Dù shī jūn 杜詩攟
Gleanings on Dù Fǔ’s Poetry by 唐元竑 (撰)
About the work
Dù shī jūn 杜詩攟 in 4 juǎn — jūn 攟 here meaning “to glean, to gather scattered grain” — is the late-Míng critical commentary on Dù Fǔ by Táng Yuánhóng 唐元竑 (1590–1647) of Wūchéng 烏程 (modern Húzhōu 湖州, Zhèjiāng). Táng was a Wànlì 16 (1588) jǔrén who declined further examination service and lived as a private literatus; on the fall of the Míng in 1644 he refused to eat and died in 1647, conventionally compared by Qīng admirers to Bóyí, Shūqí 伯夷叔齊 starving themselves on Mt. Shǒuyáng. The catalog meta gives 1590–1647, in keeping with this Míng yímín tradition.
The book is a poem-by-poem set of zhájì 劄記 (“notes”) on Dù Fǔ’s collection — Táng read through a Qiānjiā zhù edition (the Yuán anthology = KR4c0018) which printed the late-Sòng evaluator Liú Chénwēng 劉辰翁 (1232–1297) as appended commentary, and his book is principally a refutation of Liú’s interpretations, with substantial attention to the broader SòngYuán shīshǐ 詩史 (“poetry-as-history”) reading tradition.
Tiyao
Dù shī jūn in 4 juǎn — by Táng Yuánhóng of the Míng. Yuánhóng’s zì was Yuǎnshēng 遠生, a Wūchéng man, a jǔrén of Wànlì wùzǐ (1588). At the fall of the Míng he refused to eat and died — likened by his admirers to the starving man of Shǒuyáng 首陽. This collection is his zhájì on Dù Fǔ, taken poem by poem; the edition he read was a Qiānjiā zhù, with appended Liú Chénwēng commentary, so much of the book is engaged in correcting Liú.
Since the Sòng critics first proposed the shīshǐ doctrine, those who annotated Dù Fǔ have used Liú Xù’s JiùTángshū and Sòng Qí’s XīnTángshū as their work-script, attempting at every turn to make every word and line match the standard-history record. Now, loyalty to the ruler and love of country is the gentleman’s mind; gǎnshí yōushí 感事憂時 (“being moved by events and worried by the times”) is the message of the fēngrén 風人 (poets); and these are why Dù Fǔ stands above the rest. But in his collection there are only a few dozen poems with this character. To say that “yǒng yuè 詠月” (singing of the moon) is a comparison to Sùzōng, “yǒng yíng 詠螢” (singing of fireflies) is a comparison to Lǐ Fǔguó 李輔國, then poetry has no scene-and-object. To say “wánkù 紈袴” (silk trousers, the clothing of nobles) is below-class metaphor for xiǎorén 小人 and “rúguān 儒冠” (Confucian cap) is upper-class metaphor for the jūnzǐ — then poetry has no words. Yuánhóng’s discussion, while not always grasping Dù’s meaning, does cut away the over-interpretations and leaves the poetry with its proper xìngqíng 性情 (temperament and feeling); he often hits the meaning beyond words.
In points like the báiōu mò hàodàng 白鷗没浩蕩 line, where he must reject Sū Shì 蘇軾’s reading and uphold Sòng Mǐnqiú’s 宋敏求; or the Wǎnmǎ zǒng féi Qín mù-xu 宛馬總肥秦苜蓿 line, which actually uses the Hàn Wǔdì 漢武帝 lígōng zhòng mù-xu 離宮種苜蓿 reference, but where Yuánhóng follows an erroneous text reading “chūn mù-xu 春苜蓿” and judges the line not to balance “Hàn Piǎoyáo 漢嫖姚” — these are slips. He also too often appeals to shī chèn 詩讖 (prophecy-poems), an unsound principle. But on the whole the broad interpretive conclusions are right more often than not, and they are far better than the over-strained allegorizing of the older annotation tradition.
(Reverently collated and submitted in the sixth month of Qiánlóng 43 = 1778.)
Abstract
The book is one of the most polemical critical treatments of Dù Fǔ in the MíngQīng transition, and one of the few that argues — with very specific philological case-studies — against the shīshǐ over-interpretation tradition. Táng’s general position — that Dù Fǔ should be read first as a poet of qíngjǐng 情景 (feeling and scene) and only secondarily as a shǐjiā 史家 (historian-poet) — is in line with the late-Míng Jìnglíng pài 竟陵派 sensibility but argued in kǎojù mode. The Sìkù tíyào — itself a fairly conservative voice — endorses the broad direction of Táng’s criticism while noting his specific philological slips.
The book is therefore a useful pendant to the heavyweight SòngYuán commentary tradition (Guō Zhīdá KR4c0015, Huáng Hè KR4c0017, Gāo Chǔfāng KR4c0018); for a complete understanding of the late-Míng / early-Qīng reception of Dù Fǔ it is essential.
Translations and research
- Cài Zhì-mào 蔡志茂. 1991. Sòng dài Dù shī xué yán-jiū 宋代杜詩學研究. Wén-jīn. Important context for the shī-shǐ tradition Táng critiques.
- Stephen Owen, tr. 2016. The Poetry of Du Fu. 6 vols. De Gruyter. Notes Táng’s contribution to the Dù-Fǔ critical tradition.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù tíyào’s use of Táng Yuánhóng’s case-studies to argue against allegorical shīshǐ over-reading — and against Liú Chénwēng’s interpretations specifically — is one of the cleaner examples of the Sìkù compilers using a Míng critical work as a stalking-horse for their own (Qīng kǎojù-friendly) editorial preferences.