Yǎngjiétáng jí 仰節堂集
The Collection of the Hall of Looking-Up to Integrity by 曹于汴 (撰)
About the work
The literary collection of Cáo Yúbiàn 曹于汴 (1558–1634) of Ānyì 安邑 (Shānxī), zì Zhēnyǔ 真予, late-Míng Zuǒ dū yùshǐ 左都御史 and Dōnglín affiliate. 11 juǎn of prose and 3 juǎn of poetry. Prefaced by his learning-fellows Gāo Pānlóng 高攀龍 (cf. KR4e0225) — dated Tiānqǐ 4 (1624) — and Féng Cóngwú 馮從吾 (cf. KR4e0226) — dated Tiānqǐ yǐchǒu 乙丑 (1625). The first cutting was at the Shǒushàn shūyuàn 首善書院 (the Beijing academy co-founded by Féng Cóngwú and Zōu Yuánbiāo cf. KR4e0229); the blocks were destroyed by war in jiǎshēn (the 1644 fall of Beijing); a Kāngxī guǐmǎo 康熙癸卯 = 1663 recutting by his external grandson Jǐng Wàngqú 景望蘧 (formal name Jǐng 景**) and disciple Lǚ Chóngliè 呂崇烈 at the Hóngyùn shūyuàn 弘運書院 is the basis of the surviving text.
Tiyao
Yǎngjiétáng jí in 14 juǎn — by Cáo Yúbiàn of the Míng. Comprising 11 juǎn of prose and 3 juǎn of poetry. With Gāo Pānlóng and Féng Cóngwú prefaces. Yúbiàn had once cóng (followed-as-pupil) the two men in lecture-on-learning, so they prefaced him. Pānlóng’s preface says: his prose is sufficient to settle the assembled-clamors and clarify xuéshù (Learning-Methods); his poetry sufficient to flow-forth the tiānjī (Heavenly-Mechanism) and stream-out the xìngyùn (Nature-Reserves). Cóngwú’s preface says: his is not the sort who zhānzhān (eagerly-eagerly) takes word-flourish as the family-name, yet of the cāogū zìháo (pen-grasping self-boasting) gentlemen, none does not retreat three shè (50-li retreats). Yúbiàn also once for Cóngwú composed the preface to the Lǐxué wénhú 理學文鵠, which says: Guānzhōng Shǎoxū Féng xiānshēng (Cáo’s friend Féng Cóngwú) edited the various-great-masters’ examination-essay pieces, a hundred-and-several-ten shǒu, to model-instruct the many gentlemen, naming-it Lǐxué wénhú. He named not as jǔyè (examination-business) but as Lǐxué — why? Seeing Lǐxué and jǔyè are not two. — etc. Therefore Yúbiàn’s poetry and prose also is in-between Lǐxué and jǔyè: either resembling lecture-records, or resembling eight-legged-essay. In general his life-time conduct is gāojié (lofty-pure); his standing-at-court is fēngjié lǐnrán (wind-and-virtue awe-inspiring), zhènyào yīshì (shaking-and-shining a whole-age) — his yuǎnzhě dàzhě (the far ones and great ones) intent indeed had its place. Originally he did not show-himself by bǐzhá (brush-tablet); Cóngwú’s preface saying non-eagerly-taking word-flourish-as-family-name indeed catches the reality. Those who view this collection may say “wén yǐ rén zhòng” (prose-by-person made-weighty), and that will suffice. The collection’s first cutting was at the Shǒushàn shūyuàn; in jiǎshēn (1644) the blocks were destroyed by warfare. In Kāngxī guǐmǎo (1663) his external-grandson Jǐng Wàngqú purchased a remnant-edition; his disciple Lǚ Chóngliè gathered his fellow-natives to pool-funds for re-cutting — this is the present edition. Compiled and presented in the seventh month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Cáo Yúbiàn’s Yǎngjiétáng jí is one of the more substantial late-Míng Dōnglín / Guānxué literary collections, and an important textual witness to the alliance between the Chángān Lǐxué faction of Féng Cóngwú (KR4e0226) and the Wúxī Dōnglín circle of Gāo Pānlóng (KR4e0225) and Gù Xiànchéng (KR4e0223). The two prefaces — by Gāo and Féng — are both dated to the Tiānqǐ 4–5 (1624–1625) period, precisely the window when the Shǒushàn shūyuàn (where the collection was first cut) was at its political height and just before its 1625 closure by Wèi Zhōngxián. Gāo Pānlóng frames Cáo as a fellow witness to xìng shàn (nature-as-good): the collection’s title — Yǎngjié “Looking-up-to integrity” — is a moral self-positioning rather than a literary one. The 1644 destruction of the original blocks by warfare and the 1663 recutting by Jǐng Wàngqú (Cáo’s external grandson) and Lǚ Chóngliè (Cáo’s disciple) at the Hóngyùn shūyuàn preserved an important late-Míng collection that would otherwise have perished entirely.
Lǚ Chóngliè’s recutting preface notably places Cáo with Sīmǎ Guāng 司馬光 (whose Mínxià 鳴鸞 Xiàxiàn 夏縣 was the nearest northern Shānxī worthy) and Xuē Xuān 薛瑄 (whose home was Héjīn 河津, also Shānxī) as the sān dà wénzhāng (three great prose-collections) of southern Shānxī. This is the local Hédōng tradition-line that the recutters were placing Cáo within.
Date bracket: 1589 (jìnshì) — 1634 (death). CBDB 34746 confirms 1558–1634.
Translations and research
- Míng shǐ j. 254 — Cáo Yú-biàn main biography.
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976: entry on Cáo Yú-biàn.
- Heinrich Busch, “The Tung-lin Academy,” — for the Shǒu-shàn shū-yuàn context.
- John W. Dardess, Blood and History in China: The Donglin Faction and Its Repression, 1620–1627. Honolulu: UHP, 2002.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí).
Other points of interest
The collection is a documentary witness to one of the most important late-Míng academy publishing-programs: the Shǒushàn shūyuàn in Beijing also issued Féng Cóngwú’s Lǐxué wénhú 理學文鵠 (an anthology of examination-essays read as Lǐxué primers), to which Cáo Yúbiàn contributed the preface mentioned in the tíyào — a rare contemporary statement that Lǐxué and jǔyè (examination training) were considered by the Dōnglín circle as in continuity rather than opposition.