Shēngān jí 升菴集
Ascending-Hermitage Collection by 楊愼 (撰), 張士佩 (編)
About the work
The Wàn-lì-era definitive 81-juǎn selection of Yáng Shèn 楊愼 (1488–1559), zì Yòngxiū 用脩, hào Shēngān 升菴, of Xīndū 新都 (Sichuan) — son of the dàxuéshì Yáng Tínghé 楊廷和, zhuàngyuán of Zhèngdé 6 (1511), and the most prolific Míng xiǎoxué polymath. Yáng Shèn was beaten with court-rods and exiled to Yúnnán in 1524 over the Dàlǐ yì (Great Rites Controversy); remained in exile for 35 years until his death. The 81 juǎn are: 11 juǎn of fù and miscellaneous prose + 29 juǎn of poetry + 41 juǎn of zájì (selected miscellaneous notes, drawn from Yáng’s vast bǐjì corpus including Dānqiān lù 丹鈆錄 and Tányuàn tíhú 譚苑醍醐). Compiled in Wànlì by Zhāng Shìpèi 張士佩 as Sìchuān xúnfǔ. Yáng’s xiǎoxué works Qízì yùn (KR1j0044) and Gǔyīn piánzì (KR1j0045) are separately catalogued.
Tiyao
Shēngān jí in 81 juǎn — by Yáng Shèn of the Míng. Shèn, zì Yòngxiū, native of Xīndū; son of dàxuéshì Tínghé. Zhèngdé xīnwèi (1511) jìnshì dìyī (zhuàngyuán); appointed xiūzhuàn; for discussing-the-great-rites zhàng (caned), demoted; affair detailed in Míngshǐ main biography. This collection is what Wàn-lì-era Sìchuān xúnfǔ Zhāng Shìpèi edited-and-determined — fù and miscellaneous prose 11 juǎn, poetry 29 juǎn; also zájì 41 juǎn — surely Shìpèi taking Shèn’s Dānqiān lù, Tányuàn tíhú etc. books, removing the duplicates, classified-and-arranged-in-order, appended to the back of his poetry-and-prose. Shèn by bóxué (broad-learning) was foremost of one age; his poetry hántǔ Liùcháo (swallowing-and-emitting Six-Dynasties), in Míng-era separately opens a ménhù (gate); his prose, though does not reach his poetry, still preserves the ancient rule — better than Hé and Lǐ schools’es zhìsè jiānsè bù kě jùdòu (blocked-and-stalled, difficult-and-deep, not punctuatable). As for lùnshuō kǎozhèng (discussion-and-textual-verification) — often relying on his qiángshí (strong-memory), [he] does not check-and-verify the original book; resulting in many shūchuǎn (rough-and-misstep); also fù qì qiú shèng (taking-on-breath seeking-victory), each time when his speech had zhìài (blocked-points), at once zào gǔshū yǐ shí zhī (made-up ancient books to fill it) — thus was reproached by Chén Yàowén and others. Also can be called not skillful at using strength. Compiled and presented in the seventh month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Yáng Shèn’s Shēngān jí is the Sìkù-canonical Wàn-lì-era selection from a body of writing the size of which is unique in mid-Míng: 400+ works attributed to Yáng, with the Sìkù preserving the principal biéjí (the present 81-juǎn recension) and two of his xiǎoxué (philological) works in KR1j0044 and KR1j0045. The collection’s 41-juǎn zájì segment — selected by Zhāng Shìpèi from Yáng’s Dānqiān lù (Cinnabar-and-Lead Record) and Tányuàn tíhú (Garden-of-Talk’s tíhú — clarified butter) — is one of the largest biéjí-embedded bǐjì extracts in this division.
The Sìkù judgement is famously two-edged: editors praise Yáng’s poetry — hántǔ Liùcháo, yú Míngdài dúlì ménhù (swallowing-Six-Dynasties, in Míng-era alone opens a school) — and his prose preservation of gǔfǎ (ancient rule) against the HéLǐ archaicist zhìsè jiānsè bù kě jùdòu (blocked-and-deep, unpunctuatable) prose. But the Sìkù equally explicitly identifies Yáng’s signature weakness: his qiángshí (strong-memory) led him to cite without verification, producing shūchuǎn (rough-stumbles) of fact; worse, when blocked, he zào gǔshū yǐ shí zhī — invented ancient books to fill the gap. The Chén Yàowén 陳耀文 attack on Yáng’s fabrications — which the Sìkù endorses — is one of the cleanest mid-Míng kǎo-zhèng-failure cases preserved in the biéjí tradition. The closing line bù shàn yòng cháng (“not skillful at using his strength”) is one of the more arresting Sìkù verdicts on a major literary figure.
The Yúnnán exile (1524–1559, 35 years) shaped Yáng’s xiǎoxué productivity: the exile period writings are the bulk of the zájì 41 juǎn. Yáng’s refusal-of-pardon — court permission to return was never granted, even after the legal expiry of his sentence — places him in the Sìkù’s most distinguished Dàlǐyì opposition cluster.
CBDB id 34657 confirms 1488–1559.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976: major notice of Yáng Shèn by Wing-fai Yang.
- Míng shǐ j. 192 — Yáng Shèn biography.
- Adam Schorr, “The Trip Outside the Empire: The Lyrical Poetry of Yang Shen”, Tamkang Review 32.1 (2001): 119–46.
- Carney T. Fisher, The Chosen One: Succession and Adoption in the Court of Ming Shizong. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1990 — for the Dà-lǐ yì context.
- Daria Berg, Carnival in China: A Reading of the Xingshi Yinyuan Zhuan (Leiden: Brill, 2002) — for the Dān-qiān lù and the bǐ-jì tradition.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí) and §27.1 (Míng political history).
Other points of interest
Yáng Shèn’s status as the most prolific Míng xiǎoxué polymath — with the bǐjì corpus drawn into the 41-juǎn zájì segment — makes the Shēngān jí documentary architecture the principal Wàn-lì-era reconstruction of Yáng’s working method: poetry (28 juǎn) + fù and prose (11 juǎn) + bǐjì-extracts (41 juǎn). The fabrication-of-ancient-books accusation — preserved here as an officially-endorsed Sìkù judgement — is one of the more uncomfortable mid-Míng kǎo-zhèng-tradition reckoning moments in the biéjí corpus.