Yáo Shǎojiàn shī jí 姚少監詩集
The Verse Collection of Yáo, [Vice-Director of the] Imperial Library by 姚合 (撰)
About the work
Verse collection in 10 juǎn of Yáo Hé 姚合 姚合 (781–846), great-grandson of the great early-Tang chief minister Yáo Chóng 姚崇 (650–721). Yáo Hé took the jìnshì in Yuánhé 11 (816), began his career as Wǔgōng zhǔbù (subprefect of Wǔgōng) — hence his nickname Yáo Wǔgōng and the so-called Wǔgōng tǐ 武功體 (Wǔgōng style) of austere late-Táng kǔyín verse, which was the model Yáo’s Wǔgōngxiàn 30 poems established for posterity. He rose to Hùbù lángzhōng, Jiànyì dàifū, ShǎnGuó guāncháshǐ, and ended as Mìshū shǎojiàn (Vice-Director of the Imperial Library) — hence the present title Yáo Shǎojiàn. Yáo also compiled the Jí xuán jí 極玄集 (a major late-Táng anthology of his own time, separately catalogued in KR4h), described in the tíyào as having “selected with extreme precision.”
The catalog meta gives 781–846 (CBDB id 94160 = same); the present catalog meta date “816” is the jìnshì date. Yáo with Jiǎ Dǎo 賈島 (= KR4c0059), Mèng Jiāo, and Lǐ Dòng made up the four “kǔyín” poets in late-Táng / Five-Dynasties categorization. The Southern-Sòng Yǒngjiā sìlíng 永嘉四靈 took Yáo as one of their two patrons (with Jiǎ Dǎo).
Tiyao
Yáo Shǎojiàn shī jí in 10 juǎn — by Yáo Hé of the Táng. Hé, great-grandson of Chief Minister Yáo Chóng; Yuánhé 11 jìnshì; Wǔgōng zhǔbù; then Fùpíng and Wànnián 2-county wèi; Bǎoyìng period: Jiānchá and Diànzhōng yùshǐ, Hùbù yuánwàiláng; out as Jīngzhōu and Hángzhōu prefect; later Hù- and Xíngbù lángzhōng, Jiànyì dàifū, ShǎnGuó guāncháshǐ; Kāichéng end: died as Mìshū shǎojiàn.
But poets call him Yáo Wǔgōng and his school Wǔgōng tǐ — because his early Wǔgōng xiàn shī 30 piān was world-transmitted, and the habit could not be broken. Hé compiled Jí xuán jí, with extreme precision in selection — critics call him “a master archer of poets,” and rightly. His own verse: he applied himself painstakingly (kèyì kǔyín) and pondered things (míngsōu wùxiàng), aiming to reach what previous masters’ physical-and-spiritual figures had not reached. Zhāng Wèi’s Zhǔkè tú makes Lǐ Yì Qīngqí yǎzhèng zhǔ and Hé his rùshì (top disciple). But Hé’s poetic form is unlike Lǐ’s — unclear why. Yet his collection in the north was little-known; only the Southern Sòng Yǒngjiā sìlíng took him as their zōng (school-founder); the down-stream practitioners trivialized landscape and committed feeling to obscure-corners — and so were dismissed by critics. Yet imitators stagnate at one school and decline; one should not for that blame the founder, swearing off broth because of one bad sip.
The present text is the Máo Jìn print, fēnlèi biāncì (categorical reordering) — Tang practice never had this. It must be a Sòng re-edit. Máo’s colophon: “this is the Zhè print; there is also a Chuān print, with small differences.” He also obtained a Sòng Zhìpíng 4 (1067) Wáng Yí stone-engraved Wǔgōng xiàn shī 30 piān — order and word-readings vary. So this is no longer the Tang original.
Abstract
Yáo Hé’s collection is the canonical document of the Wǔgōng tǐ — the austere, image-pivoted, painstakingly-revised late-Táng kǔyín style that paralleled Jiǎ Dǎo’s. The ten juǎn combine Yáo’s youthful Wǔgōng xiàn 30-poem set with the broader corpus from his subsequent career. Yáo’s Jí xuán jí — preserved in KR4h — is itself a major document of late-Táng anthological practice. The Southern-Sòng Yǒngjiā sìlíng (Xú Zhào, Xú Jǐ, Wēng Juàn, Zhào Shīxiù) explicitly took Jiǎ Dǎo and Yáo Hé as their poetic ancestors, embedding Yáo into the long-running Sòng kǔyín counter-current to the Jiāngxī school. CBDB id 94160 confirms 781–846.
Translations and research
- 吳河清 Wú Hé-qīng. 2007. Yáo Hé shī jí jiào-zhù 姚合詩集校注. Shàng-hǎi gǔ-jí.
- See KR4c0059 for the related Jiǎ Dǎo collection.
- No substantial Western-language secondary literature on Yáo Hé alone located.
Other points of interest
The Wǔgōng tǐ — “Wǔgōng style,” named for Yáo’s first sub-prefectural post — is one of the rare Chinese poetic-style names derived not from the author’s zì, hào, or surname, but from a temporary administrative post. Its persistence as a critical category through the Yǒngjiā sìlíng and into the Míng / Qīng kǔyín sub-genealogy testifies to the unusual identification of Yáo’s verse with that single early-career setting.