Língyáng jí 陵陽集
Líng-yáng Collection by 韓駒 (撰)
About the work
Língyáng jí 陵陽集 in 4 juǎn is the literary collection of Hán Jū 韓駒 (d. 1135), Zhōngshū shèrén under Huīzōng and Prefect of Jiāngzhōu in early Jiànyán. The title takes Hán’s xiāngguān (sobriquet, also a place-name from his Sìchuān birthplace). Hán is best known as a poet — Lù Yóu 陸游 preserves the kǔyín (bitter-chanting) anecdote of Hán’s perfectionism in revising lines. The collection’s most controversial piece is the Tàiyǐ zhēnrén tú poem composed at the request of Wáng Fǔ 王黼 (the powerful Huīzōng-period minister), which became a celebrated example of the late-Northern-Sòng zìyù qíjì (selling-one’s-skill) phenomenon — read by Liú Kèzhuāng’s Hòucūn shīhuà alongside Lù Yóu’s Nányuán jì.
Tiyao
Língyáng jí in 4 juǎn, by Hán Jū of the Sòng. Jū, zì Zǐcāng, of Shǔ Xiānjǐngjiān. Zhènghé called-and-tested, granted jìnshì chūshēn; cumulatively appointed Zhōngshū shèrén, Quánzhí Xuéshìyuàn. At southward-crossing beginning, Prefect of Jiāngzhōu. Career in Sòng shǐ Wényuàn zhuàn.
Jū’s learning originated from the Sū’s. Lǚ Běnzhōng composed the Jiāngxī zōngpài tú and listed Jū within. Jū rather not-pleased. Yet Jū’s poetry, mócuì jiǎnjié (polished-and-clipped), also rather travels in Yùzhāng (Huáng Tíngjiān) style. His not-wishing to lodge under the Huáng’s-gate is also like Chén Shīdào’s bànxiāng Nánfēng (offering incense to [Zēng] Nánfēng [Gǒng]) — not-forgetting the source — not necessarily that the school-doctrine is jiǒngbié (utterly-different).
Lù Yóu colophon to his poetry-draft says: fǎnfù túyì (repeatedly-revised); further item-by-item-listed where each line came-from. Poems composed and given to people; sometimes for months, sometimes from thousand lǐ away, he would recall-and-retrieve them and re-fix them; wú háofā hèn nǎi zhǐ (until without a hair’s regret, only-then stopped). Also can be called kǔyín (bitter-chanting).
Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì says: Wáng Fǔ once commanded Jū to inscribe his family-treasured Tàiyǐ zhēnrén tú — much-circulated for a time. Today its poetry is in the collection — has the line “yùtáng xuéshì jīn Liú Xiàng” (the Jade-Hall scholar is today’s Liú Xiàng) — tuīxǔ shèn zhì (recommendation-praise extreme). Liú Kèzhuāng said Zǐcāng and others self-sold their skill to attain prominence — surely refers to such-as-this. Comparable to Lù Yóu’s Nányuán jì. Yet his composition cannot-be-suppressed. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 46 (1781), 9th month.
Abstract
The 4-juǎn WYG version is the surviving recension of Hán Jū’s collection. The Sìkù editors place Hán squarely within the Jiāngxī-school orbit despite his protest at Lǚ Běnzhōng’s classification — the analogy with Chén Shīdào’s discipleship under Zēng Gǒng (acknowledging origin without subjugation) is the editors’ diplomatic compromise.
The collection’s two poles are well-defined. On the favourable side: the kǔyín anecdote preserved by Lù Yóu’s colophon (a model of poetic perfectionism). On the unfavourable side: the Tàiyǐ zhēnrén tú poem composed at Wáng Fǔ’s request, which Liú Kèzhuāng’s Hòucūn shīhuà identified as the type-case of late-Northern-Sòng poetic zìyù (self-marketing). The Sìkù editors compare it explicitly with Lù Yóu’s later Nányuán jì for Hán Tuōzhòu — placing both as cautionary instances of factional patronage in Sòng literary history.
CBDB id 11957 supplies only deathyear 1135.
Translations and research
- Sòng shǐ j. 445 (Wén-yuàn zhuàn) — Hán Jū biography.
- 陸游 colophon to Hán’s poetry-draft — preserved.
- 晁公武 Dú-shū zhì — preserves the Wáng Fǔ episode.
- 劉克莊 Hòu-cūn shī-huà — preserves the zì-yù qí-jì criticism.
- No dedicated Western-language study located.
Other points of interest
- The Hán Jū / Wáng Fǔ episode is one of the standard kǔjiè (warning-instances) in Sòng literary criticism — illustrating both the sociological pressures on literary-bureaucratic patronage and the Sìkù editors’ careful methodological commitment to documenting compromised cases.