After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the Cantonese people have formed a kind of respect for Chen (Baisha). (Infographic/Figure)
(This article was first published in Southern Weekend on May 9, 2019)
Fifteen years ago, the first time I went to Taiwan, to Tainan Confucius Temple tour, quite surprised by the complete preservation of the culture and cultural relics of the Confucius Temple here, after seeing the main hall, the two sides of the hall down the road, I saw the only Guangdong sage Chen Xianzhang tablet among the ancestors of confucius. I couldn't help but get a little excited, and told my friends that I was looking, that's our New Hui in Guangdong.
After the Song Dynasty, the confucius temple gradually formed a set of strict rules, of which the provincial palaces have xiangxian ancestral halls, each province can report to the imperial court, the deceased ancestors of the province to send the ancestral tablets into the shrine to sacrifice, but the township sages are limited to the province, but the temple of literature promulgated by the imperial court is a national event, the selection is extremely strict, the Ming and Qing dynasties, Guangdong to enter the shrine only chen one person, it can be seen how important this is.
Chen Xianzhang is in Guangdong, and he knows more about his nickname, Chen Baisha, a village under the mountain in Xinhui, named after the white snow sand in the small river in front of the village. Baisha Village came out of Lingnan Daru, and Mr. Baisha lived here for a long time to teach apprentices, and everyone called him Mr. Baisha. In the years of his lifetime, his popularity was already very high, and scholars from all over Guangdong and even from other provinces had disciples lily to study. However, throughout his life, Chen Baisha was just an ordinary reader, Mr. Teaching, and his poor life was completely disproportionate to his influence in later generations. After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the Guangdong people have formed a kind of atmosphere of respect for Chen, his doctrine has been printed many times, his status has become higher and higher, and even the Maolong pen calligraphy he created has become a custom that has influenced the Guangdong book world for many years. The fact that the custom of respecting Chen in the Xinhui area of Jiangmen is even more prevalent can fully show that since the Qing Dynasty, Guangdong has formed a "Baisha culture", a local cultural worship centered on Chen Baisha and his disciples.
The three volumes of the Complete Works of Chen Xianzhang, which Mr. Li Yeming recently compiled, are an unprecedented compilation of Chen Baisha's literature, and to say that it has not been seen means that this complete collection is different from the previously compiled collections. As mentioned earlier, when Chen Baisha was alive, someone had already compiled a collection of poems for him, and this time he participated in the study of the earliest surviving Hongzhi Nine-Year "Recent Manuscript of Mr. Baisha's Poems", which is a book of Chinese reconstructed rare books, until the Qianlong period, the Guangdong people have printed about ten versions of poetry collections for him, not including other anthologies and untouched ones. Previously, the "Collection of Chen Xianzhang" published by the Zhonghua Book Company was far less extensive than the full collection, and what is more valuable is that in addition to collating the similarities and differences between the editions, the editor also included in the third volume the various documents he saw about Baisha in the Ming and Qing dynasties, so this book should be regarded as a compilation of Chen Baisha's literature.
The Complete Works of Chen Xianzhang, compiled by Li Yeming, Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 2019 (Data Map/Figure)
Previously, the author could not say that Chen Baisha had studied, and only dabbled in a little of his literature and cultural relics, in addition to collecting a little of his calligraphy plaque, there were also one or two kinds of his poetry collections, but seeing the wide range of references in the version of this complete collection, there was indeed a sense of admiration. Incidentally, there are only two versions of the Qing Dynasty Baisha Poetry Collection, namely the Shunzhi Ben and the Qianlong Jasper Lou Ben, the latter of which the author has two sets, and the printing date is obviously early and late. Readers may wonder why qianlong and the Republic of China period are no longer compiled and printed, in fact, the answer lies in the Xinhui area attaches great importance to the tradition of printing local village sage books, as long as the edition is done, it can be printed for many years, and it can be engraved or partially re-engraved if it is damaged. Therefore, many of the so-called Ming editions of Xinhui poetry collections are likely to be post-printed. The Jasper Lou edition is loved by readers for its completeness and written inscriptions, so it is widely circulated.
