Gǔchéng jí 古城集
Ancient-Walls Collection by 張吉 (撰)
About the work
The collected writings of Zhāng Jí 張吉 (1451–1518), zì Kèxiū 克修, late-life hào Gǔchéng 古城, of Yúgàn 餘干 (Ráozhōu, Jiāngxī). 6 juǎn + 1 juǎn bǔyí: juǎn 1 Sāncháo zòuyì 三朝奏議 (memorials of three reigns); juǎn 2 Lùxué dìngyí 陸學訂疑 (the principal anti-Lù Jiǔyuān treatise of the early Hóngzhì era); juǎn 3 Zhēnguān xiǎoduàn 貞觀小斷 (commentary-judgements on Táng Tàizōng’s reign); juǎn 4 Wénlüè; juǎn 5–6 poetry. Opening with an imperial yùtí 御題 (preface in verse) by the Qiánlóng emperor, which praises Zhāng’s firm orthodoxy and discusses three points: Zhāng’s Lùxué dìngyí against the Yáojiāng (Wáng Yángmíng) school; his prose orthodoxy against the Lǐ Mèngyáng (Xiànjí) / Hé Jǐngmíng QiánQízǐ revival; and the Zhēnguān xiǎoduàn point that Táng Tàizōng’s zòngqiú (releasing prisoners) and guān shílù (viewing the Veritable Records) were hàomíng (fame-seeking) acts the Qiánlóng emperor himself shares Zhāng’s criticism of. The Qiánlóng yùtí notes Zhāng’s nǔchē / chòngnǔ (cross-bow chariots) memorial as too literally retrieving ancient strategy, but otherwise the imperial endorsement is exceptional.
Tiyao
Gǔchéng jí in 6 juǎn and Bǔyí in 1 juǎn — by Zhāng Jí of the Míng. Jí, zì Kèxiū, hào Yìzhāi, also called Mòān, also called Yíwō, in old age called Gǔchéng, native of Yúgàn. Chénghuà xīnchǒu (1481) jìnshì; office reached Guìzhōu zuǒ bùzhèngshǐ. The book’s juǎn 1 is Sāncháo zòuyì; juǎn 2 is Lùxué dìngyí; juǎn 3 is Zhēnguān xiǎoduàn; juǎn 4 is Wénlüè; juǎn 5 and juǎn 6 are poetry; at the end is Bǔyí, all miscellaneous prose. From Míng down to Zhèngdé beginning, Yáojiāng’s teaching arose and learning had one transformation; Běidì (Lǐ Mèngyáng) and Xìnyáng (Hé Jǐngmíng)‘s teaching arose and literature also had one transformation. Jí at this time still tremblingly held to the prior-Confucians’ jǔyuē (rule-and-restraint); in gāomíng (lofty-clarity) does not reach Wáng Shǒurén, but in dǔshí (substantial-thickness) surpasses him; in cáishàn xuéfù (talent-bountiful, learning-rich) does not reach Lǐ Mèngyáng and Hé Jǐngmíng, but in píngzhèng tōngdá (level-and-correct, penetrating-and-reaching) surpasses them. Moreover when Gōngbù zhǔshì, he made jǐnyán jíjiàn (full-words, extreme-remonstrance) and crossed Wǔzōng; when Guǎngxī bùzhèngshǐ, also for not willing to nàlù (offer-bribes) to Liú Jǐn, was demoted in rank; and as Zhàoqìngfǔ tóngzhī upheld public discussion. (Compiled and presented in the year of Qiánlóng …) Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Zhāng Jí’s Gǔchéng jí is an unusual Sìkù Míng biéjí in carrying an explicit Qián-lóng-emperor yùtí — a verse-preface from the imperial pen, with the most extensive imperial commentary on a Míng biéjí in this division. The endorsement is doubly motivated: first, by Zhāng’s Lùxué dìngyí (Doubts on Lù-school learning) as a pre-Yáo-jiāng anti-Lù Jiǔyuān treatise, and so a documentary precedent for the Sìkù programmatic distrust of Yángmíngxué; second, by Zhāng’s Zhēnguān xiǎoduàn critique of Táng Tàizōng’s zòngqiú (prisoner-release) and guān shílù (viewing the Veritable Records) as hàomíng zhī shì (fame-seeking acts) — a critique the Qiánlóng emperor announces he himself had independently arrived at and now finds yú yú xīn yǒu huò — “in my heart, a confirmation”.
The Sìkù placement of Zhāng is structurally rigorous: between Wáng Yángmíng (KR4e0157) on one side and Lǐ Mèngyáng (KR4e0150) / Hé Jǐngmíng (KR4e0162) on the other, the Sìkù finds in Zhāng a third-position mid-Hóng-zhì-Zhèng-dé orthodox-Zhū voice who anchored neither xīnxué nor QiánQīzǐ — dǔshí in the place of gāomíng, píngzhèng tōngdá in the place of cáishàn xuéfù. This is one of the cleaner Sìkù between-positions placements in the entire Míng biéjí corpus.
CBDB id 34592 confirms 1451–1518.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976: notice of Zhāng Jí.
- Míng shǐ j. 286 — Zhāng Jí biography.
- Huáng Zōng-xī, Míng-rú xué-àn j. 45 — Zhāng Jí under the Chóng-rén xué-àn.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí) and §31.4 (Míng Lǐ-xué).
Other points of interest
The Qiánlóng yùtí (imperial verse-preface) at the head of this collection is one of the longest and most argumentatively engaged imperial yùtí in the Sìkù Míng biéjí section — covering three separate critical points (Lù-school refutation, anti-QiánQīzǐ prose orthodoxy, Zhēnguān criticism) and explicitly recording the emperor’s prior independent agreement on the last. As a documentary site for imperially-endorsed Sìkù editorial logic, it has few peers.