Mèng Dōngyě shījí 孟東野詩集
The Verse-Collection of Mèng Dōng-yě [Mèng Jiāo] by 孟郊 (撰), 宋敏求 (編)
About the work
Verse collection in 10 juǎn of the kǔyín 苦吟 (“painful chanting”) master Mèng Jiāo 孟郊 孟郊 (751–814, zì Dōngyě 東野), a Wǔkāng 武康 native, late jìnshì of Zhēnyuán (he passed at 46 in 796), eventually Lìyáng wèi — the lifelong impecunious eccentric whose tense, archaic verse Hán Yù celebrated and whom Hán memorialized in the Zhēnyào xiānshēng mùzhìmíng 貞曜先生墓誌銘. The catalog meta gives Mèng’s dates as 766–794 — those are in fact the dates of Lǐ Guān (= KR4c0057); CBDB (id 93952) and standard reference works give Mèng’s actual dates as 751–814, used here. The transmitted 10-juǎn recension was edited by Sòng Mǐnqiú 宋敏求 (1019–1079, also editor of KR4c0051) from the multiple variant Sòng-initial recensions: the 5-juǎn / 124-poem BiànWú lóuběn 汴吳鏤本 (Kāifēng – Sūzhōu blockprint), the 10-juǎn / 331-poem Zhōu Ānhuì běn 周安惠本, and the 2-juǎn / 180-poem Shǔ recension by Jiǎn Xùn 蹇濬 (titled Xiánchí jí 咸池集 after Hán Yù’s compliment to Mèng). Sòng Mǐnqiú combined and de-duplicated, organizing into 14 thematic categories, getting 511 poems plus 2 prose pieces appended at the end — the present 10-juǎn text.
Tiyao
Mèng Dōngyě jí in 10 juǎn — by Mèng Jiāo of the Táng. Jiāo, zì Dōngyě, of Wǔkāng; Zhēnyuán-period jìnshì; Lìyáng wèi. Biography appended in Xīn Tángshū Hán Yù zhuàn. Hán Yù’s Zhēnyào xiānshēng mùzhìmíng in his collected works is for Jiāo. The text has a preface by Sòng Mǐnqiú: “the world transmits his collection as: the BiànWú engraving in 5 juǎn, 124 piān; the Zhōu Ānhuì edition in 10 juǎn, 331 piān; the Shǔrén Jiǎn Xùn compilation in 2 juǎn, 180 piān, named Xiánchí jí from Hán Yù’s gift-line; and other miscellaneous gleanings unbound. Versions vary. I have synthesized the unique pieces, eliminated duplicates, and divided into 14 categories — 511 poems, plus 2 prose pieces appended; 10 juǎn in all.” This count agrees with the present text — Mǐnqiú’s edition. Jiāo’s verse depends on subtly evoked feeling (tuōxìng shēnwēi) bound up in archaic, austere structure; from Hán Yù onward all the Táng masters championed him. Sū Shì began the slighting tradition with the kōngáo xiǎoyú (empty-claw small-fish) gibe; Yuán Hàowèn’s Lùnshī juéjù called him gāotiān hòudì yī shīqiú (vast sky and broad earth, but the man imprisoned by his own poems). Sū’s voice was bold and broad, Yuán’s was high and ornate — different paths, hence the divergent verdicts. Jiāo’s poetic stature should not be discounted by these two judgments.
Abstract
Mèng Jiāo’s verse — frugal in diction, dark in tone, arch in syntax — defines the kǔyín style, the late-eighth/early-ninth-century counter-current to Bái Jūyì’s accessibility. The Yóuzǐ yín 遊子吟 (“Song of the Roving Son” — the celebrated four-line poem on a mother’s love for her son, taught to every Chinese schoolchild) and the Liènǚ cāo 烈女操 are among the most anthologized Táng poems. Hán Yù championed him both publicly (the Sòng Mèng Dōngyě xù) and through epitaph; Sū Shì’s later verdict was hostile, and the post-Sū critical tradition has oscillated. Sòng Mǐnqiú’s reorganization gave the corpus its present shape: 511 poems in 14 categories, 10 juǎn. The work’s importance for KR4c is that it is the earliest of the standard Yuánhé generation collections to receive this synthetic-edition treatment; Mǐnqiú’s program (de-duplication across variant recensions plus categorial reorganization) became a model for subsequent jìjí editing.
The catalog gave 766–794 for Mèng Jiāo, but those dates belong to Lǐ Guān, not to Mèng. Wikipedia, Quán Táng wén prefatory matter, the Xīn Tángshū biography, Hán Yù’s epitaph (Zhēnyào xiānshēng mùzhì), and CBDB all give 751–814 (Mèng died at 64 suì); followed here.
Translations and research
- Owen, Stephen. 1975. The Poetry of Meng Chiao and Han Yü. Yale UP. The principal English-language study of Mèng’s verse and the kǔ-yín style.
- Hartman, Charles. 1986. Han Yü and the T’ang Search for Unity. Princeton UP. Discusses the Mèng-Hán literary friendship.
- 韓泉欣 Hán Quán-xīn. 1998. Mèng Jiāo jí jiào-zhù 孟郊集校注. Zhè-jiāng gǔ-jí.
- 華忱之 Huà Chén-zhī, 喻學才 Yù Xué-cái. 1995. Mèng Jiāo shī jí jiào-zhù 孟郊詩集校注. Rénmín wén-xué.
Other points of interest
The Yóuzǐ yín — “thread in the loving mother’s hand, robes of the wandering son…” — is, with Wáng Wéi’s Xiāngsī and Lǐ Bái’s Jìngyè sī, one of the three Táng poems most thoroughly absorbed into general Chinese literacy. Its appearance here in juǎn 1 of Sòng Mǐnqiú’s 1066-or-so edition is the moment of its canonical fixing.