The Unfinished Manuscript: A Poetics of Incompletion in the Ming-Qing Transition

What makes a manuscript unfinished? Qian Qianyi’s 錢謙益(1582–1664) Collection of My Own Roast (Wu zhi ji 吾炙集) reveals the significance of the “unfinished book” (wei wan zhi shu 未完之書) as a concept in Qing literature. I show how readers approached the incompletion of Qian’s anthology—a now neglected collection of poems by present-day poets—as a self-conscious and meaningful act of editorial expression. Collection of My Own Roast not only promotes a poetics of incompletion by intoning the unfulfilled aspirations of Ming loyalists, it also inspired writers throughout the late seventeenth century to compile other incomplete anthologies. Qian’s readers sought to locate within his lacunae (that which was left unfinished) openings for potential connection (that which had not yet been finalized). The “unfinished book” in this respect intimately registered and yet worked to imaginatively redress the political ruptures of the Ming-Qing transition.

何謂「未完之書」？錢謙益（1582–1664）《吾炙集》點明了「未完之書」概念在 清代文學的重要性。《吾炙集》收錄當代詩人作品，卻編修未竟，亦遭後世冷落； 本文提出當時讀者曾將錢氏這部選集之「未完」性質視為自覺且饒有深意的編纂決 策。這部選集不僅通過吟詠明朝遺臣未能實踐的抱負倡導一種「未完」詩學，且亦 啟發十七世紀後期文人編纂更多「未完」選集。《吾炙集》的讀者也曾意圖在其空 白「未完」之處尋覓潛在連結的「未定」契機。這部「未竟之書」既細緻反映明清 更迭期間的政治斷裂，也嘗試藉助想像修補這種政治裂痕。