Wǔyí xīn jí 武夷新集
The New Wǔ-yí Collection (of Yáng Yì) by 楊億 (撰)
About the work
Wǔyí xīn jí 武夷新集 is one of the few surviving collections of Yáng Yì 楊億 (974–1020, zì Dànián 大年), the central figure of the early-Sòng XīKūn tǐ 西崑體 ornamental-poetry movement. Yáng entered the Hànlín in Jǐngdé 3 / 1006 and the next year (1007) selected ten years’ worth of his poetic and prose work into 20 juǎn with a self-preface — this is the Wǔyí xīn jí, named for his native Wǔyí mountains in Pǔchéng 浦城 (modern Fújiàn). The Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì records seven other Yáng Yì collections totaling 174–194 juǎn (per Chén Zhènsūn and the Guǎngé shūmù), all now lost; only the Wǔyí xīn jí and a fragmentary Biéjí survive — and even the Biéjí is now gone, leaving the present 20 juǎn as the sole substantial Yáng Yì corpus.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit: the Wǔyí xīn jí in 20 juǎn was composed by Yáng Yì of the Sòng. Yì has the Lìdài quánzhèng yào lüè 歷代銓政要略 already in the catalog. The Sòngshǐ biography of Yáng Yì records his works as: Kuòcāng, Wǔyí, Yǐngyīn, Hánchéng, Tuìjū, Rǔyáng, Péngshān, Guànáo — the various collections — together with Nèiwàizhì and Dāobǐ. The Yìwénzhì records only Péngshān jí in 54 juǎn, Wǔyí xīnbiān jí in 20 juǎn, Yǐngyīn jí in 20 juǎn, Dāobǐ jí in 20 juǎn, Biéjí in 12 juǎn, Rǔyáng zábiān in 20 juǎn, Luánpō yízhá in 20 juǎn — a list already incongruent with the běnzhuàn. Chén Zhènsūn says Yáng’s writings totaled 194 juǎn; the Guǎngé shūmù still has 146 juǎn; all are now lost. What remains is only the Wǔyí xīn jí and the Biéjí. The Wǔyí xīn jí is the corpus Yáng compiled in Jǐngdé bǐngwǔ (1006) on entering the Hànlín, gathering the previous decade’s poetic and prose work and self-prefacing it the following year (1007); the Biéjí was composed during his retreat to Yángzhái 陽翟 to evade slander. The present recension carries only the Wǔyí xīn jí; the Biéjí is now also lost. Some recensions title the work Yáng Dànián quán jí — that is wrong. Five juǎn of poetry, fifteen of záwén. In the main, the model is Lǐ Shāngyǐn 李商隱; but writing in a peaceful era, his manner is sonorous, allusive, and lavish, without the dispiriting shuāisà 衰颯 of late-Táng / Five-Dynasties verse. Tián Kuàng’s 田況 Rúlín gōngyì says: “In the two cabinets, Yì transformed the wénzhāng style; Liú Yún 劉筠 and Qián Wéiyǎn 錢惟演 followed and learned from him; the age called them YángLiú 楊劉; the three matched verses, producing the most beautiful exchange of an age.” Only Shí Jiè 石介 disagreed, and went so far as to write Guài jì 怪記 to mock Yáng — see his Cúlái jí KR4d0028. Recently Wú Zhīzhèn 吳之振 in Sòng shī chāo placed Yáng’s collection on the unselected list — this cannot but be following a fashionable opinion. Sū Shì considered Shí’s shuō deeply mistaken and even raised it in court memorials, knowing that wénzhāng cannot be confined to one model. Qiánlóng 43 (1778) 3rd month, respectfully collated. — Chief Compilers Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; Chief Collator Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Yáng Yì’s Wǔyí xīn jí — together with his joint-authored XīKūn chóuchàng jí 西崑酬唱集 (the 248-poem anthology recording the Cèfǔ yuánguī compilation team’s Hànlín exchange poetry, 1005–1008) — is the principal monument of the XīKūn tǐ, the highly ornamental Lǐ Shāng-yǐn-imitating style that dominated the early-Sòng Hànlín circles and that Liǔ Kāi, Mù Xiū, and Shí Jiè polemicized against in their gǔwén manifestos. The collection comprises 5 juǎn of poetry (in the gélǜ tǐ densely allusive qīlǜ manner) and 15 juǎn of záwén — zhìgào 制誥 (court-drafted edicts), biǎozhuàng, xùjì, bēimíng, jìwén. Yáng’s prose reflects the piānlì drafting style of the early-Sòng court secretariat that he, more than anyone else, made into a coherent literary mode (and that Liǔ Kāi and Mù Xiū attacked precisely as the principal obstacle to gǔwén revival).
The dating is precise: composed Jǐngdé 4 / 1007, with self-preface; this is also the earliest terminus. The terminus ante quem of the received text is the Sòng Mǎshā / Bǎoyòu edition that descends to the SBCK and the WYG.
Translations and research
- Yoshikawa Kōjirō 吉川幸次郎. 1962. An Introduction to Sung Poetry, trans. Watson. Harvard UP. Treats the Xī-Kūn / Yáng-Liú-Qián tradition.
- Egan, Ronald C. 1984. The Literary Works of Ou-yang Hsiu. Cambridge UP. Treats the post-Xī-Kūn reaction.
- Zhāng Míng-fēi 張明非. 1996. Yáng Yì jí jiào-zhù 楊億集校注. Bā-Shǔ shū-shè. The standard modern critical edition.
- Sūn Wàng-zú 孫望族. 1990. Xī-Kūn tǐ yán-jiū 西崑體研究. Zhōnghuá. Standard treatment of the school.
Other points of interest
The polemic that the Sìkù tíyào explicitly cites — Shí Jiè’s Guài jì 怪記 attacking Yáng Yì as a “freak” of literary fashion (preserved in KR4d0028) and Sū Shì’s defense — is one of the canonical “gǔwén vs. piānlì” debates of the Northern Sòng, on which much of the later literary-historical narrative of Sòng wénzhāng depends.
Links
- Yang Yi (Wikidata Q3045502)
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.1 (Sòng biéjí); §54 (Sòng poetry).