Huángfǔ sīxūn jí 皇甫司勳集
Collection of Huáng-fǔ, Bureau Director of Merit Awards by 皇甫汸 (撰)
About the work
The literary collection of Huángfǔ Fāng 皇甫汸 (1498–1582), zì Zǐxún 子循, hào Bǎiquán 百泉, of Chángzhōu 長洲 (Sūzhōu, Jiāngsū). The title refers to his office Bīngbù sīxūn sī lángzhōng 兵部司勳司郎中 (Bureau Director of Merit Awards in the Board of War). Huángfǔ Fāng is one of the Huángfǔ four brothers of Sūzhōu — with elder brothers Chōng 沖 and Xiào 涍 and younger brother Lián 濂 — together known as the Huángfǔ sìjié (“Four Huángfǔ Worthies”). His other recorded work is the Bǎiquánzǐ xùlùn 百泉子緒論, separately recorded in the Sìkù. The collection records sub-collections (preserved as in-line annotations in the WYG juǎn): Zhèngxué, Huánshān, Fèngshǐ, Yùhuáng, Jiājū Nándū, Chánqī, Tánzhōu, Kuòzhōu, Nánzhōng shānjū, FùJīng láifú, Sīxūn běizhēng, Nánshǔ fùjīng, Hàogētíng, Ānyǎzhāi. He himself in late life consolidated everything into 1 juǎn of fù, 32 juǎn of poetry, 27 juǎn of miscellaneous prose — capped by his own Jíyuán (Collection-Origin) essay. The cutting is Wànlì yǐhài (1575), edited by Fàn Wéiyī 范惟一.
Tiyao
Huángfǔ sīxūn jí in 60 juǎn — by Huángfǔ Fāng of the Míng. Fāng has the Bǎiquánzǐ xùlùn — already recorded. His poetry-and-prose has Zhèngxué, Huánshān, Fèngshǐ, Yùhuáng, Jiājū Nándū, Chánqī, Tánzhōu, Kuòzhōu, Nánzhōng shānjū, FùJīng láifú, Sīxūn běizhēng, Nánshǔ fùjīng, Hàogētíng, Ānyǎzhāi various collections — Huáng Yújì’s Qiānqǐngtáng shūmù does not record them. In his late years he hand-deleted them and fixed them as 1 juǎn of fù, 32 juǎn of poetry, 27 juǎn of miscellaneous prose, capped with the Jíyuán one piece. The various collection-names are still annotated fēnzhù (split-and-noted) at the end of each juǎn. Cut at Wànlì yǐhài (1575) by Fàn Wéiyī, who edited it. Zhū Yízūn’s Jìngzhìjū shīhuà mentions a Fāng-collection of 60 juǎn — referring to this běn. Huáng Yújì still did not record it — perhaps just had not seen it? The Jíyuán self-narrates: his poetry first was GuānLuò zhī yīn (sound of Guānzhōng and Luòyáng); one change to Chǔyīn (Chǔ-sound); another change to Jiāngzuǒ zhī yīn (Yáng-zǐ-east sound); another to YānZhào zhī yīn (YānZhào sound); another to Shǔyīn (Shǔ-sound) — lǚ jǔ (item-by-item raising) his teachers and friends — origin-and-source — shèn xiáng (very detailed). Now broadly viewing his works: the ancient-style derives from the Three Xiè (Xiè Língyùn, Xiè Tiào, Xiè Huìlián); the near-style derives from Mid-Táng. Although lacking shēnzhàn zhī sī (deep-soaked thought), it is yǎchì yōngróng (elegant-cleanly, dignified-leisurely); his fēngbiāo (style-mark) self-distinguishes. In the Míng mid-leaf — does not fail to be a second-class person. Féng Shíkě 馮時可’s Yǔháng zálù says: “Huángfǔ Bǎiquán and Wáng Yǎnzhōu (Shìzhēn) names are equal — the people of the time say: Bǎiquán is like QíLǔ, with-change can-know-the-Way; Yǎnzhōu is like QínChǔ, strong, hence styled-king.” Wáng Shìzhēn (士禛, the Qīng-early Wáng of Xiāngzǔ bǐjì) takes FéngShíkě as the firm judgement. Compiled and presented in the 12th month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Huángfǔ Fāng of Chángzhōu is the most prolific of the Huángfǔ sìjié (“Four Huángfǔ Worthies”) — a four-brother Sūzhōu literary family of the Jiājìng era. The 60-juǎn WYG recension is the author’s own late-life redaction, much consolidated from a much larger body of sub-collections (the 14 named sub-titles preserved in the in-line annotations make this collection unusual as a biéjí-of-many-biéjí). Huángfǔ Fāng’s poetic jīnglì (geographical-career) — GuānLuò → Chǔ → Jiāngzuǒ → YānZhào → Shǔ — is itself an interesting self-narrative of mid-Míng literary regionalism. The Sìkù’s key critical anchor is Féng Shíkě’s formulation: Huángfǔ is QíLǔ (refined, change-knowing-the-Way), Wáng Shìzhēn is QínChǔ (strong, kingly) — a typology endorsed by Wáng Shìzhēn (the Qīng-era) in Xiāngzǔ bǐjì. The tíyào’s overall verdict — unfailingly a second-class person in mid-Míng — places Huángfǔ exactly in the second tier behind the Hòu Qī Zǐ principals.
Date bracket: 1529 (Jiājìng 8, when Huángfǔ took the jìnshì) — 1582 (death). CBDB 30681 gives 1503–1582; the catalog meta gives 1498–1582; standard Míng reference works including Míngshǐ j. 287 and the Sìjié sources give 1498–1582, followed here.
Translations and research
- Míng shǐ j. 287 — Huáng-fǔ Fāng Wén-yuàn biography (in the sì-jié entry).
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976: entry on the Huáng-fǔ brothers.
- Yim Lawrence C. H., The Poet-Historian Qian Qianyi (London: Routledge, 2009) — context for the Huáng-fǔ brothers’ position in the late-Míng Sū-zhōu literary inheritance.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí).
Other points of interest
The collection’s structure — a late-life consolidation of 14 sub-collections into a single 60-juǎn work, with each sub-collection’s identity preserved as a juǎn-end annotation — is one of the more elaborate self-editorial frameworks in Míng biéjí. The Jíyuán essay’s regional self-narrative is a substantial document of mid-Míng literary geography.