Dōngjiāng jiācáng jí 東江家藏集
Dōng-jiāng Family-Treasured Collection by 顧清 (撰)
About the work
The self-edited 42-juǎn literary collection of Gù Qīng 顧清 (1460–1528), zì Shìlián 士廉, hào Dōngjiāng 東江, shì Wénxī 文僖, of Huátíng 華亭 (Sōngjiāngfǔ) — chronologically organised in three blocks: Shānzhōng gǎo 山中稿 (4 juǎn, pre-office; chūjí); Běiyóu gǎo 北遊稿 (29 juǎn, post-office; zhōngjí); Guīlái gǎo 歸來稿 (9 juǎn, post-retirement; hòují). Two further blocks — Liúdū gǎo 留都稿 (4 juǎn) and Cúngǎo 存稿 (10 juǎn) — were posthumous family supplements, but already lost by Qiánlóng times. Wáng Áo’s Gūsū zhì and Gù’s own Sōngjiāngfǔ zhì (KR2k) are independently catalogued. The Sìkù judgement places Gù squarely in the Chálíng (Chángshā / Lǐ Dōngyáng) school: when Hé Jǐngmíng (KR4e0162) and Lǐ Mèngyáng (KR4e0150) were juéxīng (rising-abruptly) and the QiánQīzǐ literary forms were on the verge of overturning the táigé tradition, Gù alone lìshǒu xiānmín zhī jǔyuè — “alone held firm to the rule-and-restraint of the prior people”.
Tiyao
Dōngjiāng jiācáng jí — by Gù Qīng of the Míng. Qīng has Sōngjiāngfǔ zhì separately catalogued. This edition has: Shānzhōng gǎo 4 juǎn as chūjí, made when not-yet-in-office; Běiyóu gǎo 29 juǎn as zhōngjí, made after-entering-office; Guīlái gǎo 9 juǎn as hòují, made after-retiring — all are what Qīng in his late years himself edited; therefore the tǐlì (form-and-rule) is rather jīngshěn (careful-and-examining). There are also Liúdū gǎo in 4 juǎn and Cúngǎo in 10 juǎn that his sons-and-grandsons continued to compile; now no longer transmitted. Qīng’s learning is upright, his conduct careful; polishing-and-honing his name-and-conduct. In Zhèngdé times he submitted over ten memorials of remonstrance; at the beginning of Jiājìng forcefully begged to stop sending out the imperial guards — on the politics of the day he all xiàntì (offered-and-emended). His poetry is qīngxīn wǎnlì (clear-and-fresh, gentle-and-lovely); tiānqù àngrán (natural charm bubbling-up). Prose is jiǎnliàn chúnyǎ (simple-refined, pure-elegant); naturally polished by fǎlǜ (rule-and-law). When Hé and Lǐ at his time were juéxīng (rising-abruptly) and literary forms were on the verge of changing — Qīng alone lìshǒu xiānmín zhī jǔyuè (firmly held the prior-people’s rule-and-restraint). Though bōlán qìyàn (wave-and-pattern, breath-and-flame) could not reach an extreme of chùqí wěilì (strange-grandeur and majestic-beauty), it should not be called other than zhèngshēng (correct-voice). Within the Chálíng yīpài (Chálíng one-school) he is also tǐngrán qiàochǔ (strikingly outstanding). Compiled and presented in the ninth month of Qiánlóng 44 (1779). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Gù Qīng’s Dōngjiāng jiācáng jí is one of the cleaner Sìkù-preserved cases of a Chálíng (Lǐ Dōngyáng) school literary loyalist holding firm against the QiánQīzǐ archaicist revival of Lǐ Mèngyáng and Hé Jǐngmíng in late Zhèngdé. The Sìkù judgement tǐngrán qiàochǔ (strikingly outstanding) within the Chálíng tradition is one of the cleanest editorial placements in this division.
The three-block chronological architecture (Shānzhōng / Běiyóu / Guīlái — Mountain / Northern-Journey / Return) is unusually deliberate for a Míng biéjí: Gù’s own life-stages — pre-office Huátíng, post-office Northern capital, post-retirement Huátíng — are mapped to the textual blocks. The Sìkù note that this tǐlì jīngshěn (form-and-rule careful-and-examining) results from Gù’s own late-life editing is one of the cleaner endorsements of a self-edited biéjí in the division.
The 4-juǎn appendix on Wáng Áo’s Fēngwén yánshì lùn (also catalogued in the meta) is preserved in the Biéjí — a documentary cross-reference to KR4e0133.
CBDB id 34623 confirms 1460–1528.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976: notice of Gù Qīng.
- Míng shǐ j. 184 — Gù Qīng biography.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí) and §22 (gazetteer literature, for Gù’s Sōng-jiāng-fǔ zhì).
- Joseph Dennis, Writing, Publishing, and Reading Local Gazetteers in Imperial China, 1100–1700 (Harvard Asia Center, 2015) — for context of Gù’s Sōng-jiāng-fǔ zhì.
Other points of interest
The two-fold textual loss — Liúdū gǎo (4 juǎn) and Cúngǎo (10 juǎn) — flagged by the Sìkù as already lost by Qiánlóng times is one of the cleaner documented post-Míng biéjí losses in this division. The Sōngjiāng cultural geography (Gù as the Huátíng zhèngshēng loyalist within the Sūzhōu / Sōngjiāng literary world otherwise dominated by Zhù Yǔnmíng KR4e0147 / Wén Zhēngmíng / Táng Yín) makes Gù a useful counter-pole.