Xiǎoshān lèigǎo 小山類稿
Classified Manuscripts from Little Mountain by 張岳 (撰)
About the work
The literary and administrative collection of Zhāng Yuè 張岳 (1492–1552), zì Wéiqiáo 惟喬, hào Xiǎoshān 小山, posthumous shì Xiānghuì 襄惠, of Huìān 惠安 (Fújiàn) — Zhèngdé 12 (1517, 丁丑) jìnshì, finally Xíngbù shìláng 刑部侍郎 zhǎng Dūcháyuàn shì 掌都察院事, then Zǒngdū HúGuǎng SìChuān Guìzhōu 總督湖廣四川貴州. The 20-juǎn collection is organized as an administrative chronicle (lèigǎo) — its component sub-manuscripts (Xíngrén sī gǎo, Liánzhōu gǎo, Yuèfān gǎo, Dūfǔ Yúnyáng gǎo, Xúnfǔ Jiāngxī gǎo, Dūfǔ LiǎngGuǎng gǎo, Zǒngdū HúGuǎng Chuān Guì gǎo) are arranged in the order of Zhāng’s official postings. Because Zhāng was bólǎn gōng wénzhāng (“broadly-read and skilful at prose”), the work is read by the Sìkù as a documentary record of jīngjì dàyè (“statecraft enterprise”); the prose is pǔzhí (“plain and straight”) rather than ornate.
Tiyao
Xiǎoshān lèigǎo in 20 juǎn — by Zhāng Yuè of the Míng. Yuè, zì Wéiqiáo, native of Huìān. Zhèngdé dīngchǒu (1517) jìnshì; office reached Xíngbù shìláng zhǎng Dūcháyuàn shì; he was further sent out as Zǒngdū HúGuǎng SìChuān Guìzhōu; died, shì Xiānghuì. Affair-record detailed in Míngshǐ main biography. Yuè was first appointed Xíngrén (court-messenger), and at once submitted a memorial protesting the southern progress — tíngzhàng (caned at court), transferred to Nánjīng Guózǐ jiàn xuézhèng. At the start of Jiājìng he was restored to original office. Yet he again offended Zhāng Cōng 張璁 on the matter of the rites; he continued to offend Xià Yán 夏言; he offended Yán Sōng father and son — yet in the end he obtained a gōngmíng zhī zhōng (“ending in fame and merit”) as if by some heavenly fortune. Yet his gāngzhèng zhī cāo (“upright-resolute discipline”) is what the empire affirms. In the collection, the memorials and proposals — divided into the Xíngrén sī gǎo, the Liánzhōu gǎo, the Yuèfān gǎo, the Dūfǔ Yúnyáng gǎo, the Xúnfǔ Jiāngxī gǎo, the Dūfǔ LiǎngGuǎng gǎo, the Zǒngdū HúGuǎng Chuān Guì gǎo — are all arranged by the order of his official tenure and classified accordingly. Although the prose-style is pǔzhí (plain-and-straight), nonetheless the jīngjì dàyè (statecraft-enterprise) can be made out from this record. Moreover, the history says Yuè was bólǎn gōng wénzhāng, jīngshù zhànshēn, bù xǐ Wáng Shǒurén (“broadly read and skilful in prose, deep in classical learning, not fond of Wáng Shǒurén”). Now examining the Cǎotáng xuézé (Thatched-Hall Learning-Rules) and the discussions-of-learning in his various letters — all are tuīchǎn qièzhì (“expounded carefully”) and return to dǔshí jìnlǐ (substantive truth-grasping) — surely yǒu tǐ yǒu yòng (“having substance and use”) — quite different from those whose talk is empty and rootless. Compiled and presented in the tenth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Zhāng Yuè’s Xiǎoshān lèigǎo is one of the more substantial mid-Míng jīngshì (statecraft) collections to enter the Sìkù canon. Its principal interest is documentary rather than literary: the 20 juǎn sub-manuscripts trace Zhāng’s career as a senior administrator and field commander from Zhèngdé into the disastrous southwestern campaigns of the Jiājìng period — including his governorships of Yúnyáng, Jiāngxī, and LiǎngGuǎng, and his HúGuǎng / SìChuān / Guìzhōu zǒngdū (supreme commandership), during which he managed the Yáo / Zhuàng 瑤、僮 frontier campaigns. The collection also contains the Cǎotáng xuézé and a body of letters that document his opposition to the Wáng Shǒurén 王守仁 (Yángmíng) xīnxué lineage from a jīngshù (classical-learning) standpoint — a politically and intellectually consequential opposition through the Jiājìng decades. Zhāng’s Míngshǐ j. 213 biography is the principal historiographical key to the collection.
Date bracket: Zhāng’s 1517 jìnshì through his death in 1552 (CBDB 34663 confirms 1492–1553; Míngshǐ and most modern reference works give 1552 as the death year and that is followed here; the catalog meta gives 1492–1552).
Translations and research
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976: entry on Zhāng Yuè.
- Míng shǐ j. 213 — Zhāng Yuè biography.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí) and §41 (Míng frontier history).
Other points of interest
The Cǎotáng xuézé 草堂學則 contained in the collection is one of the more articulate Jiā-jìng-period fǎn–Wáng Yángmíng statements: an attack on xīnxué from inside the jīngshù (classical-learning) camp by a senior official-administrator whose Yángmíng-opposing position was politically as well as philosophically consequential.