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司馬迁与汉魏晋南北朝的类传

司马迁传记文学国际学术研讨会论文 2012年10月 中国 韩城 司馬迁与汉魏晋南北朝的类传 &nbs

司马迁传记文学国际学术研讨会论文

201210   中国   韩城

                             司馬迁与汉魏晋南北朝的类传

                                                     
                                                       
[美国]南恺時


Accumulating Examples of Virtue and Vice:

Sima Qian and Collective Biography Writing in Early Imperial China

In his masterpiece the Shiji 史記 (Records of the Historian), Sima Qian 司馬遷 created a new form of historical writing: group biographies or “accounts of categories [of people]” (leizhuan 類傳).  This kind of biography consists of relatively short notices on people who were noteworthy because they embodied a particular virtue or characteristic.  The impact of this innovation was immense: nearly all of the dynastic histories written afterwards had a section devoted to group biographies; furthermore, authors began to privately compile stand-alone works of group biographies, such as Liu Xiang’s Accounts of Outstanding Women and Huangfu Mi’s Accounts of Lofty Gentlemen.  What were the outstanding characteristics of Sima Qian’s leizhuan?  How did later historians tweak his model of group biographies and for what reasons?  What characteristics of Sima Qian’s category biographies did later historian keep?  To answer these questions, we will look at dynastic histories written during the early medieval period (220-589) because they are still relatively close in time to the Shiji and because the group biographies had yet to be ossified.  Answering these questions will tell us much about Sima Qian’s conception of history, his impact on Chinese historical writing, and the social and political history of the early medieval period.  

Key Words for Accumulating Examples of Virtue and Vice

   关键词:司馬遷;列傳;類傳;范曄;蕭 子 顯。

Accumulating Examples of Virtue and Vice:

Sima Qian and Collective Biography Writing in Early Imperial China

Keith N. Knapp

History Department, The Citadel

Charleston, South Carolina

USA

One of the most striking aspects of premodern Chinese historiographical writing is that biographies are constructed in a very different manner.  In early China there was no equivalent to the Western concept of biography.  The word that was used for biographies was liezhuan 列傳, but this literally means “Connected Accounts," "arranged traditions,” or “categorized biographies,” and it did not only apply to individuals: a liezhuan could be about an individual, a group, or even a foreign people.  Whereas a western biography stands alone, the character "linked" or "arranged" in the word liezhuan emphasizes that the information contained within it cannot be viewed in isolation.  One always has to view one life in relation to others; consequently, the life histories of important figures are often grouped together with other significant people with whom they had some logical or social relationship.  

In his masterpiece the Shiji 史記 (Records of the Historian), China's first great universal history, Sima Qian 司馬遷 created this type of writing known as liezhuan.  In the Shiji, only in limited cases, though, does Sima Qian dedicate a "connected account" solely to one person, such as the biography of nefarious Lü Buwei 吕不韋 who was the Qin Shihuang’s patron and chief minister.  Most everyone else is lumped together with other people.  Sima Qian puts nearly all the renowned Daoist and Legalist philosophers into the same chapter, which is simply entitled

“The Connected Accounts of Laozi 老子and Han Feizi 韓 非子:” this account contains the biographies of the Daoist philosophers Laozi and Zhuangzi 莊子, as well as the Legalists philosophers Shen Buhai 申不害 and Han Fei.  Their accounts are bound together by the historian’s comments at the end of the biography.  For example, at the end of the biography of Laozi and Han Feizi, Sima Qian concludes,

His Honor the Grand Scribe says, “The Way that Laozi valued was devoid of all form and reacted to change with inaction… Chuangzi abandoned morality and let loose his opinions, but his essence too lies mainly in spontaneity.  Shenzi申子 treated the lowly as befit the lowly, applying this principle to relating official titles to the reality.  Hanzi韓子snapped his plumb line, cut through to the truth of things, and made clear true from false, but carried cruelty and harshness to extremes, and was lacking in kindness.  All of these sprang from the idea of ‘the Way and its virtue,’ but Laozi was the most profound of them all.1

In Sima Qian’s eyes, all these men are connected in that their ideas stem from the Daoist conceptions of the Dao “The Way” and de “virtue.”  

This tendency to use one account to treat the lives of many is particularly manifested in another of Sima Qian’s innovations: formal group biographies that are now called leizhuan 類傳“accounts of types [of people].”  Accounts of types of people consist of relatively short, biographical notices on people who were noteworthy because they embodied a particular virtue or characteristic.  These chapters also had a formal title.  To get a feel for what was included in an "accounts of types of people," let us look at a short biography found within Shen Yue’s沈約(441-513) “Connected Accounts of the Filial and Righteous” (Xiaoyi liezhuan 孝義列傳).

1 Sima Qian 司馬遷, Shiji史記(Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1959), 63.2156; Ssu-ma Ch’ien, The Grand Scribe’s Records: Volume VII The Memoirs of Pre-Han China, translated by Tsai-fa Cheng, Zongli Lu, William H. Nienhauser, Jr., and Robert Reynolds (Taipei: SMC Publishing

Inc., 1994), 29.

Jia En賈 恩was a man from Zhuji 諸暨 in Kuaiji會稽.  While young he already had purpose and virtuous conduct.  He was recommended for office and esteemed by his village.  In 426 his mother died.  He resided in mourning to an extent that surpassed what is called for in the Rites.  But before she was buried, a fire from the house next door pressed in upon her coffin.  En and his wife, Lady Huan , while sobbing and wailing, made every effort to save the coffin.  Their neighbors rushed over to help.  The coffin and funerary vessels thereby escaped the fire.  However, En and Lady Huan were both burned to death.  The local officials memorialized the throne asking that the name of the hamlet be changed to "The Hamlet of the Filial and Righteous孝義里," and that their family be exempted from the land and cloth tax for three generations.  Jia En was also posthumously given the office of Left Protector of Xianqin 顯親County in Tianshui 天水 Prefecture.2  

