Mòzhāi yígǎo 默齋遺稿
Surviving Drafts from the Silent Studio by 游九言 (撰)
About the work
Mòzhāi yígǎo is a 2-juǎn Sìkù recension of the surviving writings of Yóu Jiǔyán 游九言 (1142–1206; zì Chéngzhī 誠之, posthumous Wénjìng 文靖), a Jiànyáng official of the late-Chúnxī/Qìngyuán generation, posthumously honoured Zhí Lóngtú gé in Duānpíng (1234). The transmitted recension, drawn from the Bào family’s Zhībùzú zhāi manuscript, gives one juǎn of poems and one of prose. The Sìkù editors note that even this is plainly a reassembled patchwork, and append three cí drawn from Liú Dàbīn’s Máoshān zhì and six poems salvaged from Cáo Xuéquán’s Sòngshī xuǎn and the Lǐjiāng shī xì etc.
Tiyao
We respectfully submit: the Mòzhāi yígǎo in 2 juǎn was composed by Yóu Jiǔyán of the Sòng. Jiǔyán, zì Chéngzhī, a man of Jiànyáng. He rose from sub-prefect of Gǔtián to Prefect of Guānghuà district, and served as Adjutant of the Jīngè Xuānfǔ command. In Duānpíng he was specially conferred the rank of Zhí Lóngtú gé and the posthumous name Wénjìng. His collection is not in the Sòngshǐ art-and-literature treatise. The present recension was held by the Bào family of Zhèjiāng in the Zhībùzúzhāi: 1 juǎn of poems, 1 juǎn of prose. Lì È’s 厲鶚 Sòngshī jìshì records four poems by Jiǔyán; the first two are taken from this very text — except that in the “Pool-and-pond pale-sun, cold reeds-and-rushes; bamboo-fence west-wind, oranges-and-pomelos yellow” line of Jīnlíng wài yě fèi sì, this text reads “pale-moon” and “fragrant” (where Lì has “yellow”), and in his “Listening to Zhèngsān playing the Shuāngyùnzǐ” the line he gives as “Before-eyes I still hear the old singing-words” reads here “In-eye still see the Hàn imperial dignity.” These minor variants reflect that more than one transmission existed. The other two poems — Měirén yǐ lóu tú and Xī shàng — are not in the present text; Lì took them from the Shījiā dǐngluánlù. At the end of this text the Bào family further supplemented three cí from Liú Dàbīn’s Máoshān zhì and six poems from Cáo Xuéquán’s Sòngshī xuǎn and Lǐjiāng shīxì etc. The text seems likewise to be a compilation by selection, hence its searches were not yet exhaustive. His poetry’s manner is not particularly elevated, but it occasionally carries a late-Tang resonance, neither stiff nor arch. His preface and jì on the welcoming-and-sending hymns at the Yìlíng miào records in detail the resistance led by Téng Yīng 滕膺, sub-prefect of Tāizhōu, against the Fāng Là 方臘 rebellion, which is also of value for filling a gap in the Sòngshǐ. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 43 (1778), 4th month. Chief Editors (subject) Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅; Chief Collator (subject) Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
Yóu Jiǔyán was the elder of two famous brothers (with Yóu Jiǔgōng 游九功) of the Jiànyáng line. His poetic manner inclines to the late-Tang WǎnTáng tǐ taste cultivated in the Jiānghú circles around Jiāng Kuí 姜夔 and Zhāng Léi 章耒. The chief documentary value of the prose, as the Sìkù tíyào notes, is the preface to the welcoming-and-sending hymn-cycle for the Yìlíng shrine at Tāizhōu, which preserves a circumstantial account of Téng Yīng’s defense against Fāng Là’s 1120–1121 insurgency — supplementing the rather thin treatment in the Sòngshǐ. The present recension is doubly compounded: the Bào-family Zhībùzúzhāi text plus Sìkù-supplied verses gleaned from Máoshān zhì, Sòngshī xuǎn, and Lǐjiāng shīxì. The dating bracket spans Yóu’s death (1206) to the Sìkù collation (1778).
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The work’s relation to the Bào family’s Zhībùzú zhāi — one of the most important Qing private libraries — makes it an interesting case study in late-Sòng-text transmission via private collectors prior to the Sìkù exercise.
Links
- Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual, §28.1.