Dōngyán jí 東巖集
Eastern-Cliff Collection by 夏尙樸 (撰)
About the work
The collected writings of Xià Shàngpǔ 夏尙樸 (b. 1466), zì Dūnfū 敦夫, hào Dōngyán 東巖, of Yǒngfēng 永豐 (Jiāngxī) — Nánjīng Tàipúsì shàoqīng and the principal Sìkù-canonical disciple of Lóu Liàng 婁諒 (the Chóngrén lineage Wú Yǔbì → Lóu Liàng) who refused both Wáng Yángmíng liángzhī and Zhàn Ruòshuǐ cúnxīn. 6 juǎn. Compiled by his son-in-law Liú Bīn 劉賔, with the yǔlù + Zhōngyōng shuō as juǎn 1 and the wénjí as remainder. Míngshǐ Rúlín zhuàn records Zhōngyōng shuō and Dōngyán wénjí as separate works — the Sìkù běn combines them. The Sìkù tíyào contains an unusually full Lǐxué argument: a critique of the Míngshǐ Rúlín zhuàn placement (which lists Xià as both a Lóu Liàng disciple and at the Xuē Xuān main biography’s end among the Zhōu Huì disciples — the Sìkù identifies this as a yǎnwén (excess-textual error) of the Xuē biography); the Wáng Yángmíng jìXiàshī (poem sent to Xià) and Xià’s response — both preserved in the collection — are quoted.
Tiyao
Dōngyán jí in 6 juǎn — by Xià Shàngpǔ of the Míng. Shàngpǔ, zì Dūnfū; Dōngyán is his hào; native of Yǒngfēng. Zhèngdé xīnwèi (1511) jìnshì; office reached Nánjīng Tàipúsì shàoqīng. Shàngpǔ received-teaching at Lóu Liàng; therefore Míngshǐ Rúlín zhuàn appends his appearance in Liáng’s biography. Yet history at the end of Xuē Xuān’s biography also says: Xuān’s disciples have Zhōu Huì, Huì’s disciples have Xuē Jìngzhī, Lǐ Jǐn, Wáng Jué, Xià Shàngpǔ — with the Liáng-biography not agreeing. Examining the end-of-biography only narrates Jìngzhī, Jǐn, Jué’s three persons’ affairs — not one word reaches Shàngpǔ; then the Xuē-biography listing-Xià’s-name is rather yǎnwén (text-excessive). Liáng with wùwàng wùzhù (don’t-forget, don’t-help) as jìng (reverence); Hú Jūrén, Luó Qīnshùn mostly satirise his being-close-to-Chán; yet history records Shàngpǔ often saying: cái tíqǐ biànshì tiānlǐ, cái fàngxià biànshì rényù (as soon as raised it is the tiānlǐ; as soon as set-down it is the rényù) — Wèi Jiào repeatedly praised this. Wáng Shǒurén in youth also studied at Liáng; yet Shǒurén’s gift-poem to Shàngpǔ has the line shěsè chūnfēng (set-aside-the-sè, spring-wind); Shàngpǔ then replied: Kǒngmén Yíshuǐ chūnfēng jǐng, bù chū Yútíng jìngwèi zhōng (Kǒng-gate’s Yí-River spring-wind scene; does not come out of the Yú-court’s respect-and-fear). Down to saying xīn suǒ yǐ qiónglǐ, wèi zú yǐ jìn lǐ (heart is what-is-used to exhaust-principle, [but] not yet sufficient to exhaust-principle); also says xué bù nán yú yīguàn ér nán yú wànshū (learning is not difficult in the one-through-all but difficult in the ten-thousand-different) — then with Shǒurén’s jíxīn jílǐ (the-heart-precisely-is-principle) speech distinctly different. Also wrote letter to Zhàn Ruòshuǐ jīnjīn yǐ yàncháng xǐxīn wéi jiè (gnaw-gnaw at yàncháng xǐxīn — weary-the-ordinary, love-the-new — as a warning). His yǔlù also took Chén Xiànzhāng’s lùnxué shī (poems discussing learning) and one-by-one made jiānshū (annotation-and-text), pointing-out their errors. Zhèngdé interval, learning was gradually splitting, and Shàngpǔ alone kèshǒu xiānrú, bù wéi gāolùn (carefully held to the prior-Confucians, not making high-discussions) — can be called a dǔshí zhī shì (substantial scholar). As for his discussion