The impact of this type of biography was formidable: nearly all of the dynastic histories written afterwards had a section devoted to group biographies; furthermore, authors began to privately compile stand-alone works of group biographies, such as Liu Xiang’s 劉 向Accounts of Outstanding Women (Lienü zhuan列 女 傳) and Huangfu Mi’s 皇甫 謐 Accounts of Lofty Gentlemen高 士 傳.  This paper will explore the characteristics and legacy of Sima Qian’s group biographies. What were the characteristics of Sima Qian’s leizhuan?  How did later historians tweak his model of group biographies and for what reasons?  What characteristics of Sima Qian’s category biographies did later early imperial historians keep?  Why did these biographies become so popular in the early medieval period (100-600)?  What can these accounts teach us about early imperial society?  My contention is that these documents inspired by Sima Qian are particularly significant because, more than other contemporary material, they reveal much about the activities of the lesser elite and even commoners.  Since early imperial group biographies focus on the shared virtues of the exemplars, they are also an excellent way to gauge of the

2 Shen Yue 沈 約 (441-513), Songshu 宋 書 (Taipei: Dingwen shuju, 1980), 91.2243.

Our discussion of accounts of types of people will be based on a close examination of an “account of types of people” in the early standard histories.  To get a sense of the influence of Sima Qian on early medieval group biographies, we will particularly look at "The Connected Accounts of the Filial and the Righteous” chapters in the History of the Song (Song shu宋 書) by Shen Yue and the History of the Southern Qi (Nan Qi shu 南齊 書) by Xiao Zixian 蕭 子 顯(489-537).  I have chosen these texts from dynastic histories rather than privately compiled accounts of types of people for several reasons.  First, we know the authors of these texts, so that we have more information to inform our speculations on their motives.  Second, being part of an extant dynastic histories these texts are complete.  Third, these works are genuinely early medieval texts – they are not later histories about the early medieval era that were compiled in the Tang dynasty.  In other words, these texts should provide us with an excellent feel for the life and ideals of the southern learned elite in the early medieval period.  The first part of the paper will talk about the categories of accounts of types of people that appear in Sima Qian’s Shiji and the other early histories, as well as how they changed over time.  The second half of the paper will focus more specifically on the History of the Song and History of the Southern Qi’s

"Accounts of the Filial and Righteous.”  

Accounts of Types of People in the Shiji

Collective biographies in the form of leizhuan “Accounts of Types of People” first appear in Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian.  From that point on, nearly every dynastic history had a group of accounts of types of people.  Importantly, the types of people who are celebrated in this manner change over time; also the order in which the chapters are presented

also change.  These subtle alterations allow us to see how ideals shifted over time.  The Records of the Grand Historian has a total of nine group biographies in this exact order: Humane officials, Confucian scholars, cruel officials, knights-errant, imperial favorites, jesters, astrologers, fortune-tellers, and money-makers.  Sima Qian also devotes a group biography to assassin-guests, but this chapter is not put together with the rest.  From the order in which they are presented, it seems that Sima Qian regarded humane officials and Confucian scholars as the most important groups, while fortune-tellers and money-makers were the least so.  What is extraordinary about Sima Qian, though, is that he viewed people such as knights-errant, fortune-tellers, money-makers, and jesters as significant enough to merit group biographies.  Later historians, beginning with Liu Zhiji 劉知幾 (661-721), would sneer at him for doing so.3  

What emerges from the scope of Sima Qian’s group biographies is that he had a wide vision of people who he considered politically and socially important.  For him, men from a broad array of social groups were important to the successful running of the empire.  He believed that truth was not the preserve of any one class of people; as a result, even lowly men, such as court jesters who oftentimes were dwarfs could aid the realm by playfully admonishing with the ruler with satire or analogy.  For example, Sima Qian tells us that, when King Zhuang of Chu 楚莊王wanted to bury his favorite horse like a high minister, many of his ministers objected.  King Zhuang said that the next courtier to remonstrate would lose his head.  You Meng 優孟who was originally a musician but was now a court jester said that, to display the majesty of Chu, the king should bury the horse in an even more lavish way: in the style of a king.  King Zhuang thereupon realized the mistake he was making and asked how he could remedy the situation.  Meng

3 Zhang Guiping张桂萍, Shiji yu Zhongguo shixue chuantong 《史記》與中國史學傳統

(Chongqing: Chongqing chubanshe, 2004), 104-105.

responded, “Why not bury it like other livestock? Use the hearth and a bronze cauldron as its double coffin, adding ginger jujubes, and spices.  Offer a sacrifice of rice, enfold it in flames, and bury it in men’s bellies!”4  Using this humorous episode, which indicates that Chinese sovereigns were just as capable as Roman emperors to engage in bizarre actions, Sima Qian is able to show that even a man as socially disreputable as You Meng could see the truth and had the courage to offer wise counsel.  Thus, insofar as they could aid the welfare of the country, even members of despised classes deserved the historian’s attention.

Sima Qian's broad view of the ruling class is also evident in his inclusion of biographies of knights-errant who were known as Youxia 游俠 “Wandering Knights.” These were local men of wealth who were skilled in arms, helped out others in distress, and had an overriding sense of righteousness.  Since they frequently hid criminals and became embroiled in vendettas, they oftentimes fall afoul of the law.  Despite these flaws, Sima Qian still found them to be admirable.  He tells us that,

As for the wandering knights, though their actions may not conform to perfect righteousness, yet they are always true to their word.  What they undertake they invariably fulfill; what they have promised they invariably carry out.  Without thinking of themselves they hasten to the side of those who are in trouble, whether it means survival or destruction, life or death.  Yet they 'never boast of their accomplishments but rather consider it a disgrace to brag of what they have done for others.  So there is much about them which is worthy of admiration, particularly when trouble is something that comes to almost everyone some time.5

4 Sima Qian, Shiji, 126.3200; Ssuma Qian, Selections from Records of the Historian, translated by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1979), p. 406.

