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Yü Chi and His Mongol Sovereign: The Scholar as Apologist

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

John D. Langlois Jr
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Abstract

This paper, a study of the career of Yii Chi (1272–1348), explores the nature of Chinese literati support of Mongol rulers during the Yiian period. Yii Chi served as the leading apologist for the usurper Tugh Temiir (Wen-tsung, r. 1328 and 1329–1332). The most prominent court scholar of his time, Yii Chi devoted himself to the enhancement of Tugh Temiir's prestige, authority, and legitimacy. The paper explores Yii's activities in detail and speculates on his motivations in serving his Mongol emperor. In particular, it suggests that Yii Chi's ultimate aim in bolstering the usurper's claims to the throne, as well as in encouraging imperial support of Chinese cultural symbols and values, was to make Mongol rule more predictable and stable and thus to benefit the Mongols' Chinese subjects.

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , November 1978 , pp. 99 - 116
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Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1978

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References

1 Two convenient editions are available: The Ssu-pu pei-yao and the Ssu-pu ts'ung-k'an [hereafter SPTK], both with identical contents. In this paper the SPTK edition, a reproduction of a Ming edition, is cited. There were many editions of Yü's works in premodern times. See Ch'in-ting ssu-k'u ch'üan-shu tsung-mu t'i-yao (Taipei: Yee-wen edition, 3rd. printing, 1969), 167: 23a—24b.Google Scholar

2 Mote, “Confucian Eremitism in the Yüan Period,” in The Confucian Persuasion, ed. Wright, Arthur F. (Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1960), pp. 202–240Google Scholar; Ho, “Chinese under the Mongols,” in Chinese Art under the Mongols: The Yüan Dynasty (1279–1368), ed. Lee, Sherman & Ho, Waikam (Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1968), pp. 73–112.Google Scholar

3 Rachewiltz, , “Yeh-lü Ch'u-ts'ai (1189–1243): Buddhist Idealist and Confucian Statesman,” in Confucian Personalities, ed. Wright, Arthur F. & Twitchett, Denis (Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1962), pp. 189–216Google Scholar; Chan, , “Liu Ping-chung (1216–1274): A Buddhist-Taoist Statesman at the Court of Khubilai Khan,” T'oung Pao, 53, Nos. 1–3 (1967), 98–146.Google Scholar

4 Sun, , Yüan-tai Chin-hua hsüeh-shu (T'aichung, 1976).Google Scholar

5 Ou-yang Hsüan, preface to Tao-yüan hsüeh-ku lu (SPTK ed.) [Hereafter TYHKL] 2a–3a.

6 TYHKL, 32: 6b.

7 Biographical materials for Yü Chi include Yüan shih [hereafter YS] (Peking, 1976), 181:4174–82; Chao Fang (1319–1369), Hsing-chuang, in Tung-shan ts'un-kao (Ssu-k'u ch'üan-shu chen-pen ed. [hereafter SKCSCP]), chüan 6; Ou-yang Hsüan, Shen-tao-pei, in Kuei-chai chi (SPTK), 9: 23a–34a; and K'o-k'uan, Sun, “Yüan Yü Chi yü nan-fang tao-chiao,” Ta-lu tsa-chih, 53, No. 6 (1976), 243–54.Google Scholar

8 See YS pen-chi of Jen-tsung, chs. 24–26.

9 The Nung-sang chi-yao was printed again during the reigns of Shidebala, Tugh Temür, and Toghon Temür. See the note by Motonosuke, Amano in Ajia rekishi jiten, 10 vols. (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1959–62, 8th printing, 1975), VII, p. 303Google Scholar; and his article “Gen Shi-nō-shi sen Nōsō shūyō ni tsuite” [On the Nung-sang chi-yao compiled by the Ssu-nung-ssu of the Yüan], Tōhōgaku, 30 (1965), 50–67.Google Scholar

10 See the note on the ching-yen by Miyazaki Ichisada in Ajia rekishi jiten, III, 91. Some discussion of the lecture system in the Sung period may be found in Hartwell, Robert, “Historical Analogism, Public Policy, and Social Science in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century China,” American Historical Review, 76, No. 3 (1971), 690–727.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 Chih-hsüeh-shih.

