Fàncūn méipǔ 范村梅譜
Treatise on the Plums of Fàn-cūn (Stone-Lake) by 范成大 (Fàn Chéngdà, 撰)
About the work
A one-juàn late-Southern-Sòng monograph on the méi 梅 (winter-flowering Chinese plum, Prunus mume) — the principal Chinese flower of winter and one of the supreme symbols of Chinese literary culture. By Fàn Chéngdà 范成大 (1126–1193), the great Southern-Sòng poet, official, and travel-diarist, retired in 1186 to his Sūzhōu Shíhú (Stone-Lake) estate which he named Fàncūn 范村 (“Fàn-Village”). Composed during his retirement years 1186–1193. The work documents twelve plum-cultivars grown in Fàncūn, each with brief descriptive entry; with a self-preface and a self-postface.
This is the first systematic treatise on plum cultivars in Chinese literature — earlier Chinese references to méi in the Shàngshū and Lǐjīng concern the fruit (méizǐ 梅子 = sour plum), not the flower-cultivars. Tang poetic celebration of méihuā (plum-blossom) began the literary tradition; Fàn Chéngdà’s Méipǔ gave it systematic floricultural-monograph form.
Tiyao
The combined tíyào covering this work is in KR3i0031. The portion concerning Fàncūn méipǔ (translated): We submit that the Fàncūn méipǔ is by Fàn Chéngdà of the Sòng. Chéngdà has the Guìhǎi yúhéng zhì and other works separately catalogued. This is a record of the plum-trees of his residence at Fàncūn — in all twelve varieties. Before-and-after both have self-prefaces. The plum-tree as a thing: its name though appearing in the Shàngshū and the Ritual Classics, was always for its fruit and not for its flower. From Tang poets’ competitions on it onward, it began to be valued in its time for fragrance-and-colour. Chéngdà for the first time made this compilation, somewhat distinguishing and ranking its varieties. However, a variety like the Lǜè méi (Green-Calyx Plum) is today in Wú already a common-planting, yet Chéngdà praised it as “a rare thing not often seen among men” — local-suitability differing, or perhaps changing with the times. Also, Yáng Wújiù 楊无咎 had renown for plum-painting in later ages, all treasured as supreme works, yet Chéngdà’s postface says “his painting is mostly in the form of the Wú-region ‘gas-branches’ — although the brush-technique is striking, far from real plums” — agreeing with Sòng Xiàozōng’s denigration of Wújiù as a “village plum-painter.” Apparently at that time Wújiù’s painting was not yet greatly valued. By Jiāxī / Chúnyòu (1237–1252), Zhào Xīgǔ 趙希鵠 making his Dòngtiān qīnglù began to say “a Jiāngxī man getting one piece of Wújiù’s plum [painting] — its price not below one hundred-thousand cash” — so one can perceive the changes-of-the-age. The Tōngkǎo combines this book with [Chéngdà’s] Júpǔ into one, titling it Fàncūn méijú pǔ in two juàn*; but observing the self-preface, they are in fact separate books — so we now still add a separate title to each.*
Abstract
The work is the foundational Chinese plum-cultivar treatise and the principal Sòng source for the connoisseurship of plum-blossom — the supreme Chinese winter flower. Its twelve varieties are the standard Sòng nomenclature: Jiāngméi 江梅 (River Plum, the wild type), Zǎo méi 早梅 (Early Plum), Guānchéng méi 官城梅 (Official-City Plum), Cóngchuān méi 重葉梅 (Double-Leaf Plum), Lǜè méi 綠萼梅 (Green-Calyx Plum, the most prized white-flowered variety), Bǎiyè xiāngméi 百葉香梅 (Hundred-Leaf Fragrant Plum), Xíngméi 杏梅 (Apricot-Plum hybrid), Sìxiāngméi 鴛鴦梅 (Mandarin-Duck Plum, twin-flowered), Wénméi 黃香梅 (Yellow Fragrant Plum), and three others.
The work is also a significant document of late-Southern-Sòng aesthetic-historical transition. Its critical comments on the painter Yáng Wújiù 楊无咎 (1097–1169), the great Sòng-period plum-painting master who was disparaged in his own time as a “village plum-painter” but became canonical only after his death — confirmed by the comparison with Zhào Xīgǔ’s later (1240s) report of Yáng’s paintings commanding “100,000 cash” — give a precise documentary fix on the rise of Yáng Wújiù’s posthumous reputation, which would shape the entire YuánMíng plum-painting tradition (Wáng Miǎn 王冕 and his successors).
The work was composed during Fàn’s Stone-Lake retirement (1186–1193). The Wénxiàn tōngkǎo groups this work with Fàn’s Fàncūn júpǔ (KR3i0034) as Fàncūn méijú pǔ in two juàn, but Fàn’s own prefaces make them separate works and the Sìkù editors restore this separation.
Translations and research
- Hargett, James M. 2006. Riding the River Home: A Complete and Annotated Translation of Fan Chengda’s Diary of a Boat Trip to Wu. Hong Kong: Chinese UP. (Background on Fàn Chéngdà.)
- Bickford, Maggie. 1996. Ink Plum: The Making of a Chinese Scholar-Painting Genre. Cambridge UP. Major study of Sòng-Yuán plum-painting; uses Fàn’s treatise as principal source.
- Wáng Lìpíng 王利平. 2010. Sòng-dài huā-pǔ wén-xiàn yán-jiū 宋代花譜文獻研究. Shàng-hǎi gǔjí chū-bǎn-shè.
- Hargett, James M. 2018. Jade Mountains and Cinnabar Pools: The History of Travel Literature in Imperial China. Seattle: U Washington Press. (Background on Fàn.)
Other points of interest
The Fàncūn méipǔ established the cultural pattern by which the méi (plum-blossom) became the supreme literati flower of the Southern-Sòng-Yuán-Míng-Qing tradition — surpassing in symbolic weight even the orchid and chrysanthemum. The “Four Gentleman-Plants” (sì jūnzǐ 四君子: plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum) of the Yuán-Míng-Qing painting tradition rest on this Southern-Sòng cultural construction. Fàn’s Lǜè méi (Green-Calyx Plum) celebration in particular shaped the SòngYuán aesthetic of plum-blossom: pure-white petals with green calyx, no pink, no doubling — became the canonical literati-plum, contrasted with the more ornamental Tang-and-Song-court plum.