Fàngwēng shīxuǎn 放翁詩選
Selections of [Lù] Fàng-wēng’s Poems by 陸游 (撰), 羅椅 (選前集), 劉辰翁 (選後集)
About the work
Fàngwēng shīxuǎn 放翁詩選 in 19 juǎn (10 qiánjí + 8 hòují + 1 biéjí) is the WYG recension of the principal SòngYuán anthology of Lù Yóu’s 陸游 poetry, jointly selected by Luó Yǐ 羅椅 (the Jiàngǔ selector of the qiánjí) and Liú Chénwēng 劉辰翁 (the Xūxī selector of the hòují), with a 1-juǎn anonymous biéjí appendix. Companion to KR4d0269 (the SBCK recension that contains only the qiánjí).
Tiyao
The Fàngwēng shīxuǎn — qiánjí in 10 juǎn, hòují in 8 juǎn, with appended biéjí in 1 juǎn — was, by the Sòng [men] Luó Yǐ and Liú Chénwēng, selected from Lù Yóu’s shī. The qiánjí was selected by Yǐ; in the Yuán Dàdé xīnchǒu (1301) Yǐ’s grandson Jǐng for the first time cut [it]; at the front there is Jǐng’s self-preface. The hòují was selected by Chénwēng; before-and-after no preface or postface. Yǐ occasionally has quāndiǎn but no evaluative-comments; Chénwēng has, below lines and at piān-ends, rather appended-criticisms — by-and-large similar to his evaluations of Dù Fǔ, Wáng Wéi, Lǐ Hè, and various others. Of Míng-people’s cuttings of Chénwēng’s evaluation-books in 9 kinds, this compilation is not among them — perhaps incidentally [they] had not seen this běn. Examining its diction-and-spirit, it is definitely the Xūxī approach — not a forgery. At the end is a Míng-person’s re-cut old postface — bug-eaten broken-and-fragmented, almost unreadable; even the author’s name cannot be discerned. What can be discerned: only the statement that in Hóngzhì (some year) it was obtained at the Yúháng school-master’s family, and entrusted to his classmate-of-the-same-year, Yúháng magistrate Rǎn Xiàolóng, to collate-and-cut it. Further says: Fàngwēng jí manuscript-copies still survive, but heard of and never seen; only Luó Jiàngǔ and Liú Xūxī’s selections, in the Shèngguó (i.e., Yuán) book-shops once combined and printed, [were] therefore copied back-and-forth, gradually emerging up to today, but printed-versions are also rarely seen — and so on. According to what he says, the two persons originally each made his own selection; the qiánjí and hòují designations were perhaps Yuán-period bookseller追-titles. The postface also has the words “removing duplicates” — therefore the two collections record no piece twice. At the end is appended a biéjí in 1 juǎn — without an editor’s name — its shī all seen in Yíngkuí lǜsuǐ; from the postface’s “qǔ Fāng Xūgǔ jù” it can be inferred that this is what the postface-author edited to supplement the gaps of the two collections. Among them the Shuìqǐ zhì yuánzhōng one piece is already in qiánjí juǎn 5 — perhaps an incidental error. Jiànnán shījí — Jígǔgé cut [Máo Jìn] — is now widely circulated; yet this selection’s selection-and-rejection is not careless, and being a Sòng-person’s old běn, [we] therefore — in the example of Chén Liàng’s Ōuyáng wéncuì — preserve it alongside the main collection. Yǐ’s zì was Zǐyuǎn, hào Jiàngǔ, a man of Lúlíng. Jìnshì of Bǎoyòu 4 (1256); held office to Bǐngyìláng as Jiānglíng jiàoguān; transferred to Tánzhōu; further Zhī Gànzhōu Xìnfēngxiàn; promoted Tíxiá quèhuò; in Déyòu (1275–1276) at the start was discussed and dismissed. Zhōu Mì’s Qídōng yěyǔ records that during the dàoxué shèng (Way-learning’s flourishing) he attached himself to seek-advancement; after the dàoxué shìshuāi (way-learning’s decline) he abandoned [the connection], not corresponding-and-asking — [Zhōu Mì] is deeply dissatisfied with him. Míng [Yǒu] Huán’s Qiánkūn qīngqì jí, all recording Yuán-people’s shī, [also] has his Yòuyú zhéchǐ gē one piece — perhaps in early Yuán he was still alive. Chénwēng’s writings include Píngdiǎn BānMǎ yìtóng and various books — already separately cataloged. Qiánlóng 46 (1781), 10th month, respectfully collated.
Abstract
Fàngwēng shīxuǎn (the WYG recension; the SBCK contains only the qiánjí as KR4d0269) is the principal SòngYuán anthology of Lù Yóu’s poetry. The textual history is unusually complex:
- Luó Yǐ 羅椅 (1213–after 1265) selected the qiánjí during his official service in Lúlíng; published posthumously by his grandnephew Luó Jǐng in Dàdé 5 (1301).
- Liú Chénwēng 劉辰翁 (1232–1297) — the Xūxī literary critic, separately responsible for evaluative editions of Dù Fǔ, Wáng Wéi, and Lǐ Hè — selected the hòují with full critical apparatus (line-end and piān-end píngdiǎn).
- An anonymous Míng or late-Yuán editor — clearly working from Fāng Huí’s Yíngkuí lǜsuǐ 瀛奎律髓 — added the biéjí in 1 juǎn as supplement to the two principal selections.
- The Yuán booksellers combined the works under a single bibliographic title and renamed the parts.
- A Hóngzhì re-cut by Rǎn Xiàolóng 冉孝隆 of Yúháng (sometime between 1488 and 1505) was the textual ancestor of the present transmission.
The Sìkù editors’ decision to preserve this anthology alongside the full Jiànnán shīgǎo (KR4d0267) — explicitly modeled on the precedent of preserving Chén Liàng’s Ōuyáng wéncuì alongside Ōuyáng Xiū’s main collection — is a notable case of editorial recognition that SòngYuán xuǎnběn practice has independent textual-and-critical value.
The dating bracket: 1265 (Luó Yǐ’s selection-completion) through 1301 (Luó Jǐng’s first cut). Liú Chénwēng’s hòují contribution falls within this bracket. The Yuán bookseller-renaming to qiánjí/hòují is also in the early Yuán.
Translations and research
- 章培恒, ed. 1985. 《劉辰翁集》. Critical edition of Liú Chén-wēng’s works including his píng-diǎn of Lù Yóu.
- See KR4d0267 entry for general Lù Yóu scholarship.
Other points of interest
The Liú Chénwēng píngdiǎn preserved here — line-end and piān-end critical comments on Lù Yóu’s poetry — represent a significant body of SòngYuán shīhuà-style evaluation that is otherwise not collected, and the WYG recension is the principal textual witness.