5 Sima Qian, Shiji, 124.3181; Sima Qian, Records of the Grand Historian: Han Dynasty II, translated by Burton Watson (Hong Kong & New York: A Renditions – Columbia University

5 Sima Qian, Shiji, 124.3181; Sima Qian, Records of the Grand Historian: Han Dynasty II, translated by Burton Watson (Hong Kong & New York: A Renditions – Columbia University Press, 1993), 410.

Obviously, Sima Qian admired these men because they roughly embodied what we normally think of as the Confucian virtues of benevolence (ren ), trustworthiness (xin ) and righteousness (yi).  They neither went back on their word nor did they ever think of their own interests.  Indeed, they put into practice what many Confucians merely spoke about.  

What is particulary noteworthy about his accounts of types of people is that they include categories of men who used violence to achieve their aims.  Needless to say, his Kuli zhuan 酷吏傳 (“Accounts of Harsh Officials”) includes men who habitually employed violence to realize order in their jurisdictions, but Sima Qian views these men negatively.  Nevertheless, he dedicates group biographies to Wandering Knights and Assassin-retainers (Cike zhuan 刺客傳) who also habitually employed violence to realize their goals, yet he viewed these types of men as generally admirable.  In regard to the Assassin-retainers, he tells us that, “Of these five men from Cao Mei 曹沬to Jing Ke 荆軻, some succeeded in carrying out their duty, some did not.  But it is perfectly clear that they had all determined upon the deed.  They were not false in their intentions.  Is it not right, then, that their names should be handed down to later ages?”6  Sima Qian admired these men for their loyalty to a patron that recognized their true worth.  Yet each of these men did so through murder.  In accordance with Confucian values, most of the medieval dynastic histories avoid positively showcasing violent men.  

Unexpectedly, through the use of accounts of types of people, Sima Qian lavishes attention on merchants who were equally detested by Confucians, Daoists, and Legalists.  His

6 Sima Qian, Shiji, 86.2538; Sima Qian, Records of the Grand Historian: Qin Dynasty, translated by Burton Watson (Hong Kong & New York: A Renditions – Columbia University Press, 1993), 178.

“Money-makers” (Huozhi 貨殖列傳) indicates that he had an admiration for the ingenuity and pluck of merchants.  They did not achieve their wealth through inheritance or having a government position; instead, they were successful because they saw opportunities where others did not and were willing to engage in occupations that others were not.  Hence, these men advanced themselves through their wits and determination.  Sima Qian makes plain his admiration for these men in the following words, “From this we may see that there is no fixed road to wealth, and money has no permanent master.  It finds its way to the man of ability like the spokes of a wheel converging upon the hub, and from the hands of the worthless it falls like shattered tiles.  A family of 1,000 catties of gold may stand side by side with the lord of a city; the man with 100,000,000 cash may enjoy the pleasures of a king.  Rich men such as these deserve to be called the ‘untitled nobility,’ do they not?”7 Sima Qian clearly recognized the economic and social importance of these men and realized they earned their wealth through merit.  They too were important and admirable men.  As Grant Hardy notes, “What emerges from many Shiji chapters is a tension between strict orthodox Confucian morality and the kind of moral action that actually gets things done.”8  Sima Qian was not a slave to ideology.  He perceived that people of all classes could contribute in different ways to the welfare of the state and society.

Ban Gu’s Adaptation of Sima Qian’s Accounts of Types

7 Sima Qian, Shiji, 129.3282; Sima Qian, Records of the Grand Historian: Han Dynasty II, 454.

8 Grant Hardy, Worlds of Bronze and Bamboo: Sima Qian’s Conquest of History (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), 198.

Ban Gu斑 固 (32-92) wrote the first true dynastic history, the History of the Han 漢書 (Han shu).  This work borrows heavily from Sima Qian; it retained many of the same “Accounts of Types of People” that are found in the Shiji.   Nevertheless, Ban Gu made some modifications.  The six accounts of types of people are: Confucian Scholars, Compassionate Officials, Cruel Officials, Money-makers, Wandering Knights, and Flattering Favorites (Ningxing 佞幸).  As this list indicates,  Ban Gu did not feel compelled to keep all of the same ones.  He dropped altogether the collective biographies dedicated to astrologers, fortune-tellers, assassin-retainers, and jesters.  Obviously, he did not believe in these groups historical importance.  In terms of formal hierarchy, he  put Confucian scholars ahead of humane officials.  This suggests that he believed that spreading Confucian learning and mores was more important than local governance.  We should also note that he added a new category: Ingratiating Favorites.  This is the last leizhuan in the sequence and represents a group he despised; i.e., court favorites who owed this close proximity to power not on the basis of merit, but rather due to their ability to ingratiate themselves through flattery or looks.  

Note that Ban Gu still thought that wandering knights and merchants were still important enough to include in his History of the Han.  Nevertheless, he placed these chapters only above that of the vile imperial favorites.  While he begrudgingly admired wandering knights for their selflessness and willingness to help those who distress, he faulted them for taking the authority to kill into their own hands.  He comments that, “But what a pity they could not have proceeded in accordance with the Way and virtue!  Instead they allowed themselves to drift into a shabby and inferior way of life.  That they brought death to themselves and destruction to their families was

no mere stroke of ill fortune.”9  In other words, even though the wandering knights did some good things, because they flouted the law, instead of following the way of scholars, they had brought on their own demise.  Even though he still included a collective biography of merchants, unlike Sima Qian, Ban Gu had hardly anything positive to say about them.  The best of them who made their fortunes through rural enterprises violated sumptuary laws; the worse, those who made fortunes through illegal activities, such as grave-robbing and robbery, were men who imperiled public order.10  Nonetheless, that Ban Gu retained chapters on wandering knights and rich merchants indicates these groups were still of great import in the Western Han: Ban Gu might not have approved of these groups, but he could not ignore their historical importance.

Accounts of Types of People in the Southern Dynasties

Upon examining the accounts of types of people in dynastic histories that were written in the Southern Dynasties (420-581), we find that the types of people included are fairly different.  The earliest, fully extant, dynastic history compiled during the early medieval period is the History of the Later Han (Hou Han shu後漢書) by Fan Ye范曄 (398-445).  It has a total of nine chapters on types of people: humane officials, cruel officials, eunuchs (Huanzhe 宦者), Confucian scholars, belletrists (wenyuan 文苑), men with singular conduct (duxing 獨行), men of recipes and techniques (fangshu 方術), “disengaged men” (yimin逸民), and outstanding

9 Pan Ku, Courtier and Commoner in Ancient China: Selections from the History of The Former Han, translated by Burton Watson (New York: Columbia University Press, 1974), 225.

10 Han shu 漢 書 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1962), 91.3694; for a translation see Nancy Lee Swann, Food & Money in Ancient China (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950), 460-462.

women (Lienü 列女).  Although it does carry a group title and separated from the rest of the group biographies, chapter 39 is a group biography of the filial and righteous.  Obviously, the chapters on humane and cruel officials as well as Confucian scholars were a continuation of the earlier tradition.  Yet the other six categories of group biographies are entirely new.  Where did all of these new categories originate?  What do these new chapters tell us about the concerns of the historian and his era?

Sima Qian’s group biographies in the Records of the Grand Historian inspired a host of privately compiled group biographies.  However, these were circulated as independent works, not merely just chapters in a larger history.  These works are what traditional historians labeled as “Miscellaneous Accounts” (Zazhuan雜傳).  In the bibliographic chapter of the History of the Sui (Sui shu隋書), the compiler Wei Zheng 魏徵 (580-643) explains these works’ origins in the following manner:

Sima Qian and Ban Gu gathered [the records of past historians and memorials from across the country] and wrote [their histories].  Officials who provided aid and steadfast support [to the state] and gentlemen (shi ) who relied on righteousness and excellence all had records therein.  However, as to those who had outstanding conduct and lofty purity, but were not entrapped by "the world," the Shiji only has a biography of [Bo] Yi 伯夷and [Shu] Qi叔齊,11 while the Han shu only records Yang Wangsun12 楊王孫and his kind.  All the rest are omitted and not mentioned.  Again, during the Han, Ruan Cang阮倉wrote the Tableaus of Outstanding Immortals (Liexian tu列仙圖) and Liu Xiang 劉向, while he was collating and putting into order the books [of the imperial library], began to write the [accounts] of the Outstanding Immortals (Liexian zhuan 列仙傳), Outstanding Gentlemen (Lieshi zhuan 列士傳), and Outstanding Women (Lienü zhuan

    11 Bo Qi and Shu Qi are of course the famous recluses who chose to starve to death rather than eat the food of the usurping Zhou government.

    12 Hoping to draw attention to the wastefulness and uselessness of extravagant burials, Yang Wangsun asked his son to bury him naked and without a coffin.

女傳)."  All of these works followed his lofty inclinations and were urgently completed by him.  They were not in the standard histories.13

Those works that Wei Zheng put in the “miscellaneous accounts” category, then, are independent ones that convey the lives of extraordinary individuals whom the standard histories tend to overlook, such as recluses, immortals, and women, because they are not part of "the world"; i.e., they are neither officials nor potential officials.  Hence, these works tended to depict the lives of outstanding people who had little or no contact with the state.  In this same vein, many of these privately compiled books were dedicated to four other groups of people who established their fame outside of or before official employment: recluses, filial sons, regional worthies, and men who excelled in the belle lettres.  Significantly, works of the miscellaneous accounts genre outnumber all other types of early medieval historical writings; moreover, no other period came close to matching this period's output of “miscellaneous accounts.”14      

These privately compiled accounts of types of people were meant to neither fill in the historical record's lacunae nor furnish factual accounts.  More than anything else, they aimed at providing eye-catching examples of unusual people who were models of correct behavior.  This interest in extraordinary behavior naturally led the compilers of these accounts of types of people to choose material that was emotionally compelling and morally instructive, rather than that which was completely historically accurate.  According to the historian Liu Zhiji, works such as Liu Xiang's Accounts of Outstanding Women and Accounts of Outstanding Immortals contain many items are fictional parables that the author knowingly recast as historical accounts to

    13 Sui shu隋 書, by Wei Zheng 魏徵 (580-643) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1973), 33.981-82.

    14 Qian Mu 錢 穆, "Lüelun Weijin Nanbeichao xueshu wenhua yu dangshi mendi zhi guanxi” 略 論 魏 晉 南 北朝 學 術 文 化 與 當 時 門 第 之 關 係, Xinya xuebao 5.2 (1963), 30-31; and Lu Yaodong逯 耀 東, Wei-Jin shixue de sixiang yu shehui jichu魏 晉 史 學 的 思 想 與 社 會 基 礎(Taipei: Dongda tushu gongsi, 2000), 72-84.

inspire his readers.15  That is, instead of reporting history, the authors of “accounts of types of people” were fraudulently creating history.  Their purpose in fabricating these accounts seems quite apparent: they were trying to make theoretical principles of correct behavior palpable to their audience, by illustrating them with historical people who performed the specific acts that constituted that virtue or ethic.  Obviously, for these acts to have legitimacy in the eyes of the authors' contemporaries, they had to be done by "real" people.  Early imperial people preferred to guide their behavior with concrete models rather than abstract principles.

These privately compiled accounts of types of people are important because I believe they are what inspired the new categories of group biographies that are found in the History of the Later Han.  Noteworthy is the fact that special chapters dedicated to outstanding women, recluses, and filial children only appear in the standard histories after the appearance and circulation of privately compiled group biographies.  In fact, much of the contents of these new chapters in the histories were probably directly taken from these privately compiled accounts of types of people.  Evidence of probable borrowing from these works is nowhere clearer than in the biography of Cai Shun蔡順in the History of the Later Han.  Like so many of the lives in Accounts of Filial Offspring (Xiaozi zhuan 孝 子 傳), this “biography” merely consists of a number of filial episodes strung together.

