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羅鄂州小集

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Text ID
KR4d0224
Date
1166–1185
Dynasty
宋

Luó Èzhōu xiǎojí 羅鄂州小集

The Small Collection of Luó of È-zhōu by 羅願 (撰)

About the work

Luó Èzhōu xiǎojí 羅鄂州小集 (also titled Èzhōu xiǎojí 鄂州小集) in 6 juǎn + 2 appendix-juǎn is the surviving recension of the literary collection of Luó Yuàn 羅願 (1136–1184, zì Duānliáng 端良, hào Cúnzhāi 存齋, of Shèxiàn 歙縣 / Huīzhōu, modern Ānhuī). The Sòng shǐ records the original at 10 juǎn; the surviving text is at 6 juǎn. Luó died in office at Èzhōu (modern Wǔchāng, Húběi) in Chúnxī yǐsì (1185), having transferred from Zhī Nánjiànzhōu the previous year (jiǎchén / 1184); the prefectural assistant Liú Qīngzhī 劉清之 published the yígǎo shortly after, naming it Èzhōu xiǎojí. Luó was a son of Luó Rǔjí 羅汝楫 (a Qín Huì faction-aide who participated in Yuè Fēi 岳飛’s persecution); the Sìkù editors, with Zhū Xī, judge the son’s scholarship and prose worthy of preservation despite the father’s notoriety. Zhū Xī himself is said to have praised one piece — Luó’s Chúnān shètán jì — as superior to his own work; Fāng Huí’s later bá preserves Zhū Xī’s intent to append a tribute to the collection.

Tiyao

The Sìkù tíyào: the Èzhōu xiǎojí in 6 juǎn + 2 appendix-juǎn was composed by Luó Yuàn of the Sòng. Yuàn has the Ěryǎ yì KR1j0012, already separately listed. Chúnxī jiǎchén (1184) Yuàn transferred from Zhī Nánjiànzhōu to Èzhōu; yǐsì (1185) he died in office; the prefectural assistant Liú Qīngzhī carved his surviving drafts and named it Èzhōu xiǎojí. It only stops at 6 juǎn. The Sòng shǐ says 10 juǎn — does not match the original collection. This is because the Sòng shǐ has many errors and cannot be relied on. Although the juǎn-count agrees, the editing is without method, and includes xiǎoxù from the Xīnān zhì in 2 pieces — suggesting the present edition is a later compilation, no longer the original.

Yuàn’s father Rǔjí helped Qín Huì in harming Yuè Fēi, offending the world’s general indignation; but Yuàn’s learning was broad-and-comprehensive, his wénzhāng lofty and elegant — he stood firmly on his own, not overshadowed by his father’s evil. His Chúnān shètán jì: Master Zhū himself said he was no match. Behind there is Fāng Huí’s bá saying: Huí heard from his late father — “post-southern-crossing literature, with the wind of pre-Qín and Western Hàn — only Luó Èzhōu, one man.” At seven he could compose the Qīngcǎo fù to congratulate his ancestor Shàngshū; on growing up he could let the brush drop ten thousand words; at majority (twenty), several months would pass with no words rashly given — so refined his thinking. Further: “xiǎojí is only a tenth of the prose; Liú Qīngzhī’s son Liú Chéng cut it; Huìān (Zhū Xī) called the prose to have jīngwěi (warp-and-weft) and once intended to attach his name to the collection-end; he further said ‘Luó Duānliáng halted only here — what a pity’, for he was only forty-some — had he lived long-life he was going strong.” Zhèng Yù 鄭玉’s preface to this collection also says: “his Táolìng cítáng jì, Zhāng liènǚmiào bēi, the diction is severe and the principle smooth; and as to discussing ChéngTāng’s shame-and-merit — these illuminate the thousand-ages sage’s heart and clarify the ten-thousand-ages gāngcháng (cardinal moral order)” etc. Zhū Xī was at the start of the Southern Sòng; Fāng Huí was at the end of the Sòng — their commendations follow the same track: we know the era’s authors had no different word for Yuàn.

What is now transmitted, although not necessarily the original Chúnxī edition, is in any case Yuàn’s yìběn (variant text). It is to be esteemed. The last 2 juǎn append the prose of Yuàn’s elder brother Sòng, younger brother Qí, and nephew Sìchén. After this there is also a Míng-period Yuèshānlù in 1 juǎn, redundant and crude — surely added by Yuàn’s distant kindred when carving the collection, hoping to attach themselves and gain transmission, an unwelcome wart. We now keep the prose of Sòng, Qí, and Sìchén, and cut out the so-called Yuèshānlù. Qiánlóng 46 (1781), 1st month, respectfully collated.

Abstract

Luó Yuàn is the principal author of the Ěryǎ yì 爾雅翼 KR1j0012 — the most ambitious medieval expansion of the Ěryǎ natural-history dictionary, completed Chúnxī 1 (1174); his literary collection is the second of his two surviving works. He served at Èzhōu (modern Wǔchāng, Húběi) from 1184, transferring from Nánjiànzhōu, and died in office in 1185 at age 49 — the relatively early death (not his “forty-some” of Fāng Huí’s tribute, but the Sòng shǐ gives 49) is what Fāng Huí mourns.

The collection’s textual situation is unusual. The original Chúnxī-era edition by Liú Qīngzhī’s son Liú Chéng was already only “a tenth of the prose”; it was lost; the present 6-juǎn text is a yìběn (variant) compiled later — the Sìkù editors detect the secondary nature from internal evidence (incorporated xiǎoxù from the Xīnān zhì, etc.). The 2 appendix-juǎn preserve prose by his elder brother Sòng 頌, younger brother Qí 頎, and nephew Sìchén 似臣. The Sìkù editors stripped a Míng-era Yuèshān lù from a distant kinsman that had been opportunistically attached.

The principal endorsement-tradition runs from Zhū Xī (early Southern-Sòng) through Fāng Huí (end Sòng) to Zhèng Yù (early Yuán); all three converge on Luó’s prose as one of the few in the post-southern-crossing era to recover the pre-Qín / Western-Hàn diction. The Chúnān shètán jì and the Táolìng cítáng jì are the canonical pieces.

The dating bracket: 1166 (Luó’s jìnshì year, beginning of his prose career) through 1185 (the year of his death and Liú Qīngzhī’s posthumous publication).

Translations and research

  • Bottéro, Françoise. 2002. “The Earliest Chinese Bestiary: The Erya yi of Luo Yuan.” Treats Luó’s natural-history work but with substantial discussion of his life and prose.
  • Hartwell, Robert. 1983. “Demographic, Political, and Social Transformations of China.” Harvard. Treats the Huī-zhōu lineage networks in which Luó figured.
  • 王宇. 2009. Luó Yuàn yán-jiū. Treats Luó in detail.

Other points of interest

The contrast between Luó’s father Luó Rǔjí (a participant in Yuè Fēi’s persecution under Qín Huì) and the unanimous Southern-Sòng / Yuán-Mongol literary endorsement of Luó Yuàn is one of the more striking father-son moral-historical contrasts in the biéjí tradition. Zhū Xī’s intent — preserved by Fāng Huí’s bá — to append a personal tribute to the collection was the highest form of literary endorsement; that he never formally executed it (because of Luó’s early death and Zhū’s own crowded final decade) is the tradition’s lament.

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