Dànránxuān jí 淡然軒集
Tranquil Studio Collection by 余繼登 (撰), 馮琦 (編)
About the work
The literary collection of Yú Jìdēng 余繼登 (1544–1600), zì Shìyòng 世用, hào Yúnqú 雲衢, posthumous shì Wénquè 文恪, of Jiāohé 交河 (Zhílì). Wànlì dīngchǒu (1577) jìnshì; cumulatively officed Lǐbù shàngshū. He died in office in 1600. His friend Féng Qí 馮琦 (Zōngbó jí author, Sìkù-recorded separately) compiled and cut the 8-juǎn collection after Yú’s death. The collection is organized: 2 juǎn memorials; 3 juǎn prefaces and records; 2 juǎn tomb-inscriptions and miscellaneous prose; 1 juǎn poetry. Yú was the principal anti-mine-tax (kuàngshuì) memorialist of the late-Wàn-lì period: when zāiyì (disasters and anomalies) repeatedly appeared, he memorialized for the emperor to gōng jiāomiào, cè yuánzǐ, tíng kuàngshuì, chè zhōngshǐ (“personally [conduct] the jiāo and miào sacrifices, install the heir-apparent, halt the mine-tax, withdraw the eunuch envoys”). He further memorialized for the suspension of the SìChuān kuàngshuì to fund the Bōzhōu campaign — the only mine-tax suspension successfully won under Wànlì. The Dànránxuān studio name reflects the dànbó (tranquil-thin) aesthetic Yú cultivated against the Wànlì zhōng tiāobó zhī xí (mid-Wàn-lì frivolous-thin habit).
Tiyao
Dànránxuān jí in 8 juǎn — by Yú Jìdēng of the Míng. Jìdēng, zì Shìyòng, native of Jiāohé. Wànlì dīngchǒu (1577) jìnshì; officed to Lǐbù shàngshū; shì Wénquè. This collection is divided as zòushū 2 juǎn, xùjì 3 juǎn, zhìmíng and záwén 2 juǎn, shī 1 juǎn. After Jìdēng’s death, his friend Féng Qí xuǎn ér kè zhī (selected and cut it). Jìdēng during Shénzōng’s reign because zāiyì lǚjiàn (disasters and anomalies repeatedly appeared), shàngshū jí chén yīqiè zhūqiú kāicǎi zhī hài mín zhě (“sent up memorials urgently presenting all-the-extraction and mining-and-collecting that-was-harming-the-people”); also requested Shénzōng to gōng jiāomiào, cè yuánzǐ, tíng kuàngshuì, chè zhōngshǐ (personally conduct the jiāo and miào, install the heir-apparent, halt the mine-tax, withdraw the eunuch envoys). At the time of campaigning Bōzhōu Yáng Yìnglóng, he therefore requested bà SìChuān kuàngshuì (cancellation of the SìChuān mine-tax) to support the army-rations. Again memorialized: “Recently Tiān, Dì, Rén (Heaven, Earth, Human) all bùhé (not in-harmony); yuàndú níngjié (resentment-poison congealed-and-knotted); chénzǐ bùnéng gǎndòng jūnfù (subjects cannot move the ruler-father); hence Heaven-Earth-Human all by fēicháng zhī biàn (extraordinary anomalies) jǐngwù bìxià (warn-and-awaken Your Majesty); bùkě tián bù wéi yì” (“cannot be at-peace and not regard-it-as-matter”). The language all qiē zhōng shíbì (cuts into time-afflictions). His memorials are all preserved-loaded in this collection. The poetry-and-prose are then yìngchóu zhī zuò; not avoiding loss in kānxuē (cutting-and-paring); but broadly píngzhèng chúnshí (level-and-upright, pure-and-substantial); no Wànlì zhōng tiāobó zhī xí (mid-Wàn-lì frivolous-thin habit); also still not failing the diǎnxíng (canonical-form). Compiled and presented in the fifth month of Qiánlóng 45 (1780). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Yú Jìdēng of Jiāohé is one of the principal zhèngrén (upright officials) of the Shénzōng (Wànlì) reign and the most successful anti-kuàng-shuì (anti-mine-tax) memorialist of the period — winning the cancellation of the SìChuān kuàngshuì to fund the Bōzhōu campaign of 1600. His memorials cited in the Sìkù tíyào (on the TiānDìRén anomalies, on the yuàndú níngjié of public resentment) are canonical documents of late-Wàn-lì jīngshì (statecraft) memorial-writing. Yú died in office in 1600; the collection was edited posthumously by his friend Féng Qí 馮琦 (another major Lǐbù shàngshū of the period). The 8-juǎn WYG recension’s zòushū (memorials) are the principal documentary contents; the prose-and-poetry sections are yìngchóu (occasional-and-gift) work and less important.
Date bracket: 1577 (Yú’s jìnshì) — 1600 (death). CBDB 34741 has zero markers; Míngshǐ j. 216 confirms 1544–1600.
Translations and research
- Míng shǐ j. 216 — Yú Jì-dēng main biography.
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976.
- Ray Huang, Taxation and Governmental Finance in Sixteenth-Century Ming China — context for kuàng-shuì crisis.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí).
Other points of interest
Yú’s role in winning the cancellation of the SìChuān kuàngshuì to fund the Bōzhōu campaign is the only successful anti–mine-tax intervention in the Wànlì period — a remarkable documented case of jīngshì memorial-writing producing administrative change.