Cai Shun was of the same prefecture as Zhou Pan 周磐.  His style-name was Junzhong 君仲.  His father died when he was young.  He lived alone with his mother and supported her.  Once when he went out to get wood a guest suddenly came.  Seeing that Shun would

    15 Shitong tongshi史 通 通 釋, by Liu Zhiji劉 知 幾 (Taipei: Liren shuju, 1980), 18.516-517.  Liu also accuses Ji Kang 稽康of doing the same thing in his Shengxian Gaoshi zhuan 聖賢高 士傳 (Shitong tongshi 18.522-523).  Elsewhere, he states that Ji Kang was fond of collecting the parables of the Seven Countries (Warring States period) from which he would fashion biographies (Shitong tongshi 5.116).

not return, his mother bit her finger.  Shun's heart suddenly moved.  He threw down the wood and quickly returned home.  He kneeled and asked how she hurt herself.  His mother told him that a guest suddenly arrived and that she bit her finger merely to summon him.  His mother died when she was 90.  Before she was buried a fire started to burn in the village.  The fire was soon pressing down on their home.  Shun embraced the coffin and wailed and cried to Heaven.  The fire thereupon leapt over his house and burned another.  Shun's home was the only one to escape the fire.  The Grand Protecter 太守, Han Chong韓崇, invited him to become the Libationer of Donghe東閤祭酒.  While his mother was alive she feared thunder and lightning.  After she died, every time there was thunder and lightning, Shun would return to her grave and cry, all the time saying "Shun is here."  Later, the Grand Protecter, Bao Zhong 鲍衆,recommended him as a “Filial and Incorrupt” (Xiaolian 孝廉) candidate, but since he could not go far from her tomb, he refused to respond.  He died at home when he was 80.16

Since this "biography" is entirely composed of filial piety anecdotes it was probably taken from an Accounts of Filial Offspring.  The only elements that the historian had to add to make it look more like a regular biography were sentences that connected the anecdotes.  Hence, the historian added lines between the anecdotes that tell us that his mother died at the age of 90, that Han Chong recommended him for office, that Cai refused the office because it would distance him from his mother's tomb, and Cai's age at death.  Without these facts, this account would have been a perfect fit for an Accounts of Filial Offspring.  

These new chapters, then, are not coming from the state, but rather from society; thus, they represent the concerns and ideals of the learned elite that were creating and transmitting these privately compiled books.  These chapters are thereby not bureaucratic records as much as they are non-state instruments of social ideology.  As such, their purpose is overwhelmingly didactic.  As Liu Zhiji put it,

As for wise gentlemen and chaste women, they are grouped together and differentiated according to their type.  Even though the hundred types of [right] conduct have different

16 Hou Han shu後漢書, by Fan Ye 范 曄 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1965), 39.1312.

routes, they are all the same in that they lead to goodness.  Hence [writers] have chosen [the virtue or ethic] that they admire, and each has made a record of it, such as Liu Xiang’s “Outstanding Women,” Liang Hong’s梁鴻 “Disengaged Men” (yimin逸民), Zhao Cai’s 趙采“Loyal Retainers” (Zhongchen 忠 臣), and Xu Guang’s徐廣 “Filial Children” (Xiaozi孝 子).17

Thus, upon examining the accounts of types of people in the early medieval dynastic histories, we should view them less as records of “what really happened” and more as guides of how the historian and his social peers thought that people should behave.

From the new group biographies included in the History of the Later Han, we can see that the learned elite had a new enemy.  Responding to the times, this is one of the only Post Han histories that does not have a chapter on imperial favorites – the people most hated by the learned elite because their hold on the court did not come through merit or occupying positions in formal institutions.  In its place, it has a chapter on the lowly and despised eunuchs (Huanzhe liezhuan).  This substitution took place because from 169 until 184 the eunuchs who effectively took control of the throne launched the Great Proscription (Danggu 黨錮), which persecuted anyone who opposed eunuch rule.  If one shared a great-great-great-grandfather with anyone who was listed as plotting against the eunuchs, one was proscribed from ever holding public office.18  It is important to note, though, that in many ways the eunuchs shared many similarities with court favorites.  They were mean in status and came from the lowest social stations.  What is more, they owed their influence with the emperor not because they earned a high public position through their moral or intellectual merit, but merely because, like imperial favorites, they were in close proximity to him.  But if the eunuchs were so hated, why did Fan Ye place

17 Shitong tongshi 34,274.

18 See B. J. Mansvelt Beck, “Fall of Han,” in The Cambridge History of China: Volume I The Ch’in and Han Empires 221 B.C.-A.D. 220, 328-329.

them above the Confucian scholars and men of unique conduct?  In this case, I think we should view Fan Ye’s accounts of types of people as having two levels: the first concerns people who had an impact on government, the second concerns people who had an impact on society.  As we would expect, among the three group biographies that concern men who affected government, the group discussed first is that of reasonable officials – men who served the government in an exemplary manner and did so through non-violent means, such as by leading by example and moral suasion.  The second group is cruel officials.  These men also effectively served the government, but they did so in a less ideal manner: they often used punishments and violence to get people to do what is right.  The last group of people who affected government is the reviled eunuchs who did nothing to promote good order; instead, through their selfless behavior, they generated chaos.

The second level of group biographies in the History of the Later Han starts off with the most respected group being Confucian scholars.  Interesting, the next most valued group is belletrists; i.e., men who excel in literature.  That we see this group as a target of admiration coincides with the early medieval trend in which literature no longer needed to be in service of morality.  Good literature was good in its own right.  A man could be admired solely for his extraordinary ability to compose poetry and prose.  It was during this same period when history and literature broke free from the classics.  In the bibliographic classification scheme that became popular in the early medieval period, books were now viewed as belonging to four categories: the classics, histories, philosophies, and collection of belle-lettres.  Men with Singular Conduct (Duxing liezhuan) is a type of group biography that never appeared again in the dynastic histories.  It includes a variety of virtuous men, such as good local officials, filial sons, righteous neighbors, loyal officials, etc.  

