Wénzhāng guǐfàn 文章軌範
Models for Literary Composition by 謝枋得
About the work
A 7-juǎn late-Southern-Sòng pedagogical anthology of gǔwén compiled by Xiè Fāngdé 謝枋得 (1226–1289) of Yìyáng 弋陽, Xìnzhōu (modern Jiāngxī), the jìnshì of Bǎoyòu 4 (1256) and Sòng loyalist martyr. The work selects 69 prose pieces from the Hàn, Jìn, Táng, and Sòng — most heavily weighted toward Hán Yù (韓愈), who alone supplies 31 of the 69 — followed by Liǔ Zōngyuán 5, Ōuyáng Xiū 5, Sū Xún 4, Sū Zhé 12, and single pieces from Zhūgě Liàng, Táo Qián, Dù Mù, Fàn Zhòngyān, Wáng Ānshí, Lǐ Gòu 李覯, Lǐ Géfēi 李格非, and Xīn Qìjī. The first two juǎn are headed “Fàngdǎn wén” 放膽文 (“Bold-Heart Pieces” — to liberate the writer’s hand) and the latter five “Xiǎoxīn wén” 小心文 (“Cautious-Heart Pieces” — to discipline the writer’s eye); both sets carry Xiè’s pīzhù (interlinear remarks) and quāndiǎn (circles and dots) marking. The work was conceived as an examination-prose handbook, and Wáng Shǒurén’s 王守仁 (Wáng Yángmíng) preface of Zhèngdé 1 (1506) explicitly identifies it as such, while observing that the principles Xiè teaches are coextensive with the principles of gǔwén itself. Five of juàn 6–7 (the Yuèyánglóu jì, Jì TiánHéng wén, Shàng Méi Zhíjiǎng shū, Sānhuáitáng míng, Biǎozhōng guān bēi, Hòu Chìbì fù, Ēpánggōng fù, Sòng Lǐ Yuàn guī Pángǔ xù) carry only the quāndiǎn and no pīzhù — interpreted by the SKQS editors as Xiè’s modesty: when he had nothing distinctive to add he refused to fill in for the sake of filling in. The famous Hán Yù Chūshī biǎo and Táo Yuānmíng Guīqùlái cí at the very head carry neither pīzhù nor quāndiǎn — a deliberate silence that the editors and Xiè’s disciple Wáng Yuānjì 王淵濟 (in the postface) read as Xiè’s reverent identification of Zhūgě Liàng’s chancellorship and Táo Qián’s hermitage as the twin moral-political archetypes that defined his own loyalist stance.
Tiyao
Your servants respectfully submit: the Wénzhāng guǐfàn in 7 juǎn. The Sòng Xiè Fāngdé compiled it. Fāngdé has the Diéshān jí already on record (see KR4d0367). The collection records 69 HànJìnTángSòng prose pieces, of which Hán Yù’s pieces number 31; Liǔ Zōngyuán and Ōuyáng Xiū’s 5 each; Sū Xún 4; Sū Zhé 12; and the rest — Zhūgě Liàng, Táo Qián, Dù Mù, Fàn Zhòngyān, Wáng Ānshí, Lǐ Gòu, Lǐ Géfēi, Xīn Qìjī — one piece each only. The first two juǎn are headed “Fàngdǎn wén”; the latter five juǎn “Xiǎoxīn wén”. Each piece has pīzhù (annotation) and quāndiǎn (circle-and-dot marking). In juǎn 6 the Yuèyánglóu jì; in juǎn 7 the seven pieces — Jì TiánHéng wén, Shàng Méi Zhíjiǎng shū, Sānhuáitáng míng, Biǎozhōng guān bēi, Hòu Chìbì fù, Ēpánggōng fù, Sòng Lǐ Yuàn guī Pángǔ xù — all have only the quāndiǎn without pīzhù. Probably he happened to have no distinctive insight and so refused to pad it in to fill the void — the gǔrén spirit of chúnshí (sincerity-and-substance). The opening Chūshī biǎo and Guīqùlái cí together had neither quāndiǎn nor pīzhù — which seems to have a deliberate intent. His disciple Wáng Yuānjì’s postface (bá) maintains that the great-righteousness of the Hàn Chancellor [Zhūgě Liàng] and the pure-integrity of the Jìn Hermit [Táo Qián] are what Fāngdé deeply intends — not a forced reading.
