Èrwēitíng shījí 二薇亭詩集
The Two-Wēi Pavilion Poetry Collection by 徐璣 (撰)
About the work
Èrwēitíng shījí 二薇亭詩集 in 1 juǎn (with 3-piece bǔyí appendix from the Yíngkuí lǜsuǐ, Dōngōu shījí, Dōngōu xùjí) is the surviving biéjí of Xú Jǐ 徐璣 (1162–1214, zì Wényuān 文淵, alternate zì Zhìzhōng 致中, hào Língyuān 靈淵 — written 靈囦 in Zhào Shīxiù’s collection, ancient-form), of Yǒngjiā 永嘉. Second-senior member of the Yǒngjiā Sìlíng. SòngYuán shīhuì records his career: Jiànān zhǔbù, Lóngxī chéng, Wǔdāng zhǎng, Tàishì lìng; died at 59 suì in Jiādìng 7 (1214). The companion to KR4d0297 in the same WYG juǎn V1171.
Tiyao
[The standard tíyào, here translated:] The Èrwēitíng shījí in 1 juǎn was composed by Xú Jǐ of the Sòng. Jǐ’s zì was Wényuān, alternate zì Zhìzhōng, hào Língyuān — Zhào Shīxiù’s collection writes [it] Líng-囦 — the ancient-and-modern character. A man of Yǒngjiā; one of the Sìlíng. The SòngYuán shīhuì records [that] Jǐ officed as Jiànān zhǔbù, Lóngxī chéng, Wǔdāng zhǎng, Tàishì lìng; in Jiādìng 7 [he] died at age 59. But Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí says: among the four persons, only Shīxiù once dēngkē (passed examination) and gǎiguān (changed-office) — meaning that the [other] three persons [including Jǐ] never went-out to office. Cáo Xuéquán too says the two Xú both lived-in-seclusion did-not-take-office. Now examining this juǎn: Jǐ has Jiānzào yùchá five-syllable ancient-style poems — must have been [composed] when [he was] zhǔbù. His zèng Zhào Shīxiù shī has the line “roving-and-officing returned home, several spring [seasons]“. Seven-syllable quatrains further have yíguān Nánpǔ one [piece] — then Chén Zhènsūn’s words have a chance lapse-in-examination; Xuéquán again erred-following from him. Zhènsūn’s recorded Jǐ’s collection in 1 juǎn matches this běn; its name Èrwēitíng jí — the Tōngkǎo did not record [it] — perhaps also chance-omitted. The collection’s back has bǔyí 3 [pieces] from Yíngkuí lǜsuǐ, Dōngōu shījí, Dōngōu xùjí extracted-out. Lì È’s Sòng shī jìshì records [that] Jǐ further has Quánshān jí — now not seen — perhaps the Dōngōu shījí’s recorded [poems] are Quánshān jí poems? Qiánlóng 46 (1781), 1st month, respectfully collated.
Abstract
Èrwēitíng shījí is the surviving 1-juǎn recension of Xú Jǐ’s poetry, originally also called Quánshān jí 泉山集 (per Lì È’s Sòng shī jìshì; possibly the Dōngōu shījí preserves Quánshān jí poems). The Sìkù editors’ textual-critical observation that Chén Zhènsūn and Cáo Xuéquán both erred in claiming Xú Jǐ never held office is corroborated by the collection’s internal evidence (the Jiānzào yùchá poems composed during his zhǔbù tenure, and the yíguān Nánpǔ poem on his Nánpǔ transfer). The dating bracket: 1182 (around the start of Xú Jǐ’s poetic activity in his early 20s) through 1214 (his death year per CBDB id 44994).
The Sìlíng aesthetic — late-Táng-style precision and clarity in the quatrain — is most refined in Xú Jǐ; his contemporary recognition by Hóng Mài 洪邁 (when Xú was junior official at Lèpíng yìncáo, Hóng Mài commended Xú’s couplet “Clouds returning, the green peaks’ rain just stopped; / Flowers lying on the green moss — spring already over”) attests to mainstream aesthetic acceptance.
Translations and research
- See KR4d0297 entry for Sì-líng scholarship.
- 莫礪鋒. 1996. 《永嘉四靈研究》. Hangzhou.
Other points of interest
The variant naming — Língyuān 靈淵 in the standard recension, Líng-囦 in Zhào Shīxiù’s collection — preserves an ancient-form yuān character (yuān = 淵 = ancient 囦). This is a useful documentation of late-Sòng character-graphy and an indirect clue to manuscript transmission paths.