Jīngyì mófàn 經義模範
Model Examination-Essays on the Classics by 闕名 (compiler unknown — probably Zhū Fāng 朱方)
About the work
A 1-juǎn mid-Míng anthology of Sòng-era model 經義 jīngyì (classics-essay examination compositions), prefaced by Wáng Tíngbiǎo 王廷表 (Zhèngdé jiǎxū (1514) jìnshì) in Jiājìng dīngwèi (1547) at the residence of Yáng Shèn 楊慎 (升菴, the famous Yún-nán-exiled scholar-poet). Wáng’s preface explains that he visited Yáng Shèn at the latter’s Yúnnán exile and obtained the manuscript from him; the jīngyì had been compiled and printed by Wáng’s exam-cohort fellow-graduate Zhū Liángjǔ 朱良矩 — whose identity is uncertain. Wáng’s preface lists six possible Zhū surnamed cohort-mates from the 1514 graduating class — Zhū Gěn 朱艮, Zhū Jìng 朱敬, Zhū Cháng 朱裳, Zhū Jié 朱節, Zhū Zhāo 朱昭, Zhū Fāng 朱方 — among whom Zhū Fāng of Yǒngkāng 永康 (Zhèjiāng) is the most likely match by character (Liángjǔ = 良矩 ≈ 方 fāng = square).
The work contains 16 jīngyì by four Sòng-era examination-essay masters:
- Zhāng Cáishū 張才叔 (Guǎngān man) — 1 essay (the opening piece, Zìjìng rén zìxiàn yú xiānwáng 自靖人自獻於先王 — the famous Shūjīng commentary)
- Yáo Xiàoníng 姚孝寧 — 2 Yìjīng essays
- Wú Shīmèng 吳師孟 (Zhōngjiāng man) — several essays
- Zhāng Xiàoxiáng 張孝祥 (Jiǎnzhōu man — the famous Sòng poet) — several essays
The opening essay — Zhāng Cáishū’s Zìjìng rén zìxiàn yú xiānwáng — was anthologised by Lǚ Zǔqiān 呂祖謙 in his Wénjiàn (KR4h0072); Zhū Xī 朱熹 was said to “recite it aloud while drunk” and ranked it on a par with Zhūgé Liàng’s Chūshī biǎo (Memorial on Setting Out the Army). Under the Yǒnglè emperor, the Shàngshū dàquán commission was directed to incorporate Zhāng’s essay into its annotation — making it the canonical Míng jīngyì model.
Tiyao
Your servants respectfully submit: the Jīngyì mófàn in 1 juǎn — no compiler’s name. The volume opens with Wáng Tíngbiǎo’s preface, saying: “In Jiājìng dīngwèi (1547) I visited Yáng Shèngān [Yáng Shèn] and obtained the Jīngyì mófàn in one fascicle — engraved by my same-year-cohort Zhū Liángjǔ” etc.
Examining: Tíngbiǎo is a Zhèngdé jiǎxū (1514) jìnshì. That year’s tímíng bēi (graduation stele) has Zhū Gěn, Zhū Jìng, Zhū Cháng, Zhū Jié, Zhū Zhāo, Zhū Fāng — six men — uncertain which is the right one. By zìyì (character-sense), it should be Zhū Fāng — Yǒngkāng (Zhèjiāng) man — though his career-details are also unclear.
The compositions: Zhāng Cáishū, Yáo Xiàoníng, Wú Shīmèng, Zhāng Xiàoxiáng — 16 jīngyì essays in all. The opening piece — Zhāng Cáishū’s Zìjìng rén zìxiàn yú xiānwáng — is the very one Lǚ Zǔqiān anthologised into the Wénjiàn. The variation of timely-style writing (shíwén) — qiāntài wànzhuàng (myriad shapes) — the further it goes the more it loses its zōng (origin); also the more gōng (skilful) and the more removed from the Way. Now examining these early-style works, míngbái qièshí (clear and pragmatic) — they were like this.
Examining: KR4h0094 Wú Bózōng’s Róngjìn jí*. The latter records his Hóngwǔ xīnhài huìshì passing piece; this is the Míng’s first examination-cohort. What he composed is not very different from these — proving that at the founding of the law (lìfǎ zhī chū), only mínglǐ (clarifying principle) was the standard, not xiūcí (ornamenting words).
Under Kāngxī, the biānxiū Yú Chángchéng 俞長城 once compiled the BěiSòng to Guócháo jīngyì in 120 houses’ drafts; but his selections of Wáng Ānshí, Sū Zhé and others — their sources are unclear, and the world has had doubts. The present anthology, though short, still shows the běnshǐ (origin) of jīngyì. Preserving it serves chùfú shìmí (suppressing the floating, putting down the over-elaborate).
Reverently submitted, fifth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Editor-in-Chief Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Collator Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Date. Wáng Tíngbiǎo’s preface is dated Jiājìng dīngwèi (1547), 12th month, lìchūn rì. The original Sòng compositions are roughly from the Northern Sòng late period to Southern Sòng (Zhāng Cáishū and Yáo Xiàoníng are Northern Sòng; Wú Shīmèng is late Northern Sòng; Zhāng Xiàoxiáng is mid Southern Sòng — 1132–1170). The compilation under Zhū Liángjǔ (= probably Zhū Fāng) is Jiā-jìng-era. The Wáng Tíngbiǎo preface and Yáng Shèn’s involvement are 1547.
Significance. (1) The work is a rare extant collection of Sòng-era examination essays in the jīngyì genre — a genre that was the direct precursor of the MíngQīng eight-legged essay (bāgǔ wén 八股文). (2) The opening essay by Zhāng Cáishū — quoted in KR4h0072 Wénjiàn and incorporated into the Shàngshū dàquán under the Yǒnglè emperor — is the canonical model of MíngQīng examination prose. (3) The collection’s preservation in the Yúnnán exile-circle of Yáng Shèn (1488–1559), and its transmission through Wáng Tíngbiǎo (a Yúnnán official), document the mid-Míng Yúnnán intellectual circuit centred on Yáng’s exile-court — paralleling KR4h0099 (Mùfǔ literary circle) as evidence for southwestern frontier literary culture. (4) The SKQS editors emphasise the value of this běnshǐ (origin) record against the over-elaborate late-Míng style of examination prose — a Qīng-era critique of Wàn-lì-and-later shíwén (timely-style writing) production.
Translations and research
- Benjamin Elman, A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China (Berkeley, 2000) — the standard Western study of jīng-yì and bā-gǔ-wén genealogy.
- Hilde de Weerdt, Competition over Content: Negotiating Standards for the Civil Service Examinations in Imperial China (1127–1279) (Cambridge MA, 2007) — Southern-Sòng exam-essay tradition.
- 龔篤清 Gōng Dǔ-qīng, Míng-dài bā-gǔ-wén shǐ tàn — Míng eight-legged essay history.
Other points of interest
The work is a unique witness to the Sòng jīngyì → MíngQīng bāgǔ genealogy. The genre’s development between Wáng Ānshí’s institution of jīngyì in the Xīníng reforms (c. 1071) and the mature Míng bāgǔ is mostly unknown from primary sources; the present anthology — short though it is — preserves four canonical Sòng examples. Its connection to Yáng Shèn — the most famous Míng-mid examination-disgraced scholar (exiled to Yúnnán in 1524 for objecting to Jiājìng’s ritual policies) — is itself noteworthy.
Links
- ctext
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §60 (examination system).