XīHàn wénjì 西漢文紀
Records of Western-Hàn Prose by 梅鼎祚
About the work
A 24-juǎn late-Míng anthology of Western-Hàn prose by Méi Dǐngzuò (梅鼎祚, 1549–1618) — the second instalment of his eight-dynasty Wénjì (Prose Records) project. Unlike the earlier KR4h0120 Huángbà wénjì 皇霸文紀 (pre-Qín & Qín, source dir missing — see TODO.md) which the SKQS editors criticise for zhēnwěi rǒuzá (genuine-and-false mixed), the present XīHàn wénjì takes the 史記 Shǐjì and 漢書 Hànshū as its primary base — and is therefore much more reliably textual. Its supplementary materials are drawn from non-Bān-Mǎ sources but explicitly identified.
Méi’s discriminations are notably acute: he correctly identifies as forgeries (yītuō) the Fēi Yàn zòu jiān 飛燕奏牋, the Chéngdì dá zhào, the Zhāng Liáng / SìHào wǎngfǎn shū, the Kǒng Zāng yǔ zǐdì shū, the Dōngfāng Shuò bǎowèng míng, the Lǐ LíngSū Wǔ wǎngfǎn shū, Liú Xiàng’s alleged prefaces to Guānyǐnzǐ, Zǐhuázǐ, Yúlíngzǐ, Yáng Xióng’s Rùnzhōu mù zhēn, Zhuó Wénjūn’s lament for Sīmǎ Xiāngrú — all explicitly tagged.
Tiyao
Your servants respectfully submit: the XīHàn wénjì in 24 juǎn — the Míng Méi Dǐngzuò edited it.
Dǐngzuò’s Huángbà wénjì — true-and-false mixed up — somewhat xuànbó (showing-off breadth). The present compilation takes Shǐjì and Hànshū as its primary basis, with other books appending; the yǐjù wéi gēnběn zhě (things-cited-as-roots) compared to zhūzǐ záyán (philosophical-various-words) are more reliable. Therefore what is recorded outside the two histories of Bān and Mǎ can be cross-checked — not as wild as Huángbà wénjì.
[Goes on to list forgeries Méi correctly identifies — as above.]
[Other materials he could not fully sort:] The Xījīng zájì, Dōngfāng Shuò biézhuàn, Sōushén jì, Bówù zhì, Fózàng biànzhèng lùn — and Kǒng Ānguó’s alleged Shàngshū xù, Kǒng Yǎn’s alleged Jiāyǔ xù — though not all dismissed one-by-one, their omissions are no more than 1 in 100.
Only the Xīn shū (Jiǎ Yì) excerpts a few pieces — so Xīn yǔ and Chūnqiū fánlù, by example, why not also included? Liènǚ zhuàn and Yáng Xióng’s various fù — both excerpting only the prefaces — by example, others would also be uncountable — has no clear principle.
For zhào and zhì (decrees and edicts) — both arranged by emperor and also interleaved before-and-after pieces — duānxù pángzá (threads-of-order are tangled-mixed) — the editorial form has guāi (defects).
But three-dynasties-and-after prose is most magnificent in Western Hàn; Western Hàn prose is most complete in this compilation. Hányīng jǔhuá (containing the petal, savouring the flower) — indeed the deep pool of all writing.
Reverently submitted, eighth month of Qiánlóng 42 (1777). Editor-in-Chief Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Collator Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Date. The Wénjì series was compiled in stages from c. 1605 through Méi Dǐngzuò’s death in 1618; the XīHàn wénjì was likely completed early in the sequence — perhaps c. 1605–1610. The full series was published in stages: the Huángbà and XīHàn during Méi’s lifetime; the East-Jìn through Suí volumes after his death (see KR4h0124’s tiyao).
Significance. (1) The work is the canonical Míng anthology of Western-Hàn prose — the most comprehensive pre-modern collection until Yán Kějūn’s 嚴可均 Qīng Quán Shànggǔ sāndài QínHàn Sānguó Liùcháo wén 全上古三代秦漢三國六朝文 (1836). (2) Méi’s program: replace Guō Màoqiàn’s Yuèfǔ shījí (poetry) and Yáo Xuàn’s Táng wéncuì (Táng prose) with a comprehensive multi-dynastic prose archive running from pre-Qín to Suí. (3) Méi’s forgery-identifications in this volume are scholarly: he correctly flags multiple pseudepigraphic pieces (e.g. the Lǐ LíngSū Wǔ letters — long acknowledged as Eastern-Hàn or later forgeries) that earlier anthologists had treated as authentic. (4) The work is the first instalment of Méi’s mature scholarly anthological program, more rigorous than his earlier Huángbà wénjì.
Translations and research
- Burton Watson, Records of the Grand Historian: Han Dynasty (Columbia, 1993) — uses Shǐ-jì and Hàn-shū selections of the kind Méi anthologises.
- Yán Kě-jūn 嚴可均, Quán Shàng-gǔ sān-dài Qín-Hàn Sān-guó Liù-cháo wén (1836) — the great Qīng successor to Méi’s project.
- No substantial Western-language monograph on Méi Dǐng-zuò located.
Other points of interest
The XīHàn wénjì and its seven companion volumes (KR4h0120–KR4h0129) together constitute the most ambitious late-Míng pre-Suí prose project. Méi’s work — and its less rigorous predecessor KR4h0120 — set the standard against which Yán Kějūn’s Qīng-era comprehensive compilation was constructed two centuries later.
Links
- ctext
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §32, §38.