Yí’ān jūshì jí 頤菴居士集
Collection of the Yí-ān Lay-Gentleman by 劉應時 (撰)
About the work
Yí’ān jūshì jí 頤菴居士集 in 2 juǎn is the small biéjí of Liú Yìngshí 劉應時 (zì Liángzuǒ 良佐, of Sìmíng 四明 = Níngbō, modern Zhèjiāng), a Southern-Sòng poet of modest official standing. The collection’s importance lies almost entirely in its prefaces: Lù Yóu’s 陸游 Qìngyuán 6 (1200, 4th month, jǐhài) preface and Yáng Wànlǐ’s 楊萬里 preface — two of the four great Southern-Sòng poets endorsing a relatively obscure local figure. Lù Yóu’s preface notes that Liú’s poetry was first appreciated by Fàn Chéngdà 范成大 (the third of the four greats), making this an unusually well-credentialed minor biéjí.
Tiyao
The Yíān jūshì jí in 2 juǎn was composed by Liú Yìngshí of the Sòng. Yìngshí’s zì was Liángzuǒ, a man of Sìmíng. The collection is in 2 juǎn; at the front are prefaces by Lù Yóu and Yáng Wànlǐ. Yóu’s preface says: his shī was appreciated by Fàn Zhìnéng (Chéngdà). Further [Yóu] picks his lines: “Rather knowing the Maker’s intent, [he] long permits us-and-co a moment’s ease”; “The day-late still suits sleeping; / dog-barking knows there are people; / world-affairs no longer asked; / old books at-times taken-up to read”; “One night urging the flowers, the rain; / several houses by-the-water, the village”; “Green mountain emptily understands offering [its view] to the gazing-eye; / muddy wine cannot wash away parting-sorrow”; “Seeking lines, enduring hunger, poverty too is joy; / copying books, gaining-flavor, old age, what wound?” — Considered him distinguished in self-attainment: although the elder generation had named-himself for shī, none surpasses [him]. Wànlǐ’s preface compares him to Wáng Ānshí. [But] Ānshí’s shī — refined-and-honed — is more-than-enough, [yet] does not match Sū [Shì] and Huáng [Tíngjiān]‘s heaven-plucked utterance, root-foundation deep-and-thick, atmosphere-and-image self-different — definitely not what Yìngshí can match. To allow him this is too much. The lines [Wànlǐ] picks, like “the shuìmó battles the shīmó; / outside the window, one cry of póbǐngjiāo [bird]” and the like, rather verge on coarse-roughness. Only “alone with plum-blossom passing the winter; / the pale moon deliberately shifts the sparse shadows away” and the like, again rather close to shīyú (cí) — also not reaching the elegance of what [Lù] Yóu’s preface picked. Indeed the two persons each picked his own school’s near-self [tendencies] to praise. Yet Yìngshí’s shī, although his gélì (frame-strength) is somewhat thin and cannot drive abreast with Yóu and the others, yet from going-back-and-forth among the various persons, his ěrrú mùrǎn (ear-and-eye dyed) [influence] still has standard-bearing — compared to Sòng-end Jiānghú people, [he] truly is yǎyīn (elegant tone). Qiánlóng 46 (1781), 1st month, respectfully collated.
Abstract
Yí’ān jūshì jí is one of the most prefaced minor Southern-Sòng biéjí — a modest 2-juǎn collection elevated by endorsements from three of the four great Southern-Sòng poets (Fàn Chéngdà, Lù Yóu, Yáng Wànlǐ). The Sìkù tíyào is candidly evaluative: while accepting that Liú Yìngshí’s poetry has yǎyīn (elegant tone) compared to the late-Sòng Jiānghú poets, the editors push back firmly against Yáng Wànlǐ’s comparison of Liú to Wáng Ānshí, deeming it excessive. The dating bracket: 1180 (Liú’s earliest dateable composition) through 1206 (Yáng Wànlǐ’s death year, after which his preface to Liú’s collection — undated but late in Yáng’s career — would not have been added). Liú Yìngshí’s lifedates are unknown.
Translations and research
- No substantial secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The collection is a useful test case for how social capital — endorsements from major poets — could elevate a minor biéjí into the Sìkù canon. The Sìkù editors’ candid and somewhat sardonic critique of Yáng Wànlǐ’s overpraise (essentially, “Yáng was working from his own poetic biases when he selected Liú’s lines for praise”) is also a useful documentation of Sìkù-period evaluative practice.