Lùzhōu chū jí 鹿洲初集
The First Collection from Deer-Islet by 藍鼎元 (撰)
About the work
The collected prose of 藍鼎元 Lán Dǐngyuán (1680–1733, zì Yùlín 玉霖 (later Rènzhāi 任菴), hào Lùzhōu 鹿洲 (“Deer-Islet”)), the leading Yōngzhèng-era frontier-administrator and Tāi-wān-affairs writer. Native of Zhāngpǔ 漳浦 (Fújiàn). His major historical-administrative works — the Píng Tāi jì lüè 平臺紀略 (account of the 1721 Tāiwān pacification campaign under his cousin Lán Tíngzhēn 藍廷珍, in which Lán Dǐngyuán served as personal staff) and the Dōng zhēng jí 東征集 (Eastern Campaign poetry collection) are separately catalogued. The Lùzhōu chū jí in 20 juan is his collected occasional prose, compiled by his friend 曠敏本 Kuàng Mǐnběn — first fixed in bǐngwǔ of Yōngzhèng (4, 1726), revised six years later in rénzǐ (Yōngzhèng 10, 1732) into the present 20-juan form.
Tiyao
Your servants reverently submit the following: the Lùzhōu chū jí in 20 juan is by Lán Dǐngyuán of our dynasty. Dǐngyuán’s Píng Tāi jì lüè and other writings are already separately catalogued. The present collection was edited by his friend Kuàng Mǐnběn — first fixed in bǐngwǔ of Yōngzhèng (1726); six years later in rénzǐ (1732), he combined the continuation drafts and again sifted and re-fixed it, still as 20 juan. Therefore at the head there is Mǐnběn’s preface and at the end Mǐnběn’s jì, each narrating the shǐmò (start-and-end).
Dǐngyuán was fond of lecturing learning and was also fond of statecraft, with marked attention to current affairs. In the collection, the various pieces discussing the topography of Mǐn (Fújiàn), Yuè (Guǎngdōng), and Qián (Guizhou) provinces, and on the strategy for attacking and pacifying Tāiwān, are all zuózuó (concrete-concrete) — obtained from yuèlì (witnessing and traversing) and not the empty talk of paper. As to those narrating zhōng xiào jié liè (loyal-filial-chaste-righteous) cases — also diǎnrǎn shēngdòng (touched and rendered vivid) — sufficient to support fēngjiào (custom-and-teaching).
In some of the pieces — such as the Lùn Zhílì shuǐlì (On the Hydraulics of Zhílì) — grown up in the south, he could not reach the běifāng shuǐxìng (northern water-nature) and dredged-up chényán (old phrases). And in pieces like Yǔ Gù Tàishǐ shū (Letter to Hānlín-secretary Gù), in self-clearing himself from slander, he mixed in qīngbó xuèjì (lightweight-flippant joke-reproach), which is somewhat unworthy of suǒ yǎng bù hóng (a not-very-magnanimous cultivation). Yet his pen-and-brush is tiáochàng (orderly-and-flowing), often touching matter-and-reason; among recent men’s collections, his is still one that may be called yǒu shí jì (has real substance) — certainly distinct from diāozhāng huìjù (sculptured-chapter, painted-line) decoration. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 44 (1779), eighth month. Chief editors your servants 紀昀, 陸錫熊, 孫士毅. Chief proof-collator your servant Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
Lán Dǐngyuán is the leading early-Qing Tāi-wān-affairs writer. His Píng Tāi jì lüè — the standard account of the 1721 Zhū Yīguì 朱一貴 uprising and the Qing pacification under Lán Tíngzhēn — is foundational for Qing-Taiwan history. In the present Lùzhōu chū jí the major contributions are the xíngshì (topographic-strategic) essays on Mǐn, Yuè, and Qián — providing the most detailed mid-Yōngzhèng analysis of the southeastern coastal frontier and the Guizhou-Yúnnán Miáo and Yáo tribal areas.
The Sìkù tíyào’s specific criticism — that Lán’s Zhílì shuǐlì essay does not match northern water-conditions, and that his self-defense letters slip into qīngbó xuèjì — is rare in Sìkù commentary, where the compilers usually preserve a strong neutral tone. The criticism is meant to limit Lán’s authority to his actual zones of frontier-administration competence.
Composition window: c. 1710 (Lán’s earliest pieces) through 1733 (his death). The 20-juan form was fixed in 1732 by Kuàng Mǐnběn from the post-1726 revisions.
Translations and research
Emma Jinhua Teng, Taiwan’s Imagined Geography: Chinese Colonial Travel Writing and Pictures, 1683–1895 (Harvard Asia Center, 2004) — substantial discussion of Lán and the Píng Tāi jì lüè.
John Robert Shepherd, Statecraft and Political Economy on the Taiwan Frontier, 1600–1800 (Stanford UP, 1993) — substantial use of Lán’s writings.
C. Patterson Giersch, Asian Borderlands (Harvard, 2006) — refs.
ECCP 440–441 (Tu Lien-che).
Other points of interest
The studio name Lùzhōu (“Deer-Islet”) references Tai-wan: Lán’s identification with the Lùzhōu sobriquet derives from his 1721 Tai-wan service. This is among the earliest cases of a mainland Chinese scholar identifying himself with a Tai-wan place-name as personal hào.
Links
- Wikidata Q15883999 (Lan Dingyuan)
- ECCP 440–441
- Kyoto Zinbun Sìkù tíyào