Wǎngshān jí 網山集
The Net-Mountain Collection by 林亦之 (撰)
About the work
Wǎngshān jí 網山集 in 8 juǎn is the literary collection of Lín Yìzhī 林亦之 (1136–1185, zì Xuékě 學可, hào Yuèyú / Yuèyúshī 月漁 (the “Moon-Fishing”), of Fúqīng 福清 in Fújiàn). Posthumously honored Dígōngláng; private shì (granted by his disciples) Wénjiè 文介. Lín’s principal claim is as the orthodox heir (díchuán) of Lín Guāngcháo 林光朝 — the Àixuān xiānshēng 艾軒先生 of KR4d0225 — at the Hóngquán 紅泉 lecture hall in Pútián. After Lín Guāngcháo’s death (1178), the disciples requested Lín Yìzhī to take the seat. Zhào Rǔyú 趙汝愚, then shuài Mǐn (Pacification Commissioner of Fújiàn), submitted his name to court for office, but he died before being employed (1185). The original collection was carved at Shàoxīng xīnmǎo (1231); preserved with two prefaces — by Liú Kèzhuāng 劉克莊 (canonical YuánSòng poetry critic) and Lín Xīyì 林希逸 (kinsman and Xíngzhuàng-author).
Tiyao
The Sìkù tíyào: the Wǎngshān jí in 8 juǎn was composed by Lín Yìzhī of the Sòng. Yìzhī’s zì was Xuékě, hào Yuèyú (Moon-Fishing); a man of Fúqīng. Lín Guāngcháo once gave instruction at Pútián’s Hóngquán; on his death the students requested Yìzhī to continue his seat. Zhào Rǔyú, commanding Mǐn, submitted Yìzhī’s accomplishments to court — before he could be employed, he died. In the Jǐngdìng era (1260–1264) [court] granted Dígōngláng; students privately bestowed the shì “Wénjiè xiānshēng”.
Yìzhī obtained Guāngcháo’s transmission, taking the rebuttal of yìduān (heterodoxy) and the clarification of zhèngxué as his self-appointed task. His wénzhāng too is by jùnjié (lofty-and-clean) and jiǎnqiào (terse-and-sharp) — well-crafted. The original collection was carved in Shàoxīng xīnmǎo (1231); Liú Kèzhuāng and Lín Xīyì both made prefaces, holding him in considerable esteem.
Now examining the collection’s contents: jìwén (memorial-essays for sacrifices) total over 60 pieces; zhùwén and pìnshū further 20–30 pieces; with even qīngcí (Daoist prayer-formulae) and mùshū (subscription-petitions) — categories not in proper zhèng — also intermixed. The arrangement is altogether chaotic — surely [the result] that after his death, the surviving prose was scattered, and the disciples gathered up the broken-and-fragmentary, without selective discrimination, so that the gem-and-flaw appear together; not necessarily the works of his lifetime intent.
But the Àixuān school in his time truly self-constituted a school (zì chéng yī jiā); his poetic method was particularly strict-and-careful. Liú Kèzhuāng calls Yìzhī’s lǜshī in its high-and-marvelous places “absolutely resembling the Táng”; Xīyì calls it “structure refined-and-strict, taste leisurely-and-far, possessing my school’s zhèngfǎ (orthodox method)“. Although the evaluations are perhaps overstated, his elaboration-and-tempering — strong-and-dense — is also self-able to open a fresh face — even at the level of these few-and-scattered chapters, suffices to glimpse the cliff-and-outline. Qiánlóng 46 (1781), 10th month, respectfully collated.
The Liú Kèzhuāng preface (translated): “Learning must have a shī (master); the master must have a transmission-recipient. The disciples of Yáng Xióng take Hóu Bā as transmission-recipient; among those who studied at the gate of Hé Fén (Wáng Tōng), Dǒng Cháng was the transmission-recipient. Hóu and Dǒng were both poor-village commoners whose accomplishments were not visible in the world; but the shīdào (Way-of-the-Master) transmission stands in them. In Lóngxīng (1163–1164), the southern scholars all served Àixuān xiānshēng (Lín Guāngcháo); regular several hundred students; those who left and became prominent looked at each other; yet during the master’s lifetime when speaking of the gāodì (high-disciples), they said Wǎngshān; sixty years after the master’s death, when scholars rank-ordered the master’s díchuán (orthodox transmission), they still said Wǎngshān. Without-met a single commoner — dead is dead — but able to lift his name to walk side-by-side with the great Rú of the time — is this not what Mèngzǐ called a háojié zhī shì (hero scholar)?
“I have judged Àixuān’s prose: at its high places it presses on the Tángōng and Gǔliáng; at the level places it gallops alongside Hán [Yù]. Others, exerting their utmost in imitation, find his peaked-and-clean and ancient-deep absent — only see the silent-and-low and rare-short. Even should they straight-on press realism into reality-confusion, it is like Hǔbēn resembling Cài Yōng — only the form. As to Wǎngshān’s discussions and compositions, sentence by sentence, character by character, suffice to clarify Zhōugōng’s intent and obtain Shǎolíng (Dù Fǔ)‘s marrow. His lǜshī high-and-marvelous resembles Táng absolutely; the senior master surely had to dodge his sharpness. Other prose like-this. But he died at only 50; his son Lín Jiǎn 簡, zì Qǐbó, died abroad — thereafter the line ended. I in childhood served Qǐbó as master; further with the Wǎngshān clansman-grandson, Lín Sùwēng (Lín Xīyì), made friends. Sùwēng has prefaced his surviving prose; I now further write at the back. Wǎngshān of the Lín surname, huì Yìzhī, zì Xuékě, of Fúqīng. Hào Moon-Fish-Master. Former shǐguān Liú Kèzhuāng, preface.”
