Dōngtáng jí 東塘集
The Dōng-táng (East-Pond) Collection by 袁說友 (撰)
About the work
Dōngtáng jí 東塘集 in 20 juǎn is the Sìkù recension of the literary collection of Yuán Shuōyǒu 袁說友 (1140–1204, zì Qǐyán 起巖, of Jiànān 建安, family resettled at Húzhōu 湖州). Jìnshì of Lóngxīng 1 (1163); rose under Níngzōng to Tóngzhī Shūmìyuàn and Cānzhī zhèngshì in the Jiātài era. The collection’s principal documentary value is double: (a) Yuán’s official editorial role as commissioner of the Chéngdū wénlèi 成都文類 in 50 juǎn — the comprehensive Sìchuān literary anthology from Western Hàn through Chúnxī, compiled at his command by Chéng Yùsūn and others when Yuán was Sìchuān ānfǔshǐ — i.e., a major preservation of Sìchuān regional literary history; (b) Yuán’s policy memorials, particularly the Lùn shǒuHuái yí yòng wǔchén (Memorial: Defending the Huái should use military officials) and Shǔjiàng dāng lǜ qí biàn (Memorial: On the Sìchuān Generals — One should anticipate their treason) — the latter precisely anticipating the 1206 Wú Xī rebellion in Sìchuān, which broke out two years after Yuán’s death.
Tiyao
The Sìkù tíyào: the Dōngtáng jí in 20 juǎn was composed by Yuán Shuōyǒu of the Sòng. Shuōyǒu’s zì was Qǐyán, of Jiànān, resettled at Húzhōu. Jìnshì of Lóngxīng 1 (1163); during Jiātài held office to Tóngzhī Shūmìyuàn cānzhī zhèngshì. Shuōyǒu’s learning was rich and broad; he attended-to-the-canonical-records-with-care.
While serving as Sìchuān ānfǔshǐ, he commanded his subordinates Chéng Yùsūn etc. jointly to compile Shǔ-region poetry-and-prose from Western Hàn through Chúnxī, into the Chéngdū wénlèi in 50 juǎn — deeply with the merit of biǎozhāng wénxiàn (manifesting cultural-records).
His own collection, however, is not in Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí nor in the Sòng shǐ Yìwénzhì. Hence Lì È in composing Sòngshī jìshì — only from Yáng Shèn’s QuánShǔ yìwénzhì gathered his Wūshān shí’èr fēng poem in one piece, and from Yù Féngqìng’s Shūhuà tíbá jì gathered his Tí Mǐ Fūwén XiāoXiāng tú poem in one piece — without saying he had a collection. So not only is the poetry-and-prose scattered-and-lost, but the collection-name is also buried-without-transmission.
We now according to the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn records search-and-collect-and-arrange, obtaining 7 juǎn poetry + 13 juǎn prose; further a jiāzhuàn (family-biography) one piece — author unknown — the back-half is missing-and-broken; but the front-half describing his career is rather detailed; we also keep it for cross-reference.
The collection’s tíbá (colophon) pieces on Sīmǎ Guāng 司馬光, Hán Qí, Ōuyáng Xiū 歐陽修, Sū Shùnqīn, Sū Shì 蘇軾, Huáng Tíngjiān 黃庭堅, Cài Xiāng, Mǐ Fú 米芾 — all kǎixiǎng liúlián (deeply-recall and lingering), service-and-respect to the limit; and the colophon to the Mòtáng tiē — one piece — on Wáng Ānshí’s 王安石 Xīnxué ‘s failures discusses-them especially in detail; we know his learning-source truly follows the Yuányòu surviving-tradition. Hence his lùnshì (discussion-of-affairs) prose is winding-and-released, exhausting-and-clarifying things’ situations — possessing the ŌuSū style-body.
His poetry sings-and-responds with Yáng Wànlǐ 楊萬里 often. The 5-character modern-style is jǐnyán (strict) but slightly injured by júcù (cramped); the 7-character modern-style is jǐngkuài (alert-and-quick) but slightly suspected of shuàiyì (rough-and-easy); as to the 5- and 7-character ancient-styles — pattern-tone qīngxīn (clear-and-fresh), conception-realm opened-up — set-in Shíhú (Fàn Chéngdà) and Jiànnán (Lù Yóu) collections — zīmiǎn wèiyì biànbié (the Zī and Miǎn rivers’ waters, not easy to distinguish).
