Mèngzé jí 夢澤集
Marsh-of-Dreams Collection by 王廷陳 (撰)
About the work
The literary collection of Wáng Tíngchén 王廷陳 (c. 1490s – c. 1550s), zì Zhìqīn 稚欽, of Huánggāng 黄岡 (Húběi) — Zhèngdé 12 (1517) jìnshì, selected Shùjíshì 庶吉士. Wáng’s yánshì (memorial-of-affairs) drew tíngzhàng (caning at court) and he was sent out as Yùzhōu zhīzhōu. The Sìkù presents him as a famously shì cái ào wù (“relied-on-talent, contemptuous-of-things”) brilliant-but-discarded mid-Míng poet whose 23 juǎn are the third cutting (after Huáiān and Sūzhōu editions) by his great-grandson Wáng Zhuīchún 王追淳 during the latter’s tenure as Yǐngzhōu zhīzhōu. The Sìkù gives a measured assessment: his qìliàng (“vessel-capacity”) is rather narrow, but his jǐngyǔ yuánxuān rán chū sú (“warning-language so rounded and rising — extraordinarily out of the common”) makes him one of the yīshí zhī xiù (one of the era’s distinguished talents). Wáng Shìzhēn 王世貞 in Yìyuàn zhīyán called Wáng’s poetry rú liángmǎ zǒubǎn, měinǚ wǔgān (“like a fine horse running downhill, a beautiful woman dancing the pole”); his five-character-style is especially the chángchéng (“Great Wall”) of his oeuvre.
Tiyao
Mèngzé jí in 23 juǎn — by Wáng Tíngchén of the Míng. Tíngchén, zì Zhìqīn, native of Huánggāng. Zhèngdé dīngchǒu (1517) jìnshì; selected as Shùjíshì. Because he submitted a memorial on affairs he was tíngzhàng (caned at court) and sent out as Yùzhōu zhīzhōu. Affairs detailed in Míngshǐ literary-garden (Wényuàn) biography. The collection had a first cutting at Huáiān and a second at Sūzhōu; this current edition is the third — cut by his great-grandson Zhuīchún during his tenure as Yǐngzhōu zhīzhōu. Tíngchén in his youth held high rank, but because he shì cái ào wù (relied on his talent and was contemptuous of things) he was thrown out and discarded for his whole life — his vessel-capacity (qìliàng) is rather narrow. But as for his poetic intent — his warning-language is so rounded-and-rising, extraordinarily out of the common — one cannot but call him one of the era’s distinguished talents (yīshí zhī xiù). Wáng Shìzhēn in Yìyuàn zhīyán called him: rú liángmǎ zǒubǎn, měinǚ wǔgān (“like a fine horse running downhill, a beautiful woman dancing the pole”); his five-character is zhuān chángchéng (specifically the Great Wall). He also said: “Wáng Zhìqīn and Wú Míngqīng 吳明卿’s five-character regulated — each at the extreme of its wondrous realm — extreme reach and surplus.” Zhū Yízūn’s Jìngzhìjū shīhuà also said his “tone is high as autumn bamboo, color brilliant as spring orchid” — that Yuèfǔ and ancient-style verse have many places of extreme refinement. Indeed at the Zhèngdé / Jiājìng turn, Hé Jǐngmíng was the most jùnyì (“élegant and quick”); Tíngchén’s tiāngǔ xióngxiù (“heavenly framework of imposing distinction”) is on the second carriage with him. As for his miscellaneous prose, zǎocǎi tài duō, huá yǎn qí shí (“ornament is too much, flowers cover the substance”) — to be classed zìKuài yǐ wújī (“from Kuài downward, not worth criticizing”) — there is no need to discuss them at length. Compiled and presented in the tenth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Wáng Tíngchén of Huánggāng is one of the best-recorded of the shìcái àowù (“talented and proud”) brilliant-but-thrown-out mid-Míng jìnshì of the Zhèngdé–Jiājìng turn. The Sìkù tíyào uses the unusually frank judgement qìliàng shū wéi qiǎnxiá (“vessel-capacity is rather narrow”), but anchors his literary reputation in two of the strongest period authorities: Wáng Shìzhēn’s Yìyuàn zhīyán and Zhū Yízūn’s Jìngzhìjū shīhuà — both placing Wáng Tíngchén in the orbit of Hé Jǐngmíng 何景明 and on par with Wú Guólún 吳國倫 (Míngqīng) in five-character regulated verse.
Textual transmission: the WYG recension is the third cutting — after a Huáiān edition and a Sūzhōu edition — produced by Wáng’s great-grandson Wáng Zhuīchún during his tenure as Yǐngzhōu zhīzhōu. The catalog meta does not list lifedates; CBDB (34668) has only zero markers. Hé Jǐngmíng (1483–1521) is Wáng’s older contemporary; from the jìnshì of 1517 the terminus a quo for composition is set; the terminus ad quem is the c.1550s of his death.
Date bracket: 1517 (Zhèngdé 12, jìnshì) — c.1559 (the latest plausible window of his death). Wáng’s lifedates remain unresolved in the standard works.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
- Míng shǐ j. 286 — Wáng Tíng-chén in Wén-yuàn biography.
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí).