Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, especially since the Qing Dynasty, Suzhou's style of learning has been relatively strong. Relying on Suzhou's rich gold and stone heritage, Suzhou literati compiled many local gold and stone chronicles. Among them, the "Wuzhong Jinshi New Edition" compiled by Chen Wei and others in the Ming Dynasty is not the most famous, but it is indeed a more maverick one. When Ji Xiaolan opened this book for the purpose of editing the "Siku Quanshu", he was a little surprised.
"Concise Catalogue of the Four Libraries" (Collection) (detail) Ji Yun Qing Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei
rubbing gold and stone, Ji Xiaolan has a lot of eyes; Famous works, he is not a problem. It was his deep understanding of the style of Jinshi's writings that he could perceive the uniqueness of "Wuzhong Jinshi New Edition". Therefore, in addition to appreciation, Ji Xiaolan and others praised the selection of this book as "unique" and quite "rigorous". But even Ji Xiaolan and others only know one thing about this book, but they don't know the other. Second, we have to go back to Suzhou during the Hongzhi period of the Ming Dynasty, to the era of the struggle against water, and to Chen Wei, Kuang Fan, Pu Yingxiang and Zhu Yunming to learn.
1
Governing the water
The origin of this book may have to start with several water controls during the Hongzhi period in Suzhou. Suzhou's humble terrain and developed water system have brought a lot of troubles to the people of Suzhou while feeding the people of Suzhou. Just 20 miles east of Suzhou City, there is a lake called Sand Lake, which has many paste fields in the north, and is a necessary place for the people of Taicang, Kunshan, Jiading and Chongming, but Sand Lake is not peaceful every year:
Among them, there are many boats, and people think that the patients are especially serious, not only this. There are thieves next to it, taking robbery as a business, and Kezhou is blocked by the turmoil, gathered on the shore, and many are inevitable, and people benefit from it.
Not only was there a roar of turmoil in the Sand Lake, but there were also thieves during the period, causing tourists to hesitate. In the past, people also had the intention of building embankments to eliminate troubles, but they gave up because of the lack of soil and rocks. In the ninth year of Hongzhi (1496), Yao Wenhao, the director of the Ministry of Water Conservancy and Engineering, came to Suzhou, setting off a small upsurge in the flood control of Suzhou during the Hongzhi period. The contingency of history has laid infinite possibilities for the development of history, and the action of focusing on the control of floods in Suzhou may have also promoted the birth of a Wuzhong Jinshi Ji.
Water conservancy map of the whole territory of Suzhou Prefecture
The task of repairing the embankment is by no means something that Yao Wenhao can do alone, but requires the full cooperation of officials from all over Suzhou. After the successful governance of Sand Lake, Wu Kuan, a literati from Suzhou, mentioned in the "Chronicles of Sand Lake" that there were many local officials in Suzhou who praised this matter:
In this is the service, the former guard is Shi Hou Jian, and now it is Cao Hou Feng, all of whom have been painted. If Chen Wei, Liu Ke, Kuang Fan, Chen Qian, Dou Yin, and Yu Bing, the main bookkeeper, are all bookable.
Here, we have to pay special attention to two people, that is, Chen Wei, the general judge of Suzhou at that time, and Kuang Fan, the magistrate of Wu County, who were both protagonists in the later compilation of "Wuzhong Jinshi New Edition". There are few records about Chen Wei, according to the "Provincial Figures of the Dynasty Examination ·Weihui Mansion of Zhangde Mansion, Henan", Chen Wei is a native of Ji County, taught in Linqing during the Chenghua period, and served as the general judge of Chizhou in the ninth year of Hongzhi because of the prudence of the official, and was soon promoted to the general judge of Suzhou. The most important thing is that Chen Wei was promoted again in Suzhou because of the "water barrier work", which hints at the importance of Chen Wei in Suzhou's flood control action during the Hongzhi period.
Chen Wei praised Xiangxiang in Suzhou for controlling the water, a total of four times. The first time was in the ninth year of Hongzhi to praise Yao Wenhao for the construction of the Shahu dam, but this incident happened when Chen Wei had just arrived in office, so Chen Wei himself may not have played much role in this matter, and the documents that have been handed down have not mentioned Chen Wei's specific performance in this matter.
In the tenth year of Hongzhi (1497), Yao Wenhao decided to dredge the Zhihetang, which had also been plagued for a long time, and Chen Wei really participated in this water control movement. The "Complete Book of Wuzhong Water Conservancy" says that Yao Wenhao "commissioned Suzhou to sentence Chen Wei and Kunshan County magistrate Zhang Mo to recruit workers to open up", indicating that the actual executors of this matter may be Chen Wei and others, and the result of this governance to Hetang is "4,965 zhang long from the mouth of the Xinyang River in the east to Jiuli Bridge in the west." In the winter of the same year, Yao Wenhao once again presided over the dredging of Qiyapu, which was planned by Chen Wei, Zhang Mo and Yang Ziqi, the magistrate of Changshu County, and other three people, and gathered 22,300 people from the two counties near Pu, and dredged the waterway from Youjing East to Daxiwan Fan 5,590 zhang, which took half a month. Yao Wenhao specifically mentioned the exploits of Chen Wei and others in "The Legend of Chongjun Qiyapu": "Gai Chen specializes in water affairs, and manages day and night. It can be seen that Chen Wei is diligent and serious in the cause of water control.
