Èrxītáng wénjí 二希堂文集
Collected Prose from the Hall of Two Hopes by 蔡世遠 (撰)
About the work
The collected prose of 蔡世遠 Cài Shìyuǎn (1682–1733, zì Wénzhī 聞之, hào Liángcūn 梁村, posthumously Wénqín 文勤), the leading Fújiàn Lǐxué official under the Yōngzhèng and early Qiánlóng. 12 juan (the catalog meta gives 11; the Sìkù recension has 12 with imperial-preface materials uncounted): opening with six pieces in imperial-recognition category (the Gēngjí fù, the imperially-summoned Tàixué sòng, the Qīnghǎi píngdìng shī xù, the Rì yuè hé bì wǔ xīng lián zhū sòng, the Hé qīng sòng, and the Lèshàntáng wén chāo xù — these not counted in the juan-numbering but preserved as zhì róngyù (recording the imperial favor)); then 4 juan xù (prefaces), 1 juan jì (records), 1 juan zhuàn (biographies), 2 juan combining lùnshuōshū (treatises-arguments-letters), 1 juan combining mùbiǎo zhìmíng xíngzhuàng (epitaphs etc.), 1 juan combining zhùwén jìwén (sacrificial-prose), 1 juan zázhù. The collection was compiled posthumously by Cài’s disciple 雷鋐 Léi Hóng of Nínghuà, with a bá (colophon) after the table of contents explaining the studio name Èrxī.
Tiyao
Your servants reverently submit the following: the Èrxītáng wén jí in 12 juan is by Cài Shìyuǎn of our dynasty. Shìyuǎn, zì Wénzhī, of Zhāngpǔ; jìnshì of jǐchǒu of Kāngxī (1709), held office to Lǐbù shìláng, posthumously Wénqín. This compilation is his miscellaneous prose, opened with the Gēngjí fù, the Imperial Master Personally Visiting the Tàixué Sòng, the Qīnghǎi pacification poem-preface, the Rì yuè hé bì wǔ xīng lián zhū sòng, the Hé qīng sòng, and the Lèshàntáng wénchāo xù — six pieces, not counted in the juan-numbering, to record the [imperial] reception of favor. The rest is: 4 juan xù, 1 juan jì, 1 juan zhuàn, 2 juan combining lùnshuōshū, 1 juan combining mùbiǎo zhìmíng xíngzhuàng, 1 juan combining zhùwén jìwén, 1 juan zázhù.
After the table of contents there is the appended colophon by his disciple Léi Hóng of Nínghuà, saying that the hall is named Èrxī because Shìyuǎn himself wrote a jì: “In learning I dare not look to Zhū Wéngōng 朱熹, but hopefully toward Hú Xīyuán [Hú Yuán 胡瑗]‘s true. In undertaking I dare not look to Zhūgě Wǔhóu 諸葛亮, but hopefully toward Fàn Xīwén 范仲淹’s true.” — his striving to mirror the ancient worthies is shown there.
At the head is the personally-composed preface by His Majesty in his fándǐ (princely-establishment / pre-accession) days, dated Yōngzhèng gēngxū (1730), praising his lecturing at the Áofēng [academy] in teaching men of zhōngxìn xiàotì rényì (loyalty-trust-filial-fraternal-humaneness-righteousness), elaborating LiánLuòGuānMǐn [the Sòng Lǐxué line from Zhōu Dūnyí through Zhū Xī] and their deep grounding; and at court his fēngcǎi (mien-and-bearing), discussions, jiāyán dǎngyì (excellent words, righteous arguments), suffice as the liángguī (excellent rule) for ten thousand generations of governing — hence also the guójiā dòngliáng (state’s beam-and-pillar) responsibility. Now reading his prose, it traces source to the Six Classics, opening ZhōuChéngZhāngZhū’s principle while operating with HánLiǔŌuSū’s method.
