李北海集

Lǐ Běihǎi jí 李北海集

Collected Works of Lǐ of Běi-hǎi (Lǐ Yōng) by 李邕 (撰)

About the work

Lǐ Běihǎi jí 李北海集 in 6 juǎn is the surviving recension of the writings of Lǐ Yōng 李邕 (678–747) — the famed Kāiyuán-period prose stylist, calligrapher, and cìshǐ whose name comes from his last office as Běihǎi tàishǒu 北海太守. The collection was edited by Cáo Quán 曹荃 of Liángxī 梁谿 (Wúxī) in Chóngzhēn 13 (1640) as the lead volume of his Tángrén jí 唐人集 series; Cáo’s preface is preserved in the WYG file. The 6-juǎn text contains 5 fù, 4 shī, 14 biǎo, 1 shū, 1 zhuàng, 8 bēiwén, 1 míng, 1 jì, 5 shéndào bēi, and 1 mùzhì míng — together fewer than fifty pieces, against the 70-juǎn original.

Tiyao

Lǐ Běihǎi jí in 6 juǎn was composed by Lǐ Yōng of the Táng. His career is recorded in his Tángshū biography. Yōng’s collected works originally ran to 70 juǎn; the Sòng yìwén zhì does not even register them, so the loss is old. The present text is the print issued by Cáo Quán 曹荃 of Wúxī in the Míng. Cáo’s preface says that the Shàohé (Zhāng Xiè 張燮) zhēngjūn 徵君 had been printing collections of Táng writers and that he obtained the Běihǎi jí first; Cáo finished it. The collection does not say who edited it; in substance it is gathered from Wén yuàn yīng huá and the like, not the original recension. The histories say Yōng was strongest at bēi and sòng; over a career he composed several hundred. The present version preserves only some 50 pieces — less than a tenth of the original. The Jiù Tángshū praises his Hángōng xíngzhuàng 韓公行狀, Hóngzhōu fàngshēngchí bēi 洪州放生池碑, and his pī Wéi Jùyuán shìyì 批韋巨源諡議 — these were the works most prized in his time. Lǐ Bái’s 李白 Dōnghǎi yǒu yǒngfù 東海有勇婦 says “Běihǎi Lǐ shǐjūn fēizhāng zòu tiāntíng 北海李使君飛章奏天庭”; Dù Fǔ’s 杜甫 Bā āi shī 八哀詩 mentions “lǎng yǒng liùgōng piān, yōu lái huō méngbì 朗詠六公篇憂來豁蒙蔽”; Zhào Míngchéng’s 趙明誠 Jīnshí lù 金石錄 also praises the Táng liùgōng yǒng 唐六公詠 as elevated and ancient — none of these survive in the present collection, which is a great loss.

Liú Kèzhuāng’s 劉克莊 Hòucūn shīhuà 後村詩話 mocks Yōng for composing a stele for Yè Fǎshàn 葉法善’s grandfather, “leaving a thousand-year laugh.” But in the Táng eminent scholars composing for Buddhists or Daoists was not stigmatized — unlike the two Sòngs, where the literati treated the two religions as enemy states. One must judge people by their times, not by later standards. Moreover, Liú Kèzhuāng was a friend of Zhēn Déxiù 真德秀, and Zhēn’s Xīshān jí 西山集 is full of Buddhist and Daoist writings — yet Liú says nothing of this and reproaches only Yōng. This is mere factionalism and not enough to make Yōng’s heart submit.

The end of the collection appends the JiùTángshū and XīnTángshū biographies, dedicatory poems by Xuánzōng, Gāo Shì 高適, Dù Fǔ, and Lǐ Qiáo 李嶠, and a Jiū miù 糾謬 (“Correction of Errors”) section listing six Hè shè biǎo 賀赦表 from Wén yuàn yīng huá whose dates fall in Dàizōng, Dézōng, and Xiànzōng reigns — long after Yōng’s death — so they cannot be his. The Sìkù compilers note that Péng Shūxià’s 彭叔夏 Sòng-period Wényuàn yīnghuá biànzhèng 文苑英華辨證 had already determined these to be the work of Lǐ Jífǔ 李吉甫 (758–814) misattributed in Wén yuàn yīng huá, and that the present Jiū miù is using Péng’s work without acknowledgment.