Before, Wáng Shǒurén’s [Wáng Yángmíng’s] preface says it was written for the jǔyè (examination prose) of his time; yet whatever it points to and lifts up strikes home — to be sure, the law of gǔwén is not external to this. The old recension uses the seven characters “Wánghóu jiàngxiàng yǒu zhǒnghū” 王侯將相有種乎 (“Have kings, marquises, generals, ministers — seed?” [Chén Shèng’s revolt-slogan]) to mark the seven juǎn. The recent printing uses “Jiǔzhòng chūnsè zuì xiāntáo” 九重春色醉仙桃 (“Ninefold spring colours, drunk on immortal peach-blossoms”) in their place. Observing juǎn 3’s pīzhù, which reads “xiān shú Wáng Hóu liǎng jí” (first master the Wáng and Hóu sets), this present book is therefore Fāngdé’s original headings; the recent printing has emended them at will. Although irrelevant to the larger import, this is also enough to show that the fángkè (workshop printings) like to alter old books, and cannot be relied on as fixed authority.
Reverently submitted, tenth month of Qiánlóng 42 (1777). Editor-in-Chief Jǐ Yún 紀昀 (here written 紀均 — a typographical slip), Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. General Collator Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
Date. The Wénzhāng guǐfàn was compiled in the late Southern Sòng, almost certainly in the last two decades of Xiè Fāngdé’s life (c. 1270–1289) — after his examination success in 1256, after his service in his native region, and during the period of resistance, exile, and refusal of Yuán summons when he was teaching in private. Wáng Shǒurén’s Míng preface (1506) is the earliest extended assessment that has survived. The most influential later print is the Míng Wànlì recension carrying the seven-character Wánghóu jiàngxiàng yǒu zhǒnghū — Chén Shèng’s revolt-cry — as juǎn-headings; the SKQS editors note that this is Xiè’s own, and that the variant Jiǔzhòng chūnsè zuì xiāntáo was a commercial emendation. The deliberate choice of Chén Shèng’s slogan — that birth alone does not make a king — is itself a coded statement about Mongol legitimacy.
Pedagogical project. The work is the single most influential late-imperial gǔwén pedagogical anthology — outweighing in long-term influence even Lǚ Zǔqiān’s Gǔwén guānjiàn KR4h0041 and Zhēn Déxiù’s Wénzhāng zhèngzōng KR4h0046. Its two-tier organisation — Fàngdǎn wén (to liberate the student’s hand) followed by Xiǎoxīn wén (to discipline the student’s eye) — became the canonical pedagogical sequence. Its 31 Hán Yù pieces likewise canonised Hán Yù as the master of gǔwén in the late-imperial classroom.
Reception in Japan and Korea. The Wénzhāng guǐfàn travelled to Edo Japan as one of the principal Chinese prose anthologies; the Bun-shō kihan 文章軌範 became a foundational text in the kambun tradition and was repeatedly re-engraved with Japanese kunten (reading aids). In Chosŏn Korea it was likewise canonical for the munjang curriculum.
Loyalist subtext. The choice of opening with Zhūgě Liàng’s Chūshī biǎo (the model of the loyal-minister-to-the-end) and Táo Qián’s Guīqùlái cí (the model of the principled-hermit), both marked with deliberate silence — neither punctuated nor annotated — should be read alongside Xiè’s own life. The compilation is simultaneously a gǔwén handbook and a covert manual of Sòng loyalism. Cf. Jennifer W. Jay, A Change in Dynasties (1991), pp. 178ff., for Xiè’s literary-political integrity.
Translations and research
- Jennifer W. Jay, A Change in Dynasties: Loyalism in Thirteenth-Century China (Bellingham: Western Washington University, 1991) — definitive English study of Xiè Fāngdé and Sòng yí-mín, with chapter-length treatment.
- Charles Hartman, Han Yü and the T’ang Search for Unity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986) — on the canonisation of Hán Yù via gǔ-wén anthologies.
- Peter Bol, “This Culture of Ours”: Intellectual Transitions in T’ang and Sung China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992) — broader background.
- 王水照 Wáng Shuǐzhào, Sòng-dài wén-xué tōng-lùn — comprehensive treatment of Sòng prose pedagogy.
- 鍾哲明 Zhōng Zhémíng, “Wénzhāng guǐfàn yǔ Xiè Fāngdé de gǔ-wén-guān”, multiple journal articles (Wùhàn).
Other points of interest
The opening Chūshī biǎo and Guīqùlái cí are deliberately left unmarked and unannotated — a unique stylistic gesture in the píngdiǎn tradition. The SKQS editors and Xiè’s disciple Wáng Yuānjì both read this as Xiè’s veneration of Zhūgě Liàng and Táo Qián as moral exemplars too sacred for the apparatus of pedagogical instruction. It is a small but characteristic feature of how a pedagogical anthology can simultaneously be a political confession.