Yúncháo biān 雲巢編
The Cloud-Nest Compilation by 沈遼 (撰)
About the work
Yúncháo biān 雲巢編 in 10 juǎn preserves the surviving prose and poetry of Shěn Liáo 沈遼 (1032–1085), nephew of Shěn Kuò 沈括 沈括 and younger brother of Shěn Gòu 沈遘. The title derives from his self-given hào Yúncháo 雲巢 (“cloud-nest”), taken at the Qíshān 齊山 hermitage in Chízhōu 池州 where he settled after exile. The collection circulates as one of the Wúxìng sānShěn jí 吳興三沈集 — the family anthology cut by Gāo Bù 高布 at Kuòcāng 括蒼 alongside the collections of Shěn Kuò KR4d0101 and Shěn Gòu.
Tiyao
The Sìkù tíyào: Yúncháo biān in 10 juǎn, by Shěn Liáo of the Sòng. Liáo, zì Ruìdá, of Qiántáng, younger brother of Gòu. Through his elder brother’s yīn held the Jiàn Shòuzhōu jiǔshuì; at the start of Xīníng became Shěnguān xīyuàn zhǔbù; in due course as Tàichángsì fènglǐláng he was seconded as Huátíngxiàn magistrate; implicated in a case, exiled to Yǒngzhōu, transferred to Chízhōu where he built a hermitage at Qíshān, self-styled Yúncháo, and never re-emerged. Career details in his Sòng shǐ biography. Liáo’s tomb-inscription records Yúncháo biān in 20 juǎn; the present recension is what Sòng-period Gāo Bù admitted into the Wúxìng sānShěn jí — what survives is only 10 juǎn. The Wénxiàn tōngkǎo records the same juǎn-count — likely Bù in his collation merged or condensed.
Further: in the collection the poem Hǎitiān liáoliáo héshǔ qiū 海天寥寥禾黍秋 is here titled Chū wén hè lì 初聞鶴唳 (“First Hearing the Crane Cry”); but Xú Shuò 徐碩’s Zhìyuán Jiāhé zhì 至元嘉禾志 records it as Tí Gànshān Yuánzhìsì 題干山圓智寺 (“Inscribed at Yuánzhì Monastery on Gànshān”). Likewise the Mén zhēn 門箴 — in the Zhìyuán Jiāhé zhì it is titled Huátíngxiàn ménzhēn 華亭縣門箴 with two-line postscript — both at variance with this. Perhaps in those days a separate recension still circulated, and the consulted copies independently differ.
Liáo’s prose is bold and free, dazzling and elegant, without dust-and-vulgar narrowness; he excelled especially at gēshī (song-poetry). Wáng Ānshí once gave him the line “fēngliú Xiè Ānshí, xiāosǎ Táo Yuānmíng” — likening him to both. Ānshí’s son [Wáng] Pāng 雱 also said: “Yesterday I read your fine work — it knew Yuānmíng’s not its match” — both invoking the Cháisāng 柴桑 (Táo Yuānmíng) standard for comparison. Their estimation could be called extreme. Yet Liáo’s shī in fact masters the shēngqiào (raw-and-jagged) register, and Táo’s poetic path is rather not its kind. Examining how he repeatedly exchanged poems with Huáng Tíngjiān throughout his life, and that Tíngjiān likewise praised his ability to zhuǎn gǔyǔ wéi wǒjiā wù (“turn ancient diction into our family’s possession”), one knows him to be a biépài (separate branch) of the Yùzhāng 豫章 (Jiāngxī, Huáng Tíngjiān’s school), not a side-stream of Péngzé (Táo Yuānmíng). Submitted upon collation in Qiánlóng 46 / 1781, eleventh month. Chief Compiler: Jì Yún (here written 紀昀), Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Collator: Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
Yúncháo biān preserves about half (10 of an original 20 juǎn) of Shěn Liáo’s literary output. Composition runs from his early-Xīníng office-holding through his Yǒngzhōu–Chízhōu exile after the Huátíngxiàn incident, where the late-life poems of the Qíshān / Yúncháo retreat constitute the most distinctive layer. The collection’s textual situation is complicated: as the Sìkù editors note, several poems carry titles that disagree with the Zhìyuán Jiāhé zhì 至元嘉禾志 (Yuán-period gazetteer covering Jiāxìng / Huátíng), suggesting circulating variants in the late Sòng / Yuán. The Gāo Bù 高布 Kuòcāng edition (the Wúxìng sānShěn jí family-anthology cutting) is the principal channel of transmission, and the Wénxiàn tōngkǎo records the same 10-juǎn state — implying that the loss of the second 10 juǎn predates Gāo’s edition.
The literary-critical question is whether to read Shěn Liáo as a Táo Yuānmíng-style poet (Wáng Ānshí’s view) or as a Jiāngxī school biépài (the Sìkù editors’ view, citing his correspondence with Huáng Tíngjiān 黃庭堅 黃庭堅). The Sìkù judgment that Liáo’s shēngqiào register is closer to Huáng’s than to Táo’s has been broadly accepted in modern Sòng-poetry studies. Shěn Liáo’s connection to the Jiāngxī school is now understood to predate the school’s formal articulation under Lǚ Běnzhōng 呂本中.
Lifedates 1032–1085 are confirmed by his muzhi (tomb-inscription, by Wáng Ānshí) and supplementary biographical material. The biéjí dating bracket runs from his early-Xīníng (post-1068) administrative period through his death in 1085; the bulk of the surviving poems and jì derive from the Chízhōu exile (post-1078).
Translations and research
- Wáng Ān-shí, Wáng Wén-gōng wén-jí — preserves Shěn Liáo’s tomb-inscription, the principal biographical source.
- Sòng-shī jì-shì 宋詩紀事 j. 28 — collected biographical anecdotes.
- Sōng Yìng-líng 宋瑛玲, Shěn Liáo yán-jiū 沈遼研究 (modern Chinese-language studies).
- Yú Yún-xī 余雲溪 [contemporary], Wú-xìng sān-Shěn jí (annotated reprint of the family anthology).