Liángxī jí 梁谿集
The Liáng-xī Collection by 李綱 (撰)
About the work
Liángxī jí 梁谿集 in 180 juǎn + 6 appendix juǎn preserves the prose of Lǐ Gāng 李綱 (1083–1140), the cardinal early-Southern-Sòng resistance figure. The title takes Lǐ’s hào Liángxī xiānshēng 梁谿先生. As one of the largest Sòng biéjí in the Sìkù (only Lù Yóu’s Wèinán wénjí + Jiànnán shīgǎo is comparable in extent), it includes fù (4 juǎn), shī (28), miscellaneous prose (138), the Jìngkāng chuánxìn lù (3), the Jiànyán jìntuì zhì (4), and the Jiànyán shízhèng jì (3) — the last three being among the most-important early-Southern-Sòng historiographical primary sources. Compiled by Lǐ Gāng’s youngest son Lǐ Xiùzhī 李秀之; preface by Chén Jùnqīng 陳俊卿 (1175 / Chúnxī yǐwèi).
Tiyao
The Sìkù tíyào: Liángxī jí in 180 juǎn, appendix 6, by Lǐ Gāng of the Sòng. Gāng has Jiànyán shízhèng jì — already catalogued. The collection-front carries Sòng Shǎobǎo Guānwéndiàn dàxuéshì Chén Jùnqīng’s preface — saying: Gāng’s youngest son Xiùzhī collected his memorials and zòuzhá 80 juǎn, and shīwén not yet included. Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshūzhì says 150 juǎn; Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí says 120 juǎn — later persons continued, with poetry-and-prose merged-and-edited; both have division-and-merger; not the original of Xiùzhī. This běn: fù 4 juǎn, shī 28, miscellaneous prose 138; with Jìngkāng chuánxìn lù 3, Jiànyán jìntuì zhì 4, Jiànyán shízhèng jì 3 — all merged into the collection; further with niánpǔ xíngzhuàng type 6 juǎn attached — and Cháo and Chén both records do not match — also not the Sòng-original old.
Gāng’s rénpǐn jīngjì (character-and-statecraft) brilliantly displayed in the histories — needs no discussion. Even his poetry-and-prose: xióngshēn yǎjiàn lěiluò guāngmíng (great-deep-elegant-vigorous, rolling-great-bright) — not what ordinary literary persons can match. Only because [Gāng] liked to discuss Buddhist fólǐ — the Southern-Sòng various rú refused to praise him. Yet as Yán Zhēnqīng’s pure-loyal-vigorous-integrity vied with sun-and-moon for light — really cannot because-of his writing the Xījīng duōbǎotǎ bēi, composing Fǔzhōu Mágūtán jì — diminish his prose’s value.
The collection contains the Bǔ Sòng Jǐng méihuā fù (Supplementing Sòng Jǐng’s Plum-blossom fù) self-prefaced — saying [Sòng] Jǐng’s fù is lost, mock-and-composed. The prose is most-clear. The Yuán Liú Xūn’s Yǐnjū tōngyì records [Sòng] Jǐng’s two fù — both forgeries. Míng Tián Yìhéng’s Liúqīng rìzhā further claims to have got the Yuán Xiānyú Shū’s hand-written [Sòng] Jǐng fù hastily-recorded for transmission — Shū’s true-script also destroyed. Examining its prose-clauses — generally erased-and-altered Gāng’s fù — ten same to seven-or-eight — its forgery clearly. Yet also see Gāng’s fùgé placed among Táng-people’s, can pass-as-true.
[The collection is one of the largest Sòng biéjí, totalling 180 + 6 juǎn; spanning V1125.3 to V1126.1 of the Sìkù.]
Abstract
Liángxī jí is the foundational documentary witness to early-Southern-Sòng resistance. Lǐ Gāng’s Jìngkāng memorial-defense of Kāifēng (1126) and his 75-day chief-ministership under Gāozōng (Jiànyán 1 / 1127) make him the central figure of the early-Southern-Sòng resistance program. The three embedded historiographical works — Jìngkāng chuánxìn lù, Jiànyán jìntuì zhì, and Jiànyán shízhèng jì — together constitute the most-important first-person historiographical source for the Jīngkāng / Jiànyán transition. The military memorials are extensive and detailed; the political memorials denouncing Huáng Qiánshàn and Wāng Bóyàn are the most-articulated early-Southern-Sòng critique of the héyì faction.
The Sìkù editors’ defence of Lǐ Gāng against the Southern-Sòng Dàoxué school’s withholding-of-praise (because of his Buddhist sympathies) — comparing the situation to that of Yán Zhēnqīng (whose loyalty was undiminished by his writing of Buddhist inscriptions) — is one of the more-articulate fairness-defences of the Sìkù compilation. The textual problem of the Bǔ Sòng Jǐng méihuā fù (which Lǐ Gāng composed to replace a lost fù; later forgers attributed the supposed-original to Sòng Jǐng) is preserved here as a model of philological detective work.
The Liángxī shūyuàn at Wúxī (Lǐ’s home academy) became a centre of Southern-Sòng resistance memory; the geographical proximity to Yáng Shí’s Dōnglín shūyuàn makes Wúxī a remarkable late-Sòng intellectual-political node. Lifedates 1083–1140 confirmed (CBDB); the catalog’s 1085–1140 is less-supported.
Translations and research
- Sòng-shǐ j. 358–359 — biography (extensive, two-juǎn).
- Tao, Jing-shen. Two Sons of Heaven (Tucson 1988). Treats Lǐ Gāng’s role.
- Levine, Ari Daniel. Divided by a Common Language (Hawaii 2008). Background on the Jìng-kāng faction politics.
- Jìng-kāng chuán-xìn lù — separately edited and translated; primary source for the 1126 siege.
- Liú Pán-suì 劉盤遂. Lǐ Gāng nián-pǔ (modern chronological biography).
Other points of interest
- The 180-juǎn extent makes Liángxī jí one of the largest single-author Sòng biéjí, only matched by Lù Yóu, Sū Shì, and a few others.
- The embedded Jìngkāng chuánxìn lù — Lǐ’s first-person account of the 1126 Kāifēng siege — is one of the canonical documents of Northern-Sòng terminal historiography.