Kètíng lèigǎo 客亭類稿
The Guest-Pavilion Drafts by 楊冠卿 (撰)
About the work
Kètíng lèigǎo 客亭類稿 in 14 juǎn is the Sìkù-reconstructed biéjí of Yáng Guànqīng 楊冠卿 (b. 1139, zì Mèngxī 夢錫, of Jiānglíng). His career, undocumented in the Sòngshǐ, was reconstructed by the Sìkù editors from the collection’s internal evidence: jìnshì candidate; jiǔjiāng róngsī staff-officer; prefect of Guǎngzhōu (dismissed for an unspecified offense); thereafter retired at Línān. CBDB id 27710 confirms 1139 birth-year.
Tiyao
The Kètíng lèigǎo in 14 juǎn was composed by Yáng Guànqīng of the Sòng. Guànqīng’s zì was Mèngxī, a man of Jiānglíng. The Sòngshǐ did not establish a biography; Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí records this collection but also does not detail Guànqīng’s career. Now examining the collection’s shīwén mutual-investigation: Liú Jìcén’s manuscript-letter says: at the start of Shàoxīng, [I] substituted-prefect of Nánxú, [I served] alongside Yáng Jìhóng as lǐyuán; thirty years later [I] saw his son Mèngxī — therefore Guànqīng is Jìhóng’s son. His Jìmèng shī xù says: in wùxū the [I was] 40 suì. Wùxū is Chúnxī 5 (1178); pushing back 40 years, then Guànqīng was born in Shàoxīng 8 jǐwèi (1138/1139). His yǔ Fùcáo shī has: “Hometown documents — remembering long-ago — offered the worthy and able / surname-and-style once stained the heaven-prefecture’s登-roster” — therefore he once attempted the jìnshì examination. His shàng zhízhèng qǐ says: “receiving the order to lead the prefecture; / surrendering the talisman, returned”; further has jì Guǎngdōng zhǔguǎn yá tǔdì wén — therefore he once held the Zhī Guǎngzhōu and was dismissed-from-office on a matter. And Jiāng Kuí presenting Guànqīng shī has: “In Chángān city choosing a quiet-perch; / quietly retiring, not wishing the contemporary people to know” — therefore after dismissal he again sojourned at Línān. The collection is rather rare in transmission. Only the Zhèjiāng 採-presented books contain the old-cut Kètíng lèigǎo as a jīnxiāng small-character běn; on examination, still an Yuán cut. Divided into sìliù 四六, zázhù, gǔlǜ — all his composed shīwén; the Huìdá Kètíng shūqǐbiān contains gifts from contemporary famous men. Juǎn-counts not marked; before-and-after no preface-or-postface. Yet the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn in each yùn contains Guànqīng’s prose: there are still biǎojiān shīyú (cí) — several tens [of pieces] each — none recorded in the cut-edition. The suspicion: at the time the běn each was an [independent] compilation; transmitted long, then suffered lacunae. Now according to the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn recording, with the cut-běn as comparison-collation, supplementing-the-other [genres] — only then did the various tǐ become complete. Respectfully imitating the original-edition’s name-and-titles, dividing into 14 juǎn; and the Huìdá shūqǐ biān — we delete it. Guànqīng’s cáihuá is clear-and-bold; his sìliù even more flowing-fluid, undefiled-elegant. Zhāng Duānyì’s Guìěr jí records: when he served at the Jiǔjiāng róngsī, Zhào Wēnshū resigned the chief-councillorship and led Jīngnán — going by way of Jiǔjiāng — and the prefect mutually feasted [him]; Guànqīng composed the zhìyǔ saying: “The xiànggōng tired of the táidǐng; / pleased to see the embroidered-gǔn east-returning; / Xúnyáng without guǎnxián; / yet listens to the pípā’s old tune” — Wēnshū three-times praised it. Knowing that he was eminent at this tǐ. Further Jīng Tāng, Hé Yì, Lǐ Jié, and various tiē greatly praise his jíDù (Dù Fǔ centos) work; yet in the manuscript [we have] there is not one piān — there must at the time have been a separate běn circulating singly, and now lost. Qiánlóng 46 (1781), 9th month, respectfully collated.
Abstract
Kètíng lèigǎo is a useful test case of Sìkù-period biéjí reconstruction: the editors combined an Yuán-era cut jīnxiāng (small-format) recension with material recovered from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn, then reorganized into a 14-juǎn genre-divided structure. Yáng Guànqīng was particularly noted in his time for sìliù parallel-prose (the Sìkù editors quote Zhāng Duānyì’s anecdote of his zhìyǔ on Zhào Wēnshū’s east-returning); his jíDù (Dù Fǔ centos), once celebrated, are entirely lost. Jiāng Kuí 姜夔’s parting poem to Yáng (preserved in this collection) is a useful documentation of the Zhāng literary network around Línān. The dating bracket: 1170 (around the start of Yáng’s substantive activity) through 1210 (the late stage of his retirement at Línān).
Translations and research
- No substantial secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The Sìkù editors’ refusal to deliberately reconstruct the lost jíDù corpus — instead noting its absence as a textual fact — is a methodologically conservative choice that contemporary scholarship would do well to follow.