day as the zhìyì (eight-legged-essay) model of the HóngzhìZhèngdé era — wángshǒuxī a name that “even rural-school children practising the eight-tags know” — Wáng’s 36-juǎn literary collection is the Sìkù’s explicit attempt to redirect attention to his gǔwén (ancient-style prose), which they judge zhànshēn jīngshù, diǎnyǎ qiújié, yǒu TángSòng yífēng — “deep in Classical scholarship, elegant-and-pure, with the leftover wind of Táng-and-Sòng masters”. The collection includes his memorial on the Héyuán kǎo (origin of the Yellow River) — accepting the Bùdúshí (Buddhist canonical) line but disputing the Kūnlún reading on cosmographic grounds; and his discussions of the zūnhào yì 尊號議 and zhāomù duì 昭穆對 — which align Wáng with Zhāng Cōng 張璁 and Guì È 桂蕚 in the Dàlǐ yì 大禮議 (Great Rites Controversy) of early Jiājìng. Huò Tāo 霍韜’s preface for the collection compares Wáng to Kǒngmén zhī Yóu Xià (the Confucian-Gate’s Yóu Ruò and Zǐxià) — a partisan judgement which the Sìkù explicitly flags as factionally motivated.
Tiyao
Zhènzé jí in 36 juǎn — by Wáng Áo of the Míng. Áo has Shǐyú 史餘, separately catalogued. Áo by zhìyì (the eight-leg essay) is the name of a single age; though village-school children fresh-able to read-aloud the bābǐ (eight-tags) — there are none who do not know there is a Wáng Shǒuxī. Yet his gǔwén is also zhànshēn jīngshù, diǎnyǎ qiújié, yǒu TángSòng yífēng (deep in the Classics, elegant-and-pure-and-clean, with the surviving wind of Táng and Sòng). For the time of Míng-prosperity, even those making the shíwén (time-prose) had to yánsuǒ Liùjīng, fànlǎn Bǎishì (search the Six Classics, broadly look at the Hundred Schools) to nurture their roots and exhaust their wave-billows. Áo was kùndùn míngchǎng (worn-down at the examination-field for a long time), only late did he meet, his nourishment in antiquity already deep — so his shíwén is skilled and his gǔwén also skilled. The Míngshǐ Áo běnzhuàn (main biography) says Áo memorialised to imitate the prior-dynasty’s zhìkē (special examinations) — like the Bóxué hóngcí (Broadly-Learned Profound-Diction) — to gather strange talents; once in six years to raise [them]; the especially outstanding to be given clean-and-essential posts; those with rank to have salary added — that after several years the shìlèi (scholar-kind) by zhuómó (polishing-and-honing) would inevitably take tōngjīng xuégǔ (penetrating-the-Classics, learning-the-ancients) as high, getting rid of the xiǎowén lòu (small-hearing vulgarity) of the day. Not used. Also says Áo in selecting shì prized jīngshù (Classical scholarship); the xiǎnguǐ (perilous-strange) all entirely cut away; in the Hóngzhì–Zhèngdé interval the literary forms went through one transformation — then Áo’s learning can be known. The collection’s Zūnhào yì 尊號議, Zhāomù duì 昭穆對 zhǔzhǐ (master-intent) agree with Zhāng Cōng and Guì È; therefore Huò Tāo’s preface for the collection extremely lavishes praise on him, even comparing him to the Kǒngmén Yóu Xià. This cannot avoid the Míngdài péngdǎng zhī sī (Míng-era factional-bias). His saying that Áo zǎo xué yú Sū (early studied Sū [Shì]), wǎn xué yú Hán (late studied Hán [Yù]), zhézhōng yú Chéng Zhū (settled-mean at Chéng and Zhū) — this remains gōnglùn (public judgement). His Héyuán kǎo (Examining the Yellow-River-Source) one piece can not believe what Dūshí says; on this seems to have seen [the case]. But mixed-citing Buddhist canon and Daoist-book to refute the Kūnlún account is kǎozhèng shū wéi shūshuǎn (the verification is rather rough-and-wrong) — this since the Míng’s territory ended at Jiāyùguān, the yáochē (light-carriage) not reaching that place; relying only on old books to chuǎimó (guess-and-rub), the yǐngxiǎng móhú (shadow-and-echo) blur is also not strange. Compiled and presented in the fourth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Wáng Áo’s Zhènzé jí is unusual in the Sìkù Míng biéjí section in being a deliberate critical rerouting of a reader’s expectations: famous in his lifetime almost solely as the eight-legged-essay master (wángshǒuxī), Wáng is here presented by the Sìkù as the gǔwén writer of the Hóngzhì–Zhèngdé literary turn, whose Classical scholarship and TángSòng prose style anchor the Hóngzhì recovery of jīngshù against the empty xìngmìng talk of the Chénghuà era. The judgement zǎo xué yú Sū, wǎn xué yú Hán, zhézhōng yú Chéng Zhū — early-Sū, late-Hán, settled-at-Chéng-Zhū — is the Sìkù’s definitive prose-genealogy of Wáng.
The Great-Rites alignment with Zhāng Cōng and Guì È in the Zūnhào yì and Zhāomù duì — and Huò Tāo 霍韜’s Kǒngmén YóuXià comparison in the preface — situates Wáng in early-Jiā-jìng court politics. The Sìkù explicit flagging of Huò Tāo’s factional motivation is one of the cleaner editorial calls of péngdǎng zhī sī in the Míng biéjí corpus. The Héyuán kǎo — Wáng’s cosmographic / hydrological discussion of the Yellow-River source, accepting Du Shi Bùdúshí (Buddhist canon) but disputing Kūnlún — is flagged as a kǎozhèng failure with the Sìkù-characteristic acknowledgement that Míng-era geography of trans-Jiā-yù-guān regions was bound to fail.
Wáng’s role in the Sūzhōu Wú-school — pupil of Liú Jiàn 劉健 in Hàn-lín-school, colleague of Wú Kuān (KR4e0131) and Zhù Yǔnmíng (KR4e0147), teacher of Wén Zhēngmíng — makes him a structural anchor of the documentary cluster that this division preserves under KR4e0131–KR4e0147. His parallel gazetteer-work, the Gūsū zhì (KR2k0029), is independently catalogued; his anecdotal record Zhènzé jìwén is a bǐjì under Shǐyú (history-remainder).
CBDB id 34579 confirms 1450–1524.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976, vol. 2, 1343–47: major notice of Wáng Áo by Chao-ying Fang.
- Míng shǐ j. 181 — Wáng Áo biography.
- Carney T. Fisher, The Chosen One: Succession and Adoption in the Court of Ming Shizong. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1990 — for the Dà-lǐ yì (Great-Rites Controversy) context.
- Benjamin A. Elman, A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China. Berkeley: California UP, 2000 — on Wáng as eight-legged-essay model.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí) and §27 (Míng political history).
Other points of interest
The zǎo xué yú Sū, wǎn xué yú Hán, zhézhōng yú Chéng Zhū judgement — Wáng’s prose-genealogy as Sū Shì → Hán Yù → ChéngZhū — is one of the cleanest stylistic pedigree claims in the Míng biéjí tíyào corpus, and the Sìkù explicitly accepts it as gōnglùn (public judgement). The contrastive treatment of the Héyuán kǎo and the Zūnhào yì — one a kǎozhèng failure forgiven on geographical grounds, the other a factional alignment with Zhāng Cōng / Guì È flagged on partisan grounds — is a documentary instance of the Sìkù’s ability to distinguish principled critique from factional taint within a single biéjí.