Yáng Zhōngjiè jí 楊忠介集
Collection of Yáng Zhōng-jiè by 楊爵 (撰)
About the work
The collected works of Yáng Jué 楊爵 (1493–1549), zì Bóxiū 伯修, hào Bīnyáng 斌陽 / Xiēgǔ 歇谷, posthumous shì Zhōngjiè 忠介, of Fùpíng 富平 (Shǎnxī). Yáng is the author of the Zhōuyì biànlù 周易辨錄 (separately recorded in the Sìkù) and a central figure of Guānxī Dàoxué (Shǎnxī Neo-Confucian) tradition. The 13-juǎn collection plus 5-juǎn appendix is organized: memorials (j. 1); prefaces, stelae and records (j. 2); biographies (j. 3); letters (j. 4); family letters (j. 5); yǔlù (recorded sayings) (j. 6); sacrificial prose, tomb-inscriptions, miscellaneous prose (j. 7); poetry (j. 8–13). The 5-juǎn appendix was compiled by later editors. Yáng was the most famous remonstrator against the Jiā-jìng-era zhāijiào (Daoist liturgical) extravagance: when the rest of the court was composing qīngcí (Daoist liturgical cí-poems) to ingratiate themselves, Yáng alone jù lǐ zhí jiàn (straight-remonstrated by principle), pointing out that unseasonable snow cannot be an auspicious sign and heterodox arts cannot be allowed to mislead the masses. He was imprisoned; even from prison he continued to memorialize.
Tiyao
Yáng Zhōngjiè jí in 13 juǎn — by Yáng Jué of the Míng. Jué has the Zhōuyì biànlù — already recorded. The first juǎn is zòuyì (memorials and proposals); the second is prefaces, stele-records; the third is biographies; the fourth is letters; the fifth is family-letters; the sixth is yǔlù (recorded sayings); the seventh is sacrificial prose, tomb-inscriptions, miscellaneous writings; the eighth to thirteenth is poetry. The 5-juǎn appendix is by later compilers. In the Shìzōng (Jiājìng) reign, zhāijiào (Daoist liturgies) were thriving; the shìdàfū all by qīngcí (blue-words, Daoist liturgical poetry) tried to flatter — yet Jué alone jù lǐ zhí jiàn (relied on principle and straight-remonstrated). Such as his exposition that shí xuě zhī bùkě yǐ wèi ruì (out-of-season snow cannot be auspicious) and that zuǒdào zhī bùkě yǐ huò zhòng (heterodox ways cannot be allowed to mislead the masses) — the words are extremely kǎiqiè (urgent-and-pressing). After being sent to prison, he still memorialized, hoping for a single enlightenment. His zhōngài fěicè (loyal-loving, anguished) feelings — to this day as if seen. Twenty-five family letters — zhūnzhūn (earnestly) instructing his sons and grandsons on loyalty-and-filiality, never one word touching personal matter. The yǔlù is not gāolùn (lofty discourse), but dǔshí míngbái (substantial and clear) — all cuìrán rúzhě zhī yán (purely the words of a Rú). Note: Jué travelled with Luó Hóngxiān and Qián Déhóng 錢德洪 to encourage each other in jiǎngxué (Neo-Confucian lecturing). But Déhóng and the others yuán chū Yáojiāng (issued from Yáojiāng, i.e. the Wáng Shǒurén school), wù chǎn liángzhī zhī shuō (“striving to expound the liángzhī doctrine”); whereas Jué took gōngxíng shíjiàn (personally-practicing, actually-trying) as his first principle. The transmission of Guānxī Dàoxué (the Shǎnxī Neo-Confucian tradition) — Jué actually opened it. Tracing his lifetime — can be called not betraying what he learned. His poetry and prose are mostly zhí shū xiōngyì (straight expression of breast-intent) — although it seems to injure into ease — yet yǒu běn zhī yán (rooted words) — not from carving-and-painting — what is transmissible is not in ornaments-and-colour. Compiled and presented in the intercalary fifth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Yáng Jué of Fùpíng is one of the two great Jiā-jìng-era remonstrators against the Shìzōng emperor’s Daoist liturgical practice (the other being Yáng Jìshèng 楊繼盛, Yáng Zhōngmǐn jí KR4e0200 — though Yáng Jìshèng’s targets were primarily the Yán Sōng dictatorship and the Āndā Mongol crisis). The 25 family letters from prison are among the most often anthologized pieces of Míng moral-pedagogical prose. Intellectually, the Sìkù tíyào explicitly opposes Yáng’s position to the Yáojiāng (Wáng Shǒurén) wing of the Jiāngyòu Yángmíng disciples (Luó Hóngxiān, Qián Déhóng): Yáng took gōngxíng shíjiàn (personally-practicing) as his first principle, marking the opening of the distinct Guānxī Dàoxué (Shǎnxī Neo-Confucian) tradition — a yánxínghéyī lineage that flowered through Fēng Cóngwú 馮從吾 in the late Míng and Lǐ Yóng 李顒 in the Qīng.
Date bracket: 1523 (Jiājìng 2 jìnshì) — 1549 (death in prison). CBDB and catalog agree on 1493–1549.
Translations and research
- Míng shǐ j. 209 — Yáng Jué main biography.
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976: entry on Yáng Jué.
- Hung-lam Chu, “Chen Chien (1497–1567) and the Confucian Orthodoxy,” in Ming Studies — for context on the anti–Yáng-míng tendency that Yáng exemplifies.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí).
Other points of interest
The Sìkù tíyào’s claim that Yáng Jué “opened” the Guānxī Dàoxué (Shǎnxī Neo-Confucian) tradition is one of the more pointed statements of mid-Míng intellectual regional lineage; it positions the Shǎnxī school in deliberate distinction from the Yáojiāng mainstream.