Tiānmǎ shānfáng yígǎo 天馬山房遺稿
Surviving Manuscripts from the Heaven-Horse Mountain Studio by 朱淛 (撰)
About the work
The surviving writings of Zhū Zhè 朱淛 (1486–1552), zì Bìdōng 必東, hào Sǔnān 損庵, of Pútián 莆田 (Fújiàn). Zhū took the jìnshì in Jiājìng 2 (1523, 癸未) and was appointed HúGuǎng dào Jiānchá yùshǐ. The famous incident of his career is his memorial opposing the imbalanced protocol of empress-dowager birthday ceremonies — when the empress dowager Xīngguó 興國 (the Jiājìng emperor’s birth-mother, formerly Lady Jiǎng 蔣) was granted the zhàomìngfù cháohè (“by-edict command-women court-congratulation”) protocol on her birthday, while the senior dowager Císhòu 慈壽 (the Hóngzhì empress) was granted no such protocol. Zhū’s zhēng yì shū (contestation-memorial) on this point cost him tíngzhàng (court-caning) and dismissal; he retired to Pútián for over 30 years. The 8-juǎn WYG recension, as the yígǎo (surviving manuscripts) name signals, is a posthumous compilation. The collection is notable for two things: (i) the complete text of his birthday-protocol memorial — preserved here in full, with only a much-cut version in the dynastic history; (ii) substantive post-retirement writings on Nányáng shuǐlì (Nányáng waterworks) and shānkòu hǎikòu (mountain bandits and pirates) — jīngshì (statecraft) writings of an exiled official who not did not regard officials even after dismissal.
Tiyao
Tiānmǎ shānfáng yígǎo in 8 juǎn — by Zhū Zhè of the Míng. Zhè, zì Bìdōng, hào Sǔnān, native of Pútián. Jiājìng guǐwèi (1523) jìnshì; appointed HúGuǎng dào Jiānchá yùshǐ. It came about that on the Xīngguó tàihòu (empress dowager Xīngguó)‘s birthday, an edict commanded the mìngfù cháohè (titled-wives court-congratulation); but on the Císhòu tàihòu’s birthday this was transferred-and-not-commanded. Zhè memorialized contestation; was tíngzhàng and dismissed-home; ended-life-at-home. Affairs detailed in Míngshǐ main biography. His poetry-and-prose does not employ qiānhuá (lead-and-flowers, i.e. cosmetics); independently expresses huáibào (bosom-embraces). Zhū Yízūn’s Jìngzhìjū shīhuà also says his poetry has no vulgar tones — chant it and one imagines the man — as if a zépàn xíngyín (marsh-side wandering-chanter, i.e. Qū Yuán-style) who chénlún méishì (drowned-and-submerged, ending his age) — yet never had a single qióngyù yuànyóu (grieving-sinking, blame-and-resentment) word — this is what we call difficult. As for the 30+ years at home — on mínshēng guójì (people’s-life-and-state-statistics) he was qièqiè bù wàng (urgently-and-never-forgetting). The collection contains the Nányáng shuǐlì zhī yì (Nányáng waterworks proposal), the shānkòu hǎikòu zhī fáng (mountain-bandit and pirate prevention) — all zhǐchén lìbìng (pointing out gains-and-harms) — zhēnzhuó shíyí (weighing-the-suitable-of-the-times) — winding, complete, to inform dāngshì (those-in-charge). He did not, because of dismissal, regard-things-as-membrane (= unimportant) — this also is difficult. As for his zhēng dànjié cháohè shū (contestation-of-birthday-court-congratulation memorial): in the History only the cut-summary remains; the collection still preserves its complete original — used as the yājuǎn (capstone, “weight-of-the-scroll”). Since the yìlǐ zhūchén (rites-debating ministers) were prosecuted, the whole court attached to the new ruling-bloc; Zhè and Mǎ Mínghéng 馬明衡 alone remained quánquán (carefully-attached) to the former-ruler — this is especially his lifetime great-virtue. Hence the compilers of his yíwén made it a separate juǎn — placed biàn yú jíshǒu (capping the head of the collection). Compiled and presented in the fifth month of Qiánlóng 45 (1780). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Zhū Zhè of Pútián is one of the more memorable cases of the Jiā-jìng-era Dàlǐyì (Great Rites Controversy) aftermath: while most of the court rapidly attached to the xīnjú (new ruling bloc) installed after the prosecution of the rites-debating ministers (the Yáng Tínghé 楊廷和 / Máo Chéng 毛澄 generation), Zhū — together with Mǎ Mínghéng 馬明衡 — continued quánquán loyalty to the Hóngzhì dispensation. The Sìkù tíyào singles out the birthday-protocol memorial as Zhū’s lifetime great act and explicitly notes that the collection contains the full text, where the Míngshǐ preserves only an excerpt — a textual datum of biographical importance. The collection’s other principal interest is its post-retirement jīngshì (statecraft) writings: Zhū’s proposals on Nányáng waterworks and on mountain-bandit/pirate prevention, written from Pútián, are typical of the loyalist-in-retirement jīngshì genre.
Date bracket: 1523 (Jiājìng 2 jìnshì) — 1552 (death). CBDB 34696 gives 1486–1555; the catalog meta gives 1486–1552; the Míngshǐ main biography (j. 207) is consistent with the catalog meta and is followed here.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
- Míng shǐ j. 207 — Zhū Zhè main biography (in the Dà-lǐ-yì sequence).
- Carney T. Fisher, The Chosen One: Succession and Adoption in the Court of Ming Shizong (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1990) — the standard English-language study of the Dà-lǐ-yì, contextualizing the empress-dowager birthday protocol dispute.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí).
Other points of interest
The collection’s preservation of the full contestation-memorial against the empress-dowager birthday protocol — an extension of the Dàlǐyì into ritual practice — is a primary source for an under-studied phase of the Jiājìng rites disputes; the Míngshǐ version is heavily abridged.