(Reverently collated and submitted in the seventh month of Qiánlóng 41 = 1776. Chief compilers: Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. Chief collator: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.)

Abstract

The historical Lǐ Yōng corpus — 70 juǎn in the Tángshū yìwén zhì — was already largely lost by the Sòng (the Chóngwén zǒngmù and Sòngshǐ yìwén zhì register only fragmentary witnesses). The transmitted 6-juǎn text is a Míng-period editorial reconstruction by Cáo Quán of Liángxī (Wúxī), printed in Chóngzhēn 13 (1640), drawn principally from Wén yuàn yīng huá with some bēiwén preserved separately in stone-rubbing collections and Sòng jīnshí literature. Less than a tenth of the original survives. The Sìkù compilers received Cáo’s text and reprinted it in the WYG with the Jiū miù corrective appendix.

Lǐ Yōng (678–747; CBDB cbdbId 31592) was the son of the SuíTáng calligrapher and Wénxuǎn 文選 commentator Lǐ Shàn 李善, with whom the family seat was Yángzhōu 揚州 Jiāngdū 江都. His own life was a series of bold political collisions: he intervened in the late Wǔzhōu coup, joined the post-705 court, was banished to Húzhōu 湖州 over a dispute with Cuī Shí 崔湜, recalled, repeatedly banished to provincial cìshǐ posts under Lǐ Línfǔ 李林甫, and finally beaten to death (tàshā 笞殺) in the Běihǎi magistracy by yùshǐ sent by Lǐ Línfǔ on a corruption charge in Tiānbǎo 6 (747), aged 70. Dù Fǔ’s Bā āi shī 八哀詩 (“Eight Laments”) includes him as one of the eight victims of Kāiyuán / Tiānbǎo political destruction, alongside Wáng Zhīhuàn 王之渙 and others.

Lǐ Yōng was, among Táng-period figures, an exceptional draftsman of bēiwén — his rate of fee was famously high (the Tángshū says he charged the equivalent of multiple county magistracies’ annual salaries for a single stele) — and one of the great calligraphers of the High Táng, second in xíngshū 行書 only to Wáng Xīzhī 王羲之 and his Táng followers. His extant calligraphic monuments — the Lǐ Sīxùn bēi 李思訓碑 (in modern Pǔchéng, Shǎnxī) and the Lùshān sì bēi 麓山寺碑 (in Chángshā) — are the principal survivors of his bēiwén output and remain among the standard models of xíngshū.

Translations and research

• Tu Cheng-yi 屠承儀, ed. 1995. Lǐ Yōng jí jiào-zhù 李邕集校注. Modern critical edition.
• Stephen Owen. 2013. The Poetry of the High Tang. Library of Chinese Humanities. Brief discussion of Lǐ Yōng in the Kāi-yuán court context.
• Amy McNair. 1998. The Upright Brush: Yan Zhenqing’s Calligraphy and Song Literati Politics. UH Press. Important discussion of Lǐ Yōng in the calligraphic tradition.
• Twitchett. 1992. The Writing of Official History under the T’ang. CUP. Context for Lǐ’s bēi-wén career.

Other points of interest

The Sìkù tíyào’s vigorous defense of Lǐ Yōng against Liú Kèzhuāng’s anti-Buddhist criticism is one of its sharpest pieces of editorial polemic — the compilers (under Jì Yún) take the rare position of explicitly distinguishing Táng cultural pluralism from SòngMíng anti-Buddhist orthodoxy, and rebuking the Sòng critics for ménhù zhī jiàn 門戶之見 (sectarian prejudice).

Links

• Li Yong (Tang) (Wikipedia)
• Li Yong (Wikidata Q713078)
• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §54 (Tang literature).