文章辨體彙選

Wénzhāng biàntǐ huìxuǎn 文章辨體彙選

Comprehensive Genre-by-Genre Anthology of Prose by 賀復徵

About the work

A late-Míng manuscript anthology of Chinese prose in originally over 780 juǎn (extant 779), compiled by Hè Fùzhēng (賀復徵, zì Zhònglái 仲來, of Dānyáng 丹陽). The work is an enormous expansion of Wú Nè’s 吳訥 (1372–1457) classical Wénzhāng biàntǐ 文章辨體 — the foundational Míng genre-discrimination anthology of prose — to which Hè has added vast new material running from the Three Dynasties through the late Míng. The compiled corpus is organised into 132 generic categories (tǐlèi), and every category opens with citations from Liú Xié’s Wénxīn diāolóng 文心雕龍 and from Wú Nè / Xú Shīzēng 徐師曾 on genre theory — sometimes with Hè’s own glosses appended. The work was never printed in the Míng or early Qīng; it survived only in manuscript (the Sìkù editors note that “the book exists only in copy form, very rarely circulated”) and was rescued by the Sìkù commission, who acknowledged its imperfect editing — duplications, mis-assignments, and over-thin coverage of JīnYuán prose — but praised its comprehensive coverage and bófǎnyuē (going broad to return to the essential) value. It is among the most ambitious genre-organised anthologies of Chinese prose ever compiled.

Tiyao

Your servants respectfully submit: the Wénzhāng biàntǐ huìxuǎn in 780 juǎn — compiled by the Míng Hè Fùzhēng, zì Zhònglái, of Dānyáng. The book has no preface or table of contents at the head. In the body, Hè Fùzhēng’s own preface to Dàoguāng héshàng shù states: “My late father, the Censor-Governor (xiānxiànfù), once held office at Kuímén [in Sichuan], in the sixth month of Tiānqǐ jiǎzǐ (1624). In the following year yǐchǒu (1625), I went into Shǔ and learned all about it. The Censor-Governor became an attendant at Nánjīng; later he went to Yuè (Guǎngdōng) and returned to Wú.” Again: “My late Gōngbǎo Zhōnglínggōng once asked the master to expound the Diamond Sūtra.” The Wúyín tící preface says: “In the autumn of xīnwèi (1631), my father received the appointment to Yuèxī (Guǎngxī); on account of illness, I waited to set out.”

Examining the Dānyáng Hè family: those who dēngkē (passed the examination): Bāngtài 邦泰, Jiājìng yǐwèi (1559) jìnshì; Bāngtài’s grandson Shìshòu 世壽, Wànlì gēngxū (1610) jìnshì, who held office as zǒngdū cāngcháng (Director-General of Granaries) and Hùbù shàngshū (Minister of Revenue); Shìshòu’s son Wángshèng 王盛, Chóngzhēn wùchén (1628) jìnshì. But the offices and years that Hè Fùzhēng claims for his grandfather and father do not match. Furthermore, every volume bears the seal-impression “Jìnjiāng Huángshì fùzǐ cángshū yìn jì” (Father-and-son book-collection seal of the Huáng family of Jìnjiāng), yet the Qiānqǐngtáng shūmù 千頃堂書目 does not record this compilation. The reason in either case is not clear.

Hè considered Wú Nè’s Wénzhāng biàntǐ as not comprehensive enough, so he separately sōutǎo (searched and gathered): upward to the Three Dynasties and downward to the end of the Míng, through jīngshǐ zhūzǐ bǎijiā shānjīng dìzhì (Classics, Histories, Masters, Hundred-Schools, Shānjīng, Dìzhì) — no source untapped. He distinguished 132 generic categories in 780 juǎn. At the head of each genre he often cites Liú Xié’s Wénxīn diāolóng together with the words of Wú Nè and Xú Shīzēng, interspersing his own glosses, which together serve as a fánlì (editorial-principle). The zhēnlù (selection-and-recording) is so extensive that it has rarely been matched by any anthology in history.

But: where a single genre is duplicated — e.g. the zhùwén (invocation) genre, after which zhìyǔ (formal-felicitation) is appended, and which is then followed by another zhìyǔ juǎn — this is one example. Where one genre is forcibly split into two — e.g. shàngshū (memorials to the throne) with shàngyán (presenting words), the latter holding only Jiǎ Shān’s Zhìyán one piece; mùbiǎo (tomb-tablet) with qiānbiǎo (path-tablet), the latter holding only Ōuyáng Xiū’s Lónggāng qiānbiǎo one piece; jì (records) and jìshì (records-of-events) separate; záwén (miscellaneous prose) and zázhù (miscellaneous compositions) separate — these are other examples. Where a single piece is doubled in two genres: e.g. Wáng Bāo’s Tóng yuē 僮約 appears in yuē; and again in záwén. Shěn Yuē’s Xiūzhú dàn Gānjiāo wén appears in dànshì (impeachment); and again in záwén. Kǒng Zhāng’s Qǐng dài Lǐ Yōng biǎo appears in biǎo; and again in shàngshū. Sūn Qiáo’s Shū Hé Yìn yú shì appears in biǎo; and again in jìshì. And so on.

