Xuégǔ xùyán 學古緒言
Vestige-Words from Studying-the-Ancient by 婁堅 (撰)
About the work
The 25-juǎn literary collection of Lóu Jiān 婁堅 (1567–1631) of Chángzhōu 長洲, zì Zǐróu 子柔, gòngshēng (Senior Licentiate) of the Lóngqìng / Wànlì period, who studied early with Guī Yǒuguāng 歸有光 (cf. KR4e0203), the TángSòng prose master of Kūnshān. The Sìkù editors mark Lóu’s collection as the best of the four Jiādìng sì xiānshēng 嘉定四先生 (Four Masters of Jiādìng — Lóu, Táng Shíshēng 唐時升, Chéng Jiāsuì 程嘉燧, Lǐ Liúfāng 李流芳 cf. KR4e0232), and the only one of the four who successfully synthesizes Guī Yǒuguāng’s late TángSòng bājiā program into yījiā zhī yán (one-house language). The collection is the principal documentary witness to the Jiādìng / Liànchuān late-Míng gǔwén circle.
Tiyao
Xuégǔ xùyán in 25 juǎn — by Lóu Jiān of the Míng. Jiān, zì Zǐróu, native of Chángzhōu; in the Lóngqìng / Wànlì periods a gòngshēng. He early studied-with Guī Yǒuguāng. The Míngshǐ wényuànzhuàn appended-record in Yǒuguāng’s biography says: he with Táng Shíshēng and Chéng Jiāsuì was called the Liànchuān sān lǎo (Three Elders of Liànchuān); and with Shíshēng, Jiāsuì, and Lǐ Liúfāng the Jiādìng sì xiānshēng (Four Masters of Jiādìng).
However, Jiāsuì obtained his name by yīfù (clinging-to) Qián Qiānyì 錢謙益, and was originally not a duānshì (upright-gentleman); examining his composition with the three others, it is like jiānjiā yǐ yù (reeds-and-rushes leaning-on-jade) and cannot be co-named with them. Among the three, Shíshēng and Liúfāng even though all obtained Yǒuguāng’s transmission, those who could rónghuì shīshuō (synthesize the master’s teaching) so as to chéng yījiā zhī yán (form one-house’s language) must rank Jiān as the head.
For when the Míng was at its end, the Tàicāng (i.e., Wáng Shìzhēn 王世貞 hòuqīzǐ) and Lìxià (i.e., Lǐ Pānlóng 李攀龍) remnant-blaze still extended; the Gōngān (Yuán brothers) and Jìnglíng (Zhōng Xīng Tán Yuánchūn) new-tones changed-and-changed; the prose was shuāibì mò shèn sī shí (declined as never before). At this time, Jiān as a rural-quarter Confucian-scholar alone could zhīzhǔ tuílán (prop-up the collapsing-wave) and yán gǔwén zhī yīpài (extend one branch of gǔwén). His prose yánsuí bājiā (drawing-from the Eight Masters [of TángSòng]) but bù chāoxí qí miànmào (does-not-plagiarize their face-appearance), hépíng ānyǎ (peaceful-and-elegant), néng yǐ zhēnpǔ shèng rén (able-by-genuine-plainness to surpass others). May indeed be called Yǒngjiā zhī mò dé wén Zhèngshǐ zhī yīn (at the end of Yǒngjiā still getting-to-hear the Zhèngshǐ sound — a recovery from the late period of a classical past).
Wáng Shìzhēn’s Jūyìlù (note: this is the Qing Wáng Shìzhēn 王士禎 of 1634–1711, not the Míng Wáng Shìzhēn 王世貞 of 1526–1590) once praised his Chángqìngjí xù (preface to Bái Jūyì’s Chángqìng collection), holding it to be zhēn gǔwén (genuinely ancient prose). Now examining this collection: in general all possess ancient method — not only that piece. Shìzhēn only happened-to-cite one. Compiled and presented in the fifth month of Qiánlóng 45 (1780). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Lóu Jiān is the central representative of the Jiādìng / Liànchuān gǔwén circle of the late Wànlì and Tiānqǐ / Chóngzhēn periods — the lineage that runs from Guī Yǒuguāng (KR4e0203) through Lóu and Lǐ Liúfāng (KR4e0232) into the early-Qing prose revival. The Sìkù editors’ explicit ranking — Lóu first among the four Jiādìng masters, Chéng Jiāsuì sharply demoted for his Qián Qiānyì connection (the Sìkù editors treat Qián Qiānyì as politically and morally compromised by his 1644 surrender to the Qīng) — is one of the clearer statements of the Sìkù editorial preference for the Tang-Song bājiā prose program against both the Hòuqīzǐ archaicism (Wáng Shìzhēn / Lǐ Pānlóng) and the Gōngān / Jìnglíng late-Míng xìnglíng alternatives.
The Sìkù note that Wáng Shìzhēn 王士禎 (1634–1711, the Qing) praised the Chángqìngjí xù in his Jūyìlù is the principal positive Qing reception. The title — Xuégǔ xùyán “Vestige-Words from Studying-the-Ancient” — explicitly self-positions the collection as continuation of the TángSòng bājiā program through Guī Yǒuguāng.
Date bracket: c. 1585 (after Lóu’s early study with Guī Yǒuguāng — Guī died in 1571, so Lóu’s training was via Guī’s yíshū and disciples) — 1631 (Lóu’s death). CBDB 34750 confirms 1567–1631.
Translations and research
- Míng shǐ wén-yuàn-zhuàn, j. 287 — Lóu Jiān appended to Guī Yǒu-guāng biography.
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976: entries on Lóu Jiān, Táng Shí-shēng, Chéng Jiā-suì, Lǐ Liú-fāng.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28 (Míng bié-jí) and §62 (Late-Míng prose).
- Jiā-dìng sì xiān-shēng jí 嘉定四先生集 — the early-Qing Xiè Sān-bīn 謝三賓 collected edition; see KR4e0232.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù editors’ demotion of Chéng Jiāsuì (whom many later anthologies grouped with the sì xiānshēng without comment) on the grounds of his Qián Qiānyì connection is one of the clearer examples of Sìkù political-moral filtering of literary judgment, alongside the better-known jìnhuǐshū (banned-book) treatment of Qián Qiānyì’s own writings.