Méishān jí 眉山集
The Méi-shān (Eyebrow-Mountain) Collection by 唐庚 (撰)
About the work
Méishān jí 眉山集 in 22 juǎn (also titled Táng Zǐxī wénjí 唐子西文集) preserves the writings of Táng Gēng 唐庚 (1071–1121), Méizhōu (Sìchuān) jìnshì of Shàoshèng 1 / 1094 — popularly nicknamed Xiǎo Sū 小蘇 (Little Sū) for his prose-style affinity with his fellow-Méi-zhōu Sū Shì 蘇軾 蘇軾. The title takes Méishān 眉山 (eyebrow-mountain) — the eponymous hill of his native Méizhōu Dānléng 丹稜. Táng’s career was bound to his patron Zhāng Shāngyīng 張商英; when Zhāng fell, Táng was demoted to Huìzhōu 惠州 (Guǎngdōng) — the same southern exile as Sū Shì a generation earlier. Pardoned in Dàguān 5 / 1111; died in 1121 on his return-journey. The Sānguó záshì 三國雜事 KR2o0007, also Táng’s, circulates separately.
Tiyao
Abstract
Méishān jí is a major late-Northern-Sòng biéjí, establishing Táng Gēng as the leading prose stylist of the second post-Sū generation. The Xiǎo Sū nickname reflects both his shared origin (Méizhōu Dānléng, the same county as Sū Shì) and the perceived continuity of his prose with the Sū tradition. Substantial gǔshī, lǜshī, juéjù, fù, lùn, jì, xù, bá, biǎo, zòu, and muzhi sections compose the corpus. The Huìzhōu exile period (1110–1111) produced his most celebrated prose, including the historiographical Sānguó záshì on ShǔHàn legitimacy and the Wénlù 文錄 essay-fragments.
The patron-disgrace dynamic — Zhāng Shāngyīng’s brief chief-councillorship (Dàguān 4 / 1110) followed by his fall, and Táng’s consequent demotion via the Nèiqián xíng celebratory rhapsody — exemplifies the precariousness of late-Huīzōng patronage. Táng’s location at the centre of Sū Shì’s home-county tradition gives the collection a particular Sìchuān regional cast: many of the figures named in his muzhi and xù are Méizhōu compatriots.
Lifedates 1071–1121 are confirmed by CBDB id 1598.
Translations and research
- Sòng-shǐ j. 443 (Wén-yuàn 4) — biography.
- Egan, Ronald. Word, Image, and Deed in the Life of Su Shi (Harvard 1994). Background on the Méi-zhōu literary lineage.
- Hawes, Colin. The Social Circulation of Poetry in the Mid-Northern Song (SUNY 2005). Treats Táng Gēng’s poetic technique.
- Méi-shān jí modern critical editions: standard text in the SBCK; modern annotated reprints in mainland publications.
Other points of interest
- Táng’s Sānguó záshì KR2o0007, composed during his Huìzhōu exile, is one of the foundational early-Southern-Sòng historiographical pieces on the ShǔHàn legitimacy question and is best read alongside the biéjí exile-period prose.
- The Xiǎo Sū nickname remained in Sòng and Yuán literary memory as the canonical instance of regional-stylistic transmission within a single county.