Shì wén jì 釋文紀
Chronicle of Buddhist Prose by 梅鼎祚
About the work
A 45-juǎn comprehensive anthology of pre-Táng Buddhist prose by Méi Dǐngzuò (梅鼎祚, 1549–1618). The work belongs to Méi’s Wénjì series of dynastic prose anthologies — alongside the Huángbà wénjì 皇霸文紀 KR4h0120, the Suí wénjì 隋文紀 KR4h0130, and the Dōng Hàn wénjì / Xī Jìn wénjì / Liùcháo wénjì volumes — and supplies the Buddhist counterpart to the secular Wénjì sequence. Juǎn 1 opens with translated Indian / Western-region Buddhist scripture (the jīngdiǎn suǒshì xīyù fànshū 經典所釋西域梵書), as a source-tracing preface; juǎn 2 through 43 then run chronologically from Eastern Hàn to ChénSuí, gathering pieces by named Buddhist monks and by lay literati writing on Buddhist themes; juǎn 44–45 collect anonymous pieces of likely pre-Táng date. The work was printed in Chóngzhēn xīnwèi 崇禎辛未 (1631), after Méi’s death, by his family; the compilation itself was assembled over the last decade of his life. It is the most ambitious pre-Qīng anthology of medieval Chinese Buddhist prose — superseding the earlier Hóngmíng jí 弘明集 KR6q0019 and Guǎng Hóngmíng jí 廣弘明集 KR6q0021 in coverage, though not in scriptural authority. Standard practice was to attach short biographical notices under each author’s name and source-anecdote / event-context notes under each piece — a notable scholarly convenience.
Tiyao
Your servants respectfully submit: the Shì wénjì in 45 juǎn — compiled by the Míng Méi Dǐngzuò, zì Yǔjīn, of Xuānchéng. The work was completed in Chóngzhēn xīnwèi (1631): gathering the prose of the famous monks of successive ages, together with the prose written by various lay hands for Buddhist purposes; opened with the jīngdiǎn suǒshì xīyù fànshū in one juǎn — tracing the source. Juǎn 2 through 43 cover Eastern Hàn through ChénSuí. Juǎn 44 and 45 contain anonymous and undateable pieces, all by pre-Táng hands. The compilation is exceptionally extensive: under each name a juélǐ (rank and native place) note; under each piece a shìshí (occasion / context) note — quite convenient for consultation.
In this work, items such as Wáng Jīn’s 王巾 Tóutuósì bēi 頭陀寺碑 — recorded in the Wén xuǎn — and Yán Zhītuī’s Guīxīn piān 歸心篇 — recorded in the Yánshì jiāxùn — are universally familiar pieces. Méi’s sōu yuǎn lüè jìn (seeking the distant while overlooking the near) approach loses something at the eyebrow-and-eye — i.e. fails to give first place to the most accessible canonical pieces. Likewise items such as Zhìyǒng’s colophon to Wáng Xīzhī’s Yuè Yì lùn and his Yuèyí / Xiànsuì tablets — although the man was a Buddhist monk, the texts are not for Buddhist purposes; including them indiscriminately is a fànlàn (over-flooding). These are minor flaws.
Yet for pre-Six-Dynasties Buddhist doctrinal-and-literary scholarship, the work is abundantly documented. At that time secular men of letters were competing in zǎolì (decorated elegance), and even the monks possessed cícǎi (rhetorical adornment) — so their utterances are generally xiányǎ (cultivated-and-refined), their discussions all grounded in jīngdiǎn (the canon). This is quite unlike the Táng-and-later yǔlù style of various Chán schools, which use lǐyǔ (vulgar diction) merely to swing the jīfēng (sharp blade) of Chán dialectic. Judged purely as prose composition, this collection is none-the-less brilliantly worth viewing. Reverently submitted, ninth month of Qiánlóng 44 (1779). Editor-in-Chief Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Collator Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Date. The Sìkù tíyào gives the work’s completion as Chóngzhēn xīnwèi (1631) — meaning the year of printing, since Méi himself died in 1618. The compilation was assembled across roughly the last decade of Méi’s life (c. 1610–1618), then printed posthumously by his family. The bracket adopted here (1600–1631) frames the full window from likely commencement to printing.
Significance. (1) The Shì wénjì is the most comprehensive Míng-period anthology of pre-Táng Chinese Buddhist prose, replacing in coverage the Hóngmíng jí KR6q0019 and the Guǎng Hóngmíng jí KR6q0021 — which are themselves scriptural collections defending the Buddhist faith — while supplying additional material from secular sources. (2) The work’s distinctive biographical-and-contextual annotation (place / rank / occasion notes under each piece) gives it scholarly value beyond mere anthology; the Sìkù editors single this out for praise. (3) The compilation’s clear chronological organisation (West–Hàn–Wèi–Jìn–LiúSòng–Qí–Liáng–Chén–Suí) provides a diachronic view of the Chinese Buddhist prose tradition in the period before Chán yǔlù (recorded sayings) emerged in the late Táng. (4) Yán Kějūn’s Quán shànggǔ Sāndài Qín Hàn Sānguó Liùcháo wén 全上古三代秦漢三國六朝文 (completed 1836) drew on the Shì wénjì alongside the secular Wénjì volumes — making Méi’s series the principal bridge between medieval source-collections and modern critical anthologies.
Sìkù placement. The Sìkù editors classify the Shì wénjì in the jíbù zǒngjí lèi (collected-prose category in the Belles-Lettres division), not in the zǐbù shìjiā lèi (Buddhist-author category in the Masters division) where some catalogers had placed it. This decision reflects the editors’ judgment that the work is, despite its subject-matter, a literary anthology — not a religious one.
Translations and research
- Yán Kě-jūn 嚴可均, Quán shàng-gǔ Sān-dài Qín Hàn Sān-guó Liù-cháo wén 全上古三代秦漢三國六朝文 (1836) — comprehensive successor.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §44.4.
- 周明初 Zhōu Míng-chū, Méi Dǐng-zuò yán-jiū 梅鼎祚研究 — focused Chinese monograph.
Other points of interest
The Shì wénjì’s juǎn 1, which opens with scripture translations as the “source” of Chinese Buddhist prose, marks Méi’s recognition that the literary tradition in question is fundamentally translated literature — the prose of Chinese Buddhists builds on the canonical translations from Sanskrit and Central Asian originals. This methodological insight — placing translated scripture at the head of an anthology of native composition — anticipates a perspective on Buddhist Chinese as a literary register continuous with translation that has been recovered by modern scholarship (e.g. Daniel Boucher, Stephen Teiser).
Links
- ctext
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §44.4.