Further: prose of the Jīn and Yuán dynasties is collected too thinly; and later forgeries by Míng hands — such as Huángdì’s Jīnrén míng, Zhāng Huánhóu [Zhāng Fēi]‘s Xīndūxiàn Zhēnduōshān míng and the like — are wholesale included without scrutiny. This is a failure of biécái (discriminating selection). We surmise that — given the immense bulk of juǎn, with the draft only newly off the pen and not yet kāndìng (finalised) — Hè could not yet eliminate all the fánwú (redundancy and weeds). However, his biélèi fēnmén (classifying by category and dividing by gate), his sōuluó guǎngbó (broad-and-extensive gathering) — almost the labour of a lifetime in chāocuō (transcribing and summarising) — produces zhuìdiǎn mìwén (collapsed-canonical and obscure pieces) that often lie outside the eye and ear of ordinary readers. And since the book exists only in copy form, very rarely circulated, transcribing and preserving it cannot fail to assist the cǎogū jiā (essayist) in the project of going broad to return to the essential. Reverently submitted, second month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Editor-in-Chief Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Collator Lù Fèichí.

Abstract

Date. The internal evidence in the Sìkù tíyào (Hè’s references to Tiānqǐ jiǎzǐ 1624, yǐchǒu 1625, and xīnwèi 1631) places the compilation firmly in the late Tiānqǐ and Chóngzhēn reigns. The bracket 1624–1640 covers the active compilation window. The book remained in manuscript through the Míng and early Qīng; the Sìkù commission worked from a manuscript copy bearing the seals of a Jìnjiāng Huáng-family library.

Significance. (1) The Wénzhāng biàntǐ huìxuǎn is by volume the largest extant pre-modern Chinese prose anthology organised by genre — 132 categories in nearly 800 juǎn. By comparison, Yáo Xuàn’s Táng wéncuì 唐文粹 holds 100 juǎn; Lǚ Zǔqiān’s Sòng wénjiàn 宋文鑑 KR4h0050 150 juǎn; Sū Tiānjué’s Yuán wénlèi 元文類 70 juǎn. (2) The work supersedes Wú Nè’s Wénzhāng biàntǐ in coverage while preserving Wú’s analytical framework — and so it is the culmination of the Míng-period genre-discrimination tradition. Every category opens with citations from Liú Xié, Wú Nè, and Xú Shīzēng on the genre’s history and stylistic norms. (3) The work is a major reservoir of obscure or lost pieces — pieces “outside the eye and ear of ordinary readers,” in the Sìkù’s phrase — many of them recovered from local gazetteers, family histories, and Buddhist or Daoist collections that the standard literary anthologies neglected. (4) Despite its imperfections (the Sìkù’s catalogue of duplications and mis-attributions is unusually long), the compilation has been a standard reference work for traditional literary scholars investigating particular minor genres.

Hè Fùzhēng’s biography. Beyond the genealogical details questioned in the Sìkù tíyào (Hè claims descent from the prominent Dānyáng Hè family of Hè Bāngtài, jìnshì 1559, but the offices and dates do not match), little is firmly known. The Sìkù discrepancy suggests either Hè exaggerated his lineage or used inaccurate informal references; the Qiānqǐngtáng shūmù does not record him. He had personal experience of Sìchuān (1624–25) and lived to see his father appointed to Guǎngxī (1631) — the dates point to active middle-life work through the late 1630s.

Translations and research

• Wén-zhāng biàn-tǐ huì-xuǎn, modern photo-reprint of the SKQS text, Shàng-hǎi gǔ-jí, Sì-kù quán-shū yǐng-yìn series (1986).
• Wú Chéng-xué 吳承學, Zhōng-guó gǔ-dài wén-tǐ-xué yán-jiū 中國古代文體學研究 — comprehensive Chinese study of pre-modern genre theory, treating Hè’s compilation in the late-Míng biàn-tǐ tradition.
• 任繼愈 Rèn Jì-yú (ed.), Zhōng-guó zǒng-jí dà-cí-diǎn 中國總集大辭典 — entry on the work.

Other points of interest

The Wénzhāng biàntǐ huìxuǎn is one of the very few Chinese prose anthologies preserved chiefly by the Sìkù commission: had the Sìkù editors not rescued the manuscript from a Jìnjiāng private library (the Huáng-family seal-mark), the work would likely have been lost. The Sìkù editors’ decision to include such an imperfectly edited compilation reflects their judgment that even a flawed compilation of such scope was worth preserving for its catch-basin function — collecting pieces unobtainable elsewhere. This is a notable instance of the Sìkù’s scholarly conservation work over a private manuscript.

Links

• ctext
• Wú Chéngxué 吳承學, Zhōngguó gǔdài wéntǐxué yánjiū.