Jiang Chenying

Jiang Chenying

Jiang Chenying (1628-1699), a calligrapher and historian in the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, together with Zhu YIZUN and Yan shengsun, is known as "three cloth clothes in the south of the Yangtze River". The name is Ximing, Zhanyuan and Weijian, from Cixi, Zhejiang Province. In the 19th year of Emperor Kangxi, all the students in the late Ming Dynasty were recommended to the Museum of Ming history as compilers. They wrote criminal annals to record the harms of imperial edicts, Imperial Staff, Li Pai and the East and West Factory guards in the 300 years of Ming Dynasty. From Xu Qianxue's revision of the unified annals of the Qing Dynasty in Dongting mountain. In Beijing, because of offending the bachelor, Mingzhu received a cold reception. In the 36th year of Emperor Kangxi's reign, he became a Jinshi at the age of 70 and was awarded the third place in the imperial examination as the editor of the Imperial Academy. Yue was the Deputy examiner of Shuntian rural examination for two years. He was sentenced to death for cheating by the chief examiner. His works include Zhanyuan collection, Weijian collection and general introduction to coastal defense.

Life of the characters

History of cloth clothes

Jiang Chenying, born in 1628 in the first year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty, was influenced by her grandparents. She is famous for her quick thinking, erudition and strong memory. In the 17th year of Kangxi reign (1678), after the overthrow of San Francisco, the Qing government, in order to stabilize the people's mind and recruit talents, especially opened the Department of erudite CI. This is a special examination system, which is different from the local examination and the joint examination. It stipulates that those who are excellent in both study and practice and excellent in writing and CI can participate in the examination, no matter whether they have won the examination or not. At that time, Jiang Chenying had been responsible for compiling Ming history in the Hanlin Academy. She had unique views on the Ming Dynasty's factory guard system and criminal law, and was appreciated by the cabinet bachelor, Minister of punishment Xu Qianxue and Hanlin bachelor ye fangai, who presided over the compilation of Ming history at that time. After Xu Qianxue presented the Ming history manuscript to the imperial court, Kangxi praised it greatly, saying that Jiang Chenying and two other historians Zhu YIZUN and Yan shengsun were three cloth clothes in the sea. Ye fangai did her best to recommend Jiang Chenying to take part in the study of Bo Xuehong CI. However, this Enke didn't change Jiang Chenying's fate, and she finally lost her reputation. Under the strong recommendation of Ye fangai, Jiang Chen was officially listed as a member of the Ming history revision staff, and received the salary equivalent to seven grade officials.

The deed of mutual covenant

After finishing the task of compiling the history of Ming Dynasty, the Qing government began the compilation of yitongzhi. Xu Yuanwen, the censor of zuodu, presided over the task. Because Xu Yuanwen was the younger brother of Xu Qianxue, Jiang Chenying still had a chance to visit the palace of Shangshu, and under the guidance of Xu Qianxue, she met Nalanxingde, who was famous in the literary world despite her youth.

Nalanxingde was born in zhenghuang banner of Manchu nationality. His father nalanxingzhu was the first assistant of the current Dynasty, and he was a hot figure with power in the government and the opposition. Unexpectedly, Nalanxingde, a son of eight banners, was not obsessed with political skills, but had a great interest in the classical poetry originated in the Central Plains. Nalanxingde, by virtue of his nature of artistic understanding and brilliant talent, in the process of consciously absorbing and reconstructing the Han culture, pushed the decadent creation of Ci to prosperity again since the end of Ming Dynasty. After reading all the CI works of Tang and Song Dynasties, he thinks that "Huajian CI is like ancient jade, which is valuable but not applicable; Song Ci is applicable but less valuable; Li Houzhu has both its beauty and is even more confused by misty water." His aesthetic taste has laid a foundation for his ci creation, that is, the combination of the passion to express his personality and the talent to show, thus achieving his artistic peak in the Central Plains.

Jiang Chenying is aloof and arrogant. Although Nalanxingde was born in aristocracy, he advocated the publicity of personality, which is an important prerequisite for his communication with Jiang Chenying. In addition to Jiang Chenying, there were some celebrities at that time, such as Liang Peilan, Gu Zhenguan, Wu tianzhang, Zhu YIZUN and so on, who often gathered for banquets, recited poems and filled in Ci poems. They avoided the bureaucratic competition and used CI card as a bridge to sing rewards. They not only chanted the helplessness of Ming Dynasty's death and Qing Dynasty's prosperity, but also paid attention to each other's friendship with literature. They created a large number of handed down works that were considered fresh, beautiful and natural by later generations It's a work of art. It should be noted that the emergence and spread of such words are at great risk. This is because, although the current situation was becoming more and more stable at that time, many adherents of the late Ming Dynasty, under the banner of "opposing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty", were active in secret and refused to be subject to the Qing government. Perhaps it was Nalanxingde's special identity, or Kangxi's busy with government affairs that he had no time to inquire about the activities of these literati, so that their CI didn't bring serious consequences after it spread.

Nalanxingde learned to shoot and ride since he was young. He was both civil and military. He was awarded the third class bodyguard when he was 16 years old and was promoted to the first class soon after. It was such a noble son who had a good career and full of spirituality, but he did not fit in with the cultural policy pursued by Kangxi, which made it difficult for him to realize many of his grand ambitions. Therefore, there were works of abandonment and cynicism, such as "wipe away the hero's tears in front of the bottle", "never ask the eternal name when you meet with wine", "lingering in the arms when you don't know what, boring when you wake up, boring when you get drunk". This kind of melancholy mentality is very similar to Jiang Chenying's situation at that time, which may be the environmental factors for them to become intimate friends.

