Yáofēng wénchāo 堯峯文鈔
Prose Selections from Yáofēng (i.e., Wāng Wǎn’s Yáofēng Hermitage) by 汪琬 (撰)
About the work
The definitive late-life 50-juan recension of the prose of 汪琬 Wāng Wǎn (1624–1690, zì Tiáowén 苕文, hào Dùnwēng 鈍翁, late-life Yáofēng 堯峰), the leading early-Qīng exponent of the gǔwén 古文 (ancient-style prose) revival. The work was twice expanded and then twice abridged: Wāng’s initial Dùnwēng lèigǎo 鈍翁類藁 (62 juan) and Xù gǎo 續稿 (56 juan) circulated in mid-life; in his final years Wāng personally deleted and rebalanced the corpus into the 50-juan recension titled after his last residence near Yáofēng Peak in Sūzhōu. His student Lín Jí 林佶 transcribed the final text by hand and printed it. The Sìkù recension uses this final author-curated form.
Tiyao
Your servants reverently submit the following: the Yáofēng wénchāo in 50 juan is by Wāng Wǎn of our dynasty. Wǎn, zì Tiáowén, hào Dùnwēng — in his late years residing at Yáofēng, he took it as his sobriquet — was a man of Chángzhōu. Jìnshì of yǐwèi of Shùnzhì (1655). He rose from Hùbù zhǔshì to Xíngbù lángzhōng, was demoted to fill the post of commandant of the Northern Garrison of the capital, then was again promoted to Hùbù zhǔshì. In jǐwèi of Kāngxī (1679) he was selected by the Bóxué hóngcí recommendation and made Hànlín biānxiū. At first he gathered his prose into the Dùnwēng lèigǎo in 62 juan and the Xù gǎo in 56 juan; in his late years he himself further deleted and refined them into the present recension. His student Lín Jí copied it out by hand and had it printed.
Gǔwén prose, since the Míng, had been fūlàn (superficially abundant) under the Seven Masters and xiāntiāo (delicate-frivolous) under the Three Yuán; reaching the Qǐzhēn era it bottomed out. At the founding of our dynasty the wind returned to the simple — the learned of the age once more began to consider the standards passed down from Táng and Sòng — and Wǎn together with Wèi Xǐ of Níngdū and Hóu Fāngyù of Shāngqiū were called the most accomplished. Sòng Luò once combined and printed their prose together. Yet Wèi’s learning was mixed with Zònghéng and not yet pure; Hóu’s style was paired with ornament and verged on the showy. Only Wǎn’s learning is deep and his trajectory correct — what he wrote takes its origin in the Six Classics, and is wholly distinct from the other two. His ethos and form are open and flowing, rather near the southern-Sòng masters; his path is somewhat distinct from theirs as well. He cannot easily be matched with Lúlíng (Ōuyáng Xiū) or Nánfēng (Zēng Gǒng), but as continuing the line of TángGuī Yǒuguāng he is without disgrace.
Wǎn was juànjí (quick-tempered and impatient) by nature, ready to see another’s faults; few of his friendships ended well. He also was fond of denunciation: whenever he saw a piece of prose he picked at its flaws, and so always failed to satisfy others, who in turn always failed to satisfy him. With Wáng Shìzhēn he was a tóngnián (1655 examinations cohort); later, at the Bóxué hóngcí selection, he came into open contention with Shìzhēn. His poem has the line “A trifling oath I made before the grave / How can it be for the sake of one Huáizǔ?” — using Wáng Shù (4th-century Jin-dynasty contentious-official) as figure for Shìzhēn. Shìzhēn included this in his Jū yì lù 居易錄. Wǎn also disputed ritual with 閻若璩 Yán Ruòjù, who recorded it in his Qiánqiū zhájì — these became the talk of the age. From of old, those who try to crush each other must be matched in strength; not so matched, the weaker dares not, the stronger disdains, and they do not attack each other. Otherwise one is defeated first and they cannot long support each other. Shìzhēn was famous for cízhāng (poetry) in his age; he did not measure himself against others, but only 趙執信 Zhào Zhíxìn and Wǎn. Yán Ruòjù was famous for bóqià (vast erudition) in his age; he did not measure himself against others, but only 顧炎武 Gù Yánwǔ and Wǎn. So we may know roughly Wǎn’s prose-and-learning. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 46 (1781), tenth month. Chief editors your servants 紀昀, 陸錫熊, 孫士毅. Chief proof-collator your servant Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
The Yáofēng wénchāo is the principal early-Qīng monument of the gǔwén revival — a programmatic return to the TángSòng bā dà jiā (Eight Masters of Tang and Sung Prose), filtered through the late-Míng Tang-Guī style of Guī Yǒuguāng (1506–1571). The Sìkù tíyào’s characterization places Wāng third in a TángGuī lineage after Guī himself and before the early-Qīng Tóngchéng school of 方苞 (which would crystallize in the 1690s).
Wāng’s principal rivals in the Bóxué hóngcí generation — 魏禧 (Yímín leader of the Yìtāng jiǔzǐ of Níngdū) and 侯方域 (the late-Míng Fù shè survivor; Hóu’s Zhuànghuǐtáng wénjí survives separately) — represented two alternative paths: Wèi the Zònghéng rhetorical-pragmatic line, Hóu the high-Míng ornamental line. Wāng’s victory in the early-Qīng critical consensus — as articulated in the Sìkù tíyào a century after his death — set the path that the 18th-century Tóngchéng and Yánghú prose schools would take.
Composition window: 1655 (Wāng’s jìnshì year, earliest dated pieces) through 1690 (his death). The 50-juan curation is mid-late-1680s.
Translations and research
David S. Nivison, The Life and Thought of Chang Hsüeh-ch’eng (1738–1801) (Stanford UP, 1966) — treats Wāng in the genealogy of early-Qīng prose criticism.
Yu Ying-shih (Yú Yīng-shí) 余英時, Lùn Dài Zhèn yǔ Zhāng Xué-chéng 論戴震與章學誠 (Hong Kong: Long Men, 1976) — treats the early-Qīng gǔ-wén legacy.
Liú Dà-kuí 劉大魁, Lùn wén ǒu jì 論文偶記 — classical Tóng-chéng reflection on Wāng.
Pán Lěi 潘耒 (Wāng’s pupil), Suì-tāng wénjí 遂堂文集 — extensive references to Wāng.
Yán Dí-chāng 嚴迪昌, Qīng cí shǐ, Qīng shī shǐ (Jiāngsū gǔjí) — references.
Other points of interest
The brief but pointed Sìkù sketch of Wāng’s literary feuds — with Wáng Shìzhēn, with Yán Ruòjù, and indirectly with Gù Yánwǔ — is itself a primary source for early-Qīng literary sociology. The Sìkù editors’ clever observation that the strongest figures of an age contest only one another (“Shìzhēn did not contest with anyone but Wāng and Zhào Zhíxìn; Yán did not contest with anyone but Gù Yánwǔ and Wāng”) elegantly places Wāng at the apex of two contemporary critical networks.
Links
- Wikidata Q15912079 (Wang Wan)
- ECCP 813–814 (Tu Lien-che)
- Kyoto Zinbun Sìkù tíyào