Water conservancy map of the whole territory of Suzhou Prefecture
The circled area in the picture is the Sand Lake and Zhihetang, the Sand Lake is below, the lake is above, and there is a dam in the north of the Sand Lake
Unlike the previous three water control events, the last water control that Chen Wei participated in in Suzhou appeared as the leader. In the twelfth year of Hongzhi (1499), Wu Xian, a county man, and others wrote to Yousi, hoping that the official could organize people to repair the lakes and ponds in the north of Taicang. Huchuantang is a stubborn disease, and it has been repaired many times, and Wu Xian and others have received great attention to their performance, and soon this matter was entrusted to Chen Wei, who is still in Suzhou and has rich experience. Thanks to Zhu Yunming's article "The Story of Chongjun Lake and Chuan Tang" written after the flood control, we can know many details of Chen Wei and Taicang Tong's judgment Huang Pu to preside over the repair of the lake and pond:
(Chen Wei and Huang Pu) to the phase of the reasonable, is Jiuzhou thousands of 5,000 people, Kunshan thousands of 200 people, peach sludge, lure line, plug in the door, gather ant transport. The second public bowed to look at it...... The event will take place on March 13 next spring.
According to Zhu Yunming, "the waterway is fluent and the fields are clear, and the boats are rented and restored, and the upper and lower levels rely on it."
Water conservancy map of the whole territory of Taicang Prefecture
The circle in the picture is where the lake and pond are located
The collective memory of the people can often reflect the influence of someone or something on the masses. Chen Wei has participated in Suzhou's water control affairs many times, and his figure has been running between rivers and lakes and dams, and the effect is excellent, which has earned him a good reputation among the people of Suzhou. Among the people of Suzhou at that time, there was a story about Chen Wei's good at water control, according to the "Wuzhong Water Conservancy Complete Edition":
Legend has it that during the Hongzhi period, there was a water conservancy sentence of Chen Wei and a good river. Taste a certain river, the work will be finished, and in case of rain, the pond chief privately opens the dam, and there is no way to release water to pick up its shallow depth. Wei said: "Fight with me first." Then the grass was cut off on both sides of the river, and the lime tsubaki was flattened, and the order said: "It is allowed to go down to a depth of five feet." "Ordered the coachman to go to the water to reopen, after the work, put one or two feet of water, take a big carp, tie the wooden card at the end, cast in the stream, watch its float is not slow, to measure the depth of the shallow, recognize it, order the re-wetting, the fish must swim without hindrance, this method of hitting the waterline is also.
Behind the legendary descriptions are hidden tendencies of mythological figures. In addition, behind the centralized flood control in Suzhou, there is another thing that is easy to be ignored by the parties, that is, the establishment of the inscription. According to the records of the "Wuzhong Jinshi New Edition", almost every time Yao Wenhao and Chen Wei treated the flood, there would be corresponding inscriptions created:
In the ninth year of Hongzhi, the sand lake was dredged, Wu Kuan's "The Legend of the Sand Lake"
Ten years of Hongzhi repaired to Hetang Wu Rui "Heavy Dredging to Hetang"
Ten years of Hongzhi repaired the Seven Crows Pool, Yao Wenhao "The Legend of the Seven Crows"
In the twelfth year of Hongzhi, the lake and pond were repaired, and Zhu Yunming "The Story of the Heavy Dredging Lake and the Pond" Sang Yue "The Name of the Heavy Dredging Lake and River Inscription Pond"
The establishment of the inscription not only plays the role of remembering the stone, but also has the effect of enlightening future generations. Chen Wei saw a square monument carved from the ground, and he may not help but have a thought in his heart that many ancients had, but this time he wanted to be different. After consulting with Kuang Fan, Pu Yingxiang, Zhu Yunming, and others, the compilation of the "New Compilation of Wuzhong Jinshi" was put on the agenda.
2
The original intention of the book
The study of gold and stone in China is the study of bronze inscriptions as the object of appreciation and research, which began in the Song Dynasty and flourished in the Qing Dynasty after the development of the Yuan and Ming dynasties. The bronze inscription with the text is an antiquity that has both artistic and historical value, although after the transformation and improvement of the ancients, the study of gold and stone has been proved to be of great benefit to the hook and sink history, and the source of the mirror is beneficial, but the literati who are enthusiastic about the study of gold and stone also have the criticism of people, that is, the good antiquity, which is reflected in the gold and stone science is that the gold and stone scholars prefer the bronze inscriptions that are far away, and have little interest in contemporary inscriptions. Its representatives are the "Jigulu" compiled by Ouyang Xiu of the Northern Song Dynasty and the "Jinshi Lu" compiled by Zhao Mingcheng. Since then, the study of gold and stone, all to the "collection of ancient records" and "gold and stone records" as a model, to compile the ancient monument of the strange text for the honor, especially in the Qing Dynasty, such as known as the "Xileng Eight Families" Huang Yi is particularly obsessed with the ancient monument: "Fan Jiaxiang, Jinxiang, Yutai between the Han monuments, easy to search out of it, and "Wu's ancestral hall portrait" is especially many, the Han "Stone Classic" and the paradigm "Sangong Mountain" monuments, are double hooked to the world. ”
The preface to Ouyang Xiu's "Collection of Ancient Records" shows his academic orientation in compiling the book
Secondly, the literati habits of ancient Chinese epigraphers also greatly influenced their choice of inscriptions, and they were more inclined to choose famous works with beautiful calligraphy and high content, epitaphs, travelogues, poems and songs were their preference. For those inscriptions whose calligraphy is not precise and the content is too mundane, they often discard and do not record them, leaving them exposed in the wilderness. Therefore, even if it is the Qing Dynasty