Yùzhōu yígǎo 鬱洲遺稿
Lush-Islet Surviving Manuscripts by 梁儲 (撰)
About the work
The literary remainder of Liáng Chǔ 梁儲 (1451–1527), zì Shūhòu 叔厚, hào Hòuzhāi 厚齋, late-life Yùzhōu 鬱洲, shì Wénkāng 文康, of Shùndé 順德 (Guǎngzhōu, Guǎngdōng) — Huágài diàn dàxuéshì under late Zhèngdé / early Jiājìng. The collection was first compiled by Liáng’s son Cìyì 次挹 as Yùzhōu jí with a preface by Huáng Zuǒ 黃佐 of Xiāngshān; later Liáng’s grandson Liáng Zī 梁孜 (zhōngshū shèrén) supplemented it by extracting Liáng’s memorials from the Inner Cabinet records, the expanded text being recut as the 10-juǎn (catalog gives 8) Yùzhōu yígǎo. Liáng was the principal cabinet remonstrant during the final, dissolving years of the Wǔzōng court: his memorials against Wǔzōng’s zìfēng Zhènguógōng (self-enfeoffment as Duke Town-Pacifier), against the gift of Guānzhōng jiāntián (Guānzhōng waste-land) to Prince Qín as pasturage, and his 8–9 qǐng huíluán shū (memorials begging the imperial return) are the documentary core. The Sìkù judgement: cí fá huáyú ér yì cún guījiàn (wording lacks lush extravagance but the intent of guījiàn — admonition — abides); literary craft was not his focus.
Tiyao
Yùzhōu yígǎo in 8 juǎn — by Liáng Chǔ of the Míng. Chǔ, zì Shūhòu, hào Hòuzhāi, late-life styled Yùzhōu, native of Guǎngdōng Shùndé. Chénghuà wùxū (1478) jìnshì; reached Huágài diàn dàxuéshì; shì Wénkāng. Record in Míngshǐ main biography. This collection — by his son Cìyì compiled, originally named Yùzhōu jí. Huáng Zuǒ of Xiāngshān wrote its preface. Later his grandson Zī, in office zhōngshū shèrén, from the Inner Cabinet recorded his memorials and incorporated them in the prior draft; jointly cut for printing, divided into 10 juǎn, called Yùzhōu yígǎo — namely the present text. Chǔ served three reigns; in the late years of Wǔzōng when pányóu wúdù (touring without restraint) and qúnxiǎo nòngquán (small men playing power) — at the wùniè bù níng (uneasy-and-restless) time, [he] was able with Yáng Tínghé and others to xiéxīn fǔzhèng (joint-hearted aiding-government), yínyín yān lǚ yǐ kǒushé xiāngzhèng (gnaw-gnaw repeatedly with tongue contesting). What the collection records of memorials, such as on Wǔzōng self-styling as Zhènguógōng — he submitted memorials forcefully blocking it; on permitting the gift to Prince Qín of Guānzhōng waste-land as pasturage — while drafting the edict, he made wēiyán (perilous words) to move-and-hear; the affair was thereby tabled. Also begging huíluán (return-of-the-carriage) — at 8 or 9 submissions — were all quánquán zhōngài zhī chén (devoted loyal-care sincerity); though wording lacks huáyú (lush extravagance), in substance cún guījiàn (admonition is kept) — also can be seen that his great moral nature has no shame. Huáng Zuǒ once said his shēngpíng zhùzuò duō bù cún gǎo (lifetime compositions mostly do not preserve drafts); thus the prose and poetry in the collection is liáoliáo wújǐ (sparse-sparse, scarcely a few); the tǐgé (style) also is bù shèn gāo (not very high) — surely literary craft was not where he turned his attention. Compiled and presented in the sixth month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Liáng Chǔ is the Sìkù-documented cabinet remonstrant who, with Yáng Tínghé 楊廷和, held the Inner Cabinet against the late-Zhèng-dé dissolution. The Yùzhōu yígǎo exists principally as a documentary record of three specific memorials and a sequence: (i) the Zhènguógōng enfeoffment-block — Wǔzōng’s self-elevation to the rank of duke in his own bureaucracy; (ii) the Qínwáng tián land-grant-block — preventing Guānzhōng cropland from becoming Prince Qín’s pasturage; (iii) the 8–9 huíluán shū memorials begging the return of the emperor from his northern tours. Each is one of the canonical demonstrations of lǎochén yōuguó (old-minister concern-for-the-state) in late-Míng-Wǔ-zōng historiography.
The textual transmission is unusually multi-stage: son Cìyì compiled the first Yùzhōu jí with Huáng Zuǒ of Xiāngshān’s preface; grandson Liáng Zī (Inner-Cabinet zhōngshū shèrén) added the memorials extracted from cabinet records, yielding the 10-juǎn yígǎo (catalog: 8 juǎn). This is one of the cleaner cabinet-record-recovery cases in the Míng biéjí tradition, because Liáng deliberately did not preserve his own drafts (shēngpíng zhùzuò duō bù cún gǎo) — the texts are literally what the bureaucracy had filed, retrieved by a grandson with cabinet access.
CBDB id 34589 confirms 1451–1527.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976: notice of Liáng Chǔ.
- Míng shǐ j. 190 — Liáng Chǔ biography.
- David M. Robinson, Bandits, Eunuchs, and the Son of Heaven: Rebellion and the Economy of Violence in Mid-Ming China (Honolulu: U. Hawaii P., 2001) — context for the Wǔ-zōng northern tours and the cabinet’s losing struggle.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí) and §27.1 (Míng political history).
Other points of interest
The Yùzhōu yígǎo is one of the cleaner cases in the entire Míng biéjí corpus of an author whose literary survival is built almost entirely on post-mortem grandson-extraction from Inner Cabinet records. The fact that Liáng did not preserve his own drafts — Huáng Zuǒ flagged this in the original preface — and the fact that the recoverable bulk consists of admonitions to a deceased emperor in the dissolving Zhèngdé court make the collection a documentary site for the Sìkù preservation of politically-motivated prose rather than literary-craft prose.