of Zhōngyōng dividing into eight sections, alone not using Master Zhū’s teaching, then jiànrén jiànzhì (see-the-humane, see-the-wise) — each having its own attainment; his not making gǒutóng (perfunctory-agreement) is also his not making gǒuyì (perfunctory-disagreement). History records his writings include Zhōngyōng shuō and Dōngyán wénjí; this běn is what his son-in-law Liú Bīn compiled — with the yǔlù and Zhōngyōng shuō as the first juǎn and the wénjí combined into one collection; history surely based on the original separately-walking běn. Shàngpǔ originally is a lecturing-of-learning scholar — does not take literature as craft; yet his speech is chúnzhèng (pure-and-correct) — surely also not at-odds-with the dàyǎ (great-elegance). Compiled and presented in the twelfth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Xià Shàngpǔ’s Dōngyán jí is the Sìkù-canonical disciple-of-Lóu Liàng Confucian voice of the early-Jiā-jìng era. The Lǐxué lineage Wú Yǔbì → Lóu Liàng → Xià is the principal mid-Míng surviving Chóngrén / Yúgàn school line, and Xià’s preserved exchange with Wáng Yángmíng (both studied under Lóu Liàng) — Yángmíng’s shěsè chūnfēng gift-poem, Xià’s bù chū Yútíng jìngwèi zhōng refusal — is one of the cleanest mid-Míng Lǐxué / xīnxué polemical exchanges preserved in any biéjí.
The Sìkù judgement’s distinctiveness is double-edged: editors praise Xià for kèshǒu xiānrú, bù wéi gāolùn (carefully holding to the prior Confucians, not making high-discussions) and for the cái tíqǐ biànshì tiānlǐ (as-soon-as-raised it is tiānlǐ) one-liner — which Wèi Jiào (KR4e0164) praised; but they also note Xià’s Zhōngyōng eight-section reading, which departs from Zhū Xī — this is one of the cleaner Sìkù statements that orthodox-Zhū loyalty does not require slavish agreement with Zhū’s specific readings (jiànrén jiànzhì gè yǒu suǒ dé — see-the-humane, see-the-wise, each has its own attainment).
The Sìkù’s correction of the Míngshǐ Rúlín zhuàn Xuē Xuān biography excess-text — identifying Xià’s appearance in the Xuē-biography’s end-list as a textual error (the corresponding biographies of Jìngzhī / Jǐn / Jué do not include Xià) — is one of the cleaner Sìkù biéjí tíyào historiographical interventions in the entire division.
CBDB id 201691 records 1466 for the birth year; death year unrecorded.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976: notice of Xià Shàng-pǔ.
- Míng shǐ j. 282 (Rú-lín 1) — Xià Shàng-pǔ appended to Lóu Liàng biography.
- Huáng Zōng-xī, Míng-rú xué-àn j. 2 — Xià under the Chóng-rén xué-àn.
- Tu Wei-ming, Neo-Confucian Thought in Action: Wang Yang-ming’s Youth (1472–1509) (Berkeley: California UP, 1976) — for the Lóu Liàng / Wáng Yáng-míng common-teacher context.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí) and §31.4 (Míng Lǐ-xué).
Other points of interest
The preserved exchange-poetry between Xià and Wáng Yángmíng — both students of Lóu Liàng — is one of the cleanest documentary anchors in the Sìkù biéjí for the intra-Lóu-Liàng-school fork that produced Yángmíngxué (Wáng’s branch) and the Chóngrén orthodox-Zhū (Xià’s branch). The Sìkù’s correction of the Míngshǐ Rúlín zhuàn on Xià’s appearance in the XuēXuān biography line is also one of the cleaner historiographical interventions in this division.