Shíyǐnyuán cánggǎo 石隱園藏稿
Manuscripts Stored at the Stone-Hidden Garden by 畢自嚴 (撰)
About the work
The principal surviving literary collection of Bì Zìyán 畢自嚴 (1569–1638), zì Jǐngzēng 景曾, hào Báiyáng 白陽, of Zīchuān 淄川 (Shāndōng), who served as Hùbù shàngshū 戶部尚書 (Minister of Revenue) for some six years during the early Chóngzhēn fiscal crisis. Sūn Tíngquán 孫廷銓’s tomb-record reports a Shíyǐn cánggǎo in 8 juǎn and a Zòuyì (memorial collection) in 136 juǎn; the Zòuyì did not survive, leaving only the present collection — 1 juǎn of poetry and 7 juǎn of prose. The collection is prefaced by Gāo Héng 高珩 (compatriot from Zīchuān, Shùnzhì official) with extensive testimony to Bì’s facility with fiscal documents in the war-time press of the Chóngzhēn court. Gāo Héng’s preface also says Bì’s seven-character regulated verse “fēn Cāngmíng Huáquán zhī zuò” (divides the seats of Lǐ Pānlóng Cāngmíng 李攀龍 and Biān Gòng Huáquán 邊貢, the Hòuqīzǐ poetic peers); the Sìkù editors regard this as somewhat over-praised local-circle judgment.
Tiyao
Shíyǐnyuán cánggǎo in 8 juǎn — by Bì Zìyán of the Míng. Zìyán, zì Jǐngzēng, native of Zīchuān, Wànlì rénchén (1592) jìnshì, officed up to Hùbù shàngshū; affairs detailed in Míngshǐ main biography. When Zìyán was overseeing the national accounts, externally the frontiers were already pressed and the military rations daily increased; internally the Dōnglín and yǎndǎng (eunuch-faction) were water-and-fire intertwined — hòngrán (in a tumult) abandoning the dynasty-altar and contending for factional doors. Zìyán zhīzhǔ qí jiān (held-up amid this) for six years front-and-back: zōnghé mǐnliàn (synthesis quick-and-skilled), praised by all-under-heaven. Sūn Tíngquán in composing his tomb-record states that he had Shíyǐn cánggǎo in 8 juǎn and Zòuyì (memorials) in 136 juǎn. His memorials are now not seen; only this collection survives. Comprising 1 juǎn of poetry and 7 juǎn of prose; prefaced by Gāo Héng’s account that during his Hùbù period, the great fiscal-accounts of all-under-heaven [were] clearly-clearly in his breast; counting-fingers-tips the army-rations items as in observing his palm. When army-rising was scattered-everywhere, the daily-court mandates came dozens-down — he instantly composed memorials in-hand, unlike later-people who only sign the paper-tail and let the clerks compose drafts. Each time entering his office, behind his carriage placing 2-some inches of books — by sunset and affairs concluded, he read-exhaustively the carried-books, and then returned. He further claims that Bì’s seven-character recent-form (jìntǐ) verse divides the seats of Cāngmíng [Lǐ Pānlóng] and Huáquán [Biān Gòng] — although the xiāngqū zhī yán (rural-quarter language) cannot avoid some over-praise, yet as for combining jīngjì wénzhāng (administration-and-literature), Zìyán is indeed not unworthy. Héng’s mention of Yúnjiān tiáoyì shí zé (Yúnjiān Itemized-Discussion ten clauses), Jìníng dàyuè shí zé (Jìníng Grand-Review ten clauses), Zāijǐn kuǎnyì shísān zé (Disaster Relief-Discussion thirteen clauses) — these are not seen in the present collection; presumably they were in the 136-juǎn Zòuyì. Compiled and presented in the fifth month of Qiánlóng 42 (1777). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Bì Zìyán is one of the most fiscally responsible figures of the early Chóngzhēn court — the last Hùbù shàngshū before the Manchu pressure and rebel risings overwhelmed the late-Míng fiscal apparatus. His most documentarily-significant work, the 136-juǎn Zòuyì (Memorials), is lost — its disappearance is one of the more substantial losses for late-Míng fiscal documentary history, though a partial recovery from Qing-era Shāndōng family papers has been the subject of ongoing scholarly effort in recent decades. The Sìkù collection preserves only the appended literary side — 1 juǎn poetry, 7 juǎn prose. Gāo Héng (preface) was a fellow Zīchuān man (a jìnshì of 1646, official under early Qīng); his testimony to Bì’s working-method (writing memorials directly without clerks; carrying 2 inches of books in the carriage to read between meetings) is one of the more vivid bureaucrat-portraits in late-Míng documentary literature.
The Sìkù editors note Sūn Tíngquán’s tomb-record (Sūn was a Zī-chuān-affiliated Shùnzhì / Kāngxī official) and Gāo Héng’s preface but are politely skeptical of Gāo’s poetic-ranking claim (comparing Bì’s jìntǐ verse to the Hòuqīzǐ peers Lǐ Pānlóng Cāngmíng and Biān Gòng Huáquán — Cāngmíng 滄溟 was Lǐ Pānlóng’s hào, Huáquán 華泉 was Biān Gòng’s hào); they call this xiāngqū zhī yán wèi miǎn shāo yì (rural-quarter language not avoiding slight excess) but allow that Bì yào bùkuì yě (truly not unworthy) as the rare administrator-litterateur.
Date bracket: 1592 (Wànlì jìnshì) — 1638 (death). The poetry / prose were written across the whole career. CBDB 34745 confirms 1569–1638.
Translations and research
- Míng shǐ j. 256 — Bì Zì-yán main biography.
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976: entry on Bì Zì-yán.
- Ray Huang, Taxation and Governmental Finance in Sixteenth-Century Ming China. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1974. Background to the late-Míng fiscal apparatus Bì oversaw.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí) and §44 (Míng fiscal history).
Other points of interest
The disappearance of the 136-juǎn Zòuyì is one of the major documentary losses for late-Míng fiscal history. The poetry collection preserves Bì’s connections with the Zīchuān literary circle (later home of Pú Sōnglíng 蒲松齡) and provides one of the better attested bureaucrat-portraits in the genre — Gāo Héng’s preface description of Bì’s working-day is a rare contemporary anecdote about the daily routine of a late-Míng senior minister.