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顏魯公集

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Text ID
KR4c0028
Date
1136–1141
Dynasty
唐 (recompiled 宋)

Yán Lǔgōng jí 顏魯公集

Collected Works of Duke Lǔ of Yán (Yán Zhēn-qīng) by 顏真卿 (撰), 宋敏求 (編)

About the work

Yán Lǔgōng jí 顏魯公集 in 15 juǎn is the surviving collection of Yán Zhēnqīng 顏真卿 (709–785), the High-Táng / Tiānbǎo statesman, calligrapher, and martyr whose name is in Chinese tradition virtually synonymous with Confucian jiéyì 節義 (moral integrity). The Lǔ gōng 魯公 in the title is from his enfeoffment as Lǔjùngōng 魯郡公 in 765. The collection was first assembled in the Northern Sòng by Sòng Mǐnqiú 宋敏求 (1019–1079, the same Sòng jíshì who edited Lǐ Bái’s collection KR4c0012 and Liú Yǔxī’s KR4c0051); a Southern Sòng editor Liú Yuángāng 留元剛 then continued the recovery work. The transmitted Míng print is the Wúxī 錫山 Ān Guó 安國 (Míntài 民泰) edition with a substantial preface (preserved in the SBCK file).

Tiyao

No tíyào in source. The KR4c0028 file is the SBCK base, which preserves the Yán Lǔgōng wénjí xù 顏魯公文集序 of the Míng-period editor (signing as the Xīshān 錫山 Ān Míntài 安民泰 print’s prefacer) but no Sìkù tíyào. The Sìkù WYG 15-juǎn tíyào (V1071.7) survives in the Zinbun digital Sìkù tíyào.

Abstract

The transmitted Yán Lǔgōng jí descends through three editorial layers: (1) Sòng Mǐnqiú’s original Northern-Sòng collection from various bēiwén (stele inscriptions) and Wén yuàn yīng huá matter; Liú Yuánfù’s 劉原父 preface to Sòng’s edition is preserved in the SBCK frontmatter. (2) Liú Yuángāng’s 留元剛 Southern-Sòng supplementation. (3) The Wúxī Ān Guó (Ān Míntài) Míng print, which is the basis of the SBCK reproduction. The Sòng Tángshū yìwén zhì records Yán Zhēnqīng jí 顏真卿集 in 30 juǎn; by the Sòng Mǐnqiú reconstruction this had collapsed to 15 juǎn, since the Sòng-era circulating witness was already attenuated.

The collection contains a substantial body of biǎo, zhuàng, qǐ, bēi, jì, zhì, zàn, plus a smaller body of gēshī and fù. The historical interest of the prose is exceptional: Yán’s Lùn yán 論諫 memorials to Sùzōng and Dàizōng, his zòu 奏 on the An-Shǐ rebellion, his Lùn fúyì 論服易 memorials, and most importantly the Jì zhízǐ Jìmíng wéngǎo 祭姪文稿 (“Draft Funerary Inscription for My Nephew”) — written for his nephew Yán Jìmíng 顏季明, who had been killed by An Lùshān along with the rest of Yán Zhēnqīng’s elder brother Yán Gǎoqīng’s 顏杲卿 family at the fall of Chángshān jùn 常山郡 in 756. The Jìmíng wéngǎo — composed in 758 and surviving as a draft in Yán’s own running script — is one of the three canonical masterpieces of Tang xíngshū 行書 calligraphy (alongside Wáng Xīzhī’s Lántíng xù and Sū Shì’s Hán shí tiē); it is among the most important documents in the entire Chinese calligraphic tradition.

Yán Zhēnqīng (709–785; CBDB cbdbId in line with the catalog meta) was a Wànnián 萬年 (Chángān suburb) native; descendant of the WèiJìn classicist Yán Zhītuī 顏之推 (the Yánshì jiāxùn author) and elder brother of the early-Táng calligrapher Yán Gǎoqīng 顏杲卿. Jìnshì of Kāiyuán 22 (734); successively Lǐbù 醴泉 wèi, jiānchá yùshǐ 監察御史, Píngyuán 平原 tàishǒu 太守, and the leader of the loyalist resistance to the An Lùshān rebellion in Héběi. After the recovery of the capital he held a series of senior court appointments, repeatedly demoted and recalled because of his uncompromising frankness. In Jiànzhōng 4 (783), aged 75, he was sent by Dézōng to negotiate with the rebel general Lǐ Xīliè 李希烈 in Càizhōu 蔡州; Lǐ tried to coerce him into supporting his rebellion, and after Yán refused over many months Lǐ had him strangled in 785. He was canonically considered to have given his life for the dynasty.

Translations and research

  • Amy McNair. 1998. The Upright Brush: Yan Zhenqing’s Calligraphy and Song Literati Politics. UH Press. The standard English-language scholarly study; treats Yán principally as the calligrapher.
  • David L. McMullen. 1988. State and Scholars in T’ang China. CUP. Substantial discussion of Yán’s political career.
  • Yang Songbo 楊松柏, ed. 2011. Yán Zhēn-qīng quán jí 顏真卿全集. 3 vols. Hé-běi rénmín. Modern critical edition.
  • Lǚ Yī-fēi 呂一飛 et al. 1994. Yán Zhēn-qīng nián-pǔ 顏真卿年譜. Standard chronological study.

Other points of interest

The Jì zhízǐ Jìmíng wéngǎo — the “Draft Funerary Inscription” — is preserved as a paper original now held at the Gùgōng 故宮 Museum in Taipei. The text — Yán Zhēnqīng’s draft for his nephew killed in the An-Shǐ rebellion — combines extreme calligraphic art with extreme emotional rawness; the running-script with its erasures, insertions, and accelerating tempo is one of the most studied documents in the entire pre-modern East-Asian art tradition.

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