Fāngzhāi cúngǎo 方齋存稿
Square-Studio Surviving Manuscripts by 林文俊 (撰)
About the work
The surviving writings of Lín Wénjùn 林文俊 (1487–1536), zì Rǔyīng 汝英, hào Fāngzhāi 方齋, posthumous shì Wénxiū 文修, of Pútián 莆田 (Fújiàn) — Nánjīng Lìbù yòu shìláng. Zhàn Ruòshuǐ’s shéndào bēi (spirit-way tablet) records the Fāngzhāi cúngǎo; no world-cut version. The WYG recension is the family-stored old manuscript: 9 juǎn (memorials, biǎo, prefaces, miscellaneous prose) + 1 juǎn poetry. The Sìkù judgement: wénzhāng chúnyǎ jùnyǒng (prose pure-elegant, lasting-and-deep); poetry chōngróng tiánshì bù shì diāozhuó (full-leisurely, calm-pleasing, not engaging in chiseling-and-decorating).
Tiyao
Fāngzhāi cúngǎo in 10 juǎn — by Lín Wénjùn of the Míng. Wénjùn, zì Rǔyīng, hào Fāngzhāi, native of Pútián. Zhèngdé xīnwèi (1511) jìnshì; office reached Nánjīng Lìbù yòu shìláng; shì Wénxiū. Affair detailed in Míngshǐ main biography. Zhàn Ruòshuǐ’s composed shéndàobēi records his writings — there is Fāngzhāi cúngǎo — but the world has no cut běn; this běn is its family-stored old transcript — memorials, biǎo, prefaces, prose, miscellaneous-writings 9 juǎn + poetry 1 juǎn. History calls his prose chúnyǎ jùnyǒng (pure-elegant, lasting-and-deep); now examining his poetry — also chōngróng tiánshì, bù shì diāozhuó (full-leisurely, calm-pleasing, not engaged-in-chiseling). Our dynasty’s Zhū Yízūn compiled Míngshī zōng — alone does not include him; surely from not seeing this běn — not deliberately not-recording. Also recent-person Zhèng Wángchén’s compilation Púfēng qīnglài jí — the selected Wénjùn poetry still has Péngchéng yèbó one qīyán lǜshī and Sòng Huáng zhǔbù fù Qíshuǐ two qīyán juéjù — what this collection has not collected. Not knowing where Wángchén got them. Wángchén is precisely a Pútián native; with Wénjùn is xiānglǐ (fellow-villager) — perhaps from mòjì (ink-traces) transmitted and used to include? The current-world transmits the Míng Nánjiān èrshíyī shǐ (Nánjiān 21 dynastic histories) — namely what Wénjùn cut. Cuàngǎi chuǎné (insertions-changes, errors-and-mistakes), rather subject to later-people’s zīyì (resentment-and-discussion). However, Wénjùn as jìjiǔ (Imperial-Academy chancellor) was already at the diāobǎn jiāngjùn zhī rì (boards-cut about-to-be-finished day); Chén Kuí’s Guǎngé xùlù — what he calls jīngjìn bùjīngxiū (presented-to-the-throne, not gone-through-revision) — surely cannot for this reason also resent his poetry-and-prose. Compiled and presented in the third month of Qiánlóng 44 (1779). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Lín Wénjùn’s Fāngzhāi cúngǎo is a Sìkù-preserved family-manuscript only — no world-cut version existed until the WYG recension. The collection’s principal documentary value is two-fold: (i) the zòu, biǎo, jiǎng materials of Lín’s career; (ii) the Sìkù’s explicit defense of Lín against the Wànlì Nánjiān èrshíyī shǐ editorial-criticism tradition. The Nánjiān èrshíyī shǐ (21 dynastic histories cut at the Nánjīng Guózǐjiàn) is one of the most famous mid-Wàn-lì textual editions, and Lín — as jìjiǔ at the time of the boards’ near-completion — has often been blamed for its editorial errors. The Sìkù explicitly cites Chén Kuí’s Guǎngé xùlù judgement that the Nánjiān èrshíyī shǐ boards were jīngjìn bùjīngxiū — “presented to the throne but not gone-through-revision” — and concludes that Lín cannot be blamed for the editorial errors of a project he inherited near completion.
The collection’s textual situation is unusual: Zhū Yízūn’s Míngshī zōng — the canonical Qīng-early Míng-poetry anthology — does not include Lín; the Sìkù explicitly identifies the reason as Zhū’s not having seen the family manuscript. Zhèng Wángchén’s Púfēng qīnglài jí — by a fellow Pútián townsman — preserves three Lín poems (Péngchéng yèbó and two Sòng Huáng zhǔbù fù Qíshuǐ qījué) that the WYG Fāngzhāi cúngǎo does not contain — the Sìkù speculates these came from mòjì (ink-trace) calligraphic transmissions.
CBDB id 128571 confirms 1487–1536.
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976: notice of Lín Wén-jùn.
- Míng shǐ j. 286 — Lín Wén-jùn biography.
- Lucille Chia, Printing for Profit: The Commercial Publishers of Jianyang, Fujian, 11th–17th Centuries (Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 2002) — context for the Míng Nán-jiān 21-histories printing operation.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §6 (the 21 dynastic histories) and §28 (Míng bié-jí).
Other points of interest
The Nánjiān èrshíyī shǐ boards — overseen by Lín during his Nánjiān Guózǐjiàn jìjiǔ tenure — are one of the most famous mid-Wàn-lì-era textual productions; the Sìkù’s defense of Lín from the editorial-error criticism (citing Chén Kuí’s Guǎngé xùlù jīngjìn bùjīngxiū doctrine) is one of the cleaner cases of Sìkù biéjí tíyào historiographical apologia. The fact that family-manuscript only preserves the collection — and that Zhū Yízūn’s Míngshī zōng missed it — gives the Sìkù tíyào a recovery tone.