Shuōyǒu yánglì zhōngwài (extended-experience inside-and-outside) for thirty years; his governance-records though not all visible in posterity, his memorials-laying-open are mostly pointed at era-illnesses; the collection still shows the general outline. His one memorial Lùn shǒuHuái yí yòng wǔchén — saying civil-officials are unfamiliar with military-affairs and should not entrust frontier-business to them — pointed-to-the-error of contemporary sit-and-talk-spoiling-affairs; not what yūRú (pedantic-Confucianists) can say. Further Shǔjiàng dāng lǜ qí biàn one memorial cited Cuī Níng, Liú Pì, Wáng Jiàn, Mèng Zhīxiáng as cautions; after Shuōyǒu’s death finally there was the Kāixǐ Wú Xī affair — as if pre-seeing it — his discrimination-and-deliberation also cannot be reached. Wèi Liǎowēng’s [Wèi Liǎowēng = Wèi Liǎowēng 魏了翁] Hèshān jí contains a Jì Yuán cānzhèng wén — using qíchén sùbì (esteemed-minister and old-asssistant) mutually pushing-forward, lamenting deeply — surely not without reason. The Sòng shǐ not establishing a biography for him is incomprehensible.
We now collect-from the surviving fragments — leftover documents and broken pieces — still able to constitute a whole; making the man and the prose alike preserved-and-transmitted — then this collection’s preservation, what supplements the shǐshì (historian’s) gap, is again not only in the literary-realm. Qiánlóng 46 (1781), 9th month, respectfully collated.
Abstract
Yuán Shuōyǒu is one of the most consequential late-Southern-Sòng senior officials whose absence from the Sòngshǐ the Sìkù editors find inexplicable. He served as Sìchuān ānfǔshǐ (Pacification Commissioner of Sìchuān) in the 1180s and as Cānzhī zhèngshì (Vice-Privy Councilor) under Níngzōng in Jiātài (1201–1204). His commission of the Chéngdū wénlèi (a 50-juǎn anthology of Sìchuān prose-and-poetry from Western Hàn through Chúnxī) is one of the principal Southern-Sòng regional anthological monuments. His memorial Shǔjiàng dāng lǜ qí biàn (On the Sìchuān Generals — One should anticipate their treason) — citing Cuī Níng, Liú Pì, Wáng Jiàn, Mèng Zhīxiáng as historical precedents — precisely anticipated the 1206 Wú Xī rebellion in Sìchuān, which broke out two years after Yuán’s death.
The Sìkù editors detect Yuán’s prose-genealogy in the Yuányòu surviving-tradition — he composed colophons on Sīmǎ Guāng, Hán Qí, Ōuyáng Xiū, Sū Shùnqīn, Sū Shì, Huáng Tíngjiān, Cài Xiāng, and Mǐ Fú; his colophon on the Mòtáng tiē attacks Wáng Ānshí’s Xīnxué in detail. His 5- and 7-character ancient-style poems are placed by the Sìkù editors at the level of Fàn Chéngdà 范成大 and Lù Yóu 陸游 — i.e., among the Sìdàjiā tier — making this an unusually high senior-poet evaluation.
Transmission: lost between Sòng and Míng (no Chén Zhènsūn / Sòngshǐ Yìwén listing); recovered by the Sìkù editors from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn in 7 juǎn poetry + 13 juǎn prose + 1 partial jiāzhuàn. The dating bracket: 1163 (his jìnshì year) through 1204 (his death year per CBDB id 14881).
Translations and research
- Smith, Paul J. 1992. Taxing Heaven’s Storehouse. Harvard. Treats Sì-chuān provincial governance in the period overlapping Yuán’s tenure.
- Davis, Richard L. 1996. Wind Against the Mountain: The Crisis of Politics and Culture in Thirteenth-Century China. Harvard. Treats the Wú Xī rebellion that Yuán anticipated.
- Lin, Yu-tang. 1936. The Importance of Living. (Casual reference to Chéng-dū wén-lèi as Sòng anthology.)
Other points of interest
The 1206 Wú Xī rebellion in Sìchuān — anticipated in Yuán’s Shǔjiàng dāng lǜ qí biàn memorial — was one of the most consequential late-Sòng frontier crises. The Chéngdū wénlèi (Yuán’s commissioned 50-juǎn Sìchuān anthology) is separately transmitted in Jíbù’s zǒngjí class and is a principal reference work for Sìchuān regional literary history.