Shāxī jí 沙溪集
Sand-Brook Collection by 孫緒 (撰)
About the work
The collected works of Sūn Xù 孫緒, zì Chéngfǔ 誠甫, self-styled Shāxī 沙溪, of Gùchéng 故城 (Jìnánfǔ, BěiZhílì). Hóngzhì 12 / jǐwèi (1499) jìnshì; rose to Tàipúsì qīng. 23 juǎn: 8 prose + 1 fù + 1 miscellaneous + 6 juǎn of Wúyòng xiántán 無用閒談 + 7 juǎn of poetry. The Wúyòng xiántán (Useless Idle Talk) is a bǐjì-style critical work whose contents are explicitly aimed at Lǐ Mèngyáng (李夢陽) — Sūn’s famous statement that jīn rén bù néng wéi QínHàn Zhànguó, yóu QínHàn Zhànguó bù néng wéi Liùjīng yě (“modern people cannot make themselves into QínHàn or Warring-States — just as QínHàn or Warring-States could not make themselves into the Six Classics”) is one of the cleanest anti-fùgǔ one-liners of mid-Míng. Wáng Shìzhēn 王士禛’s Chíběi ǒután flagged a wǔdài (Five Dynasties) Wáng Zuò misidentification (Sūn attributing Wáng Zuò’s biography material to Péng Shí) — a known historical error. The original printing combined Sūn with Mǎ Zhōngxí 馬中錫 (Dōngtián jí); the Sìkù separates them.
Tiyao
Shāxī jí in 23 juǎn — by Sūn Xù of the Míng. Xù, zì Chéngfǔ; Shāxī is his self-style. Native of Gùchéng. Hóngzhì jǐwèi (1499) jìnshì; office reached Tàipúsì qīng. This collection: prose 8 juǎn; fù 1 juǎn; miscellaneous 1 juǎn; Wúyòng xiántán 6 juǎn; poetry 7 juǎn. His prose is chénzhuó yǒu jiànqì (sinking-deep, with firm-breath). His Wúyòng xiántán says: Literature with time has high-and-low; people’s talent-power also each different. Today’s people cannot make themselves Qín-Hàn-Warring-States — just as Qín-Hàn-Warring-States could not make themselves the Six Classics. The age’s literary scholars chǐcùn bùzhòu yǐngxiǎng mónǐ (inch-foot step-pace, shadow-and-echo, imitating), huìsè xiǎnshēn pòsuì nándú (dim-and-stalled, dangerous-deep, broken-and-crushed, hard-to-read) — etc. — his intent surely is to address Lǐ Mèngyáng’s issuing. One can see his bearing. As for Gǔjīn shìxué biàn etc. — mixed with páiǒu (parallel-couplet) — not ancient not modern — then the compiler erred in shāntài (pruning-the-redundant) — turning into a burden on the author. His Wúyòng xiántán much shēnqiè zhùmíng (deep-and-pressing, light-and-clear) speech; on prose-and-poetry also each has quèjiàn (certain-views). Wáng Shìzhēn’s Chíběi ǒután once flagged his error of taking the Wǔdài (Five Dynasties) Wáng Zuò affair as Péng Shí affair — his statement is right; others as discussing Yáng Xióng affairs also off-target; but the main point not damaged. Poetry-style is rather close to Lǐ Dōngyáng, and deeply disagrees with Hé Mèngchūn etc.’s annotation on Dōngyáng yuèfǔ — saying it surpasses LǐDù as wrong — surely satirising those who effusively praise — not striking-at Dōngyáng. This collection was old jointly cut with Mǎ Zhōngxí’s Dōngtián jí. However, learning-and-pen-power both surpass Zhōngxí. Therefore now extract-and-record Xù’s collection; Zhōngxí preserve its title-only. Compiled and presented in the second month of Qiánlóng 44 (1779). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Sūn Xù’s Shāxī jí is documentarily anchored by the 6-juǎn Wúyòng xiántán — one of the most extensive single mid-Míng anti-QiánQīzǐ / fùgǔ critical-prose works in the Sìkù biéjí corpus. The famous jīn rén bù néng wéi QínHàn Zhànguó, yóu QínHàn Zhànguó bù néng wéi Liùjīng yě one-liner — that the moderns cannot become QínHàn just as QínHàn could not become the Six Classics — is one of the cleanest counter-statements of the period to Lǐ Mèngyáng’s wén bì QínHàn (in prose one must follow QínHàn) rule.
The Sìkù decision to detach Sūn from his original co-printing partner Mǎ Zhōngxí (whose Dōngtián jí is reduced to cúnmù) is one of the cleaner editorial re-pairings in this division: the editors recognise Sūn as the stronger of the two and elevate him to full Sìkù biéjí status.
Wáng Shìzhēn’s flagged error — Sūn’s misidentification of a Wǔdài (Five Dynasties) Wáng Zuò affair as a Péng Shí affair — is one of the cleanest factual-error-flagging cases in the Míng biéjí tradition, and the Sìkù explicitly endorses Wáng’s correction.
The catalog meta gives no dates for Sūn; CBDB id 34641 has no recorded dates either. The dating bracket here (1499 jìnshì → mid-Jiā-jìng) is by inference from career.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976: notice of Sūn Xù.
- Míng shǐ — no main biography; Sūn appears in the Wén-yuàn gallery only via cross-references.
- Daniel Bryant, The Great Recreation: Ho Ching-ming (1483–1521) and His World (Leiden: Brill, 2008) — for the anti-Qián-Qī-zǐ critical climate.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí).
Other points of interest
The Wúyòng xiántán (Useless Idle Talk) is structurally one of the largest single anti-fùgǔ critical-prose works to receive Sìkù biéjí preservation — the 6 juǎn dwarf the typical bǐjì-style critical work in this section. The Sìkù editors’ siding-with-Sūn against Lǐ Mèngyáng (KR4e0150) in the same division is one of the cleaner editorial-bias signals in the corpus.