The three other new groups that Fan Ye deemed of less importance, but were still worthy of mention were the magicians, recluses, and outstanding women.  The magicians were men known as fangshi 方士 “Gentlemen of Recipes.”  These were experts in the divinatory arts, healing, and communicating with the spirits; these arts often allowed them to attain supernatural powers and even immortality.  Note that they often lived as recluses.  Although Fan Ye condemned some of them for their opportunism in hawking their wares to naïve emperors, he generally viewed them in a positive light. He tells us that,

In the middle of our era, Zhang Heng張衡became the grand master of yin and yang, and Lang Yi 朗顗took the knowledge of portents of political disasters to new levels of refinement. Many others became widely known through such arts.  Their followers, in turn, had a talent for eloquence and possessed virtues of a far-reaching nature, though they may not necessarily have personally achieved the ultimate successes or gained fully perfected skills.  Now, I have gathered together those who had extraordinary strengths in divinational arts and were able to make a substantial contribution to their times. 19

Although having misgivings of about a number of the magicians, Fan Ye still thought that overall they had a positive effect on society.

Slightly below the magicians are the recluses, which is a bit puzzling since Fan Ye says nothing but positive things about them.  Similar to the eunuchs, recluses feature prominently in the History of the Later Han because of their role in Eastern Han history.  A number of the learned elite resorted to reclusion during Wang Mang’s 王莽 usurpation of the Western Han throne from A.D. 9-22.  This happened again in the second half of the second century due to the Proscription of the Partisans.  These historical experiences led the learned elite to admire recluses who refused to soil their personal integrity by serving in office.  As Fan Ye states in his preface of his chapter on disengaged people, “But after that time the virtue of the emperors

19 Hou Han shu 82a.2706; Kenneth DeWoskin, Doctors, Diviners, and Magicians in Ancient China (New York: Columbia University Press, 1983.

gradually declined, and the perverse and wicked [eunuchs] dominated the court.  The gentlemen who remained at home [and did not serve] stolidly upheld their integrity, ashamed to be ranked and associated with the ministers and highest officials.”20 Given the instability and venality of early medieval courts, this admiration of recluses continued unabated throughout the early medieval period.  Needless to say, there were many privately compiled accounts of recluses.  

The most interesting new group biography is that of outstanding women.  As Sherry Mou has noted, the biographies in this chapter celebrate women who were outstanding belletrists, benefited their families through self-sacrifice, and women who maintained their chastity.21  Fan Ye includes this chapter because he believes that, even though outstanding women have helped enhance governance, made their families flourish, and improved morality, their achievements have been omitted from the histories.22  In other words, even though women are of the lowest importance socially, which would account for why Fan placed their chapter last, among them there were still exemplars who improved the dynasty’s health.  A historian could no longer neglect women’s social and political contributions.  Needless to say, before Fan Ye incorporated this chapter into his history, there were already many privately compiled Accounts of Outstanding Women in circulation.  At the same time, though, he was probably reacting to the increased significance of women in the Six Dynasties.  With the weakening of central government beginning in the second half of the Eastern Han and the rising prestige and power of

20 Hou Han shu 83.2757; Alan J. Berkowitz, Patterns of Disengagement: The Practice and Portrayal of Reclusion in Early Medieval China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000), 166-167.

21 Sherry J. Mou, Gentlemen’s Prescriptions for Women’s Lives: A Thousand Years of Biographies of Chinese Women (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2004), 78-92.

22 Hou Han shu 84.2781.

private families, women in elite families were valuable assets.  They could be used to secure alliances with other important families.  Given the fact that they were also educated, they also played an important role in maintaining the family’s unique literary teachings that set it apart from commoner families.

Collective Accounts in the History of the Song and the History of the Southern Qi

Upon turning to the histories written during the latter part of the Southern Dynasties (420-581), we find a much narrower selection of accounts of types of people.  The History of the Song merely has four collective biographies, whereas the History of the Southern Qi has five.  The former has the following group biographies: “Filial and the Righteous,” “Fine [Local] Officials” (Liangli良吏),“The Hidden and Disengaged” (Yinyi 隐逸), and the “Favored and Undeserving” (Enxing 恩幸).  The History of the Southern Qi has the following: “Those Good at Literature and Study” (Wenxue 文學), “Those Good at Governance” (Liangzheng良政), “The Lofty and Disengaged” (Gaoyi 高逸), “The Filial and the Righteous,” and “Favored Retainers” (Xingchen 幸臣).  The “Favored and Undeserving” and the “Favored Retainers” are court favorites; as in earlier histories, they are the lowest and despised group.  Continuing the trend established by the History of the Later Han, recluses and belletrists are esteemed.  What is new are the chapters on the “Filial and Righteous” and fine local officials. What both of these chapters share is a substantial focus on the local.

The men featured in the History of the Song’s “Fine Officials” chapter and the History of the Southern Qi’s “Those Good at Governance” chapter are well-born men whose ancestors were

officials, albeit their posts were often not the highest; they themselves also held many different posts, many of which were local or military in nature: they often started off as magistrates, become generals, and in some cases eventually become governors.  What made them notable, though, is the excellence with which they governed localities.  Some display exceptional purity; that is, they did not try to enrich themselves at their subjects’ expense; others were skilled in settling disputes.  A typical example of such a man is Fu Yan 傅琰of the Southern Qi.  His grandfather reached the position of Supernumerary Senior Recorder (Yuanwailang員外郎), while his father reached the position of Administrative Supervisor of Andong (Andong lushi canjun 安東錄事參軍).  While his grandfather had a relatively high position, his father’s was not nearly as grand.  Because the emperor knew that the district of Shanyin 山陰 had many nettlesome suits, he made Fu Yan the magistrate.  We are told that,

An old crone who sold needles was arguing with an old crone who sold sugar over a ball of silk.  Yan did not attempt to judge the truth of the matter.  He wrapped the silk around a pillar and then whipped it.  He secretly perceived that it had traces of lead; thereupon, he punished the woman who sold sugar.  Two old peasants were contending over a chicken.  Yan asked each man, “What were you feeding the chicken?”  One said “Millet.”  The other said, “Beans.”  He thereupon split open the chicken and found millet.  He punished the one that said beans.   Within the district everyone said he had spirit-like intelligence; no one dared to again rob or steal.  Both Yan and his father had extraordinary results.  The area of Jiangzuo 江左rarely had this type of administrator.23

This anecdote is noteworthy in that it provides us with a glance at local administration at a fairly banal level: old men and women arguing over small things such a ball of silk or a chicken.  But it also makes a specific point that this important region of modern-day southernJiangsu and Zhejiang province rarely had an effective administrator like Fu Yan.

