Niànān wénjí 念菴文集
Niàn-ān Prose Collection by 羅洪先 (撰)
About the work
The literary collection of Luó Hóngxiān 羅洪先 (1504–1564), zì Dáfū 達夫, hào Niànān 念菴, posthumous shì Wéngōng 文恭, of Jíshuǐ 吉水 (Jiāngxī). Jiājìng 8 (1529, 己丑) jìnshì in the dìyī rén (top-graduate, zhuàngyuán) rank; office reached Zuǒ Chūnfāng zànshàn. In the early Lóngqìng era he was posthumously elevated to Guānglù sì shǎoqīng. Luó did not personally meet Wáng Shǒurén 王守仁 but studied with Wáng’s compatriot Lǐ Zhōng 李中, whose own learning derived from Yáng Zhū 楊珠; hence Luó’s doctrine takes liángzhī (innate moral knowing) as its centre. Luó later composed Wáng Shǒurén’s niánpǔ (chronological biography) and styled himself as Wáng’s ménrén (disciple). His own learning is characterized by jìngguān běntǐ (still-observing the original-substance) — a meditative extension of liángzhī doctrine that did not avoid the criticism of rùChán (entering Chán). The 22-juǎn WYG recension is organized by genre: memorials, biǎo, prose by type, including biographies, tomb-inscriptions, prose-collections — and a substantial poetry section. Luó is also known as the author of the Guǎngyútú 廣輿圖 — a famous Míng atlas. The cutting is the Yōngzhèng guǐmǎo (1723) edition produced by his sixth-generation descendant Luó Jìhóng 羅繼洪 — strangely re-named: the descendant calls Luó “Hónglǐ” (a name that violates the bìhuì 避諱 (taboo-avoidance) convention for direct ancestors and which the Sìkù compilers cannot make sense of).
Tiyao
Niànān wénjí in 22 juǎn — by Luó Hóngxiān of the Míng. Hóngxiān, zì Dáfū, native of Jíshuǐ. Jiājìng jǐchǒu (1529) jìnshì in the dìyī rén rank; office reached Zuǒ Chūnfāng zànshàn. At the start of Lóngqìng posthumously elevated to Guānglù sì shǎoqīng, shì Wéngōng. Hóngxiān did not personally meet Wáng Shǒurén but received his studies from his hometown-man Lǐ Zhōng; Lǐ Zhōng’s learning issued from Yáng Zhū — hence his doctrine still takes liángzhī (innate knowing) as ancestor. Afterward he composed Shǒurén’s niánpǔ and styled himself ménrén (disciple) — not avoiding the jiǎngxué ménhù (lecturing-philosophy school-and-gate) custom. His learning is only jìngguān běntǐ (still-observing original-substance) and still does not avoid rù Chán (entering Chán). Yet his rénpǐn (personal grade) is gāojié (lofty-pure); when Yán Sōng wished to recommend him and could not, one can call him a fèng xiáng qiānrèn zhě (“a fèng (phoenix) soaring at a thousand-fathom height”). The collection had a first cutting at Fǔzhōu and a second at Yìngtiān; finally his disciples edited it into this běn, and his disciple Hú Zhí 胡直 prefaced it — saying his learning underwent three changes, and the prose followed: he first imitated Lǐ Mèngyáng; then he loathed it, and joined with Táng Shùnzhī and others to mutually polish; in the late years he then went his own way. His letter-answer to a friend uses water as analogy: ancient men’s able-prose-writers must in their middle have zìdé shíjiàn (self-attained actual seeing) — the Way’s flowing has no place not present; even if one wishes not to be the wave-tide and rapid-billow class, one cannot — this also is a yǒujiàn zhī yán (saying-of-actual-seeing). This běn is the Yōngzhèng guǐmǎo (1723) re-cutting by his sixth-generation descendant Jìhóng and others — Hóngxiān’s yì (descendant) is named Hónglǐ — which is unintelligible — could it be an erroneous understanding of bùtí shì zé bùhuì (when not in-touch with the matter, then do not taboo) (i.e. relaxing the bìhuì convention because the named ancestor’s generation is too remote)? Compiled and presented in the fifth month of Qiánlóng 43 (1778). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Luó Hóngxiān of Jíshuǐ is one of the most documented and historically consequential figures of the Yángmíng (Wáng Shǒurén) school’s Jiāngyòu (Jiāngxī) wing. He never met Wáng but studied with Lǐ Zhōng, an indirect transmission line; he afterwards composed Wáng’s niánpǔ — the principal biographical document of the Wáng Shǒurén tradition — and styled himself a Wáng disciple. His doctrine of jìngguān běntǐ (still-observing the original-substance) is a meditative refinement of liángzhī and is one of the lines through which the Yángmíng school inflected toward Chán. The Sìkù tíyào’s most informative paragraph is Hú Zhí’s preface (Hú is the author of Hénglú jīngshè cánggǎo KR4e0210 — Luó’s disciple): Luó’s learning passed through three changes, and his prose followed — first imitating Lǐ Mèngyáng, then in repudiation joining Táng Shùnzhī and the Tang-Sòng group, finally going his own way. The collection’s textual history (Fǔzhōu and Yìngtiān early cuttings; the disciple-edited běn; the Yōngzhèng 1723 re-cutting by the sixth-generation descendant Luó Jìhóng) is unusually well documented.
Beyond the literary collection, Luó is the principal author of the Guǎngyútú 廣輿圖 — the most influential atlas of Míng China — independently recorded in the Sìkù and discussed at length in the secondary literature.
Date bracket: 1529 (Jiājìng 8 jìnshì) — 1723 (Yōngzhèng guǐmǎo re-cutting). The active composition window ends with Luó’s death in 1564. CBDB 34702 confirms 1504–1564.
Translations and research
- Julia Ching, To Acquire Wisdom: The Way of Wang Yang-ming (New York: Columbia UP, 1976) — context for Luó’s position in the Jiāng-yòu lineage.
- Mizoguchi Yūzō 溝口雄三, Chūgoku zen-kindai shisō no kussetsu to tenkai 中国前近代思想の屈折と展開 (Tokyo: Tōkyō daigaku, 1980) — Luó’s jìng-guān doctrine as part of the broader Yáng-míng refinements.
- Cordell D. K. Yee, “Reinterpreting Traditional Chinese Geographical Maps,” in The History of Cartography, vol. 2, bk. 2 (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1994) — Luó Hóng-xiān’s Guǎng-yú-tú.
- Míng shǐ j. 283 — Luó Hóng-xiān biography in the Rú-lín (Forest of Scholars).
- 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) and §16 (cartography).
Other points of interest
The Sìkù tíyào’s perplexity about the descendant Luó Jìhóng’s use of the name “Hónglǐ” — which violates bìhuì of the direct ancestor’s given name — is itself a small but interesting datum on Qīng-mid bìhuì convention; the tíyào speculates a relaxation of bìhuì on the grounds of generational distance.