Hénán jí 河南集
The Hé-nán Collection (of Yǐn Zhū) by 尹洙 (撰)
About the work
Hénán jí 河南集 (also titled 河南先生文集 in the SBCK Sòng manuscript line) is the 27-juǎn literary collection of Yǐn Zhū 尹洙 (1001–1047, zì Shīlǔ 師魯), the third link in the canonical Sòng gǔwén lineage Liǔ Kāi → Mù Xiū → Yǐn Zhū → Ōuyáng Xiū. Yǐn was Mù Xiū’s 穆修 direct disciple and Ōuyáng Xiū’s closest friend and stylistic interlocutor — Ōuyáng’s Yǐn shīlǔ mùzhìmíng 尹師魯墓誌銘 of 1047 is one of the foundational documents of Sòng gǔwén memorial-prose.
Tiyao
No tíyào in source — the file is digitized from the SBCK base, which carries instead the mùzhì of his elder brother Yǐn Yuán 尹源 by Ōuyáng Xiū (preserved at the head of the SBCK file, identifying the family lineage and the Qìnglì circle), and a series of family xíngzhuàng and other prefatory matter. The Sìkù WYG 27-juǎn tíyào is preserved separately and follows the Ōuyáng mùzhì in placing Yǐn at the head of the canonical gǔwén triad with Ōuyáng and Méi Yáochén.
Abstract
Yǐn Zhū was born in Hénán (Luòyáng) in Xiánpíng 4 / 1001; jìnshì of Tiānshèng 2 / 1024 (the “Two Sòngs” cohort); served on the SòngXīXià frontier as an aide to Hán Qí during the Hǎoshuǐchuān defeat of 1041 and bore some of the political fallout. One of the famous “Four Worthies” Sì xián of Jǐngyòu 3 / 1036 defended in Cài Xiāng’s Sì xián yī bù xiào shī (with Fàn Zhòngyān, Yú Jìng, Ōuyáng Xiū). Demoted twice on the Wǔjūn / Héshuǐchuān post-defeat reckoning; died in Qìnglì 7 / 1047 at Càizhōu age 47, in poverty. Ōuyáng Xiū’s mùzhì for him — written deliberately in the lapidary, terse register that Ōuyáng wanted to model — was itself the subject of a famous philological controversy when several Yǐn-family members criticized it as too brief; Ōuyáng defended his approach in correspondence preserved in KR4d0067 (Ōuyáng’s Wénzhōng jí) and the exchange became one of the canonical gǔwén discussions of jiǎn 簡 (“compression”) as a stylistic value.
The collection’s contents include Yǐn’s military memoranda from the Shǎnxī campaigns (the Xīzhēng yányǔ 西征言語), his gǔwén prose-essays (the famous Wǔdài chūnqiū 五代春秋, a Confucian re-reading of the Five-Dynasties period in Chūnqiū style — preserved partly in his collection and partly transmitted as a separate work), and his exchange correspondence with Ōuyáng Xiū, Hán Qí, Méi Yáochén, and Mù Xiū. Yǐn’s prose is the most austere of the Qìnglì generation — deliberately stripped of piānlì ornament — and is the proximate model for Ōuyáng’s mature jì and xù style. The dating bracket marks Yǐn’s death (1047) to the late-Northern-Sòng terminus ad quem of the 27-juǎn recension.
Translations and research
- Egan, Ronald C. 1984. The Literary Works of Ou-yang Hsiu. Cambridge UP. Extensive treatment of Yǐn Zhū’s stylistic role in the Ōuyáng circle.
- Bol, Peter K. 1992. “This Culture of Ours”. Stanford UP, ch. 5. The canonical placement of Yǐn in the gǔ-wén lineage.
- Lorge, Peter. 2005. War, Politics and Society. Routledge. Treats Yǐn’s role in the Hǎo-shuǐ-chuān campaign.
- Hé Cān 何燦. 1990. Yǐn Zhū yán-jiū 尹洙研究. Hé-nán dàxué chūbǎnshè.
Other points of interest
The Ōuyáng / Yǐn-family controversy over the brevity of the Yǐn shīlǔ mùzhì is one of the canonical gǔwén aesthetic debates of the eleventh century. Yǐn’s Wǔdài chūnqiū — applying Chūnqiū moral methodology to the Five Dynasties — anticipates Ōuyáng Xiū’s Xīn Wǔdài shǐ 新五代史 KR2c0014 and is one of its proximate models.
Links
- Yin Zhu (Wikidata Q15921102)
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §54 (gǔwén movement); §28.1 (Sòng biéjí).