| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺北大學 === 中國文學系 === 105 === Li Panlong (1514-1570) – courtesy name Yu Lin and pen name Cang Ming – was a native of Shandong Licheng (today’s Licheng District in Jinan). With a father surnamed Bao and mother Zhang, Li had two brothers named Hualong and Chenglong. In his early years, Li studied with Zhang Tan who was a private teacher in the county. When Li entered state school, he found the study of intellectual classics dull and uninspiring, thus devoting his attention to reading historical writings outside of established classic literature, such as Zuo Zhuan (左傳) and Shi Ji (史記). He later became an officer in the imperial court, and made acquaintances with people such as Wang Shizhen, Xu Zhongxing, and Wu Guolun. Li’s strong influence of the classical style then began to mature and take form after many years of development, with his central ideology based on the idea that “the best prose was passed down from the Western Han Dynasty, and the best poetry from the Tang Dynasty,” and anything else is inadequate. The prose and poetry collection of Li compiled by Wang Shizhen, The Cang Ming Collection (滄溟集), is the very display of Li’s classical-oriented thinking.
The book was compiled at the request of Li’s eldest son Li Ju to Wang Shijun, following Li’s death. The book contains 30 volumes and an appendix. Since its publication in the sixth year of the Longqing era (1572), other editions—as many as fourteen including those edited by Wang Shizhen, Qi Fengguan, Hu Laigong, Chen Sheng, and Zhang Hongdao—have emerged due to various reasons such as the preservation of the literatures of local scholars, the widespread approval of the scholarly communities, the destruction of writing plates during military disasters, and personal literary preferences. As a representative figure of the classical literary movement of the Ming Dynasty, there have been multiple editions of Li’s collection of poetry and prose, and they can be found in various archives locally and abroad. What is currently lacking is a scholarly study that provides a comprehensive analysis of the reasons of publication, proofreading quality, and state of circulation of the existing editions of The Cang Ming Collection. Under these circumstances, it is therefore necessary to conduct a series of in-depth and holistic studies on the origins and dissemination of the various editions of The Cang Ming Collection.
The paper is divided into five chapters. The first chapter, Introduction, discusses research motives, objectives, methodologies, and related literatures. In the second chapter, Writings on Li Panlong’s Life and Travels, the personal aspects of Li Panlong will be discussed, including his family background, life and anecdotes, and acquaintances, along with a verification study of Li Panlong’s catalog of writings. The third chapter, A Study of the Completed Publication and Editions of The Cang Ming Collection, focuses on examining the origins as well as the engraving of The Cang Ming Collection from the following aspects: basic appearance, the origins of the original copied edition, the time of engraving and publication, means of printing and publication, engraving features, the craft of font engraving, and proofreading value. In other words, the result of visually examining and comparing the editions collected from archives. The fourth chapter, The Circulation and Reception of The Cang Ming Collection, emphasizes on the general state of dissemination of this collection in the Ming and Qing dynasties, such as the factors that motivated its circulation, areas of circulation, and the misunderstandings, critique, and acceptance by various scholars of the work during its circulation.
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