Jīrǎng jí 擊壤集
The Jī-rǎng Collection (of Shào Yōng) — also Yī-chuān Jī-rǎng jí by 邵雍 (撰)
About the work
Jīrǎng jí 擊壤集 (full title Yīchuān Jīrǎng jí 伊川擊壤集 — the title alludes to the legendary peasant jīrǎng “earth-pounding” song of Yáo’s reign, signalling a poetic-sage stance of plain-living detachment) is the entirely-self-edited poetry collection of Shào Yōng 邵雍 (1011–1077, zì Yáofū 堯夫, posthumous Kāngjié 康節, self-styled Ānlè xiānshēng 安樂先生), the great Northern-Sòng cosmologist and one of the Sòngchū wǔzǐ 宋初五子. The collection carries Shào’s own Zhìpíng bǐngwǔ / 1066 zìxù (preserved at the head of the Sìkù recension), declaring his poetic theory: not bound by shēnglǜ (rhyme-and-tone), not following àiwù (likes and dislikes), not set on míngyù (reputation), but as the jiàn (mirror) responds to xíng (form) and the zhōng (bell) responds to shēng (sound) — yīn jǐng qǐzhì, yīn shí qǐzhì, yīn wù yùyán (in response to scenery raise the will, in response to the times raise the will, in response to things lodge speech). Postfaced (1091) by Xíng Shù 邢恕. The collection is the principal poetic-record of Shào’s Luòyáng retirement years and his Ānlèwō 安樂窩 dwelling.
Tiyao
The Sìkù tíyào: Jīrǎng jí in 20 juǎn by Master Shào of the Sòng. Front carries Zhìpíng bǐngwǔ / 1066 zìxù; back carries Yuányòu xīnwèi / 1091 Xíng Shù xù. Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì says: “Yōng was deep in Yì-numerology; the gēshī was rather his secondary affair — but it is also rather close to lǐ (principle).” Examined: from Bān Gù’s Yǒngshǐ shī there began the zhào lùnzōng (origin of the lùn-essay manner); Dōngfāng Shuò’s Jièzǐ shī there began the shè lǐlù (entry into the lǐ path) — flowing into the early Sòng — disdaining the Táng-people for not knowing the dào — taking lùnlǐ (discussing principle) as foundation, taking xiūcí as foundation — and shīgé changed greatly. This collection is the clearest example. Zhū Guózhèn’s Yǒngchuáng xiǎopǐn says: “Buddha-words derived expanded into the Hánshān poems; Confucian-words derived expanded into the Jīrǎng jí — this is the sage’s píngyì jìnrén juéshì huànxǐng zhī miàoyòng (plain-easy approach to people, world-arousal-and-awakening’s marvelous use).” This is one explanation. Yet from early Sòng Jiāyòu (1056–1063) before, weary of the Five-Dynasties’ tiāobó (frivolous-thin) defect, in everything they returned to the simple and pure; the personalities of that age generally took guāngmíng huòdá (bright-clear, broad-comprehending) as orientation, and their wénzhāng also took píngshí tǎnyì (plain-substantial, level-easy) as principle. Hence the yīshí writers often expanded the Chángqìng (period: Bái Jūyì) lingering manner. Wáng Yǔchēng’s poem běn yǔ Lètiān wéi hòujìn, gǎn qí Dù Fǔ shì qiánshēn (originally with Lètiān a successor, dare to expect Dù Fǔ as one’s prior body) is one such. Master Shào’s poetry source likewise comes from Bái Jūyì; in late years, having entirely cut off worldly affairs, no longer taking literary cháng (excellence) as the meaning, he simply unburdened his bosom — yuán tuōrán yú shīfǎ zhī wài (originally beyond shīfǎ’s frame). His detractors persist in measuring him with shēnglǜ — as it were miù shāng hǎiniǎo, héng jīn shānmù (mistakenly wounding the sea-bird, illegitimately swinging the axe at mountain trees); his admirers take him for the fēngyǎ zhèngzhuàn (orthodox transmission of the Shī jīng tradition), and Zhuāng Chàng (Zhuāng Mǐn) and others mutually imitating — as in the line sòng wǒ yī hú Táo Jìngjié, huán tā liǎng shǒu Shào Yáofū (send me one hú of Master Táo, return him two pieces of Master Shào) — also kèhuà wúyán, tángtū Xīzǐ (carving the Wúyán-figurine, sudden encroaching on Xīshī) — losing what makes Shào’s shī be shī. Moreover Master Shào’s shī is not unbearably kǔyín (toil-chant) seeking gōng (refinement), but neither is he applying gōng as a strict prohibition. As recorded in Shào Bówēn’s Wénjiàn qiánlù, the Ānlèwō shī says: “bànjì bùjì mèng juéhòu, sìchóu wúchóu qíngjuàn shí; yōngqīn cèwò wèiyù qǐ, liánwài luòhuā liáoluàn fēi” (half-remembered, half-not, after