Fǔtián jí 甫田集
Fǔ-tián Collection by 文徵明 (撰)
About the work
The literary collection of Wén Zhēngmíng 文徵明 (1470–1559), zì originally Zhēngmíng (Wén changed his name to use the zì in the míng position and adopted Zhēngzhòng 徵仲 as new zì), hào Héngshān 衡山, of Chángzhōu 長洲 (Sūzhōu, Jiāngsū). Wén was admitted into office via suìgòng (provincial graduate-by-seniority recommendation) — exceptional given his eminence — and was appointed Hànlínyuàn dàizhào 翰林院待詔. The 35-juǎn WYG recension comprises 15 juǎn of poetry, 20 juǎn of prose, plus 1 juǎn appendix containing the Xiānjūn xíngluè (“Father’s life-outline”) composed by his second son Wén Jiā 文嘉. Wén Zhēngmíng is one of the Sì Dà Cáizǐ (“Four Great Talents of Wú”, the Sūzhōu cáizǐ — with Zhù Yǔnmíng 祝允明, Táng Yín 唐寅, Xú Zhēnqīng 徐禎卿); a central calligraphy and painting figure of the Wú school (paired with his teacher Shěn Zhōu 沈周). His own self-account (as recorded in Zhū Yízūn’s Jìngzhìjū shīhuà): “Wǒ shàonián xué shī cóng Lù Fàngwēng rù” (“In my youth I learned poetry by entering through Lù Fàngwēng” — i.e. Lù Yóu 陸游, not the Táng).
Tiyao
Fǔtián jí in 35 juǎn, with appended xínglüè in 1 juǎn — by Wén Zhēngmíng of the Míng. Zhēngmíng originally named Bì 璧 — he used the zì in place of the míng; new zì Zhēngzhòng, hào Héngshān, native of Chángzhōu. By suìgòng (provincial graduate-by-seniority recommendation) he was appointed Hànlínyuàn dàizhào. Affairs detailed in Míngshǐ literary-garden biography. The collection comprises 15 juǎn of poetry, 20 juǎn of prose, and an appended xínglüè in 1 juǎn — the latter composed by his second son Jiā. Zhēngmíng and Shěn Zhōu were both known for calligraphy-and-painting, but they were also poets — their brush splashes-and-floods, but only writes their own tiānqù (heavenly delight) — like cloud-shapes and water-postures, not to be limited by square or round. Zhēngmíng’s poetry — within its yǎchì (elegant-cleanly) it often has yìyùn (lingering charm). Jìngzhìjū shīhuà records his remark to Hé Liángjùn: “I in my youth learned poetry, entering by way of Lù Fàngwēng (Yóu); hence my gédiào is lowly and weak — unlike all of yours, which are all Tángyīn (Táng-sound).” This is what we call rú yú yǐn shuǐ, lěngnuǎn zìzhī (“like a fish drinking water — cold or warm, only itself knows”) — jiǎorán bù wū qí běnzhì (“brightly, without slandering his own intent”). Yet Shěn Zhōu’s tiānhuái tǎnyì (heavenly breast — open and easy); his painting is bold-deep and cāngmǎng (broadly green); his poetry-frame matches. Zhēngmíng bǐngzhì yǎjié (with disciplined-intent and pure-elegance); his painting is fine-moist and xiāosǎ (graceful-clean); his poetry-frame also matches. Indeed they each match their own nature-feeling, not entirely from what they imitated. Zhū Yízūn’s Míngshī zōng records Zhēngmíng’s poetry in 15 selections; the single Chíshàng piece is obtained from a brushed manuscript — not contained in the present collection. He also says the externally-transmitted pieces are many — alas, no one has done a broad-search and made a continuation-collection. Yet silk-and-paper-transmitted half-true, half-forged — better as with Wú Zhèn 吳鎮 and Ní Zàn 倪瓚 collections — many included forged-copies — far better is to rely on the family collection, which still does not lose the běnlái miànmù (original face). Compiled and presented in the seventh month of Qiánlóng 44 (1779). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Wén Zhēngmíng’s Fǔtián jí is the canonical family-recension of the literary output of one of the Míng’s most celebrated figures — a painter-calligrapher-poet trinity ranking among the Wúmén Sì Cáizǐ (“Four Talents of Wú”) and the xièbǔ jīngyīng (“succeeding ancestral talent”) of Shěn Zhōu’s Wú-school of painting. The collection is unusual among Míng biéjí in that its primary editorial-historical anchor (the Xínglüè by his son Wén Jiā) is also a key biographical document for the Sūzhōu Wén family. The Sìkù tíyào emphasizes (i) Wén’s deliberate self-positioning outside the HànWèi / shèngTáng archaist mainstream, by his own account entering poetry through Lù Yóu — a confession the tíyào treats as non-pretence (jiǎorán bù wū qí běnzhì); (ii) the strong textual rationale for the family-collection over the externally-transmitted manuscript fragments, which (in Wén’s case as in the cases of Wú Zhèn and Ní Zàn) include many forgeries. Zhū Yízūn included 15 Wén poems in Míngshī zōng, of which one (Chíshàng) was obtained from a brushed manuscript not in the family collection.
Date bracket: Wén’s productive life from c.1500 (entry into the Sūzhōu literary circles) through his death in 1559 at age 90 by sui. CBDB and catalog agree on 1470–1559.
Translations and research
- Anne de Coursey Clapp, Wen Cheng-ming: The Ming Artist and Antiquity (Ascona: Artibus Asiae, 1975) — the standard monograph on Wén Zhēng-míng in English.
- Richard Edwards, The Art of Wen Cheng-ming (1470–1559) (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Museum of Art, 1976) — exhibition catalogue with critical apparatus.
- Craig Clunas, Elegant Debts: The Social Art of Wen Zhengming, 1470–1559 (London: Reaktion, 2004) — social-art-history reading of the Wén oeuvre.
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976: full entry on Wén Zhēng-míng.
- Míng shǐ j. 287 — Wén Zhēng-míng Wén-yuàn biography.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí) and §47 (painting / calligraphy).
Other points of interest
The 1-juǎn appendix Xiānjūn xínglüè by Wén Jiā 文嘉 (1501–1583, Wén’s second son, himself an important Wú-school painter) is one of the more substantial son-composed Míng family-biographical documents and is integral to the Wén family’s historical record.