Jīnlíng bǎiyǒng 金陵百詠
One Hundred Songs of Jīn-líng by 曾極 (撰)
About the work
Jīnlíng bǎiyǒng 金陵百詠 in 1 juǎn is a sequence of 100 seven-syllable quatrains on historical sites at Jīnlíng 金陵 (modern Nánjīng) by Zēng Jí 曾極 (d. 1221, zì Jǐngjiàn 景建, of Línchuān 臨川 in Fǔzhōu, modern Jiāngxī, a bùyī commoner) — the most thematically focused single-place poetic sequence of the late Southern Sòng. Late in life Zēng was implicated in the Jiānghú jí 江湖集 case and exiled to Dàozhōu 道州, where he died. His other work, the Chōnglíng xiǎoyǎ, is now lost.
Tiyao
The Jīnlíng bǎiyǒng in 1 juǎn was composed by Zēng Jí of the Sòng. Jí’s zì was Jǐngjiàn, a bùyī of Línchuān. Late in life through the Jiānghú jí affair he was charged-and-banished to Dàozhōu, where he died. His writings include the Chōnglíng xiǎoyǎ, now untransmitted. This [present collection] is his composition chanting the ancient sites of Jiànkāng — all seven-syllable quatrains, in all 100 pieces. The diction’s purport is sad-and-vigorous, having an unbridled, unfettered qì. He once recorded and sent [it] to Luó Yǐ, who in his thank-letter said: “I do not know what kind of fèifǔ (innards) Jǐngjiàn has, that he can distinguish such heart-troubling words a thousand-years-after.” Now examining his shī, like the Tiānmén shān: “High-house tipping the jug, no calculation can take it; / iron-strong, take it as the YáoHán [strategic pass].” The Xīntíng: “East-of-the-Jiāng has by now become a Land-of-Joy; / at Xīntíng shedding tears, again no men.” By-and-large all on the post-southern-crossing jūnchén (lord-and-minister) drawing-the-Jiāng to self-defend, having no will for the Zhōngyuán — the implications quite deep-and-piercing. The Yùzhāng rénwù zhì records that Jí roamed Jīnlíng and inscribed the Xínggōng lóngpíng (palace dragon-screen), offending the time’s chief-councillor Shǐ [Mí]-yuǎn — and on this account incurred censure. This collection has a Huà lóngpíngfēng one piece: “Riding cloud, roving mist, crossing east-of-the-Jiāng; / when [the] painting-affair was once-laughed-at by Yègōng; / hateful! the horizontal-empty thousand-zhàng power, / cut-and-trimmed today entered the small píngfēng.” — Agreeing with what the Rénwù zhì recorded. Indeed his fènjī (indignation-激) words, although not without the excess of being too direct, [their] línlí gǎnkǎi (drenching feeling) and Liú Guò’s Lóngzhōu jí spirit-and-frame are often the same — certainly not those who only model mountain-and-water as their craft. Liú Xūn’s Yǐnjū tōngyì picks: “Pity that in those years killing Yán Xù; / no one substituted “Yì jué qiú dēng” [for it].” Two phrases say Yán Xù始終 was wholly intact, never killed; cannot avoid using the historical event in error. Examining the Zīzhì tōngjiàn: it records that Chén Jué as ambassador to Zhōu, on returning, [forged a] disguised Shìzōng’s edict commanding Lǐ Jǐng to kill Yán Xù; Jǐng biǎo-petitioned Zhōu making clear Xù was without crime; Jué’s deception began to be revealed and Xù was spared. This means Xù in fact was not killed. Liú Xūn’s refutation is correct. Examining the cause of error: indeed because Yáo Kuān’s Xīxī cóngyǔ has Zhōng Mó on a mission returning to Táng, with Chén Jué disguising the Zhōudì’s command and beheading Yán Xù — these matters reported to the Táng lord — and so on; what was said does not preserve head-and-tail, [Zēng] Jí thereupon took it as if there were really such a matter. Further the jué qiú dēng matter has Middle-Lord erroneously taken as Latter-Lord — also a discrepancy. This is the chance laxity in textual investigation: certainly no need to conceal it. Qiánlóng 46 (1781), 5th month, respectfully collated.
Abstract
Jīnlíng bǎiyǒng is a programmatic anti-appeasement / pro-recovery quatrain sequence on historical sites at the former Sòng northern capital Jīnlíng 金陵 (Nánjīng), composed by Zēng Jí — a bùyī commoner from Línchuān. The Sìkù editors’ tíyào is unusually responsive: they recognize Zēng’s affinity with Liú Guò 劉過’s Lóngzhōu jí and the broader Xīn Qìjí anti-appeasement circle, and they document the political-implication of the famous Huà lóngpíngfēng poem (in which the dragon-screen painted on Lord Shǐ Míyuǎn’s wall is read as a satire of the chief-councillor — a reading that Yùzhāng rénwù zhì attributes to the conviction itself). The Sìkù editors also offer textual-critical corrections of two of Zēng’s references: the Yán Xù anecdote (Zēng followed Yáo Kuān’s incomplete Xīxī cóngyǔ and erred), and the misattribution of the jué qiú dēng event to the wrong Lǐ ruler.
The Jiānghú jí 江湖集 affair (1228–1233) was a literary-political prosecution in which the Hán Tuōzhòu / Shǐ Míyuǎn factions silenced anti-court poets through banishment and book-suppression; Zēng Jí’s exile to Dàozhōu, where he died in 1221, is one of its principal incidents. The dating bracket: 1190 (around when Zēng would have visited Jīnlíng — on internal evidence; he must have done so well before his banishment) through 1221 (his death year per CBDB id 48488).
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language secondary literature located.
- 朱東潤. 1979. 《陸游研究》. Treats Liú Guò and Zēng Jí as part of the late-Southern-Sòng Lóng-zhōu circle.
Other points of interest
The 100-piece sequence on a single city’s historical sites is one of the most cohesive late-Southern-Sòng poetic projects, structurally comparable to Yú Yīng’s 余英 Suíyáng zhúzhī but more politically charged. The sequence’s reception (Luó Yǐ’s letter, the Yùzhāng rénwù zhì’s political reading) is unusually well-preserved.