After reading this complete collection, some of my previous ideas have gradually become clear, that is, Chen Baisha's "deification" process. As mentioned earlier, Chen Baisha was born ordinary, did not have any family background, the highest meritorious name was only a person, after many examinations, he did not return to the ranks, and even the highest official position he had done was only a small clerk of the Guozijian, and finally a resignation of the official moved Emperor Xianzong, rewarded him with a false title of "Hanlin Academy Review", and returned home to teach and serve his mother. Chen Baisha's resume was so low, compared with the Ming Dynasty Great Confucian with the same name as him, Wang Yangming needless to say, even Chen's disciples, the officials were far older than him, and the meritorious name was much higher.
When Chen Baisha was alive, the nobles who supported him were mainly his teacher Wu Youbi, and the Guozi Supervisor Xing Rangling, who appreciated his learning, and Zhu Ying, the inspector of Guangdong. In the Ming Dynasty, the birth of meritorious names was the right way for readers, and no matter how high the learning, there was no meritorious name and official position, and the bureaucrats always looked down on them. Chen Baisha's own personality can be roughly seen from his poetry, he belongs to the typical Cantonese reader, low-key, afraid of socializing, willing to live in the countryside, only like to talk to his disciples about learning, from his admonitions to his disciples, you can probably see the asceticism of his private life. The fact that such a rural scholar can become a generation of Confucians is indeed a major topic worth exploring in the history of Lingnan culture.
The appendix to this complete collection accounts for one-third of the entire book and provides many useful historical materials to understand the process of Chen Baisha's deification. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the study of the heart was not the mainstream of the academic circles, and the study of the heart advocated by Chen Baisha was carried forward until his students. From the "Baishamen Ren Kao" compiled by Ruan Rongling in Daoguangjian, it can be seen that most of his disciples were Cantonese, and many of them were high officials, such as the three Shangshu Zhanruoshui, Taishi Liang Chu, Taishi Huangzuo, etc., all of whom were important ministers of the Ming Dynasty. These students and re-transmission disciples played a very important role in promoting Chen Baisha's teachings and popularity. Wang Yangming, another thinker with the greatest influence in the Ming Dynasty, although the official work was greater and the merit was much higher than that of Chen, the disciples were far inferior to Chen's.
Bai Sha went from keen to dismissive of his fame, and finally refused to be recruited in seclusion, but most of his students were active in eunuchs and continued to promote Bai Sha XinXue. In the early years of the Wanli Calendar, finally led by the university scholar Shen Shixing, Shangzhu Shenzong obtained imperial approval and attached Chen Baisha, Wang Yangming, and Hu Juren to Xue Xuan and entered the Confucius Temple festival. Shen Shixing's Shangshu was also afraid that the Divine Sect would not understand the profound philosophy, and incisively concluded that Wang Yangming's master zhizhi and Chen Baisha's main jing were all ideas that should be promoted. This is a good summary of Chen Baisha's holistic psychology.
From the biographies and inscriptions that have been continuously added in the Ming and Qing dynasties, it can also be seen that Chen was deified, and there is even no shortage of brain-opening novel descriptions. For example, the description of Bai Sha's dying scene is already very detailed by his disciples such as Zhang Xu, but the "Annals" written by Ruan Shi of Daoguang Shi perfunctorily describes "the day of death, the white qi that runs through the sky, the vigorous as steam, and the day is breathing". Another example is that when Baisha was a teenager, he dreamed that he could play a piano made of stone, and posterity mistakenly thought that he was really a guqinist, so many guqins were engraved with inscriptions of white sand, and many carved names such as "dragon yin" and "tiger roar". In the collection of poems, we cannot find evidence that Baisha really plays the piano himself, if the sound of the guqin is indeed like "dragon chanting and tiger roaring", which makes the listener creepy but already, is it what Baisha who advocates "jing" learning should have? All these things, although wrapped in a lot of mythological colors, are good materials for studying the white sand complex of Cantonese people.
Guangdong is located in the south of Tiannan, it is rare to appear a great Confucian who has influenced the whole country, remembering the look when I pointed to Mr. From the ancestral tablet and told my friends "That is our Guangdong people", I can naturally understand the complex of the Cantonese people of past generations who have respected Mr. Guangdong.
Liang Jiyong