Zhújiàn jí 竹澗集
Bamboo-Channel Collection by 潘希曾 (撰)
About the work
The collected works of Pān Xīzēng 潘希曾 (1476–1532), zì Zhònglǔ 仲魯, hào Zhújiàn 竹澗, of Jīnhuá 金華 (Zhèjiāng) — Bīngbù zuǒ shìláng, posthumously shàngshū. Three-stage architecture: 4 juǎn poetry + 4 juǎn prose, with appended Zhújiàn zòuyì 竹澗奏議 in 4 juǎn and 墓志小傳 etc. as fùlù. Pān is one of the Sìkù’s principal mid-Míng River-Works documentarists: his xiūzhù Pèi / Shàn chángdī 修築沛單長堤 (Construction of the Pèi-and-Shàn Long-Dyke) memorials provide one of the principal Míng documentary records cross-referenced in Míngshǐ Héqú zhì. His political-loyalty record is in three crises: (i) as Bīngkē jǐshìzhōng impeaching Wāng Zhí 汪直’s adopted-son’s improperly-conferred rank; (ii) the eight-affairs memorial on stellar portents pointing at favoured-eunuchs; (iii) the Tàisùdiàn / Tiānéfáng memorials against Wǔzōng’s vast palace-projects. Cut at the end of Jiājìng by Huáng Xǐngzēng 黃省曾 of Chángzhōu.
Tiyao
Zhújiàn jí in 8 juǎn; Zhújiàn zòuyì in 4 juǎn — by Pān Xīzēng of the Míng. Xīzēng, zì Zhònglǔ, native of Jīnhuá. Hóngzhì rénxū (1502) jìnshì; office reached Bīngbù zuǒ shìláng; on death awarded shàngshū. His literary collection first carries 4 juǎn of poetry; next 4 juǎn of prose; next 4 juǎn of zòuyì; at end fùlù mùzhì xiǎozhuàn etc. pieces. Xīzēng as Bīngkē jǐshìzhōng submitted memorial stripping the eunuch Wāng Zhí’s adopted-son’s rank-and-office; again because of disaster-portent extending eight affairs — all directly pointing at jìnxìng (favoured-ones); also at being-sent inspecting HúGuì border-stores; further for not bribing Liú Jǐn, by jiǎozhǐ (forged-edict) thrown-into-prison, kǎoluě chúmíng (tortured-and-cudgeled, stripped-of-name); Jǐn was executed, [Pān] was raised-back-to-office, and again [he] forcefully contested the Tàisùdiàn and Tiānéfáng etc. labours. Now examining the zhāngzòu (memorials-and-presents) before-and-after he submitted, words all kǎiqiē zhēnzhì (penetratingly-pressing, true-and-sincere), not making fěnshì (powdered-decoration), and deeply-hit-the-affair-and-principle. Lifetime though not famous by poetry-and-prose, his qìtǐ hàohàn pèirán yǒuyú (breath-frame vast-and-flooding, abundantly-having-surplus); also possessing jǔyuè (rule-and-restraint); not what qiǎnzhōng shìmào (shallow-inside, decorated-outside) can be compared to. Xīzēng’s zhìhé (river-governance) achievement is most distinguished; main biography says he separately has Zhìhé lù (River-Governance Record); now no longer transmitted — but in the collection’s xiūzhù Pèi / Shàn chángdī several memorials, the placement-and-pattern of construction still appears in one-or-two — surely can with the Míngshǐ Héqú zhì mutually consult. Huáng Yújì’s Qiānqǐngtáng shūmù records Xīzēng’s collection — the table-of-contents with this běn fully agrees — surely the late-Jiā-jìng Chángzhōu Huáng Xǐngzēng cut. Compiled and presented in the ninth month of Qiánlóng 44 (1779). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Pān Xīzēng’s Zhújiàn jí is one of the cleanest Sìkù-preserved Zhèng-dé-era hydraulic-engineering documentary records in the Míng biéjí corpus. The xiūzhù Pèi / Shàn chángdī memorials — on the construction of the Pèi 沛 / Shàn 單 long-dyke (JiāngsūShāndōng border, on the Yellow River) — were extracted into Míngshǐ Héqú zhì as the principal Míng documentary record, and the Sìkù explicitly cross-references that. The original Zhìhé lù (River-Governance Record) is no longer transmitted; the Zhújiàn jí’s preservation of the Hégōng (river-works) memorials is the substitute documentary survival.
The three-fold loyalist-arc — Wāng Zhí impeachment → eunuch eight-affairs memorial → Tàisùdiàn / Tiānéfáng anti-construction memorials — places Pān in the principal HóngzhìZhèngdé loyalist cluster of the division.
CBDB id 34647 confirms 1476–1532.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976: notice of Pān Xī-zēng.
- Míng shǐ j. 201 — Pān Xī-zēng biography.
- Míng shǐ j. 84 — Hé-qú zhì (River and Canal Treatise), drawing on Pān’s memorials.
- Pierre-Étienne Will, Bureaucracy and Famine in Eighteenth-Century China (Stanford UP, 1990) — context for the Míng river-works administration heritage.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí) and §22 (water-works literature).
Other points of interest
The mention of the lost Zhìhé lù — Pān’s separate dedicated river-works treatise — is one of the cleaner biéjí-tradition memorials of a now-lost technical work. The Pèi / Shàn chángdī construction memorials surviving in the Zhújiàn jí are the principal Míng-era documentary record for the long-dyke project that became the basis of Qīng-era flood-control along the Yellow River–Huáihé junction.