12 Chih-chih-kao.

13 T'ung-hsiu kuo-shih.

14 Ching-yen kuan.

15 Still rank 5A, but one grade higher in the 42-grade hierarchy. See YS, 91: 2321.

16 Chi-chiu, sometimes rendered “libationer.“

17 For a translation of relevant portions of the Yü'an shih, see Ratchnevsky, Paul, Un code des Yuan, 2 vols. (Paris: E. Leroux, 1937, 1973), 11, pp. 22–26.Google Scholar

18 For a list of ten persons, including Yü Chi, appointed to the Classics Mat in the spring of 1328, see YS, 30: 685–86.

19 YS, 181:4177–78.

20 Yü Chi wrote an essay on 13 Jan. 1328 to commemorate this event. See TYHKL, 11: 10b–11b. The essay also appears in Su T'ien-chüeh, ed., Kuo-ch'ao wen-lei (SPTK ed.) [hereafter KCWL], 39: 13a–15a.

21 TYHKL, 11: 11b.

22 See Dardess, John W., Conquerors and Confucians: Aspects of Political Change in Late Yüan China (N. Y. and London: Columbia Univ. Press, 1973), chap. 2, “The Restoration of 1328.”Google Scholar

23 For this name, and for other places on Khoshila's itinerary, see Pelliot, Paul, Notes on Marco Polo, 3 vols. (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1959, 1967, 1973), 1, p. 322Google Scholar. For the location of this place, see Sadao, Aoyama, Shina rekidai chimei yōran (Tokyo, 1933; rpt. Taipei, 1975Google Scholar, under the title Chung-kuo li-tai ti-ming yao-lan), p. 708. Dolon is in the border region between the full steppe and sedentary China, south of the Luan River.

24 Kōjirō, Yoshikawa, “Gen no chotei no bungaku,” in Yoshikawa Kōjirō zenshū [hereafter Zenshū], xv (Tokyo, 1969) p. 257. He was later transferred to Chiang-ling.Google Scholar

25 They appear in KCWL, which was published in 1334, before the posthumous disgrace of Wentsung. See KCWL, 9: 15a-19a. The edicts are not included in Yü Chi's collected works.

26 For the text, see KCWL, 9: 16b.

27 Ibid.

28 Ibid.

29 KCWL, 9: 17a.

30 KCWL, 9: 17b.

31 These words come from the spurious Hsiaoching yüan-shen-ch'i, annotated in Wei times by Sung Chün. This work was lost and then partially reconstructed in Ming times; however, a passage with the words cited here was included by the T'ang scholar Hsü Chien (d. 729) in his Ch'u-hsüeh chi (1597–98 ed.), 21: 12b.

32 Chi, T'u, Meng-wu-erh shih-chi (rpt. Taipei, 1962), 15: 8b.Google Scholar

33 For Düirmish, Khudlug, see Hsin Yüan-shih (Tientsin, 1922), 192: 10b—11a.Google Scholar For the transcription of the name, see Cleaves, Francis W., “The ‘Fifteen “Palace Poems”’ by K'o Chiu-ssu,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies [HJAS], 20 (1957). 432.Google Scholar

34 For this name, see P. Ratchnevsky, Un code des Yuan, II, p. 34, n. I.

35 YS, 26: 578. See TYHKL, 7: 1a. The work had been translated earlier as well. Khaishan had supposedly regarded it highly. See YS, 24: 536. Yesün Temür is said to have heard lectures on it. YS, 29: 644.

36 See Ch'en Lü, An-ya t'ang wen-chi (SKCSCP, 2nd Series ed.), 11: 17b–20a, for the daughter's funerary inscription. For Hsü Yu-jen, see YS, 182: 4199–4203, and Dardess, Conquerors, pp. 62–63, 75–76. For Chao's biography, see YS, 180:4163–67.

