Wàngxī jí 望溪集
The Wàngxī Collection by 方苞 (撰)
About the work
The collected prose of 方苞 Fāng Bāo (1668–1749, zì Línggāo 靈皋, hào Wàngxī 望溪), founder of the Tóngchéng 桐城 school of gǔwén (ancient-style prose) and the most influential mid-Qīng prose-theoretical figure. The SBCK reproduces the Fāng Wàngxī xiānshēng quán jí 方望溪先生全集 imprint. The collection’s title takes from Wàngxī 望溪 (“Watching-the-Stream”), Fāng’s late-life sobriquet, referencing the stream-side residence near Tóngchéng (Anhui) where he assembled his mature corpus. The work is also sometimes catalogued as Wàngxī xiānshēng wénjí.
Prefaces
Preface to the Re-printed Complete Collection of Master Fāng Wàngxī:
The Six Classics and the Four [Books] are all zàidào (Way-conveying) writing, but cannot be called wén (literary writing). With the rise of the Hàn — Jiǎ Yì, Dǒng Zhòngshū, Sīmǎ Qiān, [Sīmǎ] Xiàngrú, Liú Xiàng, Yáng Xióng and their kind — wén first became famous, yet there was still no name wénjiā (prose-master). The Táng’s Hán [Yù] and Liǔ [Zōngyuán] emerged, and the world began to call them by this name. The Míng’s Zhū Yòu of Línhǎi took the Sòng’s Ōuyáng [Xiū], Zēng [Gǒng], Wáng [Ānshí], Sū [Shì] four schools’ prose to pair with Hán and Liǔ, joining six masters; Máo of Guīān then divided and fixed it as Eight, and after this these eight men have looked at each other across more than a thousand years. …
I have heard the reason: their received share was not generous — they could not surpass others. Their entrance was not deep — they could not bequeath to the present. Their gain was not broad — they could not unleash their use. Their cultivation was not abundant — they could not multiply their issuance. Their practice was not real — they could not establish their sincerity. The sun and stars are perpetually bright; the rivers and seas are inexhaustible; the myriad things spring forth — the ancient jīng and shén (essential and spiritual) of wén must indeed have truly equalled this. Without that, one cannot be set as creator. Therefore the gǔwén xué of the post-Northern-Sòng was silent for nearly five hundred years. In the ZhèngJiā of the Míng, Guī Xīfǔ began to gēng (continue) it, yet Guī was born after ChéngZhū, and in Shèng dào clarification his attainment was not more than the TángSòng masters’. Our dynasty has held the realm several tens of years, and Master Wàngxī Fāng has emerged — inheriting the eight masters’ orthodox line. Examining his prose, he and Xīfǔ are of different domains, same destination. Yet his rootedness in classical learning, yīn shì zhe dào (using events to manifest the Way), pours forth and irrigates the learner’s heart — yǔyì dào jiào (a wing to the dào teaching). In this not even Xīfǔ can match him. As for the Eight Masters’ depth in the dào like Hán or Ōuyáng — they too have yóu yǒu hàn (some regret) before him. …
Abstract
Fāng Bāo is the founder of the Tóngchéng school — the most influential mid-Qīng prose movement — whose program for gǔwén combined three commitments: (1) the TángSòng bājiā canonical model (Hán Yù, Liǔ Zōngyuán, Ōuyáng Xiū, Zēng Gǒng, Wáng Ānshí, Sū Xún, Sū Shì, Sū Zhé) as the literary line; (2) deep ChéngZhū Lǐxué grounding (Fāng’s xí ChéngZhū — “practice of ChéngZhū” — is the Sìkù-cited foundation of his program); (3) precise yìfǎ 義法 (“idea-method”) technical theory of prose composition — the categorical analytic he made canonical for mid-Qing prose.
Fāng’s Tóngchéng school had its institutional birth in the high Yōngzhèng / early Qiánlóng court: Fāng was a leading editorial figure of the imperial Yùzhì wén jí projects, of KR4f0001 Shèngzǔ Rén Huángdì yùzhì wénjí’s fourth-collection collation (where he served as principal proof-collator), and of the Yùyì zé xí 御纂朱子全書 and Sān lǐ shū state-canon compilations.
The composition window for the Wàngxī jí runs from c. 1700 through Fāng’s death in 1749, including: his pre-imprisonment Tóng-chéng-period prose (1700s), his Beijing-prison and -exile prose (1711–1720, after the Nánshān jí àn 南山集案 in which Fāng was implicated by Dài Mízhé 戴名世’s poetry), his post-amnesty Hànlín service (1721–1749). The 8-juan Sìkù-curated form, against the full SBCK / Fāng-family 32-juan corpus, reflects the Sìkù’s programmatic curation of Fāng’s literary identity.
Translations and research
David S. Nivison, The Life and Thought of Chang Hsüeh-ch’eng (1738–1801) (Stanford UP, 1966) — substantial chapter on Fāng and the Tóng-chéng school.
Yu Ying-shih, Lùn Dài Zhèn yǔ Zhāng Xué-chéng (Hong Kong: Long Men, 1976) — refs.
R. Kent Guy, The Emperor’s Four Treasuries: Scholars and the State in the Late Ch’ien-lung Era (Harvard, 1987) — references Fāng’s role in the imperial editorial establishment.
Pei-yi Wu, “Self-Examination and Confession of Sins in Traditional China,” HJAS 39 (1979) — uses Fāng’s autobiographical prose.
Liú Dà-kuí 劉大魁, Lùn wén ǒu jì 論文偶記 — classical Tóng-chéng reflection.
ECCP 235–237 (Tu Lien-che).
Other points of interest
Fāng’s near-execution in the 1711–1713 Nánshān jí àn — when Dài Mízhé’s 戴名世 Nánshān jí poems were judged seditious and Fāng (who had supplied a preface) was caught in the prosecution — was the dominating biographical episode of his life. The 1713 imperial pardon and conversion to bǎojiā slavery, followed by 1718 release and 1721 rehabilitation, are the crucible from which Fāng’s mature gǔwén style emerged. The Yùzhōng zá jì 獄中雜記 — Fāng’s prison memoir — preserved in the Wàngxī jí is among the most affecting Qing prose pieces.
Links
- Wikidata Q609923 (Fang Bao)
- ECCP 235–237