Wénduān jí 文端集
The Collection of (Zhāng Yīng) Wénduān by 張英 (撰)
About the work
The collected poetry and prose of 張英 Zhāng Yīng (1637–1708, zì Dūnfù 敦復, hào Pǔwēng 圃翁, posthumously Wénduān 文端), the leading Kāngxī-court Tóngchéng official and Wénhuádiàn dàxuéshì (Grand Secretary), in 46 juan, arranged in four discrete sub-collections: the Cúnchéngtáng yìngzhì shī 存誠堂應制詩 (4 juan, imperially-commissioned response-poems); the Cúnchéngtáng shī jí 存誠堂詩集 (25 juan, his official-period poetry); the Dǔsùtáng shī jí 篤素堂詩集 (7 juan, his retirement-period poetry); the Dǔsùtáng wén jí 篤素堂文集 (10 juan, his complete prose corpus). Zhāng’s Yìjīng zhōng lùn 易經衷論 is separately catalogued in the Sìkù Classics division.
Tiyao
Your servants reverently submit the following: the Wénduān jí in 46 juan is by Zhāng Yīng of our dynasty. Yīng’s Yìjīng zhōng lùn has already been separately catalogued; this is his complete poetry-and-prose corpus. There are: the Cúnchéngtáng yìngzhì shī in 4 juan, the Cúnchéngtáng shī jí in 25 juan, the Dǔsùtáng shī jí in 7 juan, and the Dǔsùtáng wén jí in 10 juan. Yīng met a chāngchén flourishing era; he received the imperial regard of the Shèngzǔ Rén Huángdì (Kāngxī), was raised to the rank of shìjiǎng in the imperial wò (canopy-tent), entered the nèizhí (inner waiting service), inserted the brush in the jīntíng (gates of the palace) with yōngróng dignity — enjoying the ultimate honor of a rúchén; in song-and-response shǐyīn gēngchàng, the pieces are most numerous. They drum forth the shēngpíng (great age) and embroider the lángmiào (court-and-temple) with elegance and harmony in everything. As for his pieces yán qíng fù jǐng (expressing feeling, treating scene), they are mostly qīngwēi dànyuǎn (clear, subtle, plain, distant) — pouring out his native nature.
The táigé (court-pavilion) style and the shānlín (mountain-forest) style are two types; Yīng combined both and possessed both. His prose in the various forms simply comes out as he wishes, not concerned with embellishment. Although he cannot quite catch up directly with the ancients, his yuánběn jīngshù (rooted in the Classics-and-arts) and cízhǐ wēnhòu (diction-and-purpose temperate-and-generous) leave him with no reason to be ashamed before zuòzhě. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 46 (1781), fifth month. Chief editors your servants 紀昀, 陸錫熊, 孫士毅. Chief proof-collator your servant Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
Zhāng Yīng’s self-preface to the Cúnchéngtáng shī jí — dated Kāngxī jiǎshēn (43, 1704) — is among the most carefully theorized self-prefaces by a high-Kāngxī court official. Zhāng explains his arrangement: from his shùfà (capping-of-the-hair) student years he wrote poetry; in the 34 years from Shùnzhì jǐhài (1659) through Kāngxī rénshēn (1692) he composed approximately 25 juan; then in his late retirement years he assembled the Dǔsùtáng set chronologically. The self-preface insists that the consistency of personal zhì (will) — his lifelong preference for shānlín nóngpǔ (mountain-and-forest, farms-and-gardens) over court-and-court verse — defines the zhì of his poetry, even through court office.
Zhāng’s institutional role is large: founding adviser of the Kāngxī emperor’s Nánshūfáng (inner cabinet for confidential literature), co-supervisor of the Yùdìng Xiào jīng yǎn yì (KR3a0105), father of 張廷玉 Zhāng Tíngyù (1672–1755) — the latter being the dominant high-Yōngzhèng / early-Qiánlóng senior official — and grandfather of 張若靄 Zhāng Ruòái. The Tóngchéng Zhāng lineage is the most distinguished mid-Qīng official clan. Zhāng’s Cōngxùn zhāi 聰訓齋 family-pedagogy notes circulated separately as one of the leading Qīng jiāxùn (family-instruction) texts.
Composition window: 1659 (Zhāng’s earliest dated pieces in the Cúnchéngtáng shī jí) through 1708 (his death). The 46-juan recension follows the late-1700s author-curated form.
Translations and research
Beatrice S. Bartlett, Monarchs and Ministers: The Grand Council in Mid-Ch’ing China, 1723–1820 (Berkeley: UC Press, 1991) — extensive treatment of the Tóng-chéng Zhāng lineage.
Hilary J. Beattie, Land and Lineage in China: A Study of T’ung-ch’eng County, Anhwei, in the Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties (Cambridge UP, 1979) — the foundational social-history of Tóng-chéng.
Pei-yi Wu, “Self-Examination and Confession of Sins in Traditional China,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 39 (1979) — uses Zhāng’s Cōng-xùn zhāi notes.
ECCP 64–65 (Tu Lien-che) entry on Zhāng Yīng.
Other points of interest
The Cúnchéngtáng and Dǔsùtáng studio-names trace from the Lǐ jì’s Cún chéng (“preserve sincerity”) and Lùn yǔ’s Dǔ xìn shàn xué (“honest in conviction, fond of learning”) — the latter recasting Wáng Yángmíng’s Sùxīn into a ChéngZhū vocabulary. Zhāng’s poetics align with 王士禛 Wáng Shìzhēn’s Shényùn but stay decisively on the imperial-court side of the high-Kāngxī literary divide.
Links
- Wikidata Q15938830 (Zhang Ying)
- ECCP 64–65 (Tu Lien-che)
- Kyoto Zinbun Sìkù tíyào