Yán xià fàng yán 巖下放言
Free Talk from Below the Cliff
by 葉夢得 (Yè Mèngdé, 1077–1148; hào Shílín 石林).
About the work
A 3-juàn late-Sòng bǐjì by 葉夢得, composed after he retired from his last office as Military-Commissioner of Chóngqìngjiédùshǐ 崇慶節度使 and returned to the Bīanshān 卞山 villa. The book is the most philosophical of Yè’s three bǐjì (the others being KR3j0105 Shílín yàn yǔ and KR3j0106 Bì shǔ lù huà) — it draws on Yè’s older-age engagement with Daoist and Buddhist thought (he produced separate Lǎo zǐ jiě and Lùn yǔ shì yán commentaries, both registered in Chén Zhènsūn’s Shū lù jiě tí). The Sìkù editors identify the work as the proximate origin of the later Southern Sòng “interpret-the-Yì through chán” current associated with 沈作喆 (Shěn Zuòzhé; Yù jiǎn KR3j0113), Wáng Zōngchuán 王宗傳, and 楊簡 (Yáng Jiǎn) — though they emphasise that Yè’s own learning was rigorously erudite and that the book’s substantive content remains valuable despite its chánLǎo orientation. The book is sometimes confused with the Míng-edition Méng zhāi bǐ tán falsely attributed to “Xiāngshān Zhèng Jǐngwàng” 湘山鄭景望 — a forgery printed by Shāng Jùn in his Bài hǎi, which the Sìkù editors decisively show to be a piracy of Yè’s text.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit that Yán xià fàng yán in three juan was compiled by Yè Mèngdé of the Sòng. Mèngdé’s Shílín Chūnqiū zhuàn, Shílín yàn yǔ, Bì shǔ lù huà, Shílín shī huà are all separately recorded. This work was composed when, having retired from the Chóngqìng jiédùshǐ, he was living again at the Bīanshān. Chén Zhènsūn’s Shū lù jiě tí gives it as 1 juan; this recension is 3 juan; we suspect Chén’s record is a transmission error.
Now in Shāng Jùn’s Míng Bài hǎi there is a separate Méng zhāi bǐ tán in 2 juan, attributed to “Xiāngshān Zhèng Jǐngwàng” — its text wholly matching this work, with several dozen entries deleted. Lì È in his Sòng shī jì shì says Jǐngwàng was a Yuánfēng / Yuányòu figure, and that he records a Yǐngzhōu poem of Jǐngwàng — which is also in this book. Shāng Jùn’s prints frequently misadopt forged books, no surprise; but Lì È’s research is usually thorough; this is unexpectedly off. Some have suspected that this book is the one that pirated Jǐngwàng’s; but the book contains: “my paternal ancestor was Wèigōng”; “I was at the Shàoshèng spring examination and did not pass”; “in the early Dàguān I was in the Hànlín”; “in Yǐngzhōu just after being relieved of Hànlín office”; “when I governed Xǔchāng, Luòyáng was just being made the western capital”; “the Qiántáng troops rebellion”; “I governed Fútáng”; “I was in the field for over ten years, commanding several hundred thousand”; “I had just been relieved of governing Jiànkāng” — all these career records match Yè Mèngdé’s biography. The book also says: “I have composed Lǎo zǐ jiě and Lùn yǔ shì yán”; the Shū lù jiě tí records under Lùn yǔ class “Yè Mèngdé Lùn yǔ shì yán 10 juan” and under Dào jiā class “Yè Mèngdé Lǎo zǐ jiě 2 juan”; and the Lǎo zǐ jiě entry of “shēng zhī tú shí yǒu sān, sǐ zhī tú shí yǒu sān” — explaining the “shí yǒu sān” by sì zhī jiǔ qiào — is found in this book. So Méng zhāi bǐ tán piracised this book — and not the other way round; there is clear proof. Lì È is the one who has not checked.
Yè in old age and rustic retirement was infatuated with the Two Schools; the book’s narratives much promote the import of Buddhist and Daoist teaching — Shěn Zuòzhé, Wáng Zōngchuán, Yáng Jiǎn and the rest, who interpret the Yì through chán, in fact sprouted from this; quite unsuitable for moral instruction. Yet Yè’s erudition was vast, and his knowledge of old anecdote rich; what he records is also worth using. We preserve this old Sòng work as one school’s contribution.
Respectfully revised and submitted, seventh month of the forty-sixth year of Qiánlóng (1781).
Abstract
The Yán xià fàng yán (“free talk from below the cliff”) was composed at Yè’s final retirement to the Bīanshān 卞山 hill estate, after he demitted his post as Chóngqìng jiédùshǐ. Yè uses Lùn yǔ 7.4.1 (yán yán fú yán) and Lùn yǔ 18.6 (yǐn jū fàng yán) — the Yú Zhòng and Yí Yì tradition of “withdrawing to seclusion and speaking freely” — as the framing. The book reflects Yè’s late engagement with the Two Schools (Daoism and Buddhism): it is full of Lǎozhuāng metaphysics and chán meditation lore, and circles around the relation of the Confucian classics to those traditions.
The book is the proximate origin of a distinctive Southern Sòng current of Yì jīng interpretation that reads the Yì through chán — represented most notably by 沈作喆 (Shěn Zuòzhé) in the Yù jiǎn (KR3j0113), Wáng Zōngchuán 王宗傳 in his Yì zhuàn dèng 易傳燈, and 楊簡 (Yáng Jiǎn, 1141–1226) of the Lù 陸 school in his Cí hú Yì zhuàn. The Sìkù editors flag this line of influence in the tíyào and treat Yè as the channel.
The book’s reception was complicated by a Míng-period forgery: Shāng Jùn 商濬 in the Bài hǎi printed a 2-juàn Méng zhāi bǐ tán under the name “Xiāngshān Zhèng Jǐngwàng” 湘山鄭景望, whose text is wholly a piracy of Yè’s Yán xià fàng yán with several dozen entries deleted. Lì È 厲鶚 in the Sòng shī jì shì unfortunately repeated the false attribution. The Sìkù editors painstakingly establish the priority of Yè’s text by aligning the book’s internal autobiographical references to Yè’s career and citing the Shū lù jiě tí entries on Yè’s Lǎo zǐ jiě and Lùn yǔ shì yán, fragments of which the book itself quotes.
Dating. The internal reference to retirement from the Chóngqìng jiédùshǐ — Yè held the post in Shàoxīng 8 (1138) — sets a lower bound. The book was substantially complete before Yè’s death in 1148. NotBefore 1138 / notAfter 1148.
Translations and research
No complete Western-language translation. The book is regularly cited in studies of Southern Sòng chán-Yì (Buddhist–Yìjīng) syncretism — see Wú Jì-fù 吳吉夫 and the broader scholarship on the Yì tradition. The book is also cited in studies of Yè’s literary biography and is one of the principal pieces of evidence for his late-life engagement with Buddhism.
Other points of interest
The Méng zhāi bǐ tán / Yán xià fàng yán attribution dispute is one of the more important Sìkù editorial detections of Míng-print piracy; the case is regularly cited as an exemplar in modern bǐjì-textual scholarship.
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Zájiā lèi 3, Yán xià fàng yán entry.