Wú Wénsù zhāigǎo 吳文肅摘稿
Selected Manuscripts of Wú Wén-sù by 吳儼 (撰)
About the work
The selected works of Wú Yǎn 吳儼 (1457–1519), zì Kèwēn 克溫, shì Wénsù 文肅, of Yíxīng 宜興 (Chángzhōufǔ, Jiāngsū) — Nánjīng Lǐbù shàngshū and the ShùntiānLiúJǐn examination-incident principal of Zhèngdé. 4 juǎn. Wú’s collection was kept in his family until Wànlì jiǎshēn (1584), when his Yíxīng townsman Wáng Shēng 王升, the Wǔjìn Zhuāng Xù 莊煦, and his grand-nephew Wú Dákě 達可 made a selection; Wú’s grandson Shìyù 士遇 finally cut the boards — hence the title zhāigǎo (selected manuscripts). The pieces preserve, among other materials, Wú’s chéngwén (examination paper) from the Zhèngdé Shùntiān examination — kept in the collection to commemorate the famous Liú Jǐn incident in which Wú was dismissed.
Tiyao
Wú Wénsù zhāigǎo in 4 juǎn — by Wú Yǎn of the Míng. Yǎn, zì Kèwēn, native of Yíxīng. Chénghuà dīngwèi (1487) jìnshì; reached Nánjīng Lǐbù shàngshū; shì Wénsù. At the beginning of Zhèngdé Yǎn presided over the Shùntiān xiāngshì (provincial examination of the Capital district); holding that as a minister, [examination topics] may not be lightly set, was angered by Liú Jǐn and through fēiyǔ (flying-words) dismissed; on Liú Jǐn’s execution was again advanced and used. His examination-paper now is in the collection — preserving the affair. The collection was at first kept in the family; reached Wànlì jiǎshēn (1584), townsman Wáng Shēng, Wǔjìn Zhuāng Xù, and his grand-nephew Dákě selected and preserved; his grandson Shìyù began to cut the boards — hence called zhāigǎo. The histories say Yǎn was xìng fāngyán, cāolǚ qīngshèn (square-and-strict, pure-and-careful in conduct); for prose zhuāngzhòng jiǎngǔ (dignified-weighty, simple-ancient); for poetry qīnglì kě fěng (clear-and-lovely, capable-of-recitation). Now looking at the works — they were when Hé and Lǐ had not yet emerged; still held to Míng-early old style; without the gōují túshì (hook-and-thorn, plastering-and-decorating) habits. His talent and his learning, though both fall short of Lǐ Dōngyáng’s broad-richness, his prose-pen is chōngróng (full-and-leisurely), his poetic-frame is also xiányǎ (refined-and-elegant); often by topic lodging intent, not like the táigé liúpài (cabinet-and-pavilion school) of the time which slipped into fūkuò (shallow-and-loose). Though his name was not very famous, surely he and Dōngyáng walk shoulder-to-shoulder — also a cān (side-rider) in attendance. Compiled and presented in the ninth month of Qiánlóng 42 (1777). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Wú Yǎn’s collection is documentarily anchored in a single Zhèng-dé-era moment: the Shùntiān xiāngshì of 1506, where Wú as chief examiner refused to lightly set the topics — which Liú Jǐn interpreted as personally directed against him and on which Wú was dismissed by fēiyǔ (anonymous slander). After Liú Jǐn’s execution (1510), Wú was recalled. The collection preserves his chéngwén (examination paper) from the famous occasion — one of the cleaner cases in mid-Míng of an examination paper-as-evidentiary-document preserved in a biéjí.
The Sìkù judgement places Wú alongside Lǐ Dōngyáng as a cānjīn zhī jǐn (side-rider in proximity) — that is, a near-peer literary figure of the Hóngzhì–Zhèngdé era who held to early-Míng old style before the Hé Jǐngmíng (KR4e0162) / Lǐ Mèngyáng (KR4e0150) revival overturned the táigé (cabinet-and-pavilion) school. This makes Wú a useful documentary witness to the pre-Qián-Qī-zǐ literary norm.
The 1584 selection (with no fewer than three Yíxīng / Wǔjìn family-friends involved) is one of the cleaner zhāigǎo compilation processes recorded in the Sìkù Míng biéjí corpus. The catalog gives no dates; CBDB id 34596 supplies 1457–1519.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976: notice of Wú Yǎn.
- Míng shǐ j. 184 — Wú Yǎn biography.
- Benjamin A. Elman, A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China. Berkeley: California UP, 2000 — for the Zhèng-dé examination context.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí) and §27.1 (Míng political history).
Other points of interest
The preservation of Wú’s actual examination-paper from the 1506 Shùntiān xiāngshì in the zhāigǎo is unusual in mid-Míng biéjí tradition — the Sìkù explicitly identifies the documentary intention as cún qí shì (“preserving the affair”) of the Liú Jǐn dismissal.