Zhōngjiè jìnyú jí 忠介燼餘集
The Ash-Remnant Collection of [Zhōu] Zhōng-jiè by 周順昌 (撰), 周靖 (編)
About the work
The fragmentary 3-juǎn surviving writings of Zhōu Shùnchāng 周順昌 (1584–1626) of Wúxiàn 吳縣 (Sūzhōu), zì Jǐngwén 景文, hào Liǎozhōu 蓼州, posthumous title Zhōngjiè 忠介 — the Lìbù wénxuǎn sī lángzhōng who was tortured to death in prison in 1626 by the Wèi Zhōngxián 魏忠賢 eunuch faction, the most-famous individual victim of the Tiānqǐ anti-Dōnglín purge. The collection is named jìnyú (“ash-remnant”) because Zhōu’s original manuscripts were burnt by friends to destroy evidence at the moment of his arrest in Sūzhōu in 1626 (the same arrest that triggered the Wǔrén bēi 五人碑 / Wǔrénmù bēijì 五人墓碑記 incident immortalized by Zhāng Pǔ 張溥). The recovery was a two-generation effort: Zhōu’s son Zhōu Màolán 周茂蘭 carved every scrap of his father’s writing onto stone; the grandson Zhōu Jìng 周靖 (周靖) then collected the writings from family-and-friend houses into the present 3-juǎn compilation, completed in the early Qīng. Appended at the end is the Xúnshēng pǔ 尋聲譜 (Score for Searching the Sound) — a record of Zhōu Shùnchāng’s lost 1615 shīshàn (poetic fan) to Lù Shànjì 鹿善繼, reconstructed from Mǎ Jié 馬潔’s memory and the Chóngzhēn jiǎxū (1634) commemorative poems by Lù Shànjì, Mǎ Jié, Sūn Qíféng 孫奇逢, etc. — and given by Tāng Bīn 湯斌 (Sūn Qíféng’s disciple, Kāngxī xúnfǔ Jiāngsū) to Zhōu Jìng for appendix-cutting.
Tiyao
Zhōngjiè jìnyú jí in 3 juǎn — by Zhōu Shùnchāng of the Míng. Shùnchāng, zì Jǐngwén, hào Liǎozhōu, native of Wúxiàn. Wànlì guǐchǒu (1613) jìnshì, officed up to Lìbù wénxuǎn sī lángzhōng. On account of wǔ (opposing) Wèi Zhōngxián, by him was luózhī (woven-up) into charges, dàizhì kǎoluè shā zhī yú yù (arrested, tried, beaten, killed-him in prison). At the start of Chóngzhēn he was zhuī shì (posthumously bestowed-title) Zhōngjiè. Affairs detailed in Míngshǐ main biography. Originally, when Shùnchāng was arrested, his qièyǎn (book-chest) compositions were rather many; in the chaos a friend threw-them-in-fire to mièjì (destroy-traces). Afterwards his son Màolán whenever encountering even a fragment-paper or single-character would mó ér lè zhī yú shí (copy and engrave it on stone). And to-the-time of his grandson Jìng, who again from his relatives-and-friends’s houses sōulù chéng jí (searched-out and recorded into a collection); therefore named jìnyú (ash-remnant). It is 3 juǎn: 1 juǎn is jìshì gōngyí (record-of-affairs and official-communications); 2 juǎn are chǐdú (letters); 3 juǎn are miscellaneous prose and poetry, with the Xúnshēng pǔ appended.
The Xúnshēng pǔ: When in Wànlì yǐmǎo (1615), Shùnchāng was in Mǐn (Fújiàn — Shùnchāng was Zhīxiàn of Pútián 蒲田); he often sent poetry-fans to Lù Shànjì 鹿善繼; afterwards the fan was lost but the poem was still in Mǎ Jié’s memory. In Chóngzhēn jiǎxū (1634), Shànjì with Jié and Sūn Qíféng etc. composed-poetry on the affair and recorded-them to make the pǔ.
In our State (i.e., Qīng dynasty), in the Kāngxī period, Qíféng’s disciple Tāng Bīn when as Xúnfǔ Jiāngsū gave the pǔ to Jìng, to be appended-cut after the collection. Details seen in Jìng’s colophon-language.