37 YS, 138: 3331 (biog. of El Temür); YS, 32: 723.

38 YS, 33: 739; furthermore, the name of the pavilion was expanded to K'uei-chang ko hsüehshih yüan (“Academy of Scholars of the Pavilion of the Star of Literature”). The I-wen chien head had court rank 3A. Its duties included translation of “Confucian books” (Ju-shu) into Mongolian. See YS, 88: 2223. For the title of the I-wen cbien in English, I follow David Farquhar, “Structure and Function in the Yüan Imperial Government,” in preparation for publication.

39 See Farquhar, David, “Seals and Ciphers of the Yüan Period,” Monumenta Serica, 25 (1966), 362–93, esp. 383–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar See also Tsung-i, T'ao, Chokeng lu (rpt. Taipei, 1963) 2: 44, where it is noted that the calligraphy for two seals used by the pavilion's connoisseurs was that of Yü Chi. Yoshikawa summarizes the paintings and calligraphy known to have been in the pavilion collection. See Zenshū, xv, pp. 255–56.Google Scholar

40 YS, 88: 2223. Ratchnevsky, Un code des Yuan, II, p. 34.

41 Yang Yü, Shan-chü hsin-hua (Chih-pu-tsu chai ts'ung-shu ed.), 22b–25a. This has been translated into German by Franke, Herbert, Das Shankü sin-hua des Yang Yü (Wiesbaden: F. Steiner, 1956), pp. 77–79.Google Scholar Yang Yü's notes on the pavilion are repeated nearly word-for-word in T'ao Tsung-i, Cho-keng lu, 2: 44–45.

42 The stele memorial inscription entitled “K'uei-chang ko chi” by Yü Chi, inscribed in the khaghan's own handwriting, states that the pavilion was housed in an existing palace building and that remodeling was kept simple. Doors for ventilation and shelves for books were the only major additions. The inscription is in TYHKL, 22: 9a-9b.

43 Shan-chü hsin-hua, 22b–25a. Only some 95 posts are listed in the Yüan shih. See YS, 88: 2223. For a translation of this passage, see Cleaves, “Fifteen Palace Poems,”p. 465 n. 136.

44 Shan-chü hsin-hua, 22b–23b.

45 These functions are summarized in Yoshikawa, Zenshū, xv, pp. 253–55.

46 YS, 33: 740–41; Ratchnevsky, Un code des Yuan, I, p. xx.

47 This date was also the first day of the new reign era, Chih-shun. YS, 34: 749. Chao Shih-an was a native of northern Hopei whose family included, from Jurchen Chin times on, many prominent officials. See T'u Chi, Meng-wu-erh shih-chi, 60: 1b; and Cleaves, “Fifteen Palace Poems,” pp. 298–99.

48 At this time the khaghan was pressing the History Bureau to speed up its compilation of the standard histories of the Liao, Chin, and Sung dynasties. See YS, 181: 4179, lines 2–3.

49 YS, 34: 751; Ratchnevsky, Un code des Yuan, I, p. xx; Yü Chi, “Ching-shih ta-tien hsülu,” TYHKL, 5: 17a–18b.

50 YS, 35: 784. See also the biography of Yü Chi.YS, 181: 4179, line 4.

51 YS, 36: 803; Yoshikawa, Zenshū, XV, p. 254.

52 YS, 181: 10a. El Temür, however, remained the overall director of the project. See Dardess, Conquerors, p. 47.

53 KCWL, 40: 3b-4b.

54 KCWL, 40: 5a.

55 The cyclical characters chia-shen in the text are a copyist's error for chia-wu. Cf. YS, 32: 704.

56 KCWL, 40: 5a. Daula-shah led Aragibag's supporters during the civil war.

57 YS, 32: 704–5; Dardess, Conquerors, pp. 38–39.

58 YS, 32: 716. Daula-shah was publicly executed and dismembered on the day kuei-wei of the eleventh moon (26 December), YS, 32: 721.

