Liú Kūn jí 劉琨集
Collected Works of Liu Kun (Reconstructed) by 劉琨 (撰)
About the work
A reconstructed collection (jíyìběn 輯佚本) of the surviving literary writings of Liú Kūn 劉琨 (271–318 CE), a Western/Eastern Jin general and poet, organized in two juǎn. The collection opens with the prose letter and accompanying eight reply-poems 〈答盧諶八章〉 (Dá Lú Chén bā zhāng, Eight Compositions in Reply to Lu Chen), which is the most famous item in the corpus. The letter begins with Liú Kūn’s closing salutation “琨頓首” and constitutes a literary and philosophical response to letters and poems received from his close friend and cousin Lú Chén 盧諶 during Liú Kūn’s final years besieged in Jingbei. It reflects on youthful enthusiasms for Daoist detachment (he had admired Laozi and Zhuangzi, and Ruǎn Jí 阮籍’s xìang kuàng 放曠 freedom), and his conversion to a sense of urgency about talent and service in a time of crisis. This letter is cited in Wénxuǎn 文選 juǎn 25 and Shī jì 詩紀 juǎn 29. The collection also includes additional poems and miscellaneous writings in juǎn 2.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source. This text is an extra-catalog reconstruction not included in the Sìkù quánshū 四庫全書.
Abstract
Liú Kūn 劉琨 (271–318 CE), zì Yuèshí 越石, was a native of Wèichāng 魏昌 in Zhōngshān 中山 (modern Hebei). He came from a prominent Han aristocratic family and rose to fame in early Western Jin as one of the youthful companions of the “Twenty-four Friends” (* èrshísì yǒu* 二十四友) literary circle at Luoyang around Jiǎ Mì 賈謐. His biography is in Jìnshū 晉書 juǎn 62.
After the Yongjia upheaval (Yǒngjiā zhī luàn 永嘉之亂, 311 CE), in which the Xiongnu Hàn state sacked Luoyang and captured Emperor Huai of Jin, Liú Kūn emerged as the last major Jin loyalist commander in the north. He held the Jingbei 晉北 territory — centered on Jìn-yang 晉陽 (modern Taiyuan, Shanxi) — as Governor of Bīng Province 幷州刺史 against successive Xiongnu and other steppe polities, sending plaintive appeals southward to the Eastern Jin court. He is most famous for his poems expressing patriotic grief, longing for the lost north, and determination in adversity; a celebrated anecdote has him rising at midnight to dance with his sword after hearing the Tartar soldiers’ pipes (wén jī qǐwǔ 聞雞起舞, “hearing the rooster crow, he rose to dance [with his sword]”), a phrase shared with his associate Zǔ Tì 祖逖. In 318 CE he was captured and executed by Duàn Pǐdí 段匹磾, a Xianbei chieftain who had nominally been his ally.
His surviving works are relatively few: the famous letter-and-poetry set to Lú Chén 盧諶 is the most important, and contains some of the most anthologized lines in Six Dynasties poetry. Zhāng Pǔ 張溥 reconstructed the collection for the Hàn Wèi Liùcháo bǎisān jiā jí 漢魏六朝百三家集.
The CBDB record 31719 lists Liú Kūn with no reliable dates (0/0); the lifedates 271–318 follow Jìnshū juǎn 62 and are the standard scholarly consensus. Wilkinson’s Chinese History: A New Manual does not include a dedicated entry for Liú Kūn but notes the Yongjia upheaval context (§ on Western Jin collapse).
Translations and research
- Mather, Richard B. “The Mystical Ascent of the T’ien-t’ai Mountains: Sun Ch’o’s Yu T’ien-t’ai-shan fu.” Monumenta Serica 20 (1961). (Contextual for Six Dynasties literary culture.)
- Knechtges, David R., and Taiping Chang, eds. Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide. Leiden: Brill, 2010–2014. Entry on Liu Kun.
Links
- Wikipedia: Liu Kun
- Jìnshū 晉書 juǎn 62 (biography)
- Wénxuǎn 文選 juǎn 25 (citations)