waking from dream; like-melancholy, no-melancholy, when feeling tired; embracing the quilt, lying sideways, not yet rising; outside the curtain falling petals scatter wildly). This — even placed in the Jiāngxī pài — what would be wrong? Yet the Míng-people only competed in vulgarity-as-superiority — they hardly know Master Shào! Self-edited by Master Shào himself; yet the line praised by Yáng Shí 楊時 — xūxìn huàqián yuányǒu Yì, zìcóng shānhòu gèng wú shī (must believe before the painting there originally was the Yì; from the shān-deletion onward there has been no further shī) — this couplet is not in the collection — clearly he scattered as he wrote, not picking back up — truly jìyì yú shī ér fēi kèyì yú shī (lodged-meaning-in-poetry, not deliberate-meaning-in-poetry). Further: Master Shào carried the dào on a high stance — also Yánzǐ Lòuxiàng zhī zhì (the will of Yánzǐ in the squalid lane); and huángguānzhě liú (Daoist-cap-types) — because his xiāntiānxué came from the Huáshān dàoshì Chén Tuán 陳摶 陳摶, and he was tiándàn zìyí (calm-bland, self-pleased), traces resembling HuángLǎo — they thereupon took this collection and edited it into the Dàozàng Tàixuánbù, jiàn and lǐ characters — the two number-marks — particularly dànwàng (absurd-wild). We now together append a refutation here, so that yìjiào (heterodox teaching) may not draw it across. Qiánlóng 42 (1777) 6th month, respectfully collated.
The zìxù is dated Zhìpíng bǐngwǔ zhōngqiū rì / 15 August 1066, the year before Shào’s Ānlèwō phase opened in earnest. The 1091 Xíng Shù postface frames Shào’s poetry as the Yánzǐ Lòuxiàng of his age.
Abstract
Yīchuān Jīrǎng jí is one of the foundational documents of Sòng lǐxué poetics: the zìxù’s explicit theoretical statement — that poetry is the xíngbǐ (image and comparison) by which the sage’s yǐ wù guān wù (viewing things by things) is articulated — is the touchstone for what Sòngshī huà writers from Yán Yǔ 嚴羽 onward called the Yīchuān shītǐ 伊川詩體, attacked as yǔlù (recorded-saying-style) verse. The Sìkù editors’ careful defense — distinguishing Shào’s jìyì yú shī (lodging meaning in poetry) from the bad imitators’ kèyì yú shī (deliberate meaning) and explicitly comparing the Ānlèwō lyric to Jiāngxī-school work — is one of the more thoughtful Qing rehabilitations of lǐxué shī. The Sìkù editors’ equally important refutation of the Dàozàng Tàixuánbù’s appropriation of the collection (under the jiàn and lǐ number-marks) — on the basis of Shào’s lineage from Chén Tuán via Mù Xiū 穆修 — is a documented case of cross-traditional bibliographic disputation. Standard modern: Wáng Lìrén 王利仁, Shào Yōng zhūzǐbǎijiā jí 邵雍諸子百家集 (1986). Dating bracket: Shào’s death (1077) to the Sìkù re-collation (1777).
Translations and research
- Birdwhistell, Anne D. 1989. Transition to Neo-Confucianism: Shao Yung on Knowledge and Symbols of Reality. Stanford UP. The standard English-language monograph; substantial poetic citations.
- Wyatt, Don J. 1996. The Recluse of Loyang: Shao Yung and the Moral Evolution of Early Sung Thought. University of Hawai’i Press. Treats the Ān-lè-wō phase and the Jī-rǎng poetics in detail.
- Smith, Kidder, Jr., et al. 1990. Sung Dynasty Uses of the I Ching. Princeton UP. Treats Shào’s numerological system.
- Zhū Bó-kūn 朱伯崑. 1988. Yì-xué zhé-xué shǐ 易學哲學史. Vol. 2. Treats Shào.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù editors’ refutation of the Dàozàng appropriation of Yīchuān Jīrǎng jí is a documented case in the long polemic over Shào’s lineage: the Chén Tuán → Mù Xiū → Lǐ Zhīcái → Shào Yōng transmission of the xiāntiānxué is acknowledged on both Confucian and Daoist sides (Zhū Xī notes it; the Dàozàng uses it to claim the work) — the Sìkù editors treat the appropriation as dànwàng and frame Shào unambiguously as a Sòngrú. The Ānlèwō poems — Shào’s record of his own daily life as recluse-philosopher in Luòyáng — are one of the most directly autobiographical Sòng poetic corpora.
Links
- Shao Yong (Wikidata)
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.1 (Sòng biéjí); §43 (Sòng dàoxué).