59 YS, 181:4180.

60 See YS, 40: 856–57 for the edict of the sixth moon of 1340, in which Toghon Temür denounces Tugh Temür's attempt to deny him his legacy. He explicitly blames Tugh Temür for his father's death.

61 For the Mongolian temple names of Khaishan and Ayurbawarda, see Francis W. Cleaves, “The Lingji of Arugh of 1340,” HJAS, 25 (1964–65), 41. For the name of Shidebala, see the glossary, albeit unreliable, in the Taipei 1967 typeset edition of the Yüan shih (published by the Kuo-fang yenchiu yüan), IV, p. 48. For Khoshila's name, see Cleaves, “Fifteen Palace Poems,” p. 435 n.29. The words rendered “appointment [of Heaven]” (lishu) appear in the Shu ching with this meaning. See Legge, James, The Chinese Classics, 5 vols. (rpt. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Univ. Press, 1960), III, p. 61.Google Scholar For the text translated here, see KCWL, 9: 18a–18b.

62 The alleged illegitimacy was believed by many people, although modern scholars discount it as unfounded. See Ch'ing-mang, Wei, “Yūan Shun-ti wei Sung-i k'ao” [Inquiry into the claim that Toghon Temür was a descendant of the Sung house], reprinted in Sung Liao Chin Yüan shihlun chi, ed. K'ang-hsieh, Chou (Hong Kong, 1971)Google Scholar; and Yü Chia-his, Ssu-k'u t'i-yao piencheng (Taipei: Yeewen ed. of Ch'in-ting Ssu-k'u ch'üan-shu tsungmu), IX, pp. 297–307. (I am indebted to Lao Yan-shuan for the reference to Yü Chia-hsi.)

63 YS, 138: 3333 gives the length of the reign as 43 days, but calculating on the basis of the dates given in the pen-chi for Irinjibal (YS, 37), it comes to 53 days (or until 14 December 1332).

64 Fujishima Tateki points out the baneful effects that Tugh Temür's destruction of Khoshila had on the monarchy, especially as they were felt by Temür, Toghon, in “Gen no Juntei to sono jidai,” Ōtani gakuhō, 49, No. 4 (1970).Google Scholar

65 YS, 181:4180.

66 YS, 36:806.

67 For a study of these changes, see Dardess, Conquerors, chaps. 4, 5.

68 Yüan, Pi, Hsü tzu-chih t'ung-chien (Peking, 1958), P. 5560.Google Scholar

69 Cf. Grousset, René, Empire of the Steppes, trans. Walford, Naomi (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers Univ. Press, 1970), p. 320Google Scholar: “Although occupying the throne of the Sons of Heaven, they remained a clan whose members wrangled in public, snatched power from one another, and destroyed one another.”

70 Yoshikawa, Zenshū, xv, p. 260.

71 This was pointed out by Yoshikawa; see Zenshū, xv, p. 259.

72 YS, 36: 806. For the name Ch'i-nien ku (Kerülen Valley), see Watari, Yanai, Mōkoshi kenkyū (Tokyo: Tōkō Shōin, 1930), p. 751 n.i.Google Scholar He places it in the primary ordo of Chinggis Khan. See also Yoshiaki, Komai, “Kirenkoku ni tsuite,” Tōyōshi kenkyū, 6 No. 2 (1941), 123–29.Google Scholar

73 The “grass” (mu-su, a kind of pasture grass, sometimes translated “clover”) and “grapes” are common symbols for nomadic culture. See, for example, Wang Wei's poem “Sung Liu Ssu-chih fu An-hsi,” in Ch'üan T'ang shih (1707 Yangchoued.), Wang Wei shih 2: 5b, 3rd couplet.

74 TYHKL, 3: 17a.

75 This description of the burial of the Mongol leaders is based on Yeh Tzu-ch'i (early Ming), Ts'ao-mu-tzu, cited and discussed in Yanai Watari, Mōkoshi kenkyū, p. 751.

76 For the Hsüan-wen ko and its relationship to the K'uei-chang ko, see T'ao Tsung-i, Cho-keng lu, 2: 44–45; and YS, 40: 860.