Yáng Zhōngmǐn jí 楊忠愍集
Collection of Yáng Zhōng-mǐn by 楊繼盛 (撰)
About the work
The collected writings of Yáng Jìshèng 楊繼盛 (1516–1555), zì Zhòngfāng 仲芳, hào Jiāoshān 椒山, posthumous shì Zhōngmǐn 忠愍, of Róngchéng 容城 (Bǎodìng, Zhílì). Jiājìng 26 (1547, 丁未) jìnshì; office reached Bīngbù wǔxuǎn sī yuánwài láng. He composed the celebrated memorials Lùn mǎshì (Discussing the Āndā Mongol horse-market) and Hé Yán Sōng (Impeaching Yán Sōng) — for the latter he was framed by Yán’s faction and qìshì (executed in public) together with Zhāng Jīng 張經 in 1555. Posthumously elevated to Tàicháng sì qīng and given the shì Zhōngmǐn. Yáng is one of the most canonical Míng zhōngjié (loyalist) figures. The collection — only 3 juǎn (with 1-juǎn appendix in the original 4-juǎn design): memorials (j. 1); miscellaneous prose (j. 2); poetry (j. 3); appendix of xíngzhuàng and stele-records (j. 4) — was edited by Yáng’s son. The Sìkù recension is the Kāngxī-era edition collated by Zhāng Yù 章鈺 of Xiāoshān, with imperial preface by the Shùnzhì emperor (世祖章皇帝).
Tiyao
Yáng Zhōngmǐn jí in 3 juǎn — by Yáng Jìshèng of the Míng. Jìshèng, zì Zhòngfāng, hào Jiāoshān, native of Róngchéng. Jiājìng dīngwèi (1547) jìnshì; office reached Bīngbù wǔxuǎn sī yuánwài láng. For his memorial impeaching Yán Sōng, was framed-and-implicated by him — qìshì (executed in public) with Zhāng Jīng. Later posthumously Tàicháng sì qīng, shì Zhōngmǐn. Affairs detailed in Míngshǐ main biography. Jìshèng běn yǐ jīngjì qìjié zìxǔ (originally based on statecraft and integrity his self-confidence); did not concern himself with wénzì (letters). Later-people, valuing his rénpǐn, duōshí chéngbiān (gathered fragments into composition). Looking up — receiving — Shùnzhì’s imperial preface — biǎo his zhōngjìn — once bāoyǔ (acclaim-given) — through the ages it is as if alive. Therefore even xiǔdù chénbiān (worm-eaten old-volumes) became deeply treasured. This běn is what Xiāoshān Zhāng Yù of the Kāngxī period collated. Memorials 1 juǎn; miscellaneous prose 1 juǎn; poetry 1 juǎn; xíngzhuàng and stele-records separately as 1 juǎn appended. His two memorials — Lùn mǎshì (Discussing the horse-market) and Hé Yán Sōng (Impeaching Yán Sōng) — the shǐzhuàn by its tǐcái (genre-restraint) only preserves the summary; the collection-běn is the full text — pīgān lìdǎn (splitting the liver, exposing the gall) — the kàngzhí zhī qì (upright-direct qì) as if alive. The self-composed niánpǔ (chronological-biography) one piece — learning-and-character all see běnmò (root-and-tip) — especially what the shǐzhuàn could not detail. The yízhǔ (death-instruction) one piece — composed the night before execution — the brush-trace to this day shì shǒu (the age-guards) — at that cāngcù (sudden) moment, several-thousand words without one character túyǐ (smudge-stricken) — especially shows what he cultivated. The words although zhìpǔ (simple-pure), yet zhōngxiào zhī yì yóurán (loyal-and-filial intent gushing-forth) — especially enough to gǎndòng (move) a hundred ages.
Only in the niánpǔ — self-recording of his cóng Hán Bāngqí xué yuèlǜ (learning music-rules from Hán Bāngqí); his dream of Yú Shùn (Emperor Shùn) — one affair — somewhat guàiyì (strange and remarkable). But Jìshèng is not a wàngyǔ (false-speech) person — surely from tánsī zhī jí, yuán xīn gòuxiàng (extremity of thinking, mind-conjured-image). The Shìshuō (Shìshuō xīnyǔ) records Wèi Jiè asking Yuè Guǎng about dreams; Guǎng said: “it is thinking.” Guǎnzǐ said: “sī zhī, sī zhī, guǐshén tōng zhī” (“think it, think it; ghosts and spirits pass it”). Surely also lǐ zhī suǒ yǒu (within the realm of principle). Formerly Wú Yǔbì 吳與弼 composed Rìlù (Day-record), self-claimed to mèngjiàn Kǒngzǐ (dream-see Kǒngzǐ) — people doubted him as fake. Jìshèng’s words are quite similar — but from the Míng down none doubt — this then is xì hū qí rén (related to the person) — has things not waiting for tongue-and-mouth disputes. Compiled and presented in the ninth month of Qiánlóng 42 (1777). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Yáng Jìshèng of Róngchéng is the canonical Míng zhōngmǐn (loyal-and-aggrieved) figure — paired with Yáng Jué (Yáng Zhōngjiè jí KR4e0189) as the two great Jiājìng zhōngjiàn (loyal-remonstrants), but Yáng Jìshèng’s case is more politically central: his impeachment of Yán Sōng in 1553 (the Hé Yán Sōng shū) — the most famous single anti–Yán Sōng document of the Míng — and his earlier memorial against the Āndā Mongol mǎshì (horse-market). The collection has multiple layers of historical interest: (i) the full texts of the two memorials, of which the Míngshǐ preserves only summaries; (ii) Yáng’s self-composed niánpǔ — exceptionally complete for a Míng official; (iii) the yízhǔ (death-instruction) — composed the night before execution, several thousand words without correction; the calligraphic mòjì survived. The Kāngxī recension was collated by Zhāng Yù of Xiāoshān; the Shùnzhì emperor’s imperial preface — the Sìkù unusually retains, and uses to position the collection — established Yáng as a Qīng-canonical zhōngjié exemplar.
Date bracket: 1547 (Jiājìng 26 jìnshì) — 1555 (execution). CBDB 34716 confirms 1516–1555.
The Sìkù tíyào’s defense of Yáng’s niánpǔ dream-vision of Emperor Shùn — using Shìshuō xīnyǔ’s Wèi Jiè anecdote and Guǎnzǐ’s sī zhī, sī zhī, guǐshén tōng zhī — and comparing it with Wú Yǔbì’s self-reported dream-encounter with Confucius — is one of the more interesting Sìkù methodological excursuses on zhèngshǐ-vs-biéjí evidentiary status.
Translations and research
- Míng shǐ j. 209 — Yáng Jì-shèng main biography.
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976: full entry on Yáng Jì-shèng.
- Frederick W. Mote, Imperial China 900–1800 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 1999) — on the Yán Sōng dictatorship.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí).
Other points of interest
The pre-execution yízhǔ (preserved as mòjì / surviving calligraphic manuscript) is one of the most-reproduced single Míng documents — also famously the subject of later Qīng-era jīnshí (epigraphical) and zhōngjiébēi (loyalty-stele) traditions.