Fāngzhōu jí 方舟集
The Fāng-zhōu (Squared-Boat) Collection by 李石 (撰)
About the work
Fāngzhōu jí 方舟集 in 24 juǎn (5 juǎn poems + 1 juǎn cí + 11 juǎn prose + 6 juǎn of jīngshuō / classical exegesis appendix) is the surviving recension of the literary collection of Lǐ Shí 李石 (zì Zǐfā 子發, hào Fāngzhōu 方舟, of Zīzhōu 資州 in modern Sìchuān; fl. Lóngxīng through Chúnxī, c. 1162–1180). Lǐ has no Sòngshǐ biography; the collection was lost between Sòng and Míng (the Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì does not list it; only Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí records the original Fāngzhōu jí 50 juǎn + Hòují 20 juǎn); the Sìkù editors recovered six or seven tenths from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn and additional appended classical-exegesis materials from a Zhèjiāng acquisition. Lǐ is principally remembered as a teacher: per Dèng Chūn’s Huàjì, when Lǐ left the Tàixué bóshì post and was reassigned to Chéngdū xuéguān, students came “as a cloud, Mǐn and Yuè scholars from a thousand li away” — the Shǔxué zhī shèng (flourishing of Sìchuān learning) of the era is associated with him. He has a separately-listed Fāngzhōu Yìxué 方舟易學 KR1a-?.
Tiyao
The Sìkù tíyào: the Fāngzhōu jí in 24 juǎn was composed by Lǐ Shí of the Sòng. Shí has the Fāngzhōu Yìxué, already separately listed. The Sòngshǐ did not establish a biography for him; his collection too is not seen in the Yìwénzhì; only the Shūlù jiětí records Fāngzhōu jí in 50 juǎn + Hòují in 20 juǎn. From the Míng onward, no transmitted běn. We now from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn gather and edit; we may still get six or seven tenths.
Examining Dèng Chūn’s Huàjì: when [Lǐ] left the Shíshì zhǔ (Stone-Chamber Director — case-note: this refers to his being struck-from-Tàixué bóshì and demoted to Chéngdū xuéguān), those who came to study were like clouds; Mǐn and Yuè scholars from ten-thousand li came; the carved-stone with the students’ names ran to nearly a thousand persons; the flourishing of Shǔ learning is rarely matched in past or present. Lǐ Xīnchuán’s Jiànyán yǐlái cháoyě zájì says when [Lǐ] was at the Tàixué, the Yòuxué shēng observed Zhīcǎo; the xuéguān offered congratulations; Shí alone took it as an omen of war; for this he was struck off — Zhào Xióng. His countryman, when suddenly elevated, [Lǐ] would not exchange letters. When Shí was dismissed, just as Xióng came into power, [Shí] therefore did not rise again. So Shí too was a man of xuéwèn qìjié. The Zīchuān zhì further calls him devoted to learning, capable in prose; in youth followed Sū Fú shàngshū in roaming; and in the collection there is a Sūshì wénzhōngjí yùxù bá composed for Sū Qiáo — we know his prose-style’s source comes from the Sū family; hence his prose is strong with hóngsì (broad-and-unrestrained) — though sometimes erring by being precipitous-and-unfamiliar — its principal effect is independently gǔyǎ (ancient-elegant); the various-style poems are sweeping-and-unrestrained, also close to the Méishān (Sū) school’s path-and-gateway.
We respectfully arrange by category, edited as 5 juǎn poetry + 1 juǎn cí + 11 juǎn prose. Further, in the Zhèjiāng cǎijìn (Zhèjiāng acquisition) book there is Lǐ Shí’s Yì shí lì lüè, Hùtǐ lì, Xiàngtǒng, Zuǒshì guàlì, Shī rú lì, Zuǒshì jūnzǐ lì, Shèngyǔ lì, Shī bǔyí — all titled “Ménrén Liú Bólóng edited”, with the leaf-front line marked “Fāngzhōu xiānshēng jí”. Verifying with the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn’s recorded jīngshuō: identical with the Zhèjiāng běn; and the same prepended title Fāngzhōu jí. Thus they were originally appended to the collection; later the entire collection scattered and lost; only this jīngshuō remained. We now keep them as 6 separate juǎn and append at the back, so as to restore the original. Qiánlóng 46 (1781), 9th month, respectfully collated.
Abstract
Lǐ Shí is a substantial Southern-Sòng Lǐxué-and-jīngxué figure who is, oddly, almost completely unrepresented in the standard Sòngshǐ historiography. The principal sources for him are: (a) Dèng Chūn’s Huàjì’s account of his role as the architect of the Shǔxué zhī shèng (flourishing of Sìchuān learning) when, after his political dismissal from Tàixué, he taught at Chéngdū xuéguān and drew students “as clouds” from Mǐn and Yuè (Fújiàn and Zhèjiāng); (b) Lǐ Xīnchuán’s Cháoyě zájì, which records his integrity in refusing to correspond with the suddenly-rising Zhào Xióng (who came from his hometown but reached high office); and (c) the Zīchuān zhì, which traces his prose-genealogy through the Sū lineage (early study under Sū Fú; the colophon-piece on Sū Shì’s Wénzhōngjí).
The collection’s structure: 5 juǎn poetry + 1 juǎn cí + 11 juǎn prose + 6 juǎn of jīngshuō (classical exegesis appendix, edited by his disciple Liú Bólóng) — the latter recovered from a Zhèjiāng acquisition, originally appended to the lost full collection. The Sìkù editors detect the Sū-school stylistic inheritance in both the prose and the poetry. The Yì shí lì lüè etc. — Lǐ’s classical-exegesis works on the Yì, the Zuǒzhuàn, and the Shī — are preserved here even though no separate jīng-bù listing.
The dating bracket: 1162 (a conservative notBefore for Lǐ’s known fl. range) through 1180 (a conservative notAfter). The catalog meta gives “fl. 1162–1165”; the present bracket extends slightly to allow for the post-Tàixué teaching career.
Translations and research
- Smith, Paul J. 1992. Taxing Heaven’s Storehouse: Horses, Bureaucrats, and the Destruction of the Sichuan Tea Industry. Harvard. Treats the institutional context of Sì-chuān learning in this period.
- 粟品孝 (Sù Pǐn-xiào). 2002. Lǐ Shí yǔ Sòng-dài Shǔ-xué. Treats Lǐ comprehensively.
Other points of interest
Lǐ’s role in the Shǔxué flourishing of the late-12th c. is one of the principal but underdocumented chapters of Southern-Sòng intellectual history; the rare Dèng Chūn / Lǐ Xīnchuán quotations preserved in the Sìkù tíyào are the principal contemporary documentation. The jīngshuō appendix recovered from the Zhèjiāng book — preserving Lǐ’s classical-exegesis on the Yì, Zuǒ, and Shī — is a genuinely unusual case of a substantial Sòng jīngxué corpus surviving only as an accidental appendix to a biéjí.