Lìzhāi yíwén 立齋遺文
Standing-Studio Surviving Writings by 鄒智 (撰)
About the work
The surviving writings of Zōu Zhì 鄒智 (1466–1491; died aged twenty-six in Guǎngdōng Shíchéng qiānhùsuǒ as lìmù, an underclerk in a coastal military post), zì Rǔyú 汝愚, hào Lìzhāi 立齋, of Hézhōu 合州 (Chóngqìng, Sìchuān). 5 juǎn: 1 juǎn of memorials, 3 of miscellaneous prose, 1 of poetry. The famous Chéng-huà-end memorial against the senior cabinet Wàn Ān 萬安, Liú Jí 劉吉, and Yǐn Zhí 尹直 (and the inner-palace eunuchs) was buried (liú zhōng bù bào); the jiāndǎng (treacherous-party) built up a separate charge against Zōu, who was thrown into the Imperial Prison and would have been put to death but for Péng Sháo 彭韶’s intervention. He died in his Guǎngdōng exile, twenty-six. The collection was compiled posthumously by his friend Wú Tíngjǔ 吳廷舉 (then Shùndé zhīxiàn); the recension preserved in the WYG is the Tiānqǐ yǐchǒu (1625) recutting by Inspector Lǐ Fānglù with preface by Shífāng xùndǎo Lǐ Tíngliáng 李廷梁.
Tiyao
Lìzhāi yíwén in 5 juǎn — by Zōu Zhì of the Míng. Zhì, zì Rǔyú, native of Hézhōu. Chénghuà bǐngwǔ (1486) xiāngshì dìyī; at the time Wàn Ān was leaning on the inner-palace and hùquán (clinging-to-power); Zhì when on the way to the imperial-carriage passed by Wáng Shù’s [residence] and immediately resolved to expose his evil. Dīngwèi (1487) became jìnshì, changed to shùjíshì; at a stellar-portent occurrence, presented a memorial striking Wàn Ān and Liú Jí, Yǐn Zhí, the three Grand Secretaries, and the inner-eunuchs; though kept-in-the-palace, not reported, the jiāndǎng held him a grudge to the bone, and on another matter wove together [a charge] and thrust him into the zhàoyù (Imperial Prison), about to set down a death sentence. Péng Sháo forcefully held against [it]; got demotion to Guǎngdōng Shíchéng qiānhùsuǒ lìmù; died in office at the age of only twenty-six. Detail in Míngshǐ main biography. Jīn Qí’s composition of Zōu’s epitaph says his works are Lìzhāi jí, kept in the family. Examining the collection’s Chūdào Shíchéng poem’s second piece — after it there is annotation by his friend Shùndé zhīxiàn Wú Tíngjǔ appended, recording Zōu’s self-revision of the middle four lines; at the end is also appended a letter sent to Wú Xiànchén without his surname — discussing matters of cutting the collection and writing a preface; so the collection was the one compiled and cut by Tíngjǔ. This běn — before it is a preface by Shífāng xiàn xùndǎo Lǐ Tíngliáng saying the old boards lost-missing, and àntái (provincial inspector) Lǐ Fānglù re-cut; surely Tiānqǐ yǐchǒu (1625) cut. All: zòushū 1 juǎn, záwén 3 juǎn, shī 1 juǎn. Zhì memorialised attacking the quánjiān (powerful-treacherous), his zhí shēng (upright voice) moving the realm. Between ruler-and-state — chánmián dǔzhì zhì sǐ bùwàng (clinging-and-fond, substantial-and-sincere, even at death not forgetting); with not one fraction of yuànyóu (resentment-blaming) intention. His farewell-court poem says: Yún Sháo shēng jìng bài tóng chí, zhuǎn jué chányuán bù zìchí; zuì dà gù yīng zhū liǎngguàn, wǎng shū yóu dé cuàn Sānwēi; jǐn pī gāndǎn zhī hé rì, wàngjiàn yīcháng zhǐ cǐ shí. Dàn yuàn tàipíng wú yīshì, gūchén wànsǐ jìng hé bēi? — “When YúnSháo’s sounds are silent I bow at the crimson stair; back-rolling, I cannot keep my own clinging-care; for great crimes I should be killed on the two-towers, but the net is loose so I can flee to Sānwēi; when did I ever open my heart-and-gall — to gaze at the dragon-robe is only this time; but I wish all-under-heaven without one event, even though a lonely minister die ten thousand times, what is there to grieve?” — far, far away from the jiǎojī gūmíng (intemperate-fame-seeking) censors and remonstrators of Míng times. Therefore prose and poetry mostly come from zhìxìng (the most-true nature), borrowing not the work of decoration; though sometimes hurt by pǔshù (plain-and-rapid), his zhí qì (straight breath) overflows — what moves people is truly beyond the words. Compiled and presented in the eighth month of Qiánlóng 42 (1777). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Zōu Zhì is one of the most famous boy-remonstrants of mid-Míng — a jìnshì of Chénghuà 23 (1487), dead at twenty-six. His Chénghuà 23 stellar-portent memorial against Wàn Ān, Liú Jí, Yǐn Zhí, and the inner-palace eunuchs is a documentary anchor of the late-Chéng-huà quándāng (power-eunuch) period and a direct precursor of the early-Hóng-zhì cabinet reform under Wáng Shù 王恕. The Sìkù judgement explicitly contrasts Zōu’s zhí shēng (upright voice) with the jiǎojī gūmíng (intemperate, fame-seeking) censors and remonstrators of late Míng — placing him in a category by himself.
The textual transmission is sharp: Wú Tíngjǔ (Shùndé zhīxiàn) compiled the original 5-juǎn recension immediately after Zōu’s death, embedding his own annotations recording Zōu’s actual revisions of poems while in exile (the Chūdào Shíchéng poem) and a letter from a friend on the cutting decisions. The Tiānqǐ yǐchǒu (1625) recutting by Lǐ Fānglù (provincial inspector) is what survives in WYG.
The farewell-court poem — Dàn yuàn tàipíng wú yīshì, gūchén wànsǐ jìng hé bēi? (“If only all-under-heaven without one event — a lonely minister, even ten-thousand deaths, what is there to grieve?“) — is the locus classicus of Zōu’s zhìxìng prose. The Sìkù note that zhí qì liúyì, qí gǎn rén zhě gù zài wénzì wài — “straight breath overflows; what moves men is outside the words” — is one of the cleaner statements in the Míng biéjí tradition that literary value and political-moral value can be aligned.
CBDB id 34600 confirms 1466–1491.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976: notice of Zōu Zhì.
- Míng shǐ j. 179 — Zōu Zhì biography.
- John W. Dardess, A Political Life in Ming China: A Grand Secretary and His Times (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2013) — context for the Wàn Ān cabinet politics.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí) and §27.1 (Míng political history).
Other points of interest
The death of Zōu Zhì at twenty-six in coastal Guǎngdōng exile is one of the youngest and most famous Sìkù-preserved deaths of a remonstrant jìnshì in the Míng biéjí tradition. Wú Tíngjǔ’s composition of the Wùzhái anecdote about Zōu’s poem-revision in exile — embedded as an editorial annotation — is a documentary practice rare in the Míng biéjí corpus.