Yuànluò jí 苑洛集
Garden-Brook Collection by 韓邦奇 (撰)
About the work
The collected writings of Hán Bāngqí 韓邦奇 (1479–1555), zì Rǔjié 汝節, hào Yuànluò 苑洛, shì Gōngjiǎn 恭簡, of Cháoyì 朝邑 (Shǎnxī) — Nánjīng Bīngbù shàngshū, the principal Shǎnxī polymath of mid-Míng. The catalog meta gives 23 juǎn; the present Sìkù tíyào counts 23 juǎn by component: prefaces 2, jì 1, zhìmíng 3, biǎo 1, zhuàn 1, cèwèn 1, poetry 1, cí 1, zòuyì 5, jiànwén kǎosuí lù 5. Cut at the end of Jiājìng; preface by Kǒng Tiānyǔn 孔天允 of Fényáng. Yìxué qǐméng yìjiàn (KR1a0094) and Yuànluò zhìlè (treatise on music) are separately catalogued. The collection’s most distinctive feature is the Jiànwén kǎosuí lù 見聞考隨錄 (Notes-Following on Things Seen and Heard) — 5 juǎn of court-affairs anecdotes including the jī Yú Qiān bù néng kuāngzhèng zhī shī (criticism of Yú Qiān for failure to remonstrate-and-correct) and the biàn Zhāng Cǎi ēfù Liú Jǐn zhī shì (refutation of Zhāng Cǎi’s alleged fawning on Liú Jǐn).
Tiyao
Yuànluò jí in 23 juǎn — by Hán Bāngqí of the Míng. Bāngqí has Yìxué qǐméng yìjiàn separately catalogued. The collection has: prefaces 2 juǎn, jì 1 juǎn, zhìmíng 3 juǎn, biǎo 1, zhuàn 1, cèwèn 1, poetry 1, cí 1, zòuyì 5, Jiànwén kǎosuí lù 5 — cut at the end of Jiājìng; Kǒng Tiānyǔn of Fényáng wrote the preface. At ZhèngdéJiājìng interval, Běidì (Lǐ Mèngyáng) and Xìnyáng (Hé Jǐngmíng) were using their learning to elevate the world. Bāngqí alone did not attach to or harmonise with them; with authoring books as left-over-affair, set forth in literature — not necessarily insistent on agreeing with the ancients; yet jìwèn yāntōng (his recording-and-asking extends-and-passes-through) — for tiānguān (astronomy), dìlǐ (geography), lǜlǚ (musical-pitches), shùshù (mathematics-and-numerology), bīngfǎ (military methods) and the like — all bólǎn jīngsī (broadly seeing, essentially thinking) — getting their key-points. Therefore his cited-allusions’ richness, his discussion’s solidity — each-and-every having roots — not like zhuìshí fúhuá (piecing-up floating-flowers). As for the Jiànwén kǎosuí lù records of court-affair canonical-precedents — rather detailed and complete. Within, items like criticising Yú Qiān for not being able to remonstrate-and-correct and refuting Zhāng Cǎi’s fawning on Liú Jǐn — although unavoidably slightly piānbó (one-sided-patchy), the ordering-and-sequencing míngxī (clear-and-precise), can serve for textual-verification. The other discussions of jīngyì (Classical meaning) and explication of Yì-numbers especially many jīngquè (essentially-true), can-be-transmitted — surely yǒu běn zhī xué (rooted-learning); even though his suǒwén zájì (trivial-hearings, miscellaneous notes) are also different from empty talkers. Compiled and presented in the fifth month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Hán Bāngqí’s Yuànluò jí is the Sìkù-canonical example of mid-Míng polymathic Shǎnxī orthodox-Zhū scholarship — a deliberate refusal of the Lǐ Mèngyáng / Hé Jǐngmíng archaicist line in favour of substantive engagement with tiānguān (astronomy), dìlǐ (geography), lǜlǚ (musical-pitches), shùshù (mathematics), bīngfǎ (military methods). The Sìkù judgement bólǎn jīngsī, dé qí yàolǐng — “broadly seeing, essentially thinking, getting the key-points” — is one of the cleaner placements of a multi-disciplinary Confucian in the biéjí tradition. The contrast with the QiánQīzǐ archaicism is structural: where Lǐ Mèngyáng’s followers pursued gēbāo QínHàn (slicing-and-stripping QínHàn), Hán pursued tiānguān and lǜlǚ.
The Jiànwén kǎosuí lù (Notes-Following on Things Seen and Heard) is one of the most consequential mid-Míng court-affairs anecdotal records preserved as a biéjí-internal bǐjì. The Sìkù explicitly notes Hán’s criticisms of Yú Qiān 于謙 (the Tǔ-mù-bǎo-era 1449 saviour) and his refutation of the alleged fawning of Zhāng Cǎi on Liú Jǐn — the latter is a Sìkù-flagged piānbó (one-sided) judgement that the editors note but do not exclude. The kě zī kǎojù (can serve for textual-verification) endorsement is one of the cleaner Sìkù bǐjì-validation moments in this division.
Hán’s other Yìxué works are separately catalogued: Yìxué qǐméng yìjiàn (KR1a0094) and Yuànluò zhìlè (musical treatise) — the latter one of the principal Míng mathematical-musical works. His elder brother Hán Bāngjìng 韓邦靖 (also a Yìxué scholar) and cousin Wáng Yáng 王陽 (no relation to Wáng Yángmíng) formed the core of an early-16th-century Shǎnxī Lǐxué circle.
CBDB id 34652 confirms 1479–1555.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976: notice of Hán Bāng-qí.
- Míng shǐ j. 201 — Hán Bāng-qí biography.
- Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 4 (CUP, 1962) — for Hán’s musical-mathematical work (Yuàn-luò zhì-lè).
- Kenneth J. DeWoskin, A Song for One or Two: Music and the Concept of Art in Early China (Ann Arbor: U. Michigan, 1982) — context for the lǜ-lǚ tradition.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí) and §31.4 (Míng Lǐ-xué).
Other points of interest
The Jiànwén kǎosuí lù (5 juǎn of court-affairs anecdotes) embedded in the biéjí is one of the most extensive mid-Míng bǐjì preserved within a biéjí in the Sìkù. The biéjí + bǐjì + Classical-studies + musical treatise corpus of Hán makes him one of the most clearly-documented mid-Míng polymath examples in the Sìkù.