23 Nan Qi shu南齊書, by Xiao Zixian 蕭子顯 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1972), 53.914-915.

We need to keep in mind that this chapter of fine local officials seems to have replaced the old ones dedicated to compassionate and cruel officials.  In contrast to their predecessors, southern historians no longer gave grudging approval to officials who strengthened central government rule through the use of oppressive measures; instead, they championed local officials who only governed through benign methods and moral persuasion.  It is also important to note that even though these men were officials of the central government, they were almost entirely defined by their actions taken in specific local communities; moreover, despite their successes in local communities, they were not elevated to positions at the central court.  They only benefitted the emperor indirectly by establishing order in local areas.  These accounts of fine officials, thus, signal the weakness of the central government and the overriding importance of local administration during this period.

This emphasis on the local becomes even more apparent in the accounts of the filial and righteous.  In the History of the Song and the History of the Southern Qi, the people who appear in these accounts are frequently commoners whose activities are nearly entirely confined to their own local community.  In fact, the exemplars in these chapters are portrayed as filial to their parents and righteous to the members of their clan and village.  The following story of Wu Kui provides a good example of one of these accounts.

Wu Kui吳 逵was a man from Wucheng 烏程in Wuxing 吳興 .  When his area experienced a period of famine and starvation, his father, mother, brothers, sister-in-laws, and relatives for whom one wears mourning clothing, died successively because of an epidemic.  Altogether, both male and female, they numbered thirteen in all.  Since at that time Kui was suffering from an illness, his neighbors and fellow villagers wrapped up the corpses in rush mats and buried them next to the village.  Finally, Kui recovered from his illness, but his relatives were all dead.  Only he and his wife remained alive.  His home was poor to the extent that it only contained the bare walls.  During the winter he lacked outer robes and trousers.  In the daytime, he would rent out his labor; in the nighttime he would chop down trees and make bricks.  This kind of sincerity brooks neither laziness nor fatigue.  While walking one night, Kui encountered a tiger; it thereupon got off the

road and avoided him.  A full year later they completed thirteen coffins that they put in seven tombs.  His neighbors and fellow villagers praised his will and righteousness.  On the day the burials were to occur, they all rushed over to help Kui.  As for the burial, it was frugal but fulfilled all the Rites.  At that time, Wu, on the contrary, calculated the cost of the labor that the neighbors contributed, and after the burial was completed, he compensated each and every one of them.  Kui did not accept donated labor from anyone.  He leased out his labor to repay all of them.  Governor Zhang Chongzhi 张崇之 three times courteously invited him to take office.  Governor Wang Shaozhi 王 韶 之selected him to fill a position as a Scribe in the Labor Section (Gongcaoshi 功曹史), but Kui persistently refused to take office because his family was “cold” (han ).  He was also recommended as a "Filial and Incorrupt" (xiaolian) candidate.24

This anecdote highlights neighborly concern.  Wu Kui's neighbors could have left his relatives out in the open to rot.  Instead, while he is sick, they bury them in a temporary manner next to the village.  Once Wu gets well, he displays his filiality by not resting until all of his relatives are properly buried.  At the same time, he displays his righteousness by making sure that all of his neighbors have been fairly compensated for their labor.  He makes sure that each person, whether it is his dead relative or living neighbor, gets his due.

That Wu Kui is a commoner is apparent in a number of ways.  First, Shen Yue沈 約 (441-513), the historian, makes no mention of his ancestors or relatives holding office.  In other biographical notices within the "Accounts of the Filial and Righteousness," Shen is fast to point out if an exemplar has an official background; that he does not in this case is telling.  It is also significant that he was recommended to office as a "Filial and Incorrupt" candidate.  Even though such a nomination was a prestigious route into government during the Han dynasty, by the early medieval period, only members of the sub-elite, also known as members of the Cold Gate families (hanmen寒 門), enter government through this route.  He even refuses office based on the fact that his family's gate is cold; that is, he acknowledges that his family is a

24 Song shu 宋 書, by Shen Yue 沈 約 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1974), 91.2247-48.

commoner one.  Nevertheless, that he was recruited as a clerk and was nominated as a "Filial and Incorrupt" candidate demonstrate that he was literate.  This fact, along with the size of his family, seems to suggest that Wu Kui's family normally well off.

By closely reading the chapters devoted to fine officials and the filial and the righteous in the Southern Dynasties’ histories, what becomes apparent is that southern historian had a strong focus on the local.  The men who really counted were ones that benefitted local communities, such as exemplary local officials, recluses, and filial and righteous men.  They all endeavored to improve the welfare of the local society.  Furthermore, as long as they improved the condition of the local community, the rank of the exemplar was unimportant; indeed, according to Shen Yue, virtuous men were particularly apt to be found in the countryside.  In his concluding comments on his chapter devoted to the filial and righteous, he tells us that,

Since the Jin and Song dynasties, the moral atmosphere has declined and righteousness is lacking.  Refining one’s behavior and putting demands upon oneself have become rare among the rich and noble. These cases where families are established through filiality, and where acts of loyalty are noted in the historical record, for the most part come from the fields and ditches, and are not from those who wear robes and hair-pins.  If one uses these examples to speak of prestige and moral transformation can nobles and high officials not be ashamed?25

Moral transformation takes place from the bottom up.  When looking for good conduct, one finds it neither in the court nor the cities, which are places that corrupt the elite.  Instead, good men are found among the lower classes in the countryside, which is why one looks for them among recluses and filial sons.

