2. Shen Cai
Shen Cai, zi soubriquet Hongping (c. 1748–?; translated as “Rainbow Screen”), was the daughter of a gentry family of Pinghu in Zhejiang. When her family fell upon hard times, she became a maid for the Peng household in Haiyan, descendants of the poet-scholar-official Peng Sunyu (1631–1700). Later she became the personal servant of his granddaughter Peng Zhenyin. After Peng Zhenyin married Lu Xuan, Shen Cai moved into the new household along with her mistress, at which time she was thirteen years old. She subsequently became Lu Xuan’s concubine and was entrusted with the task of organizing his collection of books, paintings, and calligraphy.
Lu Xuan’s collected works were published towards the end of Qianlong’s reign as The Plum Valley: Ten Books and Shen Cai’s writing as the Spring Rain Cottage Collection; in both cases, her handwriting was used by the woodblock cutting craftsmen as the model, as can be seen immediately in comparison with the calligraphy in Meanings in the Book of Documents.
The complete manuscript consists of twelve volumes. Originally bound in blue silk, all but two had mottled paper wrappings whose patterns resemble tiger skins placed over the silk; only one of these two retains its original blue silk wrapping, while the other only has the silk on one side. The stitching along the binding edge of each volume has six holes—more than the usual four, which indicates the degree of care taken with the overall presentation. Yellow silk slips would have been placed over the binding corners to protect the edges, but they were likely removed when the manuscript was restored. The front cover of each volume has a strip of gold paper stuck to its left edge to record the book’s title and list of chapters.
At the end of each juan, Lu Xuan’s name is recorded as the author, and Shen Cai’s as the copyist, together with their respective seals.
The wording of the seals employed by Shen Cai varies; for example, “Xu Shan Can Qie” (“Silkworm Cultivating Concubine of Xu Mountain”); “Mei Gu Shi Shi” (“Plum Valley Clerk”); and “Pinghong Nüshi” (“Rainbow Screen Lady Literata”). In the late eighteenth century, however, such a sensitive and elegant gesture would have been regarded as entirely inappropriate, given that these were the holiest of texts, the Confucian classics, and she merely a concubine. The most prominent exponent of this opposition was Lu Xuan’s wife Peng Zhenyin, as is audaciously recorded by Shen Cai herself in an epilogue after the final and fifty-eighth chapter “[Duke Mu of] Qin’s Vow,” having completed copying the entire book:
[Shen] Cai, on receiving the order from her Master, proofread and edited Meanings in the Book of Documents. Yet one day, Lady Jade Inlay [Peng Zhenyin] voiced her thoughts, saying: ‘A woman’s role is to refine the five grains, cover [sieve] wines, and sew clothes, and that is all. Now, you have become something else; though it may be admirable, ultimately you have ruined your vocation. And apart from this, the incandescent brilliance of the Book of Documents—for this to emerge from the same hands that have touched the hairgrip, skirts, and hair oil, does this not besmirch them?’ [Shen] Cai, in response, informed her Master. The Master then called for his wife and addressed her, saying: ‘The Quacking Water Fowls is the essence of edification, and has its origins in the chamber; before Yao abdicated in favor of Shun, he first married off his daughters to him, and this tells of husbands and wives; of their abilities and roles. Of the heavenly spheres in their prescribed orbits, after the Purple Enclosure Wall, North Pole, and Emperor Star constellations, come the “Imperial Secretary (Shang Shu)” five stars, who govern the world under heaven, and when the Way is enlightened they look on, and when the Way is unenlightened they are dimmed. The Book of Documents (Shang Shu) is so titled. The sages took its meaning from this, and it was not that first there was the book and then the stars. Later, the appellation “Imperial Secretary” was used to mean “an official,” and this also happened later, with the so-named star always coming first. To the left of the “Imperial Secretary” star is the “Lady Literata” star. For this reason, the “new text” has twenty-eight chapters, and these also were transmitted by Fu Sheng’s daughter; were there no “new text,” there would be no means to investigate the old and new texts and their transmission. Currently, the task of editing and proofreading has been entrusted to Hongping, and this is also Heaven’s Way.’ His lady-wife then affirmed her assent, and thereafter ordered [Shen] Cai to record the matter at the end of the book. On the fifty-second year of the Emperor Qianlong’s reign, the last month, the twenty-fourth day, recorded by the Lady Literata Shen Cai.
彩受主人命校謄〈尚書義〉。一日，玉嵌夫人謂曰：「婦人之事精五飯，幕酒漿，縫衣裳而已。今爾乃如此，雖屬難得，終爲廢業。且煌煌大典，出簪裾膏沐手，毋乃近褻乎？」彩因告主人。主人即呼夫人，謂曰：「〈關雎〉化本，始于房中，堯舜大典，亦先厘降，道本夫婦與能也。天象紫微垣北極帝星後，即爲尚書五星，其星主天下，道明則見，道不明則晦。尚書之名，聖人蓋取義于此，非先有書而後有星也。至後代以尚書命官，則又在其後，皆以星為朔也。其尚書星左即爲女史星，故今文二十八篇，亦以伏勝女傳，若無今文，則古文亦無由考而傳也。今謄校之役以授虹屏，是亦天道也。」夫人諾之，因命彩書于後。時乾隆五十二年臘月廿四日女史沈彩識。