In 1685, after drinking with Jiang Chenying, Zhu YIZUN, Gu Zhenguan and others, Nalanxingde wrote the word "nocturnal flowers" again, and then died suddenly at the age of 31. Jiang Chenying was devastated by the sudden death of her best friend. For several days, he didn't think about food and tea, and his tears were pouring down. In order to express his mourning, he wrote a special sacrificial essay to express his sorrow. "I often owe to my guests, but I'm not proud of them, and I know that I'm allowed to be true. When I scold Gao Jue, I don't ask him, but I'm crazy and I know my evils. When I talk about things, my eyes stare, and my brother calls for help." This is a true portrayal of Jiang Chenying's association with Nalanxingde. It can also be seen that their friendship is extraordinary. In memory of this young old friend, Jiang Chenying and several literary friends collected and collated Nalanxingde's Ci works, compiled them into a volume, named Nalanxingde's Ci, which was later incorporated into tongzhitang collection.

Death of an official

In 1697, he won the imperial examination and the third place in the palace examination. He was awarded the Imperial Academy editor by Kangxi. By this time, he was a 70 year old man with white hair and white head. In the 38th year of Kangxi (1699), he was appointed as the Deputy examiner. After the publication of the list, the debate was boiling. At that time, the loser joked: "ginger is not spicy at all, Xiao Li has a lot of sweetness." Due to the involvement of the imperial examination case, Ding you was impeached by Lu You, the censor of Jiangnan Road in November. Jiang Chenying and Li pan were put into prison. Chen Ying drank medicine and died in prison. Before he died, he drew up his own elegiac couplet: "this time, I suffered a lot. I just went to Kong's prison door, sat on the bench, and became an old monkey. I only said that the deadline was very short, but I was so young and toothless that my sleeves were empty that I could not count a nerd. I went to Mengpo village happily. I had to admire swords, trees and flowers, and watch swords, mountains and waterfalls. Only in this way, I could say that I have a different vision. I would gather with these drunkards, poets and demons, and I would like to be king in the south Add ear Soon after Kangxi learned that Yao Guanzhen, a candidate in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, had a literary talent, he decided to release Jiang Chenying and recover Li Pan who had been exiled. Kangxi learned that Chen Ying had committed suicide in prison, and regretted that she was in prison.

At the age of 20, he went to the imperial examination hall, and at the age of 70, he ordered flowers. This road has been going for half a century. However, after only two years in high school, he was implicated in the shuntianxiang trial and committed suicide in prison.

personal works

Draft of Zhanyuan

Zhanyuan postscript

Weijian poetry collection

Xi Ming Wen Chao

The complete works of Mr. Jiang, Volume 33, was compiled by later generations.

Main achievements

Calligraphy

Jiang Chenying was good at calligraphy and was known as the "Kangxi four schools" together with Da Chongguang, Wang Shijian and he Zhuo. He was a representative of the calligraphy in Qing Dynasty. Zong MiFu and Dong Qichang, whose calligraphy is based on the imitation of ancient times and integrates the advantages of different schools, wrote small regular script after the age of 70. The landscape is full of strong ink and elegant smell. The regular script was written by Yu, Chu and Ouyang, with Xiaokai as the first. But the book is rigid and little changed. Bao Shichen said that his running script can be of high quality. Yang Bin's Da Piao Bi commented: "Xi Ming was famous for learning from mi (Fu) and Dong (Qichang) when he was young. After Wu Chen, he used the fourth finger to learn from Jin people's calligraphy, while Ding Chou used the big finger behind him. He specialized in regular script. It was 70 years old. Is it not the only one who has done a lot of work to make him know how to write when he is young. "On the book of pinluo nunnery" says: Mr. Wei Jian's every calligraphy is very good, he can use his own temperament, conform to the ancient divine principle, not like but like, so it's wonderful. It is also a good example and has a great reputation. The stone inscriptions of Zhen Pavilion in the family collection are now called Jiang's Orchid Pavilion. “

Literature and history

Jiang Chenying once participated in the compilation of the history of the Ming Dynasty, which is known as "magnificent, elegant and vigorous, but with a slightly poor narrative". Jiang Chenying is well versed in the study of Confucian classics and history. She is good at explaining some meaningful opinions through historical theories. For example, in Chu Zi Wen Lun, "talent is rare since ancient times; if you use one person and a hundred people to get it, you can't get it." "Er Shi Lun" comments on the origin and development of Buddhism and Taoism. At the end, it criticizes some contemporary Confucianists, just like "abandoning their family's precious wall and admiring others' tile fou, cauldron and urn for beauty, but not daring to get it through their acupoints". In addition, such as Zhang Shijun's raising the tune of Shaanxi provincial examination Wei Zheng Ji, exposing the shortcomings of the imperial examination; the draft of the general annals of criminal law of Ming Dynasty, counting all kinds of disadvantages of the criminal law of Ming Dynasty; the draft of the general annals of river defense and the draft of the general annals of coastal defense, showing the author's erudition; the preface to the selected poems of five or seven characters discusses the change of poetic style, which is clear and coherent, and becomes a family's opinion.

He can also write poems, such as "to Wang Zhengjun of Lu Yi", "occasional Satire", "miscellaneous chants" and so on, as well as "linjiangxian", "autumn willow" and "butterfly loves flower", which can express his sorrow or his life experience.

Jiang Chenying has written the undecided draft of Zhanyuan, the postscript of Zhanyuan, the collection of Weijian poems and the notes of Ximing. In addition, 33 volumes of complete works of Mr. Jiang were compiled by later generations.

Character evaluation

Yang Bin: it's not the only one who has done a lot of work to make him know how to write when he is young.

Liang Tongshu: he is also a good example, and is very famous.

Zhao Erxun: the speech is very Kaizhi, broad and elegant, but the narrative is a little poor.

Selected works

Chinese PinYin : Jiang Chen Ying