By the way, what happened to outstanding women in the collective biographies of the Southern Dynasties?  Obviously, neither Shen Yue nor Xiao Zixian viewed them as important enough to give them a separate chapter.  Nevertheless, "The Accounts of the Filial and Righteous" do include a number of women.  Their entries, though, are not separate ones, but are

25 Song shu 91.2258-2259.

tacked onto a biography of an exemplary man.  For example, in the History of the Southern Qi, there is the biography of Han Lingmin 韓靈敏and his brother Han Lingzhen韓靈珍.  Their mother also died, but since their family was poor, they could not afford to bury her, so together they planted half a mu with melons.  After harvesting the melons in the morning, melons would once again grow back in the evening; this continued until their mother was buried.  When Lingzhen died he was without sons.  His wife, Lady Zhuo 卓氏, would not marry again and did not want to return home because of this.  Lingmin thereupon treated her like a mother.  Since the narrative ends with describing the virtue of Lady Zhuo who would not remarry, Xiao Zixian decided to add here eight narratives about filial and righteous women.  It could well be that here he merely took a portion of an accounts of outstanding women and inserted it into this chapter.  Once again, these accounts too decidedly focus on commoners and their local concerns.  The most outstanding of them concerns the daughter of Mr. Tu 屠氏 女.

Again there was the daughter of Tu who was from Dongwu 東洿 hamlet in Zhuji 諸暨.  Her father lost his sight and her mother was very sick.  They were abandoned by their relatives and their hamlet would not afford them shelter.  The daughter moved her parents to a faraway place and lived in Ningluo 苧羅.  During the day she gathered firewood and at night she wove cloth to reverently care for her parents.  When her parents died, she personally managed the encoffining and burial, as well as carrying the dirt and building the funeral mound.  Suddenly she heard a voice in the air say, "Your perfect nature can be esteemed.  The god of the mountain wishes to use you as an envoy.  You can cure the illnesses of others and will certainly become rich."  The woman thought that this was the voice of a demon and did not dare follow its advice.  She thereupon became sick.  After a long time, her neighbor had been poisoned by a xiyu 溪蜮.  She attempted to cure her; she felt the sickness herself; [her neighbor] was thereupon cured.  She then used sorcery to cure the ills of others.  She cured each and every one.  Her family's wealth increased daily.  Many of the men of her village desired to marry her.  But since she had no brothers, she swore to not marry and protect her parents' tomb.  She was abducted and killed by mountain bandits.  The magistrate Yu Linzhi 于琳之reported all of this to the Prefecture, but the governor Wang Jingze 王敬則would not report it further.26

26 Nan Qi shu 55.960.

That this narrative does not have a happy ending perhaps indicates that this account was historic and not merely didactic.  It is also interesting that the governor did not deem it worth his while to report it.  Obviously though, because the magistrate did Mr. Tu's daughter's accomplishments did achieve broader currency.  In other words, because she was esteemed by local society her account became known.  All this tells us that accounts of outstanding women were continued, but Southern Dynasties histories subordinated them to the biographies of filial and righteous men.

Conclusion

In creating accounts of types of people, Sima Qian created a form of historical document that was able to convey the lives of many minor historical figures who shared the same characteristics or virtues.  These group biographies enabled him to broadcast conduct or traits that he thought were desirable or noteworthy; it also made it so that he could convey the lives of people who were humble in origins.  For Sima Qian, a ruler could obtain valuable advice from anyone; at the same time, even men who lived by violence could embody virtues.  Thus, he was more than willing to relay the life stories of men such as wandering knights, assassins, and merchants – people for whom later Confucian scholars had nothing but disdain.  A commonality of all these figures, though, is that they were people who effected the behavior of rulers or the court.  That is to say, even though Sima Qian believed that talent and merit was not confined to any social class, his gaze was still fixed to the court.

Sima Qian’s noteworthy admiration of capable men in any social class becomes even clearer upon looking at Ban Gu’s History of the Han.  Ban Gu exhibited a much narrower conception of merit.  He discontinued a number of Sima Qian’s accounts of types of people;

moreover, even though he retained the biographies of the wandering knights and merchants, he expressed no admiration for the members of either of those groups.  They were worthy of mention because they were socially and economically important, but they were not worthy of esteem.  Ban Gu reflects a much stronger Confucian viewpoint.  By dropping some of Sima Qian’s accounts of types of people, Ban Gu also demonstrated that this sub-genre could be used in a flexible manner: the historian did not have to mechanically use the categories employed by his predecessor; instead, one could drop some categories if he felt they were unimportant.

Early medieval writers followed Ban Gu’s example: not only did they drop some categories of accounts of types of people, they also introduced new ones, which enabled them to better convey the special characteristics of the age they were describing.  Fan Ye in his History of the Later Han introduces many new group biographies that were probably based on privately circulated ones.  These group biographies championed people who had nothing to do with the government, such as recluses, magicians, belletrists, and outstanding women.  In addition to cruel officials, he also added a new collective biography of despised people: eunuchs.  Fan Ye also acknowledged literature’s importance as a new social category by introducing a group biography on those with great literary ability.  He even saw fit to provide women with a group biography.  Hence, Fan Ye used the accounts of types of people to provide a broad picture of the various important groups within society.  Shen Yue and Xiao Zixian provided far fewer collective biographies.  Notably, they made no mention of Confucian scholars; instead, pride of place was given to fine local officials.  Furthermore, they both also championed moral men who played outsized roles in their local communities: recluses and filial/righteous men.  Thus, unlike the Han histories that placed emphasis on the court, the accounts of types of people from the

Southern Dynasties emphasize the significance of local society; thereby underscoring the decline in importance of the center.

No matter whether they dated to the Han or the Southern Dynasties, Sima Qian’s accounts of types of people allowed historians to document the achievements of people who history would otherwise forget.  Most importantly, these group biographies made it possible to record the lives of at least some commoners.  Without Sima Qian’s innovation, it would be difficult to imagine that we would know about Mr. Tu’s daughter and her healing activities as a shaman.  Since prior to the Tang (618-906), historians felt free to create or eliminate the kind of collective biographies they would put in their history, the group biographies provide us with both a clear image of social change over time as well as the historian’s blueprint for how society should be organized.


文章分类: 学术研讨
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