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武溪集

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Text ID
KR4d0023
Date
1064–1534
Dynasty
宋

Wǔxī jí 武溪集

The Wǔ-xī Collection (of Yú Jìng) by 余靖 (撰), edited by 余仲荀 (編)

About the work

Wǔxī jí 武溪集 is the 20-juǎn collection of Yú Jìng 余靖 (1000–1064, zì Āndào 安道, posthumous Xiāng 襄), the Qìnglì reform-era Yánguān and military campaigner who is conventionally bracketed with Fàn Zhòngyān, Ōuyáng Xiū, and Yǐn Zhū as one of the famous “Sì xián” 四賢 (“Four Worthies”) in the 1036 Yánguān affair (when Cài Xiāng 蔡襄 wrote the Sì xián yī bù xiào shī 四賢一不肖詩 in their defense). The collection was edited by Yú’s son Yú Zhòngxún 余仲荀 (Túntián yuánwàiláng) with a preface by Zhōu Yuán 周源.

Tiyao

We respectfully submit: the Wǔxī jí in 20 juǎn was composed by Yú Jìng of the Sòng. Jìng, zì Āndào, of Sháozhōu Qǔjiāng 韶州曲江. Jìnshì of Tiānshèng 2 / 1024. Successively Yòuzhèngyán, Zhīzhìgào, prefect of Gǔzhōu, Jīnglüè of Guǎngxī Nánlù ānfǔshǐ (in which capacity he co-suppressed Nóng Zhìgāo’s 儂智高 rising); promoted Gōngbù shìláng; under Yīngzōng held Gōngbù shàngshū; canonized Xiāng 襄. His deeds are in Sòngshǐ. Yú Jìng was first a Táijiàn official; for defending Fàn Zhòngyān he was banished out of court — Cài Xiāng then composed the Sì xián yī bù xiào shī (the “Four Worthies and One Unworthy” — Yú Jìng, Yǐn Zhū, Ōuyáng Xiū, Cài himself; the “unworthy” was Gāo Ruònuò 高若訥) — quite forward in self-promotion (further in the Cài Zhōnghuì jí KR4d0029 entry); but it was Cài’s getting carried along with the crowd, not Yú’s intent. Tracing his life’s standing he was nonetheless a míngchén. His prose is not very famous; but Dí Qīng’s 狄青 suppression of Nóng Zhìgāo — Yú composed the Móyá inscription to commemorate the martial achievement, and contemporaries esteemed his prose. He once on imperial commission served as envoy to the Liáo and composed the Qìdān guānyí 契丹官儀 — a piece valuable for verifying biography. Other pieces like Lùn shǐ, Xù cháo are also fluent and worth seeing; comparing him with Ōuyáng Xiū and Méi Yáochén falls short, but among the Northern Sòng he forms his own front rank. The collection was edited by his son Túntián yuánwàiláng Zhòngxún, with preface by Túntián lángzhōng Zhōu Yuán: 120 gǔlǜ poems, 50 bēizhìjì, 53 yìlùnzhēnjiébiǎo, 98 zhìgào, 55 pàn, 75 biǎozhuàngqǐ, 6 juǎn jìwén — agreeing with the order in Ōuyáng Xiū’s mùzhì. His zòuyì in 5 juǎn was a separate compilation, now lost — hence this tǐ is missing from the present collection. Through Yuán and Míng nearly lost; in Chénghuà the 1480s Qiū Jùn 邱濬 copied it from the inner cabinets and circulated it; the present circulating copy is the recutting by Dū yùshǐ Táng Zhòu 唐胄 of Jiājìng jiǎwǔ (1534). Qiánlóng 41 (1776) 5th month, respectfully collated.

Abstract

Yú Jìng’s literary stature is competent but not central; his fame rests on his political and military career as one of the Qìnglì reform circle and the official commissioned to inscribe the móyá commemorating Dí Qīng’s 1053 victory over Nóng Zhìgāo at Kūnlún Pass. His Qìdān guānyí 契丹官儀 — a survey of Khitan court offices written after his three diplomatic missions to the Liáo — is one of the few surviving Sòng eyewitness accounts of Liáo administrative practice and is repeatedly drawn on by modern SòngLiáo studies. The collection is otherwise a comprehensive Sìbù-style organization of his prose and poetry, edited by his son Zhòngxún with Zhōu Yuán’s preface; the fact that the zòuyì circulated separately and was lost (the same fate as Tián Xī’s KR4d0003) means the political-memorial side of Yú’s oeuvre is reduced. The dating bracket marks Yú’s death (1064) to the Jiājìng 1534 Táng Zhòu recutting that is the principal Míng witness behind the Sìkù recension.

Translations and research

  • Lorge, Peter. 2005. War, Politics and Society in Early Modern China. Routledge. Treats Yú Jìng’s role in the Nóng Zhì-gāo campaign.
  • Standen, Naomi. 2007. Unbounded Loyalty: Frontier Crossing in Liao China. Hawai’i. Discusses Yú’s diplomatic missions to the Liáo and the Qì-dān guān-yí.
  • Wright, David Curtis. 1998. “From War to Diplomatic Parity in Eleventh-Century China: Sung’s Foreign Relations with Kitan Liao.” Journal of Asian History 32. Treats the Qì-dān guān-yí as historical source.
  • Liú Mǐn-shēng 劉敏生, ed. 2003. Yú Jìng jí jiào-jiān 余靖集校箋. Yuè-lù shū-shè. Standard modern critical edition.

Other points of interest

The Sì xián yī bù xiào episode — Cài Xiāng’s defense of Yú Jìng, Yǐn Zhū, Ōuyáng Xiū against Gāo Ruònuò — is one of the foundational events in the formation of Northern-Sòng qīngyì 清議 (“pure judgement”) factional consciousness; the Qìnglì reform program emerged out of precisely this Sì xián circle. Yú Jìng’s Móyá inscription at the Kūnlún Guān in modern Guǎngxī survives in situ.

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