Lǎopǔ jí 老圃集
The Old Garden Collection by 洪芻 (撰)
About the work
Lǎopǔ jí 老圃集 in 2 juǎn (Sìkù reconstruction; 170 poems) preserves the writings of Hóng Chú 洪芻 (fl. Shàoshèng–Jìngkāng), second of the Sì Hóng brothers and nephew of Huáng Tíngjiān. Sòng shǐ Yìwénzhì records 1 juǎn; Sìkù reconstruction expanded to 2 from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn. Hóng Chú’s career was destroyed by the Jìngkāng-period offence of harassing the imperial palace-women during the Jin invasion’s gold-and-silver extortion — for which he was banished to Shāméndǎo (an island prison off the Shāndōng coast) and presumably died there.
Tiyao
The Sìkù tíyào: Lǎopǔ jí 2 juǎn, by Hóng Chú of the Sòng. Chú, zì Jūfù, of Nánchāng. Jìnshì of Shàoshèng 1; Jìngkāng mid-period office to Jiànyì dàifū; afterward demoted-to Shāméndǎo, died.
Liú Kèzhuāng’s Hòucūn shīhuà says: “The three Hóng [brothers] and Xú Shīchuān are all Shāngǔ’s nephews. Guīfù [Hóng Péng]‘s sharp-lines often what the former-people had-not-said — but he died early — regret not seeing many. Jūfù [Hóng Chú]‘s poetry especially skilled.” Lù Yóu’s Lǎoxuéān bǐjì also extremely praises his banishment-to-island poem: yānbō bù gé huánxiāng mèng; fēngyuè yóu suí guòhǎi shēn (mist-and-wave does not block the dream of returning home; wind-and-moon still follows the body crossing the sea) — line. So at the time literary persons quite valued him.
But Chú’s banishment — Féngcōng xiǎodú says: for being too-strict in collecting wealth for the Jin people, was treated rather as innocently — but examining Wáng Míngqīng’s Yùzhào xīnzhì records: Chú actually, during the time of gēnkuò jīnyín (extracting-and-collecting gold-and-silver), entered the zhū wáng dǐ (princes’ residences), using shì xié nèirén (force to coerce palace-women) to sing-and-serve-wine — committed crime against míngjiào (the bonds-of-name; i.e., propriety) — almost not allowing pardon — at the time merely banished to hǎibīn (sea-shore) — was actually a yìfá (lenient punishment).
His person being like this — his poetry fundamentally not enough to be heavily-or-lightly weighed; only his learning has shīchéng (teacher-transmission); deeply-got Yùzhāng (Huáng Tíngjiān, Yùzhāng — i.e., Hóngzhōu)‘s gé (frame). But on prose-discussing-prose, really not unworthy of kùsì qí jiù (closely-resembles his uncle) praise. Recording the collections of Six-Dynasties-people preserves Shěn Yuē, Fàn Yún; recording the collections of Táng-people preserves Shěn Quánqī, Sòng Zhīwèn — jiù shī yán shī, piàncháng jiēqǔ (taking-poetry-as-poetry, single-merits accepted-and-extracted) — also is the gǔlái zhùlù zhī tōnglì (general-rule of from-antiquity recording-and-cataloguing).
Sòng shǐ Yìwénzhì records Lǎopǔ jí 1 juǎn — long lost, not transmitted; Sòngshī jìshì only from various local-gazetteers and lèishū gathered several piān — not 1% [of original]. Only Yǒnglè dàdiǎn preserves still 170 shǒu — probably at the time the entire-section was included; with the piānzhì slightly more, carefully arranged into upper-and-lower 2 juǎn — for ease of repeated-perusal. Qiánlóng 46 (1781), 3rd month, respectfully collated.
Abstract
Lǎopǔ jí preserves the writings of Hóng Chú — a Sì Hóng brother whose poetic talent was acknowledged by Liú Kèzhuāng and Lù Yóu, but whose moral failure during the Jìngkāng catastrophe earned him banishment to Shāméndǎo. The Sìkù tíyào’s careful sorting of the conflicting accounts — Féngcōng xiǎodú’s mild “too-strict in extraction” version vs. Wáng Míngqīng’s Yùzhào xīnzhì’s damning “harassing the palace women” version — is a model of source-criticism, with the Sìkù editors siding firmly with Wáng’s harsher account.
The Sìkù editors’ methodological defense of preserving the work despite the author’s character (citing the precedent of Six-Dynasties Shěn Yuē / Fàn Yún and Táng Shěn Quánqī / Sòng Zhīwèn) is one of the more-articulated Sìkù biéjí-discussions of the moral-aesthetic separation. Hóng Chú’s poetry — yóu gōng per Liú Kèzhuāng — is the principal Jiāngxī school biéjí representative for the second-generation transmission, alongside his brother Yán’s Xīdù jí KR4d0141 and Hóng Péng’s Hóng Guīfù jí KR4d0131.
Hóng’s Xiāngshān yělù 香山野錄 (a bǐjì on incense and exotica) circulates separately. Lifedates not securely fixed.
Translations and research
- Liú Kè-zhuāng 劉克莊, Hòu-cūn shī-huà — Southern-Sòng critical assessment.
- Lù Yóu, Lǎo-xué-ān bǐ-jì — preserves the island-banishment poem.
- Wáng Míng-qīng, Yù-zhào xīn-zhì 玉照新志 — preserves the damning Jìng-kāng account.
- No dedicated monographic study of Hóng Chú located.
Other points of interest
- Together with Hóng Guīfù jí KR4d0131 and Xīdù jí KR4d0141, the present collection completes the Sìkù’s preservation of three of the Sì Hóng brothers — the most-concentrated Jiāngxī shīpài genetic lineage. Only Hóng Yǔ’s collection has not been recovered.