Jiànkāng jí 建康集
The Jiàn-kāng Collection by 葉夢得 (撰)
About the work
Jiànkāng jí 建康集 in 8 juǎn is the prefectural collection of Yè Mèngdé 葉夢得 (1077–1148), composed during his second tenure as prefect of Jiànkāng 建康 (modern Nánjīng) beginning Shàoxīng 8 (1138). It is one of three surviving subsets of Yè’s once-100-juǎn zǒngjí 總集. The author was a major Northern–Southern-Sòng transition figure — classicist (the Chūnqiū tetrad: KR1e0032, KR1e0033, KR1e0034), cí lyricist, bǐjì author of Shílín yàn yǔ KR3a0026, and military prefect on the southern frontier — and the Jiànkāng jí documents the literary side of his prefectural service. Yè’s collected literary works are among the most consequential single-author collections of the early Southern Sòng.
Tiyao
The Jiànkāng jí in 8 juǎn, by Yè Mèngdé of the Sòng. Mèngdé’s Chūnqiū zhuàn 春秋傳 is already-recorded. Chén Zhènsūn’s 陳振孫 Shūlù jiětí KR3h0011 records Mèngdé’s Zǒngjí 總集 in 100 juǎn — investigating, this is the same as the present edition’s 8 juǎn; today both no-longer-transmit. Further records Jiànkāng jí in 10 juǎn — composed during Shàoxīng 8 (1138) when he was again-stationed at Jiànkāng. The present 8-juǎn version does not match Zhènsūn’s record. At the end of the book is the postscript-colophon by his grandson [Yè] Lù 葉輅 — also calling-it 8 juǎn. Either Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí — having been repeatedly transcribed — erred 8 juǎn as 10 juǎn; or perhaps the old version was damaged-and-incomplete, with 2 juǎn lost, and later persons retroactively-altered Lù’s colophon to falsely-claim a complete bundle. Both are unverifiable.
Mèngdé was a client of the Cài Jīng 蔡京 gate and a marriage-relative of Zhāng Dūn 章惇’s family. After the crossing-of-the-Yangtze, public-opinion was great-and-clear and he dared not again fan the Shàoshù 紹述 [Northern-Sòng “succession-and-continuation” reformist faction] flame. Yet what he composed in his shīhuà still honoured Xīníng and suppressed Yuányòu — often visible in the implications. Fāng Huí’s 方回 Yíngkuí lǜsuǐ 瀛奎律髓 KR4h0007 discusses this rather-thoroughly in commentary on his “Sending Off Yán Sòng Envoy to the North” poem.
Yet Mèngdé was originally a Cháo 晁-clan nephew, and could-still-meet Zhāng Lěi 張耒 and others — what he saw and was-imbued-by ultimately had-a-model. Hence his prose is gāoyǎ (lofty-and-elegant) and still preserves Northern-Sòng surviving-style. Of those after the southward-crossing, only Chén Yǔyì 陳與義 (KR4d0153) can ride-side-by-side with him; the like of [Yóu] Yóu, Yáng [Wànlǐ], Fàn [Chéngdà], Lù [Yóu] cannot match. Therefore one ought-not on the basis of his Shàoshèng 紹聖 partisan affiliation extinguish his literary art. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 46 (1781), 2nd month.
Abstract
The composition window is precise: most pieces date from Yè’s second tenure as Jiànkāng prefect, which began in Shàoxīng 8 (1138). Yè died in Shàoxīng 18 (1148), giving an outer terminus. The 8-juǎn recension descended through Yè’s grandson Yè Lù 葉輅, who supplied the colophon. The Sìkù compilers note the juǎn-count discrepancy with Chén Zhènsūn’s Zhízhāi shūlù jiětí 直齋書錄解題 KR3h0011 (which records 10 juǎn) but, lacking evidence either way, retain the 8-juǎn version on its own colophonic authority.
The Sìkù tíyào is unusually pointed. The political evaluation is severe — Yè is identified as a former client of Cài Jīng 蔡京 and an in-law of Zhāng Dūn 章惇, and his Shílín shī huà is read as covertly partisan for the Xīníng (Wáng Ānshí) reformist line against the Yuányòu old-party. Yet the literary-aesthetic verdict is correspondingly high: Yè is held to be the only post-1127 author who can stand alongside Chén Yǔyì KR4d0153 and to surpass even the zhōngxīng 中興 quartet (Yóu Máo, Yáng Wànlǐ, Fàn Chéngdà, Lù Yóu). The Sìkù editors’ separation of political affiliation from literary quality — invoked here against the partisanship that would consign Yè to oblivion — is among the more methodologically self-conscious passages in biéjí tíyào of jí-bù division 3.
CBDB confirms 1077–1148.
Translations and research
- Sòng shǐ j. 445 (Wén-yuàn zhuàn) — Yè biography.
- Chén Zhèn-sūn 陳振孫, Zhí-zhāi shū-lù jiě-tí KR3h0011 j. 17 — bibliographic entry.
- Fāng Huí 方回, Yíng-kuí lǜ-suǐ KR4h0007 — preserves the criticism.
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual (Endymion Wilkinson) — for context on early-Southern-Sòng bié-jí.
- Yè’s classical scholarship is treated in surveys of Sòng Chūnqiū studies; see Sì-kù quán-shū zǒng-mù tí-yào on KR1e0032–34.
Other points of interest
- The 8-juǎn / 10-juǎn discrepancy is a textbook case for Sìkù editorial methodology: when extant material and external bibliography disagree, the editors document but decline to override. Readers should consult the Yè Lù colophon (preserved at the end of the collection) for the textual history.