Quán Jìn Wén 全晉文
Complete Prose Writings of the Jin Dynasty compiled by 嚴可均 嚴可均 (編)
About the work
This file contains the Quán Jìn Wén 全晉文 section of 嚴可均’s Quán shànggǔ sāndài Qín Hàn Sānguó Liùcháo wén 全上古三代秦漢三國六朝文 (KR4h0176), spanning 178 juàn of prose attributed to writers of the Jin dynasty — the largest dynastic section within the anthology. The file opens with writings attributed to Xuāndì 宣帝, the posthumous imperial title of Sīmǎ Yì 司馬懿 (179–251), the Wei general and statesman whose descendants founded the Jin dynasty, and proceeds through the Western Jin (265–316) and Eastern Jin (317–420) periods. Primary sources cited throughout include the Jìn shū 晉書, the Wén xuǎn 文選 and its commentary by Lǐ Shàn 李善, the Yìwén lèijù 藝文類聚, the Tàipíng yùlǎn 太平御覽, and the Shuǐjīng zhù 水經注. Buddhist and Daoist collectanea are also heavily drawn upon for the Eastern Jin sections.
The Jin dynasty was a period of extraordinary intellectual and cultural productivity alongside political fragmentation. Among the many writers represented are: Lù Jī 陸機 (261–303; essays, Wén fù 文賦), Pān Yuè 潘岳 (247–300; memorial prose, elegies), Zuǒ Sī 左思 (ca. 250–305; prefaces), Zhāng Huá 張華 (232–300; bibliographic prose), Jiǎng Tǒng 江統 (?–310; political memorials), and Gé Hóng 葛洪 (283–343; philosophical and Daoist prose). The Eastern Jin sections contain foundational Daoist and Buddhist texts: prose by Wáng Xīzhī 王羲之 (303–361), prefaces by Sūn Chó 孫綽 and Xǔ Xún 許詢, and Buddhist writings by Huì Yuǎn 慧遠 (334–416), including his celebrated Lúshān zhū dàorén yóu shímén shī xù 廬山諸道人遊石門詩序. The section thus covers the emergence of landscape writing (shānshuǐ 山水), the philosophical “pure talk” (qīngtán 清談) tradition, and early Chinese Buddhist literary culture.
For the structure of the broader anthology, see KR4h0176. The adjacent dynastic sections are KR4h0178 (Three Kingdoms) and KR4h0172 (Liu Song).
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
The Jin dynasty (265–420) produced the richest body of prose in the Six Dynasties era, and the Quán Jìn Wén is accordingly the largest single dynastic section in Yán Kějūn’s anthology, running to 178 juàn. Yán drew on the Jìn shū 晉書 (compiled by Fáng Xuánlíng 房玄齡 et al., 648) as the primary historical source, supplementing it with Tang literary encyclopedias, the Wén xuǎn commentary tradition, Buddhist collectanea, and the Shuǐjīng zhù for inscriptions and geographical prose. The breadth of coverage reflects the Jin dynasty’s particular place in the history of Chinese writing: the Western Jin consolidated the literary and philosophical advances of the Wei period, while the Eastern Jin presided over the first great diffusion of Buddhism among the educated elite and the development of a distinctive landscape aesthetic.
Key prose genres represented include: imperial edicts and rescripts (zhào 詔, chì 敕); political memorials (biǎo 表, shū 書); philosophical essays in the xuánxué 玄學 tradition (Wang Bi’s intellectual heirs); literary prefaces, including the famous prefaces to Lán tíng 蘭亭 gatherings; rhapsodies (fù 賦) by Lù Jī and Zuǒ Sī; Buddhist correspondence, treatises, and prefaces by Huì Yuǎn; and Daoist biographical and practical prose by Gé Hóng. The section ends with texts from the final Eastern Jin decades, bridging into the Liu Song material in KR4h0172. For full compilation history and scholarly significance of the parent anthology, see KR4h0176.
Translations and research
- Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A New Manual. §30.3.2.
- Qián Zhōngshū 錢鐘書. Guǎnzhuībiān 管錐編. Vols. 3–4. Zhōnghuá, 1979.
- Knechtges, David R., and Taiping Chang, eds. Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide. Leiden: Brill, 2010–2014. See entries for Lù Jī, Pān Yuè, Gé Hóng, and Huì Yuǎn.