元文類

Yuán wénlèi 元文類

Categorised Prose of the (Great) Yuán Dynasty by 蘇天爵

About the work

A 70-juǎn dynastic prose anthology of the Yuán by Sū Tiānjué (蘇天爵, 1294–1352), zì Bóxiū 伯修, hào Zīxī 滋溪, of Zhēndìng 真定. Originally titled 國朝文類 Guócháo wénlèi (“Categorised Prose of [Our] Dynasty”); renamed Yuán wénlèi under the Míng. Sū assembled the work over nearly twenty years while progressing from Imperial-Academy student (guózǐ zhūshēng) through Hanlin Academy posts to 授經郎 shòujīngláng of the Kuízhānggé 奎章閣 (Hall of the Star of Literature, established 1329). The book was submitted to the throne, examined by the Hanlin officials Xiè Duān 謝端, Wáng Wényè 王文燁, Huáng Qīnglǎo 黃清老, Lǚ Sīchéng 呂思誠, Wáng Yí 王沂, and Yáng Jùnmín 楊俊民, and approved for printing — funded by the shànxué qiánliáng (schools-endowment fund) and engraved at the Xīhú shūyuàn 西湖書院 in Hángzhōu under the supervision of book-house fùtíjǔ Chén Dēngshì 陳登仕. The administrative correspondence preserves the dates Zhìyuán 2.12 (1336.12) for the original imperial command and Zhìyuán 4.8 (1338.8) for the printing-shop progress report.

Tiyao

No SKQS tiyao found in source; the present source file is the SBCK reproduction of the original Yuán Xīhú shūyuàn edition, preserving the administrative correspondence (imperial command, Hanlin examination, printing supervision) but not the Qiánlóng-era 提要.

The administrative documents (Zhìyuán 2, twelfth month, sixth day; renewed Zhìyuán 4, eighth month, eighteenth day) establish that the present Yuán wénlèi was submitted by the Hanlin待制 Xiè Duān and the Hanlin-Academy editorial team; that Sū Tiānjué — then Kuízhānggé shòujīngláng — had compiled it over almost twenty years; that the work runs to 70 juǎn organized into the categories gē, shī, fù, sòng, míng, zàn, xù, jì, zòuyì, zázhù, shū, shuō, yìlùn, míngzhì, bēi, and zhuàn; and that printing was assigned to the Xīhú shūyuàn under the supervision of the proofreader-superintendent Chén Dēngshì. The text emphasizes the parallel of the Yuán wénlèi to the earlier Wénxuǎn 文選 (for QínHànWèiJìn), the Wéncuì 文粹 (for Táng), and the Wénjiàn 文鑑 (for Sòng) — each prior dynasty has its own canonical prose anthology, and the Yuán now joins them.

Abstract

Date. The work was compiled c. 1314–1334 (Sū entered the guózǐxué in 1314; final submission to the throne in Yuántǒng 2 / 1334). The Hanlin-Academy memorial for printing dates to Zhìyuán 2 (1336); the Xīhú shūyuàn edition was completed in Zhìyuán 4 (1338). Treat the work’s completion as 1334 and the first printing as 1338 — notBefore: 1334, notAfter: 1338 reflects the printing window.

Form and significance. (1) The Yuán wénlèi is the principal dynastic prose anthology of the Yuán, the canonical counterpart to the Sòng Wénjiàn 文鑑 (KR4h0072) and the Míng-era Míng wénhéng (KR4h0102) by Chéng Mǐnzhèng (程敏政). It preserves 800-odd compositions by some 200 authors across the categorical divisions specified above. (2) Most of the writers anthologised — Yú Jí 虞集 (KR4d0387), Jiē Xīsī 揭傒斯, Huáng Jìn 黃溍, Sòng Liáng 宋濂, Liú Yīn 劉因 (KR4d0356), Yáng Wéizhēn 楊維楨 — are major Yuán literary or scholarly figures; the work is the primary venue in which a substantial proportion of their occasional prose survives. (3) The compilation served as the model for Chéng Mǐnzhèng’s Míng wénhéng, which adopted the zǒngjí by category scheme directly from Sū. (4) The SBCK edition reproduces the Yuán-engraved Xīhú shūyuàn imprint — one of the oldest surviving Yuán imprints of a major literary anthology.

Editions. Yuán Xīhú shūyuàn engraved edition (1338), reprinted at the Xīhú in early Yuán reign-period — the basis of the SBCK photoreproduction; later WYG SKQS recension. The transmission is straightforward and the text has not suffered the recension catastrophe of KR4h0080.

Translations and research

• Hok-lam Chan 陳學霖, “Liu Ping-chung 劉秉忠 (1216–74): A Buddhist-Taoist Statesman at the Court of Khubilai Khan” — uses Yuán wén-lèi materials.
• John D. Langlois Jr. (ed.), China under Mongol Rule (Princeton, 1981) — multiple contributors use Yuán wén-lèi as source.
• 申万里 Shēn Wàn-lǐ, Sū Tiān-jué jí qí Yuán cháo míng-chén shì-lüè yán-jiū — modern study of Sū and his works.
• 楊鎌 Yáng Lián, Yuán dài wén-xué biān-nián shǐ (Taiyuan, 2005) — chronological study of Yuán literary history, drawing heavily on Yuán wén-lèi.
• A Zhōng-huá shū-jú 1958 punctuated edition of the Yuán wén-lèi exists.

Other points of interest

The work’s title — originally 國朝文類 Guócháo wénlèi (“Categorised Prose of [Our] Dynasty”) — survived in the SBCK reproduction; the SKQS retitled it 元文類 Yuán wénlèi in line with the convention of using dynastic names for prior-dynasty anthologies. The SBCK preserves the Yuán hereditary form; this is one of several Yuán anthologies (cf. KR4h0082 皇元風雅 → 元風雅) where the SKQS retitled away from the original Guócháo or Huángcháo phrasing.

Links

• ctext
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §31.4 (Yuán literature).