Dōnglái shījí 東萊詩集
Dōng-lái Master Poetry Collection by 呂本中 (撰)
About the work
Dōnglái xiānshēng shījí 東萊先生詩集 in 20 juǎn is the poetic collection of Lǚ Běnzhōng 呂本中 (1084–1145), the Dà Dōnglái (Great Dōnglái — i.e. the earlier of the two famous Dōng-lái-named Lǚ figures, distinguishing him from his great-grand-cousin Lǚ Zǔqiān). The title takes Lǚ’s hào. Compiled by Lǚ’s literary friend Shěn Gōngyǎ 沈公雅 (son of Shěn Zōngshī 沈宗師) at his Wújùn 吳郡 prefectural seat in Qiándào yuánnián (1165), with colophon by Zēng Jǐ 曾幾 曾幾 (also born 1084, contemporary). The 20 juǎn are organised chronologically (the colophon: cìdì suìyuè wéi èrshí tōng — sequenced by years into 20 fascicles). Lǚ’s principal historical importance — beyond this collection — is as the compiler of the Jiāngxī shīpài tú (the foundational text of the Jiāngxī school’s self-canonisation), the Tóngméng xùn (KR3a series), and the Zǐwēi shīhuà (KR4h series).
Tiyao
The local source for KR4d0195 is the SBCK reproduction of the Dōnglái xiānshēng shījí, with the Zēng Jǐ colophon preserved at the head. Date is Qiándào yuánnián (1165) per the Zēng Jǐ colophon.
The Sìkù tíyào is reproduced at the end of WYG. Translated:
Dōnglái shījí in 20 juǎn, by Lǚ Běnzhōng of the Sòng. [Lǚ] Běnzhōng, zì Jūrén, hào Dōnglái xiānshēng. Career detailed in Sòng shǐ biography. The collection has at-the-end Zēng Jǐ’s bá — saying: at Qiándào yuánnián (1165), Shěn Gōngyǎ from Shàngshūláng promoted to prefect at this commandery (= Wújùn). In leisure-day collected [Lǚ’s] poetry — none-omitted; sequenced years into 20 fascicles; cut blocks placed in the prefectural studio. Surely [Lǚ’s] friendship with the Shěn-family was deep — and-so the editing was complete.
[Zēng] Jǐ also was-known to [Lǚ] Běnzhōng. Hence Gōngyǎ requested-it to write the colophon. [Zēng] Jǐ self-recalled: with [Lǚ] both born in Yuánfēng jiǎzǐ (1084); further mutually-related by-marriage; yǎ xiānghǎo (elegantly-friends). At Shàoxīng xīnhài (1131), [Zēng] Jǐ was at Liǔzhōu, in bìdì (refuge) — etc.
[Lǚ] Běnzhōng’s poetic-rule learned from his great-grandfather Lǚ Gōngzhù; the family-learning yǔ Yuányòu zhūjūnzǐ wéi yīxí (with the Yuányòu gentlemen one-fold). Compiled the Jiāngxī shīpài tú — listed Huáng Tíngjiān as zǔ; descending listed cohort-of-poets. (Hán Jū annoyed at the listing; Chén Yǔyì later than the cohort, hence not-included.) Together with his own poetic style, géfǎ jìn yú Yùzhāng (rhythm-rule close to Huáng Tíngjiān) — the standard Jiāngxī-school-stamp.
Abstract
The 20-juǎn collection is the standard recension of Lǚ Běnzhōng’s poetic corpus, edited by his literary friend Shěn Gōngyǎ at Qiándào 1 (1165) with Zēng Jǐ’s colophon — twenty years after Lǚ’s death. The chronological organisation is unusually careful for a Sòng poetic collection.
The collection is foundational for understanding the Jiāngxī school’s self-articulation: Lǚ was the compiler of the Jiāngxī shīpài tú, and his own verse exemplifies the school’s signature géfǎ (rhythmic-rule) of Dù Fǔ → Huáng Tíngjiān → Jiāngxī descent. Read together with KR4h0008 (his Zǐwēi shīhuà) and the Tóngméng xùn (KR3a series) for the full Lǚ corpus.
CBDB id 10703 confirms 1084–1145.
Translations and research
- 曾幾 bá (1165) — preserved at the end of SBCK.
- Sòng shǐ j. 376 — Lǚ Běn-zhōng biography.
- 朱熹, Lǚ Dōng-lái nián-pǔ — preserves the Lǚ family lineage in Dào-xué perspective.
- Sòng yuán xué-àn — Lǚ family lineage.
- No dedicated Western-language monograph on the collection located. Lǚ is treated in surveys of Jiāng-xī-school poetics and Yuán-yòu-circle survival.
Other points of interest
- The Sìkù editors’ tíyào of KR4d0153 (Chén Yǔyì) discusses Chén’s exclusion from the Jiāngxī shīpài tú — Chén being too young to have been included by Lǚ. The discussion provides the standard reading of the tú’s scope.