Yīn Kēng jí 陰鏗集
Collected Works of Yin Keng (Reconstructed) by 陰鏗 (撰)
About the work
A reconstructed collection (jíyìběn 輯佚本) of the literary writings of Yīn Kēng 陰鏗 (fl. ca. 540–590 CE), Chén 陳 dynasty court poet celebrated for his landscape and occasional verse. Gathered in one juǎn, the surviving fragments open with the court poem 〈新成安樂宮〉 (The Newly Completed Anlè Palace), marking the construction of a palace by the Chen court, followed by 〈班婕妤怨〉 (Lament of Lady Ban Jieyu), 〈蜀道難〉 (Difficult is the Road to Shu), 〈和登百花亭懷荊楚〉 (Harmonizing with “Ascending the Hundred-Flowers Pavilion, Longing for Jing and Chu”), 〈奉送始興王〉 (Respectfully Bidding Farewell to the Prince of Shixing), and 〈廣陵岸送北使〉 (Farewell to the Northern Envoy from the Guangling Shore). The collection contains no external history citations but the content — Chen-era palaces, northern envoys, farewell poems — is consistent with the Chen court literary context.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source. This text is an extra-catalog reconstruction not included in the Sìkù quánshū 四庫全書.
Abstract
Yīn Kēng 陰鏗 (fl. ca. 540–590 CE; zì Zǐjiān 子堅; CBDB id 35198) was a Chén 陳 dynasty court poet from Wǔwēi 武威 (modern Gansu, ancestral home). He served in various official capacities under the Chen dynasty, including positions at the court of Emperor Xuan 宣帝 of Chen (r. 569–582). He is noted in the Chén shū 陳書 and in subsequent literary criticism as one of the preeminent poets of the late Six Dynasties era. Dù Fǔ 杜甫, the Tang poet, praised him alongside Hé Xùn 何遜 as the pair whose landscape verse most directly anticipated Tang poetry.
His poetry at Shī jì 詩紀 juǎn 100 reflects the late Six Dynasties aesthetic: crisp landscape imagery, controlled tonal patterning, and an emotional restraint that anticipates the Tang regulated-verse (lǜshī 律詩) style. The 〈蜀道難〉 in the present collection is an early example of this famous yuèfǔ theme later memorably treated by Lǐ Bái 李白. The 〈和登百花亭懷荊楚〉 evokes the fallen Liang capital Jiangling (江陵) with nostalgia for the pre-conquest culture of the Jing and Chu region. Zhāng Pǔ 張溥 included a Yīn Zǐjiān jí 陰子堅集 in the Hàn Wèi Liùcháo bǎisān jiā jí 漢魏六朝百三家集.
Translations and research
- Knechtges, David R., and Taiping Chang, eds. Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide. Leiden: Brill, 2010–2014. Entry on Yin Keng.
Links
- Wikipedia: Yin Keng