What is called zhe enclosed-within is virtue and conduct, operated-out is undertaking, set forth is prose composition — in the master we see it. The huánghuáng (brilliant) imperial proclamation is recorded at the head of the volume; the ruìjiàn (sage examination) and pǐntí (taxonomic appraisal) are zhāoshì zhōng wài (made manifest within and without) — not merely the ēnyù (recognition-and-favor) of a single moment but indeed the qiān gǔ zhī dìng lùn (settled judgment of a thousand years). Then in the jǐmào of Qiánlóng (1759) the imperial declaration on the rectification of wén tǐ (literary form) took Shìyuǎn’s prose as the biāozhǔn (standard). In guǐsì (Qiánlóng 38, 1773) the imperial command to compile the Sìkù quánshū — Shìyuǎn’s compositions again received imperial bāolù (commendation and listing). The imperial sīlún (silk-edict) was issued in equal pattern but not naming — chǒng lǐ rúchén yú sī wèi jí (favoring the rúchén — Confucian servant — was at this never higher). Now reading his collection: largely lǐ chún cí zhèng (the principles pure, the diction correct), possessing běnyuán (root-source); we look up and see his zāojì shèng shí qìhé fēi ǒu (meeting the sage age and matching with it was no accident); the upper yāo zhī yù (received recognition) lies certainly not in literary matters only. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 46 (1781), intercalary 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
The Èrxītáng wénjí is the most prominently imperially-endorsed biéjí of the early-Qiánlóng era — recipient of three successive layers of imperial endorsement (the 1730 personal preface by the future Yōngzhèng emperor; the 1759 imperial selection of Cài’s prose as the standard of correct literary form; the 1773 Sìkù’s mid-compilation imperial commendation). The studio name Èrxī — “Hall of the Two Hopes” — and Cài’s two-sage formula (modeling on Hú Yuán’s Xīyuán in learning, on Fàn Zhòngyǎn’s Xīwén in undertaking) became one of the most influential mid-Qing Lǐxué personal-aspiration mottoes.
Cài’s institutional position — at the Áofēng Academy in Fúzhōu (lecturing 1721–1726) — placed him as the leading Fújiàn Lǐxué teacher of the Yōngzhèng era; his disciple 雷鋐 Léi Hóng would become a major Qiánlóng-period official and editor.
The opening six imperial-recognition pieces — uncounted in the juan-numbering but preserved as front-matter — record the róngyù (imperial favor) extended to Cài. The Gēngjí fù refers to Yōngzhèng’s personal plowing-of-the-imperial-field; the Qīnghǎi píngdìng shī xù commemorates the 1724 Yōngzhèng pacification of Qing-hai under 年羹堯 Nián Gēngyáo.
Composition window: 1709 (Cài’s jìnshì year) through 1733 (his death).
Translations and research
Pei Huang, Autocracy at Work: A Study of the Yung-cheng Period (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1974) — references Cài.
On-cho Ng, Cheng-Zhu Confucianism in the Early Qing: Li Guangdi (1642–1718) and Qing Learning (SUNY, 2001) — references Cài as Lǐ Guāngdì’s institutional successor.
ECCP 736 (Tu Lien-che).
Other points of interest
The catalog meta gives Cài’s dates as 1683–1734; CBDB id 66243 gives 1682–1733 — followed here per the principle of preferring externally verified figures. The reason: traditional Chinese-Western year-conversion often shifts by one in the lunar-new-year cycle.
The Qiánlóng 1759 zhèng wéntǐ (correcting literary form) edict — naming Cài’s prose as the biāozhǔn — was issued in the context of the early-Qiánlóng literary-correctness campaign that targeted the late-Míng / early-Qīng xiāntiāo (delicate-frivolous) style; Cài’s lǐ chún cí zhèng style was held up as model.
Links
- Wikidata Q15937776 (Cai Shiyuan)
- ECCP 736
- Kyoto Zinbun Sìkù tíyào