Shùnchāng’s qìjié gàishì (energy-and-virtue covering-the-age) — originally did not show-himself by wénzhāng; moreover gathered from the huīmiè zhī yú (ash-extinction’s remnant), the great-majority of it is àndú jiǎnzhá suíshǒu chóuyīng (case-document letter-and-tablet hand-as-needed responses) — not where attention was placed. Yet his yǐnyōu guóshì (secretly-grieving over national-affairs), chóngshàng míngjiǎn (esteeming reputation-and-discipline), zhōngfèn jīfā (loyal-indignation aroused-and-issued) energy — at times liúlù yú chǔmò jiān (flows-out into paper-and-ink). It is still sufficient to liánwán lìnuò (sharpen-the-stubborn and stand-up-the-cowardly). Considering the small-small fan-inscription one poem — a different age yet zhēnzhòng chuán zhī (preciously transmitted) — then this collection’s shíyī (ten-percent) merely-existing must not be allowed to perish. Compiled and presented in the fourth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Compilers as usual.
Abstract
Zhōu Shùnchāng is one of the most-cited individual victims of the Wèi Zhōngxián purge of the Dōnglín circle: his 1626 arrest at Sūzhōu became the focal incident of late-Míng anti-eunuch resistance because the Sūzhōu townspeople rioted against the jǐnyīwèi (Embroidered-Uniform Guard) arresting officers. Five townsmen (Yán Pèiwéi, Yáng Niànrú, Mǎ Jié — not the same Mǎ Jié of the Xúnshēng pǔ, but the homonymous townsman — Shěn Yáng, Zhōu Wényuán) were executed for this; the Wǔrén bēi monument at Sūzhōu and Zhāng Pǔ 張溥’s Wǔrénmù bēijì commemorate them.
The collection’s history is itself the document: Zhōu’s books were burnt at arrest; his son Màolán recovered scraps and stone-inscribed them; the grandson Zhōu Jìng (周靖) compiled the 3-juǎn recension. The appended Xúnshēng pǔ is the documentary trace of a single 1615 fan-poem from Zhōu to the Bǎodìng Lǐxué scholar Lù Shànjì 鹿善繼 (1575–1636), reconstructed via Mǎ Jié’s memory and the 1634 commemorative poems by Lù, Mǎ, and Sūn Qíféng 孫奇逢 (1585–1675). Tāng Bīn 湯斌 (1627–1687) — Sūn Qíféng’s most prominent disciple and xúnfǔ Jiāngsū under Kāngxī — gave the pǔ to Zhōu Jìng for the present appendix.
The Sìkù editors’ verdict — that the collection’s shíyī (ten-percent) surviving must be preserved as evidence of Zhōu’s qìjié (energy-and-virtue) — is the strongest preservation argument the editors make for any of the late-Míng martyr collections.
Date bracket: 1613 (jìnshì) — 1626 (death). CBDB 33215 confirms 1584–1626.
Translations and research
- Míng shǐ j. 245 — Zhōu Shùn-chāng main biography.
- Zhāng Pǔ 張溥, Wǔ-rén-mù bēi-jì 五人墓碑記 — the locus classicus, anthologized in most modern gǔ-wén anthologies.
- Charles O. Hucker, “Su-chou and the Agents of Wei Chung-hsien, 1626,” in Two Studies on Ming History, Michigan Papers in Chinese Studies no. 12 (1971): 41–83 — the standard Western-language treatment.
- John W. Dardess, Blood and History in China: The Donglin Faction and Its Repression, 1620–1627. Honolulu: UHP, 2002 — extensive treatment of the Zhōu Shùn-chāng arrest.
- L. Carrington Goodrich and Chaoying Fang, eds., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368–1644. New York: Columbia UP, 1976: entry on Zhōu Shùn-chāng.
- Frederic Wakeman, The Great Enterprise — context.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.
Other points of interest
The collection is one of the most striking jìnyú (ash-remnant) recoveries in the Chinese bibliographical tradition: the original manuscripts were destroyed by a friend at the moment of arrest to destroy evidence; the recovery was a two-generation effort by son and grandson. The episode is one of the most-cited documentary witnesses to late-Míng anti-yǎndǎng (eunuch-faction) literature, second only to Zuǒ Guāngdǒu 左光斗 in martyrology weight. The Xúnshēng pǔ appendix is itself remarkable as a jiārì (added-day) memorial cross-generational tribute mediated by Sūn Qíféng (the great Lǐxué survivor of the MíngQīng transition) and Tāng Bīn (a generation later).