The Lín Xīyì preface (translated): “The scholar’s learning is hard to complete; learning completed, then poor and not-sold-with — speaking with empty words alone — this is one not able with men, but able with Heaven. Yet what is hidden in the cliff-and-vale: grass-and-tree all transformed; without attaching to the cyan-cloud’s gentleman, even the surname goes into oblivion — how can his words all be transmitted? — Such a small thing, must it be? Some say: in the great-broad of the yǔzhòu (universe), in the unchanging law of birth-and-death, in the few-many of those-known-as-people-and-things — those who, in the throng, can be taken as outstanding (jiérán in yīrénwù), in a thousand-or-hundred years — how few seen? In the human world, the few who can independently see the Dào — fewer still. Even though unfortunately rejected by men and dying, his words and writings — surviving — guǐshén (spirits and gods) must value-and-cherish them; never to be cast aside in later days. Now the freezing-and-thaw, sun-and-moon’s rising-and-setting, clouds suddenly grow-and-decay-and-fall — what does the agitator of myriad things ever stint? As to the buried sword and sunken cauldron — once mixed in mire — at night the spirit-cusp emerges, monsters appear, must be the splendid-resounding and shaking-shining, and only then stop — is this not because they are not lightly obtained, hence also not lightly cast off? Visibility-and-hiddenness, slowness-and-quickness, only timing.
“In my view: the Yuèyú gentleman silently doubts. Resting-on-his-table-singing in the empty mountain — life with no thing to his liking — age only fifty when he died — fewer than fifty years between death and now — son and grandson can scarcely keep their pots-and-vessels — pine-and-cedar (graveyard trees) almost bald — front-and-back hardships beyond words — surviving prose only several volumes — only my company still know him; those shown, all cover-nose-and-snort and depart. Is this not what one might call certainly-not-to-be-transmitted? — If transmitted-truly, surely not cast off thus — what is called guǐshén, is yes? is no? Although: cannot suspend judgment by ear-and-eye — a thousand years hence, who knows there is no Yuèyú one? The human heart preserves — Tàixū (Great-Void) without harm — yet No-Have, who says No-Have? — the some one’s saying perhaps approaches. Our group treasure and await — that is enough. Master huì Yìzhī, zì Xuékě, of the Lín surname; my county’s Lóngjiāng man; received the Way under Àixuān; self-styled Wǎngshān shānrén Yuèyúshī; born Gāozōng bǐngchén (1136), died Xiàozōng yǐsì (1185); request-and-shrine-at the county school.”
Abstract
Lín Yìzhī is the orthodox transmission-recipient (díchuán) of Lín Guāngcháo’s 林光朝 Àixuān school of pre-Zhū-Xī Pútián / Fúqīng Lǐxué. He was Lín Guāngcháo’s principal disciple at the Hóngquán lecture hall in Pútián; on Lín Guāngcháo’s death (1178), the disciples requested Lín Yìzhī to continue the seat. Zhào Rǔyú 趙汝愚 (chief minister-to-be), then commanding Fújiàn, submitted his name to court for office — but Lín Yìzhī died (1185) before any appointment could be made. Posthumously honored Dígōngláng in the Jǐngdìng era (1260–1264); his disciples privately bestowed the shì “Wénjiè xiānshēng”.
The collection — assembled posthumously, carved 1231 — has the canonical gāodì prefaces by Liú Kèzhuāng and Lín Xīyì 林希逸 (Lín Yìzhī’s clan-grandson). Liú Kèzhuāng’s preface — drawing the analogy of Hóu Bā (disciple of Yáng Xióng) and Dǒng Cháng (disciple of Wáng Tōng), both poor-commoner díchuán of greater masters — places Lín Yìzhī in the canon of unfortunate-but-orthodox transmitters. Liú further praises his lǜshī as “absolutely resembling the Táng” — the canonical late-Sòng evaluation.
The collection’s zá arrangement (60+ jìwén + 20–30 zhùwén + scattered qīngcí and mùshū) reflects the post-mortem disciple-assemblage, not Lín’s own selection. The dating bracket: 1163 (Lín Guāngcháo’s Lóngxīng settlement at Hóngquán, Lín Yìzhī’s apprenticeship period) through 1185 (his death year, per Lín Xīyì’s preface).
Translations and research
- 何乃川. 1995. Fú-jiàn Zhū-zǐ-xué. Treats the pre-Zhū-Xī Fú-jiàn Lǐ-xué lineage and the Ài-xuān school’s relation to Zhū Xī.
Other points of interest
The collection is one of the principal documentary witnesses to the Àixuān school of pre-Zhū-Xī Fújiàn Lǐxué. Liú Kèzhuāng’s preface’ HóuBā / DǒngCháng analogy is one of the canonical Sòng-end formulations of the díchuán concept of master-disciple succession. The collection’s preservation of Lín Yìzhī’s late-Sòng lǐxué prose — a school that disappeared after the ZhūXī orthodoxy consolidated in the early Yuán — is the principal historical interest.