Zhāng Wénzhēn jí 張文貞集
The Collection of (Zhāng Yùshū) Wénzhēn by 張玉書 (撰)
About the work
The 12-juan recension of the prose of 張玉書 Zhāng Yùshū (1642–1711, zì Sùcún 素存, posthumously Wénzhēn 文貞), one of the most senior Kāngxī-era Hànlín officials, dàxuéshì (Grand Secretary) and editor-in-chief of the Kāngxī zìdiǎn and the Pèiwén yùnfǔ. Jìnshì of Shùnzhì 18 (1661, xīnchǒu), shùjíshì, rose to dàxuéshì; from a great Dāntú 丹徒 (modern Zhènjiāng) literary clan. The Sìkù recension is selected from a larger family-manuscript collection — a Sōngyīntáng 松䕘堂 family-hold copy without preliminary juan division or table of contents — and the Sìkù compilers curate it to 12 juan by retaining: 2 fù + 3 sòng + 3 biǎo + 6 jiān + 20 shū + 1 yì + 1 shū + 1 kǎo + 1 shuō + 28 xù + 1 bá + 9 jì + 10 jìshì + 1 zhuàn + 1 zàn + 12 cèwèn + 2 jìgōng bēi + 6 mùbēi + 4 shéndàobēi + 32 mùzhìmíng. The Sìkù compilers explicitly remove what they judge to be the mùshū jìwén (募疏祭文 — solicitation petitions and sacrificial texts) on the grounds that Zhāng’s heirs had recorded everything indiscriminately.
Tiyao
Your servants reverently submit the following: the Zhāng Wénzhēn jí in 12 juan is by Zhāng Yùshū of our dynasty. Yùshū, zì Sùcún, of Dāntú; jìnshì of xīnchǒu of Shùnzhì (1661), transferred to shùjíshì, rose to dàxuéshì, posthumously Wénzhēn. This collection has neither juan division nor table of contents in the manuscript; the transcription paper and the block-margins both bear the characters “Sōngyīntáng” — evidently a family hold-copy not yet finally edited. The opening is two fù, then 3 sòng, 3 biǎo, 6 jiān, 20 memorials, 1 yì, 1 shū, 1 kǎo, 1 shuō, 28 prefaces, 1 colophon, 9 jì, 10 jìshì, 1 zhuàn, 1 zàn, 12 cèwèn, 2 jìgōng bēi, 6 mùbēi, 4 shéndàobēi, 32 epitaph-inscriptions. Largely it is all chōngróng diǎnyǎ (smoothly leisurely, elegant-and-classical), pulsing with the music of the great age.
His Tuōnuò shān and Lángjūxū shān two stele texts narrate the imperial shèngwǔ shéngōng (Sage Martial Spirit-Achievement) in detailed plenitude — fit to be displayed for ten thousand generations. His records of the pacification of Jiāngnán, of the destruction of the Rebel Chuǎng and Xiàn (i.e., the late-Míng peasant-rebel chiefs Lǐ Zìchéng and Zhāng Xiànzhōng), of the three-route campaign descending on Yúnnán, of the pacification of Shuǐxī (the Sān fān war), and the Wàiguó jì — all are clear in their narrative threads, taking the matter from what was ěr wén mù jiàn (heard with one’s ear, seen with one’s eye), fit to manifest the hóng liè (vast splendor) of the dynasty’s founding. His records of the Shùnzhì-period yuèzhāng (music-texts) and the three pieces on qiánliáng and hùkǒu (revenue and population) are all sufficient to supply zhǎnggù (historical material). His record of the Shǎnxī xùnnàn guān shì (the Shaanxi officials who died in the catastrophe) is sufficient to be paired with the dynastic-history biographies. Other pieces such as the Cì yóu Yùquán shān jì, the Cì yóu Huàyùgōu hòuyuàn jì, the Cì yóu Kālāhétún hòuyuàn jì, the Cì yóu Rèhé hòuyuàn jì — all of these are fit to expound the tàipíng kǎilè (great-peace exultation) image. The other stele and epitaph pieces also provide substantial early-dynasty jiāngxiàng (generals and ministers) material for record-checking.
Only the mùshū (solicitation petitions) and jìwén (sacrificial-prose) were collected too laxly — Yùshū’s descendants encountering any draft, copying it without sifting — which became a burden on the quán jí (complete collection). We have now fully removed them, recording only the fù, sòng, and below — arranging them into 12 juan, so that zhēnhù wù jiǎn (the rough thorns left un-trimmed) will not become the indictment of later judges. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 45 (1780), sixth 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 Yùshū (1642–1711) is the most senior of the Kāngxī-era Hànlín officials whose imperial-court prose is the institutional voice of the high-Kāngxī project. The Sìkù tíyào presents the collection’s principal value as historical: the stele texts on the Tuōnuò shān (the Battle of Ulan Butung, 1690) and Lángjūxū shān (the Yarka campaign), the jìshì on the Sān fān pacification, the imperial-tour records of Hot-Spring and Manchurian-River travels — all are first-rank Qing source-historical material, written by a participant. The Sìkù’s decision to cull the corpus (removing the mùshū jìwén) reflects the editors’ programmatic preference for what they perceived as canonical literary substance over administrative-occasional miscellany.
Note: the catalog meta-records the collection’s bibliographic location as Sōngyīntáng — the studio-name of the Dāntú Zhāng lineage. This studio-name is not to be confused with Zhāng Yīng’s Sōngqītáng (Tóngchéng); the Dāntú Zhāng and the Tóngchéng Zhāng are distinct clans.
Composition window: 1661 (Zhāng’s jìnshì year) through 1711 (his death).
Translations and research
Lawrence D. Kessler, K’ang-hsi and the Consolidation of Ch’ing Rule, 1661–1684 (Chicago: U. Chicago Press, 1976) — references Zhāng’s stele texts.
Jonathan Spence, Emperor of China: Self-portrait of K’ang-hsi (Knopf, 1974) — uses Zhāng’s jì-shì prose for the Kāngxī imperial campaigns.
ECCP 65–66 (Tu Lien-che).
Other points of interest
The fact that the Sìkù compilers had no juan-divided print of the Zhāng Wénzhēn jí — they worked from a Sōngyīntáng family-hold manuscript and themselves imposed the 12-juan division — illustrates the Sìkù programmatic role in constituting canonical recensions for major Kāngxī court figures whose families had never undertaken proper editing of their literary remains.
Links
- Wikidata Q15889540 (Zhang Yushu)
- ECCP 65–66
- Kyoto Zinbun Sìkù tíyào